Iranians’ glee at exposing such hypocrisy, however, is tinged by another sentiment: anger. Of course, it is hardly news that hormones do not always heed titular expectations, but this is the first video evidence of a cleric’s misbehavior to spread publicly. “Thanks to the Internet, that is no longer impossible!” “One thing we had never seen before was a cleric’s naked butt,” commented one young Iranian below the online video clip. “One thing we had never seen before was a cleric’s naked butt,” reads one online comment. But their reports did acknowledge that the man involved was a married cleric, and that the video depicts the consummation of an unlawful affair. Semi-official news sites tried to downplay the impact of the video, which leaked out of an Intelligence Ministry investigation. The cleric was apparently a member of the government-run Friday Prayers Committee in Hamadan province. Americans have a similar expression: the beast with two backs. What the cleric means by “do some Nasnas” is clarified by what happens next in the clip. Iranians know Nasnas as a mythological monster.
