I feel the earth move under my feet, I feel the sky come tumbling down

Recently, an Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi blamed the spate of earthquakes on women's scandalous behavior.

Now women are being urged to put that theory to the test by donning low cut tops and short shorts on Monday April 26 to see if they can spark a tremor.

The campaign to trigger a 'Boobquake' was begun by American student Jennifer McCreight who has so far got 40,000 people to sign up to the idea on a special Facebook page (where another 150,000 have been invited) and has attracted a large following on Twitter.

She decided to take action after reading Sedighi's comments last Friday, when he told a prayer meeting: "Many women who do not dress modestly... lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes."

He went on to ask. "What can we do to avoid being buried under the rubble? There is no other solution but to take refuge in religion and to adapt our lives to Islam's moral codes."

McCreight, who is an atheist, responded with a call to arms announcing that she would be wearing the "most cleavage-showing shirt I own" on Monday. "I encourage other female skeptics to join me and embrace the supposed supernatural power of their breasts," she said. "Or short shorts, if that's your preferred form of immodesty.

"With the power of our scandalous bodies combined, we should surely produce an earthquake," she said. "If not, I'm sure Sedighi can come up with a rational explanation for why the ground didn't rumble. And if we really get through to him, maybe it'll be one involving plate tectonics."

The 22-year-old science student at Purdue University in Indiana said that on Monday, after changing out of her immodest clothes, she would look at the earth's seismic activity and compare it to the norm. "If an earthquake reduces only my bedroom to rubble, I'd also take that as sufficient evidence for God's wrath. I'm not too worried," she said.

McCreight said that there was a serious reason for her attempts to trigger a tremor. She explained: "I think people were fed up with ridiculous anti-science and anti-women claims like the one made by Sedighi, and sometimes light-hearted mockery is the best solution."