TEHRAN, IRAN — A group of adult entertainment actors, most of them “beautiful young women,” face the death penalty under Islamic law after being arrested Wednesday during a police raid on an underground pornography operation.The raid, carried out at house in a middle-class Tehran suburb, was aimed at a group of amateurs who had been making hardcore films and distributing them on the black market, the pro-reformist website Fararu.com reported.

Traditionally, Iranian police have been loath to acknowledge porn-related arrests. However, in recent years a black market for porn has grown in the country, and police have engaged in an increasing number of high-profile “morality” raids on events where alcohol was served and orgies were alleged to have occurred. Authorities typically denounce the events as “satanist.”

Approximately 70-percent of Iran’s population is young (under 35) and tech-savvy, and the country’s educators and public officials blame the rise in pornography on the group’s mounting disdain for traditional values and easy access to the internet. To the government’s chagrin, young Iranians are waiting until later in life to marry, despite religious and legal prohibitions on premarital sex: The average age at which men now marry is 40; for women, 35. Both are well above the government’s recommended maximum age of 29.

In 2007, Iran’s parliament passed a law prescribing execution for those convicted of participating in the production of pornography. Under the law, “producers” and “main elements” of the materials are considered “corrupters of the world.” The phrase is a direct quote from the Quran, which states death is an appropriate penalty for such individuals.