US porn star Alexis Texas sparks outrage in Tehran after stripping off in Iranian music video dubbed ‘more dangerous than polio’
- Alexis Texas dances in a revealing outfit in a video with Iranian pop singer Sasy
- Hardliners fear children will easily be able to find the porn star’s explicit work
- An app which distributed the video is under investigation in Iran, reports say
A video by an Iranian pop singer featuring a US porn star in a revealing outfit has sparked an outcry in the Islamic republic.
One journalist said the music video featuring adult film actress Alexis Texas was ‘more dangerous than polio’ because of how rapidly it would spread.
Alexis Texas begins the video wearing conservative clothing including a headscarf, but proceeds to take it off and show off a revealing black costume as she dances with Iranian pop star Sasy.
While there is no explicit content in the video itself, hardliners fear that young people will easily be able to search out her earlier work online.
An online app which published an excerpt from the music video is now said to be under investigation by officials amid widespread criticism of the performance.
Iranian pop singer Sasy and US porn star Alexis Texas in a video which has caused outrage in the Islamic republic
Alexis Texas is wearing a headscarf and a conservative overcoat at the start of the video, but takes it off to show off a revealing black outfit
Sasy, real name Sasan Yafteh, left Iran in 2009 and is now based in California, but is popular among teenagers in Iran.
The 32-year-old’s videos are not authorised in Iran although many of them are nonetheless shared via social media such as Instagram and WhatsApp.
Although some have called for tougher online censorship, others argue that restrictions are having the opposite effect because so many people are familiar with evading them through VPNs and anti-filtering software.
‘Because of the filtering they all have access to anti-filtering software,’ said journalist Emily Amraee as she voiced fears that children would seek out Alexis Texas’s work.
‘Parenting control software is not available here…This song is really more dangerous than polio.’
The Iranian government has long blocked access to many websites and social media platforms, from YouTube and Facebook to Twitter and Telegram.
But the excerpt from the video called ‘Tehran Tokyo’ was published on an app called Rubika which has now come under investigation by officials, reports say.
Alexis Texas dancing with Sasy, real name Sasan Yafteh, who left Iran in 2009 and is now based in California, but is popular among teenagers in Iran
The video has raised that young people will easily be able to search out more explicit work by Alexis Texas (pictured)
Broadcasting regulator SATRA this week banned the clip and sued Rubika for publishing the clip online, according to Iran International.
It comes after many Iranians criticised the app for distributing the video because of its perceived negative impact on young people.
Hard-liners in the government have long viewed social messaging and media services as part of ‘soft war’ by the West against the Islamic republic.
Sasy’s work previously came under scrutiny in 2019 when a video of schoolchildren dancing to one of his songs was described as ‘disturbing’ by an education minister.
One member of parliament called for the schoolchildren’s teachers to be fired and pressured government officials to intervene, according to a human rights group.
On another occasion Sasy was reportedly arrested on an Iranian holiday island for ‘disrupting public peace’ after staging public performances at a shopping centre.
In 2009 he was involved in a political campaign when he made a campaign song for former parliament speaker Mehdi Karoubi during a presidential election.