TEHRAN -- An Iranian Muslim cleric has completed a documentary about the sexual revolution, a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the Western world from the 1960s to the 1980s.

“It has been absolutely clear for me that a sexual revolution has broken out in the United States that has ruined the basis of the family,” Hojjatoleslam Javad Safi, who is the director of “Gomorrah Return”, said during a review session of the documentary in Tehran on Sunday.

“I tried to raise awareness about this issue,” he added.

“Gomorrah Return” focuses on theories from Edward Bernays, the Austrian-U.S. pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda, and Alfred Kinsey, the U.S. biologist who is best known for writing “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male” (1948) and “Sexual Behavior in the Human Female” (1953), also known as the Kinsey Reports.

The documentary is based on Bernays book “Propaganda” (1928), in which he argued that the manipulation of public opinion was a necessary part of democracy and also “The Kinsey Reports”, which are regarded by many as a precursor to the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s.
  
“I know that two people alone could hardly affect all of society, but, as a filmmaker, I needed a story and some people to make my film, and the people were Bernays and Kinsey,” Safi said.

“Kinsey was one of the pioneers the sexual revolution whose theory spread through the United Sates by support from the Rockefellers, thus we cannot deny the roles of Bernays and Kinsey in the sexual revolution. However, they had many aids and supporters,” he added.

Safi also said, “There has been a phobia of talking about sexual issues and problems relating to the issues in the [Iranian] media.”

“Due to this fact, now, we generally don’t know how to talk about these issues and consequently, this reluctance to discuss such issues has caused damage to our society,” he added.

Photo: “Gomorrah Return” director Hojjatoleslam Javad Safi attends a review session of the documentary on the sexual revolution in the Western world in Tehran on May 8, 2016. (Mehr/Majid Asgaripur)  

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