Culture

Iran's ex-president denies touching women, rebuffs video as fiction

by ryan | June 22, 2007 at 11:31 am

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The former Iranian president, Khatami, is now denying that the incident ever took place even in the face of a video documenting what appears to be him shaking hands with a woman.

Read the original article here and view the video here. The alleged handshakes take place at 4:24 and again at 4:38, here's a link to the youtube video if the NowPublic link doesn't work.

Iran's former reformist president Mohammad Khatami Thursday vehemently denied breaking Islamic rules by shaking hands with women on a trip to Italy, amid growing condemnation from conservatives.

Khatami's old hardline foes have expressed outrage over video footage circulating on the Internet, which apparently shows the former president shaking hands with several women.

"Khatami officially denied that he had shook hands with any woman and the film circulating is not based on reality," said a statement from his office reported by the ISNA news agency and Ham Mihan newspaper.

"This film circulating on some conservative Web sites which shows him shaking hand with some Italian women is a version that has been edited and Khatami wholly denies this."