Dating Site 'prostitution', Says Iran

A popular Iranian internet dating website that claimed to be helping people find a spouse and start families has been banned for "promoting prostitution", on the advice of leading Islamic clerics.

Hamsarchat.com, which boasts of having chalked up more than 1.6m page visits, was also fined and ordered to pay back money collected from clients, after a judge consulted senior ayatollahs - known as "sources of emulation" - following a complaint from Tehran's public prosecutor.

It has been marketing itself as "Iran's most complete spouse-finding website" and had promised to link members with "the closest person or persons to your standards" in return for a 25,000 rial (£1.66) fee.

Potential clients were required to complete a questionnaire which asked their religion, age, height, weight and occupation. It also asked how strongly they felt about a partner's hijab and invited them to state their attitude towards religion, offering "free of religion" as a possible option. Another question asked if the applicant's goal was permanent marriage, Islamic temporary marriage or "unknown".

Hamsarchat - translated as spouse chat - stressed that its aim was to promote marriage rather than mere "friend-finding". But Raja News, a fundamentalist website close to the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said the ban had been issued because of the online posting of clients' pictures and email addresses.