TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian weekly Ya Lesarat al-Hussein (Those Who Want to Avenge the Blood of [Shiite Imam] Hussein) is once again in hot water — this time over a controversial headline about Iranian actors. On July 6, it ran a full page with pictures of actors next to their wives at the Hafez Film Festival, accompanied by a short piece titled “Who is the 'dayuth' [cuckold]?” The story goes on to explain that a dayuth — which is a particularly vulgar word in Persian — is a man who is oblivious to his spouse’s sexual relations with other men, in a seeming critical reference to the way the actors’ wives dressed.

Ya Lesarat al-Hussein belongs to the hard-line Ansar-e Hezbollah, a group that has always been controversial over its positions in Iranian politics.

In an interview published on Ya Lesarat’s website, Sadegh Koushki, a hard-line cultural expert, said, “Is there a clear example of cultural indifference? If you ask anyone with even little knowledge of Islamic laws and religious ethics about the Hafez Film Festival, he would surely say that this festival is an example of cultural indifference due to the improper hijab of the actresses [who were present at the event].”

A series of actors and prominent political figures have issued statements of protest in response to Ya Lesarat’s story. Popular actor Shahab Hosseini, who won the award for best actor at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, wrote on Instagram, “Your fingers aren’t worthy of holding the honored pen. Drop it and join your fellows in Daesh [Islamic State]. … Shame on you.” Meanwhile, famous actress Behnoosh Bakhtiari, who has 5 million followers on Instagram, wrote, “Whoever is a dayuth is better than he who insults a Muslim and accuses his wife of being a harlot.” The House of Cinema and Association of Iranian actors, among other guilds and cultural groups, also condemned Ya Lesarat’s story and called for legal action against the weekly.