Petrelis Files

Did Sean Penn Meet Lesbians in Iran?

Oscar-winning actor and perennial bad boy Sean Penn traveled to Iran in June and the San Francisco Chronicle is running his essays about his trip all this week.

I find Penn's thoughts and writing a fascinating window into his personal and political experiences while in the Islamist republic this year.

Frankly, I didn't expect possible lesbian or sexual freedom issues to part of his visit to Iran, but they were, as you can see in this small excerpt from his lengthy column of August 23, in which he recalls chatting with young Iranians in a cafe.

"Two of the women lived together. It seemed that they might have been insinuating that they were a lesbian couple, but I can’t say for sure. I refer to my internal manual of ethics, and there it is right there, in 'questions unbecoming a gentleman': Don’t ask two women you just met if they’re lesbians. I’m big on prudish restraint.

"Yet without asking, they do make it clear that their holing up together is frowned upon by their families and society alike. A single woman may live with her parents, perhaps on her own if she is able, but with another single young woman, everybody’s back gets itchy.

"Yet, whatever the private truth of these two women, 'sexual freedom' would make for a difficult movement to mount, as even uttering those two words together is against religious law in the Iranian republic," wrote Penn.

Whether Penn met lesbians or not, I'm pleased he raises the possibility the women he spoke with may be same-gender loving women and that he showed restraint about his questions regarding their sexual orientation. Two cheers for Penn for writing about these women and for including the matter of sexual freedom in Iran in his essay.

Here's the link to his full August 23 San Francisco Chronicle column.