Holy Prostitution is a feature documentary film, shot in Iran, dealing with the discrimination and oppression of women in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Mehdi Kazemi, the director of the film took great risks and without the permission of the regime and questioned critical religious issues in Iran in order to discover the truth of a theocrat regime in Iran. Some parts of the film were shot with a hidden camera while oppressed women are forced to do a religious type of prostitution for financial reasons and poverty. This is all organized and legal by the religious clergy in Iran which encourages temporary marriage. The film interviews women and clergy.
Mehdi Kazemi is a passionate indie filmmaker and an Austrian citizen who was born in Iran. He has returned to Iran on several occasions to document the lives of some of its most oppressed people, uncensored and without the permission of the government. In December of 2021, he was arrested by the Revolutionary Guards. He was arrested while shooting his film about the "kulbars" (the oppressed poor people who are forced to smuggle) in Iranian Kurdistan. He was held and tortured in a solitary cell in an unregistered prison for 76 days and, ultimately, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison for propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran. He escaped the country in September of 2022 and is back home in Vienna. But He has not bowed down from the Islamic Republic and continues to fight for human rights and against discrimination.