Iranian actress’s Cannes kiss sparks furor

Iranian actress Leila Hatami on Sunday angered authorities in Tehran by kissing the Cannes film festival's president on the cheek, an act seen as affront to the “chastity” of the Islamic republic's women.

A photograph carried by Iranian media shows Hatami kissing Gilles Jacob at the opening of this year's festival.

“Those who attend intentional events should take heed of the credibility and chastity of Iranians, so that a bad image of Iranian women will not be demonstrated to the world,” Deputy Culture Minister Hossein Noushabadi said, quoted by the website of state broadcaster IRIB.

“Iranian woman is the symbol of chastity and innocence,” he said. Hatami's “inappropriate presence” at the festival was “not in line with our religious beliefs.”

The director of the Cannes Film Festival, Gilles Jacob sought to put down the furor in Iran, explaining that it was “a usual custom in the West.”

“I kissed Mrs. Hatami on the cheek. At that moment, for me she represented all Iranian cinema, then she became herself again,” Jacob tweeted.

“This controversy over a usual custom in the West has therefore no reason to be.”

Cannes Film festival director Gilles Jacob sits after a news conference to announce the competing films at the 66th Cannes Film Festival in Paris April 18, 2013. (Reuters)

Born into a family with a background in cinema, Hatami gained worldwide fame for her role in Asghar Farhadi's “A Separation,” which won the 2012 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

She is on the jury this year at the annual Cannes festival in southern France but lives in Iran.

According to Iran's interpretation of Islamic (sharia) law, in place since the 1979 revolution, a woman is not allowed to have physical contact with a man outside her family.