THIS time the blue touch paper has been ignited by Iranian-born Roxana Shirazi, an unrepentant rock groupie who was sent to England at the ten during the Iran-Iraq war.
She has written a memoir called The Last Living Slut: Born in Iran, Bred Backstage, which sent several editors and literary agents running for cover, believing it might invoke the wrath of fundamentalist groups.
Roxana Shirazi as she was in her teens, and as she is today
But, according to this report, her two champions, authors Neil Strauss and Anthony Bozza, finally persuaded HarperCollins to publish it under the new Igniter imprint.
The book  - due for release on June 1 in the US, and July 27 in the UK – is a salacious, sexually-liberated account of one young bisexual woman’s transition from a traditionally-raised Iranian to rock and roll groupie.
With a powerful introduction by New York Times bestselling authors Strauss and Bozza, Shirazi’s The Last Living Slut has been described as:
A passionate tale of jilted love, brutal revenge, and backstage encounters that make Pamela Des Barres’s famous I’m With The Band read like the diary of a nun.
The New York Daily News reported:
Iran’s dignity police may have to get in line behind Guns’n Roses, Mötley Crüe, Velvet Revolver, Papa Roach and Skid Row, whose members she slices and dices.
She told the paper:
I haven’t attacked Islam itself. But they [the Muslims] probably don’t think I should be writing about doing sex during my Koran classes.
There’s also the art: photos of a naked Shirazi, and another of her dressed in a traditional chador while making an obscene gesture with her fingers and tongue.
Says the thirty-something Londoner, who holds a master of fine arts degree and lectures on gender and identity
I think I would get killed if I went back to Tehran.
Breaking taboos, deconstructing norms, philosophy, politics, cinema, group sex, gang bangs, food, animals, poetry, football, ironing, cleaning.
Bound to inflame: the cover of Shirazi's book
She explains that she began writing her book at university:
Because I was very interested in deconstructing socially understood norms and how ‘truths’Â are produced by discourses. When I speak at women’s conferences I always endeavour to bring cultural taboos out into the open and discuss issues that society likes to sanitize.
Therefore this book is about my childhood during the Iranian revolution and the war with Iraq in the 1970s and 1980s. I was brought up amidst a very politically active family and most of my family were political prisoners. The childhood section of the book deals with sexual abuse, Islamic Fundamentalism, domestic violence and war.
She adds:
The adult part of the book details my most intimate moments in the rock n roll world. …The rock n roll part of the book has themes of an explicit sexual journey, falling deeply in love, going dead inside and exceptionally tough times.
Let’s hope I don’t get a fatwah.
Hat tip: Luigi
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
May 28th, 2010 at 8:26 am
I’m all against fundamentalist Islam and everything too, but this woman seems like she’s just promoting promiscuity just to piss off jihadists. Promiscuity is bad, and you don’t have to believe in a God (I certainly do not) to know that.
May 28th, 2010 at 9:09 am
Cool – She can come backstage at one of my shows anytime!
I have nothing against groupies – if precautions are taken of course.
May 28th, 2010 at 9:11 am
You’re right about her lifestyle, Bill. She sounds like a box of assorted creams to me.
All the same, I’m looking forward to her book whipping up the Mo-loons into their familiar but entertaining frenzy. Maybe Ahmadinejad will ban it and organise some “spontaneous” demonstrations in Tehran, while keeping a copy for himself on his Kindle.
May 28th, 2010 at 9:39 am
Seems like my kinda woman on the “hole”.Good holiday reading for me.
May 28th, 2010 at 10:20 am
She likes football, ironing and cleaning? Woman’s a pervert!
May 28th, 2010 at 11:08 am
I wonder how she managed to have sex during her Koran classes. That seems like quite a difficult feat. Seems to me that the more muzzie women like this who push the edge of the envelope, then to more mental space opens up for other muzzie women to move forward.
May 28th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
Roxana is everything that the imams are afraid of. They’d best ignore her completely rather than give her more publicity by making a big deal and issuing a fatwa……but then, we know about the muslims’ inability to control themselves so they probably won’t be able to keep quiet
May 28th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
There’s nothing wrong with promiscuity if you’re careful.
May 28th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
The Muzzies will not be able to control their anger …and she will be ….no pun intended….”tits up”…in a year.
May 28th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
Pre-ordered through Amazon. Like I’ll remember in July.
Amusing they still try to gouge me for next-day delivery.
May 28th, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Remember even the children of lunatic hate preachers can fall into bad immoral Western ways
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/ho.....736666.ece
May 28th, 2010 at 3:24 pm
Sailor’s comment is spot on. Strong, intelligent, independently-minded women are the mullahs’ worst mightmare!
May 28th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
“promiscuity” is a purely religious concept that has no parallel in the real world. We do not have a pejorative term for persons who watch a variety of TV programs, or read a variety of books, or play a variety of sports, or eat a variety of food. There is no justification for inventing a word to denigrate a woman who evaluates every offer to share joyful recreation on its merits. (Engaging in unsafe recreation is, of course, undesirable.)
May 28th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Quite right, William.
May 28th, 2010 at 6:55 pm
William Harwood
Good post
May 29th, 2010 at 1:09 am
Promiscuity is not ‘a purely religious concept’. It has various senses – legal, ethical, general parlance, etc.
Bill’s original comment looks pretty lonely up there on it’s own so I’m registering my support. Promiscuity is not terribly helpful in building lasting and meaningful relationships, it’s central to much of human misery and spreads sexually transmitted diseases. It frequently destroys families and leaves it’s advocates unable to find anyone willing to take them seriously as a partner. Not everyone will greet the news that you’ve slept your way through half the town as evidence of your all round wonderfulness, plenty of people will dismiss you as possibly having attachment issues and not be interested in investing themselves in a potential relationship with you, as you’ll likely revert to form.
Sure you can get your end away – but thats all you’ll ever get. Monogamy comes at a hefty price – restricting your libido to one other person. But this is worth it for all of the succor, satisfaction and creativity you unlock.
I pass a swingers club on my way home from the train station in town and believe me – people aren’t going there because life is happy and fulfielled. It’s desperate and profoundly grim – sexuality reduced to scratching an itch.
Beyond adolesecent experimentation promiscuity is a defence against the terrors of deep and lasting intimacy. A sign of maturity is to be able to get your emotional and sexual needs met in one place. If you need to keep them seperate then it might be time to wonder why.
May 29th, 2010 at 4:35 am
J,
I’m sorry but that is total bollocks. Who is the authority that decrees this. It’s not much different to saying the only real marriage is between a man or a woman. Or that all people should want children. If not they’re just selfish.
Not all people are the same, and promiscuity needn’t be reckless. You can take care not to catch and transmit STD’s while still having more than one partner.
Monogamy is fine for some people, as is marriage. To say that there is some standard of behaviour that is right for everyone is to pretend all people are the same.
May 29th, 2010 at 12:42 pm
Behavioral studies seem to show that Extroverts are more promiscuous than Introverts. The former find it easier to make contact with the opposite sex, are less inhibited and enjoy porn. Introverts having more difficulty with relationships seek and need closer ties thus are happier with monogamy.
May 30th, 2010 at 6:33 am
Having lived my life as a promiscuous individual, I cannot judge anyone who chose the same path. But, I have to be honest here, of the two photos of Roxana, I find her more attractive in the head garb than the whore garb with her eyes painted, and her tits pushed together like cantelopes. I guess it’s just the eyes of the observer.
NeoWolfe