Story highlights
A survey says 80% of young Iranians have friendships with the opposite sex
Iran's police chief says if the survey proves true he will quit
Such relations and drinking alcohol are forbidden in Iran
Iran’s top cop has offered to quit his job if anyone verifies the results of a recent survey that says 80% of Iranian students drink alcohol and have friendships with the opposite sex, the semi-official Iranian Labour News Agency reported.
“These findings have no basis and if such things are true, I will resign from my post,” Ahmadi Moghadam said, according to ILNA.
Drinking alcohol and relations between men and women who are not related are forbidden in Iran and other conservative Muslim countries.
According to ILNA, the survey was conducted by a university professor in Tehran. The report didn’t reveal the number of students surveyed or their age range but the study was enough to provoke the police chief’s ire.
“The report that 80 percent of males and females have relations goes against the moral fabric of our society,” ILNA quoted the police chief as saying.
Moghadam condemned the media for reporting what he called the bogus results of the study and challenged to debate anyone who believed the findings to be true.
“Those who want to report these statistics want to rattle the public’s thoughts.”
The police chief said Iran’s law enforcement agencies do not interfere with family relations and friendships but they’ll step in if laws are broken.
“If relations are made through deception we will immediately get involved since committing sexual violations calls for the highest punishment.”
CNN’s Reza Sayah and Journalist Farbod Jamali contributed to this report