Iranians outraged by new Sasy Mankan music video featuring US porn star

Sasan Yafteh, who performs under the name "Sasy Mankan", released a clip for his new music video "Tehran Tokyo" on Instagram, in which he and Texas - who is dressed in a tight black dress - dance together. 

In response, Iranians have called for the adult film star to be banned from Iran and for the authorities to prevent the spread of the clip. 

Sasy Mankan, who now lives in the US, is a well known pop star who has courted controversy on a number of occasions, most notably when he met with Mehdi Karroubi, the reformist candidate for the 2009 presidential election.

The inclusion of the porn star was highly controversial for some Iranians, who feared that children might search the performer online and discover her more explicit work.

"I tremble when I imagine that children might learn she is a porn star and search for her name," tweeted Iranian journalist Emily Amraee.

"All over the world, presenting pornography to children is banned and anybody who encourages children to watch pornography is condemned by the governments and the people," wrote Mohammad Sarshar, head of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting's Kids TV channel.

Members of parliament joined in the condemnation, and called for the video to be banned. 

"All parents are concerned about the psychological harm of cyberspace to helpless children. This is the common denominator of all political thought. Others have taken serious steps to protect their children many years before us. Child protection requires everyone's support. Mr. Minister, we are ready to help resolve this issue," wrote Mojtaba Tavangar on Twitter, who also tagged Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi, minister of information and communications technology.

Read more: The Collective: How a new initiative seeks to amplify Black and Afro-Iranian voices

While some groups criticised the video's content, others dismissed their arguments as trivial when compared to the other huge issues the country faces, such as the popular demonstrations that recently took place in Saravan.

"After a few days, I opened Twitter and no matter how much I turned the timeline up and down to get news from Saravan, I saw nothing but Alexis and Sasy. How cruel," wrote one Twitter user.

Despite the conservative nature of Iran and a complete ban on pornography in the country, Alexis Texas is reportedly well-known to Iranians.

IranWire reported that in 2015 she was the third most searched figure on Persian-language Wikipedia, beating the likes of General Qasem Soleimani.

The full video for "Tehran-Tokyo" will be released on 10 March.

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