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Hephaestion
Deeply Shallow
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
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Location: Where the Wild Things Are...
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 Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2007 1:56 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Maybe there aren't any homosexuals in Iran because the government has killed them. |
Of course, queers will *continue* to be born there, no matter what, just as left-handed people will. Because it's entirely natural. Unfortunately, they will be born to straight families who -- more often than not -- will be bigots who hate them.
| Quote: | | Make me wonder how many gay Iranians have emmigrated. |
Nowhere NEAR enough. And I don't think the proper word is "emmigrated"... I think it's "escaped"...
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Last edited by Hephaestion on Wed Nov 14, 2007 11:21 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Tehanu
More or less, more or less
Joined: 12 Apr 2006
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Location: Seceded from the Ford Nation
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| Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2007 2:11 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | ... Since Mr. Ahmadinejad uttered his words at Columbia University last Monday, discussion of homosexuality has been stifled here. Sociologists and other analysts normally willing to discuss such issues on the record with a reporter suddenly were not.
But, speaking anonymously, several said that the president had clearly been caught off guard by the question because no one at an Iranian university would have dared to ask him such a thing. They also argued that it was probably better for Iranian gays that Mr. Ahmadinejad denied their existence since that made it likelier that they would be ignored and let alone.
For a country that is said to have no homosexuality, Iran goes to great lengths to ban it. Gays are punished by lashing or death if it is proved that they have had homosexual relations. Two gay teenagers were executed in 2005 in Mashad, a northeastern city.
Fear of persecution is so strong that some gay men and lesbians have sought and received asylum in Western countries.
The Iranian Student News Agency reported in 2005 that a lesbian had been killed in prison by other inmates whom, it was alleged, she had forced to have sex with her. Tehran’s chief prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, said in May in an interview on state-run television that the police were looking for men who dressed and looked like homosexuals.
But Iran has also taken the unusual step of encouraging sex change operations for those with homosexual tendencies. While religious authorities here view homosexuality a clear sin, transsexuals are considered ill and in need of the help that such an operation can provide. |
New York Times. |
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Hephaestion
Deeply Shallow
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
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Location: Where the Wild Things Are...
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| Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 11:32 am Post subject: |
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"Gays deserve to be executed or tortured" Iranian parliamentarian tells Brits
| Quote: | In a meeting between Iranian and British parliamentarians a high ranking Iranian politician has for the first time acknowledged that the Islamic state upholds the death penalty for homosexuality according to minutes of the meeting obtained by The Times newspaper.
The disclosure came during a peace conference -- the Inter-Parliamentary Union -- in May. The Times obtained the minutes of the meeting under Britain's freedom of information law.
[...]
During the May meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union British MPs questioned Mohsen Yahyavi a member of his parliament's energy committee about the reports.
The minutes, The Times reports, show that Yahyavi responded that gays deserve to be executed or tortured and possibly both.
"[He]explained that according to Islam gays and lesbianism were not permitted," the record states.
"He said that if homosexual activity is in private there is no problem, but those in overt activity should be executed [he initially said tortured but changed it to executed]. He argued that homosexuality is against human nature and that humans are here to reproduce. Homosexuals do not reproduce."
British Members of Parliament said they were shocked by Yahyavi's attitude. "It is of great concern that these attitudes persist and we made it clear what we felt," Ann Clwyd, a Labor MP and head of Britain's delegation told The Times. |
British MPs were "shocked", were they? Are they *really* that clueless? Or were they just "shocked" that Yahyavi was willing to be so up-front and honest about his government's attempted genocide?
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 8:08 pm Post subject: |
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Top judge halts Iranian state's murder of gay man
| Quote: | Iran's Chief Justice has halted the execution of 21 year old man who allegedly had sex with another male when the accused was only 13 years old an international human rights group reports. But Mouloodzadeh's legal problems are not over.
As is usual in Iran when a male is charged with having sex with another person of the same sex the charge against Makvan Mouloodzadeh was listed as rape.
Chief Justice Ayatollah Seyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi in his ruling described the death sentence to be in violation of Islamic teachings, the religious decrees of high-ranking Shiite clerics, and the law of the land, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission said.
It is believed to be the first time a sodomy conviction had been overturned based on Islamic teaching and followed a letter from the IGLHRC to to the Iranian authorities.
[...]
At his trial no witness ever accused Mouloodzadeh of rape. Instead, the prosecution witnesses all told the court that their statements during the investigation were either untruthful or coerced.
[...]
While the chief justice's action blocks Mouloodzadeh from being immediately executed he remains in prison. The ruling sends the case back to the lower court for retrial. |
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 1:14 pm Post subject: |
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British government releases Iran hanging documents
| Quote: | Information has been released for the first time from the Foreign and Commonwealth office regarding the execution of gays in Iran. The documentation takes the form of correspondence sent between embassies throughout the EU and dates back as far as May 2005. It refers specifically to the case of two boys, Mahmoud Asqari, who was under 18 at the time the alleged offence was committed, and Ayad Marhouni who were hung in public.
Many gay rights activists argue they were executed for consensual gay sex, while other sources claim the boys were guilty of rape.
The government papers show moves from a British embassy official asking other embassies in Iran to "put pressure on the Judiciary to send out guidance in the form of a circular or order by Judiciary Chief, Ayatollah Shahroudi," to obligate the Muslim nation to make sure all judges were aware that those under 18 should not be executed.
It also shows that although the two boys may not have been executed solely because of the homosexual aspect for the crime, the punishment was carried out "before all legal means to avoid the execution had been exhausted."
[...]
To see the full transcripts of the FCO documents click here |
ETA: regarding this:
| Quote: | | the homosexual aspect for the crime |
I reject this choice of words out of hand, as I do not for one second believe that any "crime" ever occurred in the interactions of Mahmoud Asqari and Ayad Marhouni. They were victims of vicious, murderous thugs, and martyrs of the Queer People.
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"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin |
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 6:03 pm Post subject: |
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Iranian execution may go ahead warns rights group
| Quote: | New York-based Human Rights Watch is concerned that the death penalty is about to be used against an Iranian man accused of sex crimes allegedly committed when he was a child.
On Monday a lawyer for Makwan Mouloudzadeh told HRW that Kermanshah court had informed him that the sentence of death could now be carried out even though a required judicial review had not been completed.
On May 25, 2007, Branch Seven of the Penal Court of the city of Kermanshah sentenced Mouloudzadeh to death for raping three boys in 2000. |
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:10 pm Post subject: |
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Iran Executes 21 Year Old Accused Of Gay Sex When He Was 13
| Quote: | The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission said Wednesday that a 21 year old man spared from execution only 10 days ago was hanged this morning.
[...]
Chief Justice Ayatollah Seyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi in staying the execution described the death sentence to be in violation of Islamic teachings, the religious decrees of high-ranking Shiite clerics, and the law of the land.
Shahrudi's ruling sent the case to the Special Supervision Bureau of the Iranian Justice Department, a designated group of judges who are responsible for reviewing and ordering retrials of flawed cases flagged by the Iranian Chief Justice.
However, the judges decided to ratify the original court's ruling and ordered the local authorities to carry out the execution.
Mouloodzadeh was executed in Kermanshah Central Prison at 5 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Neither Mr. Mouloodzadeh's family or his lawyer were told about the execution until after it occurred, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission said in a statement.
"This is a shameful and outrageous travesty of justice and international human rights law," said Paula Ettelbrick, IGLHRC's executive director. "How many more young Iranians have to die before the international community takes action?" |
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"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin |
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Mon Dec 10, 2007 2:49 pm Post subject: |
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UN questions Iran hanging as thousands attend funeral
| Quote: | The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed "grave concern" at the execution of a 20-year-old Iranian man for crimes he allegedly committed as a child.
Louise Arbour urged Iran to "respect its international legal obligations and the strong international consensus against the execution of minors."
A crowd of 6,000 people are reported to have attended Makwan Mouloudzadeh's funeral on Friday. |
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 4:32 pm Post subject: |
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'Gay' executions imminent in Iran, claims Amnesty
| Quote: | Human rights pressure group Amnesty International has warned that two men may soon be executed by being thrown off a cliff, an Islamic punishment for homosexual sex.
Six men were sentenced by a court in May 2007 of having abducted two young men in the city of Arsanjan, to the east of Shiraz, stealing their property and raping them.
Tayyeb Karimi and Yazdan (surname unknown) were sentenced to death by the judge, who stipulated they be thrown from a height. |
Iran, "the country who cried rape"... what fucking transparent bullshit.
And throwing them from a cliff? How fucking barbarous. 
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"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin |
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2008 7:58 pm Post subject: |
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For more information about the case above, how to protest click here.
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2008 7:03 pm Post subject: |
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Human Rights Watch slams Doug Ireland, but uncritically accepts Iranian government propaganda and excuses dissembling cowards like George Galloway -- whose side are they on?
| Quote: | Recent postings made by [Scott] Long, [head of the LGBT desk at HRW], to an international human rights listserve -- regarding the gay Iranian asylum case Ireland writes about on page one this week -- demonstrate once again an unfortunate pattern of intellectual bullying to which he's too often resorted in recent years. Long's arguments are an amalgam of factual obfuscations, conflating of arguments made independently by a wide array of individuals, and references to privileged information to which only he is privy and that therefore cannot benefit from the healthy sunshine of public scrutiny.
[...]
The most recent flap began when George Galloway, a member of the British Parliament from the leftist Respect Party, said on television that the young man whom Mehdi Kazemi, the 19-year-old gay Iranian asylum-seeker now awaiting UK justice, has identified as his boyfriend who was executed by Iranian authorities because he was gay, was in fact put to death for "committing sex crimes against young men."
Gay rights activists in the UK, most notably the tireless Peter Tatchell, immediately pounced on Galloway, pointing out that there is no evidence his charge about Kazemi's dead lover is true, and that not even Iranian authorities have made that claim.
(Tatchell noted that one of Respect's key funders is a UK Islamist who holds radically anti-gay attitudes that include advocacy for putting gays to death. That assertion is a reminder that this entire controversy is tinged with questions about the geo-political and multicultural sensitivities entailed in any discussion about Iran, but that most decidedly is a matter for another day.)
In the wake of Tatchell's written rebuke of Galloway, Long felt compelled to step up, emphasizing that he "hold[s] no brief" for the Respect Party politician, but also theorizing that the MP may have fallen victim to "propaganda" that has "confuse[d]" "gayness" and "rape." In Long's telling, activists such as Tatchell and journalists, Ireland included, have improperly imputed a gay identity to men, including two who were teenagers, executed by Iran in recent years on charges of rape.
In a staggering allowance for Galloway's reckless charge, Long wrote, "Under the circumstances, with the facts clouded by irresponsible rhetoric, it's actually understandable he might get alleged consensual cases mixed up with rape cases."
Huh? |
Gay City News goes on to point out that Long's past history includes uncritically swallowing the libel of the Iranian government's stooges (government-controlled newspapers) that teenagers Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni were "executed" for "rape", despite numerous credible Iranian sources who refuted these claims and charged the Iranian government with murder. Doug Ireland, and anyone else who disagreed with Long's assessment, were castigated by him as "deeply irresponsible"...
| Quote: | Last December, Ireland broke an astounding story detailing the execution of 21-year-old Makwan Moloudzadeh, who had been convicted of the rape, at age 13, of boys his own age. Because the six plaintiffs all recanted their accusations during the trial last year -- Moloudzadeh insisted his own confession to one charge of anal sex was coerced and false -- Iran's chief justice placed a stay on the execution, but in a rushed and apparently rump exercise of barbarity the young man's jailers hanged him anyway, in secret.
Ireland's sources for the story were the young man's attorney and the only Iranian journalist to have covered the case extensively -- and whose own newspaper would not print her story. Ireland provided a vehicle for this brave journalist to tell that story to the world.
Long now complains that this is another case of improperly imputing gay identity in a case where evidence of it does not exist. Had Long read Ireland's story, however, he would know that Ireland was very clear that it is not known whether any sex ever took place. Long was merely reflexively regurgitating his own habitual rhetoric.
In a cryptic statement to the human rights listserve, Long said that he also had conversations with Moloudzadeh's attorney and his family and "the accounts that they gave us differed substantially and materially from what Doug put into print."
Never mind that Long offered no more information on those conversations (so how can we really judge his critique?) -- he also failed to note that in Ireland's telephone conversations with the Iranian lawyer and journalist, the translator was Hossein Alizadeh, the Iranian-raised communications director for the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. Long has no inhibitions about branding Ireland "deeply irresponsible." Is he now prepared to make the same charge against IGLHRC? |
It is because of assholes like Scott Long and HRW that "mainstream" (read "straight") media -- and even some queer media, like 365gay.com -- continue to report that there are "conflicting stories" about whether the butchers in Tehran that oversee the Iranian government are murdering our people. The only "conflict" remaining in anyone's mind are those who uncritically swallow this boilerplate "rape" smear that the Iranian government routinely applies to excuse its murder of innocent queer people. Because of this, Scott Long and HRW should be seen by the queer community as having very little credibility at all -- certainly less than someone like Doug Ireland.
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"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin |
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2008 11:20 am Post subject: |
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30 Men Arrested On Morals Charges In Raid On Iran Home
| Quote: | Thirty men have been arrested in a so-called morals raid on a private home in the Iranian city of Esfahan an international human rights groups said Friday. Citing sources within Iran the New York-based Human Rights Watch said that the men were arrested in late February and have been held for almost four weeks without access to lawyers and without formal charges.
The men allegedly are accused of consensual homosexual conduct, drinking alcohol, and other related "morals" offenses. Police reportedly referred them to a forensic medical examiner to look for "evidence" that they have engaged in homosexual conduct. Human Rights Watch urged Iranian authorities to release the men.
[...]
In May 2007, during a nationwide crackdown to enforce dress codes and conduct, police raided another private party in an apartment building in Esfahan. They arrested 87 persons, including four women and at least eight people whom they accused of wearing the clothing of the opposite sex. Victims told Human Rights Watch that police stripped many of them to the waist in the street, and beat them until their backs or faces were bloody. Several reportedly had bones broken.
Of those arrested, 24 men were tried for "facilitating immorality and sexual misconduct," as well as possessing and drinking alcohol. In June 2007, an Esfahan court found all of them guilty of various combinations of these charges. Most were sentenced to up to 80 lashes and to fines up to $5,000 (US). The verdicts are under appeal and have not yet been enforced.
Citing its unnamed sources in Iran, Human Rights Watch said that since the May 2007 arrests, police have intensified surveillance, harassment, and abuse against people connected to the 87 arrested men, or otherwise suspected of homosexual conduct. Several described being detained by police and interrogated to reveal contacts. |
Hmmm... sounds like HRW is doing some penance for their previous, lenient treatment of Iranian atrocities toward queers.
| Quote: | The last documented death sentences for consensual homosexual conduct in Iran were handed down in March 2005. It is not known whether they were carried out.
Human Rights Watch said that in interviews with men and women inside and outside Iran, it has documented widespread patterns of arbitrary arrest and torture based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Some Western sources have suggested that charges of consensual homosexual conduct are converted to charges of rape in the Iranian judicial system, but Human Rights Watch said it has found no independent evidence. |
Then again, maybe not. (Or is this just a case of 365 parroting HRW's refrain from earlier on?)
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"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin |
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 9:34 pm Post subject: |
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Tomorrow is the third anniversary of the murder of Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, and Michael Petrelis provides coverage:
| Quote: | July 19 SF Vigil: Stop Iran's Gay Hangings,
Global LGBT Solidarity
The anniversary of Iran's tragic hanging of two gay teenagers in the holy city of Mashad on July 19, 2005, is approaching and in preparation for the fourth annual commemoration in San Francisco of the hangings, I scoured numerous photo archives on the web for every publicly available photo from the executions.
With the tremendously huge assistance from UK gay advocate Simon Forbes, and his encyclopedic knowledge of the death of Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, I was able to gather fourteen images and reasonably determine what is happening in each picture. The results of our effort are posted below. Click here to read Simon's 67-page report on this complex case.
Many activists in San Francisco committed to participating in this year's July 19 demonstration back in the autumn of 2007 when Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke in New York City and claimed, to much worldwide astonishment and outright disbelief, that there were no homosexuals in Iran.
The New York Times on September 20, 2007, linked Ahmadinejad's ignorance with the hangings of 2005:
For a country that is said to have no homosexuality, Iran goes to great lengths to ban it. Gays are punished by lashing or death if it is proved that they have had homosexual relations. Two gay teenagers were executed in 2005 in Mashad, a northeastern city.
On Saturday, July 19, gays will assemble at Harvey Milk Plaza, located at Market and Castro Streets, from 12 noon till 1 pm, to call attention to the following issues and demands:
1. Remember the hanged gay Iranian teenagers, and all LGBT victims of hatred and bigotry around the world who've suffered violations of their human rights
2. Engage in coordinated global gay solidarity
3. Abolish the death penalty everywhere, and an especially quick end to executions of minors and women
4. Oppose foreign military intervention in Iran, particularly war-mongering by U.S. politicians.
Activists in other cities are invited to organize their own protests and vigils for July 19. Actions as simple as a handful of people lighting a candle of hope in a community center or cafe, to dozens of people speaking out on the streets, are just a few ideas of what people can do on July 19 in conjunction with San Francisco.
The four goals are guiding principals and others are asked to adopt them, but there is no requirement to do so. Indeed, each city's activists will decide amongst themselves what their demands and goals are. The important thing is to be active that day, and adopt your own local agenda.
I hope to see this list of cities and actions grow larger:
July 19, 2008
City: San Francisco, CA
Location: Harvey Milk Plaza, Castro & Market
Action: Speak out
Time: 12 noon |
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"The dignity of an animal is measured by his capacity to revolt in the face of oppression." -- Mikhail Bakunin |
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Sifo-Dyas
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| Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 4:25 am Post subject: |
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| We must never forget their unjust, state-sanctioned murder. |
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Hephaestion
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 6:57 am Post subject: |
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From Michael Petrelis:
Cologne, San Francisco Recall Iran's Gay Hangings
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Fri Jul 25, 2008 9:45 am Post subject: |
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Moscow queers did not forget Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, nor give in to police threats
| Quote: | A small group of gay activists ignored the ban imposed by the homophobic mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, on any form of small organised gathering outside the Iran Embassy in the city last Saturday, the third anniversary of the execution of the two gay teenagers.
There were extra police around the embassy, but, on the lookout for obvious gay people with flags and banners, they paid little attention to a small number of individuals carrying flower stems and candles.
When the police realised what was going on – and that they didn’t have a ‘demonstration’ on their hands, they made no effort to prevent the short vigil.
However, the activists were not allowed to leave the flowers and candles outside the Iranian Embassy. But the police had no objection to the flowers and candles being left in a nearby park.
“The police respected our wish to honour the memory of the executed teenagers,” said LGBT rights activist Vyacheslav Revin who, in a statement, attacked the Moscow authorities for banning what was originally planned to protest a state “murdering children”. |
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2008 7:17 pm Post subject: |
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They're at it again... Iran hangs 29 convicted criminals in Tehran
| Quote: | TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran executed 29 convicted drug smugglers and other criminals in Tehran's Evin prison at dawn on Sunday, state media reported, following an expanded crackdown on crime in the Islamic Republic.
Sunday's executions all took place at 0510 (8:40 p.m. EDT Saturday), said state broadcaster IRIB. Executions of a handful of people at the same time are often reported but rarely a group this large.
Iran is often accused of rights abuses by rights groups and Western governments, although Tehran dismisses the criticism and accuses the West of double standards and hypocrisy.
"The 29 who were executed this morning were involved in the smuggling of narcotics on a wide scale, organized crime, murder and armed robbery," Tehran prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi was quoted as saying by state radio.
Police have in recent weeks arrested dozens of people in a new drive against "immoral behavior" in Iran, which Amnesty International has listed as the world's second-most prolific executioner in 2007 after China.
Iran said on Saturday it planned to execute 30 people for murder, rape, drug smuggling and other crimes.
"We are hoping Tehran will become the most unsafe place for drug dealers, thugs and trouble-makers and also violators of people's honor," Mortazavi said.
"These convicts had long criminal records and after being released from prison they returned to the same criminal activities," he said.
IRIB said they "had smuggled thousands of kilos of narcotics in the country and outside the country" and that some of them were also convicted of rape, murder, armed robbery and "disrupting public security and peace." |
Reuters doesn't mention anything about queers, but I'll be curious to find out how many of these "rapists" were accused of "raping" other men...
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 7:21 pm Post subject: |
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Film raises veil on Iranian transsexuals
| Quote: | Organizers of the Venice Film Festival waited to announce “Khastegi (Tedium)” by first-time Iranian director Bahman Motamedian until the last minute to avoid alerting authorities to its sensitive subject: transsexuals in modern-day Iran.
The struggles of seven transsexuals depicted in the film are made more complicated by Iran’s strict gender codes and cultural obstacles. But Motamedian, who is best known in Iran for theater work, insists the problems they face are universal to transsexuals anywhere in the world: finding their identity and seeking acceptance from their families.
[...]
“Tedium,” which is being shown out of competition, delves into the lives of seven transsexuals as they struggle with the question of whether they can find true romantic love, whether to go through with a sex change operation, how to tell their families - and in one case, a wife - and whether to remain in Iran.
[...]
Motamedian said the movie was made without going through official channels to get permission - meaning without government financial support. But it also means the film won’t be shown in Iran. |
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2008 4:13 pm Post subject: |
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UN urged to push for ban on execution of children
| Quote: | A human rights group has called for action on executions for crimes committed by children.
The vast majority of executions of juvenile offenders take place in Iran, where judges can impose the death penalty in capital cases if the defendant has attained "majority," defined in Iranian law as 9 years for girls and 15 years for boys, says Human Rights Watch.
Iran is known to have executed six juvenile offenders so far in 2008. More than130 other juvenile offenders are currently sentenced to death.
[...]
Under Sharia law gay sex illegal, with penalty of death for offenders as young as 14 years old.
"Within the structure of many penal codes (in Iran) sodomy laws are grouped together with rape, sexual assault, incest and sexual abuse of children thereby conflating crimes of sexual violence with acts of non-procreative sex," according to the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission.
Earlier this year it was reported that the Iranian authorities are considering extending the use of the death penalty to corruption, prostitution and renouncing Islam, or apostasy, on the internet.
HRW said that since January 2005 there have been 32 executions of juvenile offenders in five countries: 26 in Iran, two in Saudi Arabia, two in Sudan, one in Pakistan and one in Yemen.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is due to report back to the General Assembly on follow-up to its December 2007 resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty for all crimes.
Human Rights Watch wants UN member states to request a similar report on compliance with the absolute ban on the juvenile death penalty.
Every state in the world has ratified or acceded to treaties obligating them to ensure that juvenile offenders – persons under 18 at the time of the crime – are never sentenced to death.
"We are only five states away from a complete ban on the juvenile death penalty," said Clarisa Bencomo, Middle East children’s rights researcher for Human Rights Watch. |
Lots more @ link
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 8:30 pm Post subject: |
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Iran sets death sentence for gay man arrested three years ago at the age of 16
| Quote: | Nemat Safavi, arrested almost three years ago at the age of 16, has been condemned to death by a court in Ardebil, in the northwest Iranian Azerbaijan region.
Nemat has not killed anyone, stolen anything or even carried out any political activism.
Nemat has been accused of having homosexual relations.While that was not stated during the court case, he was accused of "sexual relations that were not admitted". |
 It just never ends...
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 5:04 pm Post subject: |
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Imadinnerjacket compares murdering queers to enforcing traffic laws
| Quote: | Iran President Ahmadinejad was interviewed by Larry King last night, where he said he didn't think the US or Israel would make the "big mistake" of attacking. Then King steered the conversation to gays and human rights. (Around the 1:40 mark.)
| Quote: | AHMADINEJAD (through translator): What do you mean by human rights problems?
KING: People protesting that they don't have the same rights as other people? Homosexuals -- you said last year, you denied there were homosexuals. There's homosexuals everywhere.
AHMADINEJAD (through translator): I said it is not the way it is here. In Iran this is considered a very -- obviously most people dislike it. And we have actually a law regarding it and the law is enforced. It is a law that was passed. It was legislated. And it is an act that is against human principles. A lot of things can happen. It can cause psychological problems, social problems that affect the whole society. Remember that God rules are to improve human life. In our religion, this act is forbidden and the Parliament has legislated about it. Not now, 70 years ago. This is something that happened 70 years ago, before the Islamic Republic became --
KING: So what happens to gay people?
AHMADINEJAD (through translator): Let me -- well, of course, nobody has held protests. You are -- are you concerned for 70 million Iranian people or a few homosexuals? Let's assume in Iran -- let's assume in the United States that 200 million people drive cars and a million violators are rounded up and they just basically violate driving laws. Should we be worried for the 199 million people whose safety you must be concerned about or the one million violators? The law is the law. It's law. And it must be enforced, of course. Of course we do pay attention that in Iran nobody interferes in the private lives of individuals. We have nothing to do with the private realm of people. This is at the not private, public morality. In their own house, nobody ever interferes. |
"In their own house, nobody even interferes." Yes, when gays are publicly hanged, nobody interferes. |
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 1:12 pm Post subject: |
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New organization, dedicated exclusively to helping sexual dissidents flee persecution in Iran is formed -- the "Iranian Queer Railroad"
| Quote: | [Arsham] Parsi, 28, founded the first Iranian gay group, the Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization (PGLO), in 2004 while still living in Iran. With the police on his tail for his gay activism, Parsi fled to Turkey in 2005, where he continued his work to publicize the plight of LGBT Iranians, and eventually was granted asylum as a sexual refugee by Canada, where he moved two years ago and changed the name of the PGLO to the Iranian Queer Organization (IRQO).
Earlier this year, Parsi and the IRQO were honored by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission with its Felipa Award for pioneering gay activism.
Parsi traveled to Turkey in August to meet with Iranian LGBT refugees and plead their case with the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights that is located there. The UNHCR must grant these queer exiles official refugee status before they can be accepted for asylum in gay-friendly countries. As the result of that trip, Parsi concluded that a new organization dedicated exclusively to helping sexual dissidents flee persecution in Iran was necessary.
"I decided to call our new group the Iranian Queer Railroad after the Underground Railroad in the 19th century, which was an informal network of routes and safe houses helping black slaves in America to escape to freedom in Canada," Parsi told Gay City News by telephone from Toronto, where he now lives. He said a board of directors and an advisory committee for the new organization would be announced soon.
Parsi said he and his organization are now in contact with 145 LGBT Iranian refugees currently in limbo and seeking permanent asylum - 85 of them are in Turkey, which shares a lengthy border with Iran and where cultural and political homophobia is rampant, while the rest are scattered throughout Europe, including in the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, and Norway. Some 22 are in the United Kingdom, which has been extremely reluctant to grant permanent asylum to gay Iranian refugees, and where in the last several years two Iranians have committed suicide after receiving deportation orders back to certain torture and possible death in Iran.
[...]
Parsi told Gay City News that he financed his August trip to Turkey out of his own pocket from money he'd saved while working in a Toronto restaurant. Now, Parsi said, he's planning another urgent trip to Turkey in November to try to get UNHCR refugee status for still more Iranian queer refugees, but has no personal resources left and is raising money for the trip.
"I know you gay Americans are preoccupied with your elections," Parsi said, "but I beg you to spare a thought for these poor queer refugees in Turkey, who are living in terribly squalid conditions, unable to work because they don't speak Turkish and because of queerophobia, and who are stateless and without hope until they can be granted legal, international recognition of their status as refugees by UNHCR.
"We also need money to begin English language and computer courses for them to prepare them for new lives in freedom and to help them pass the time and escape those feelings of hopelessness. Please, spare us a few dollars for your queer brothers and sisters who are victims of religious persecution."
Donations for Parsi's urgent November trip and to support LGBT Iranian refugees may be made in two ways - via credit card on the secure PayPal "donate" button on the Iranian Queer Railroad's web site at http://www.irqr.net/, or by check to Iranian Queer Railroad c/o Arsham Parsi, PH4-150 Graydon Hall Drive, Toronto, Ontario, M3A 3B3 Canada. |
Lots, lots, lots more @ link
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2008 6:38 am Post subject: |
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New play about Mahmoud and Ayaz to open this week in Chicago
| Quote: | A play centred around Ayaz Marhouni and Mahmoud Asgari, the two Iranian teenagers executed in Iran three years ago and who were widely thought to have been gay, is set to have its world premier in Chicago this week.
Haram Iran, written by Chicago lawyer Jay Paul Deratany and directed by David Zak, is based on the true story about the trial of two Iranian teenagers in Mashad, Iran in 2005.
The play tells the story of two boys coming of age, and struggling with their identities as Arab Iranians, and as typical teenagers longing to discover their place in the world.
[...]
The story follows the boys’ passions – one for literature and the other for sports – and both for each other. It takes the audience into the complexity of their relationship, and then the horrifying ordeal of being tried by an unforgiving Iranian legal system which misinterprets the Muslim law of Sharia.
“The dates, names and many of the facts are true, however the trial scenes and much of the side story of the boys is fictional since it is not known exactly what occurred during the trial,” playwright Jay Paul Deratany explains.
“What is known is that they were adolescents, who were tried and sentenced for the ‘sin’ of homosexuality,” he said.
[...]
The play involves some nudity, and violence, and a criticism of Iranian politics together with their very flawed legal system.
However, it does not critique or criticize Muslims, or the Muslim faith, which is a loving and peaceful religion, Mr. Deratany pointed out.
“In fact, to the contrary … it draws the distinction between a loving faith and some of its misguided extremist followers.
“This play is about exposing the human rights violations being committed on a daily basis, therefore I will be donating a significant portion of the of the profits from this play to Amnesty International for the aid and assistance to Iranians who suffer from torture and injustice,” he added. |
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 2:28 pm Post subject: |
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Damn... Arsham Parsi, Cdn-based Iranian Queer Organization embroiled in in-fighting, Parsi removed from board
| Quote: | Douglas Elliott, the lawyer for the board of the Toronto-based Iranian Queer Organization (IRQO), says former executive director Arsham Parsi tried to illegally take control of IRQO and has ignored requests to help account for donations the organization recieved prior to July of this year.
"It's very sad what has happened here," says Elliott. "Refugees from Iran are among the most vulnerable in the world. My biggest fear is that people in the community will hesitate to support the cause of Iranian refugees."
Elliott says Parsi was removed as executive director of IRQO in April, but remained on the board of directors. According to Niaz Salimi and Saghi Ghahraman, the current directors of IRQO, the board asked Parsi in July to help find answers to some questions about the organization's finances. |
More sad details @ link
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Sun Nov 30, 2008 2:30 pm Post subject: |
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Iran’s Gay Exiles Seek Help in Turkey
| Quote: | | Gays, lesbians and transsexuals suffer discrimination throughout the world, but in Iran, the difficulties are compounded by the government’s denial of their very existence. ... This is why Iranian LGBTs, like many other oppressed groups, are looking for ways to flee their home country and many use Turkey as a temporary stop, until their asylum applications elsewhere are approved. |
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2009 2:45 pm Post subject: |
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Iranian Media Reports On Gay, Lesbian Relationships
| Quote: | | A new study by an Iranian University shows that 24% of Iranian women and 16% of Iranian men have had at least one homosexual experience, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission said today, citing a published report in Persian on the Ghatreh.com website. |
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 8:44 pm Post subject: |
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Iran's Hidden History
| Quote: | When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his infamous claim at a September 2007 Columbia University appearance that ""In Iran, we don't have homosexuals like in your country," the world laughed at the absurdity of this pretense.
Now, a forthcoming book by a leading Iranian scholar in exile, which details both the long history of homosexuality in that nation and the origins of the campaign to erase its traces, not only provides a superlative reply to Ahmadinejad, but demonstrates forcefully that political homophobia was a Western import to a culture in which same-sex relations were widely tolerated and frequently celebrated for well over a thousand years.
"Sexual Politics in Modern Iran," to be published at the end of next month by Cambridge University Press, is a stunningly researched history and analysis of the evolution of gender and sexuality that will provide a transcendent tool both to the vibrant Iranian women's movement today fighting the repression of the ayatollahs and to Iranian same-sexers hoping for liberation from a theocracy that condemns them to torture and death.
Its author, Janet Afary, president of the International Society of Iranian Scholars, is a professor of history and women's studies at Purdue University who has already published several authoritative works on Iranian sexual politics, notably the revealing and award-winning "Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islam" (2005), in which she already demonstrated a remarkable sympathy for gay and lesbian people. |
More @ link
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Crippled_Newsie
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| Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 9:02 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | [The book] ...not only provides a superlative reply to Ahmadinejad, but demonstrates forcefully that political homophobia was a Western import to a culture in which same-sex relations were widely tolerated and frequently celebrated for well over a thousand years. |
Isn't that simply the reverse of the same sort of thing postulated by religious types in much of the developing world? I.e., that homosexuality itself is a Western import brought in during colonial times?
Seems whichever side you're on, the ready explanation is "our folks don't take to this stuff naturally."
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voice of the damned
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| Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 11:19 am Post subject: |
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| Crippled_Newsie wrote: | | Quote: | | [The book] ...not only provides a superlative reply to Ahmadinejad, but demonstrates forcefully that political homophobia was a Western import to a culture in which same-sex relations were widely tolerated and frequently celebrated for well over a thousand years. |
Isn't that simply the reverse of the same sort of thing postulated by religious types in much of the developing world? I.e., that homosexuality itself is a Western import brought in during colonial times?
Seems whichever side you're on, the ready explanation is "our folks don't take to this stuff naturally." |
I'm always curious about what exactly it means when someone says that a particular culture "tolerated and celebrated" homosexuality prior to contact with western culture. Does this mean that, in those cultures, anyone at all was free to get up, announce himself to be fully homosexual, with no interest whatsoever in ever pursuing a heterosexual relationship? Or did this tolerance and celebration take place within certain pre-set cultural bounaries?
If the anthropolgist from Mars had gone to Victorian England, and stumbled into a boarding school or a monastery, he might have concluded that homosexuality was "tolerated and frequently celebrated" by the Victorians. But of course the wider reality was considerably more compliated than that. |
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Senor Magoo
He's got a big one
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| Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 3:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | but demonstrates forcefully that political homophobia was a Western import to a culture in which same-sex relations were widely tolerated and frequently celebrated for well over a thousand years. |
I can't help wondering if "political homophobia" is different from garden-variety homophobia. That, or the early Persians were whooping it up at bathhouses while mere hundreds of kilometers away, the rest of the Holy Land was busy shunning homosexuals.
I'm also skeptical of any and all claims that everything was great — wonderful, even — with equality for all, no poverty, singing and dancing and milk and honey flowing in the streets... until "the West" came along and wrecked everything. Just a bit too pat.
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voice of the damned
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| Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 3:54 pm Post subject: |
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| Senor Magoo wrote: | | Quote: | | but demonstrates forcefully that political homophobia was a Western import to a culture in which same-sex relations were widely tolerated and frequently celebrated for well over a thousand years. |
I can't help wondering if "political homophobia" is different from garden-variety homophobia. That, or the early Persians were whooping it up at bathhouses while mere hundreds of kilometers away, the rest of the Holy Land was busy shunning homosexuals.
I'm also skeptical of any and all claims that everything was great — wonderful, even — with equality for all, no poverty, singing and dancing and milk and honey flowing in the streets... until "the West" came along and wrecked everything. Just a bit too pat. |
The book I've linked to below, by a renowned historian, argues that Judeo-Christian monotheism did in fact inject a particular strain of intolerance into the cultures that it entered.
| Quote: | Moore's search begins with the Old Testament's restrictions on sexual behavior, idolatry, diet, and handling unclean objects. He argues that religious authorities seeking to distinguish the ancient Hebrews from competing groups invented, along with monotheism, the association of impure things with moral failure and the violation of God's will. This allowed people to view those holding competing ideas as contaminated and, more important, contaminating. Moore moves next to the French Wars of Religion, in which Protestants and Catholics massacred each other over the control of purity, and the French Revolution, which perfected terror and secularized purity. He then combs the major Asian religions and finds--to his surprise--that violent efforts to eradicate the "impure" were largely absent before substantial Western influence.
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I don't know what to make of this argument overall; I haven't read the book, and I've heard mixed things about Moore's scholarship on this subject. Plus, saying that certain cultures lacked notions of "purity and impurity" is not quite the same thing as proving that they were entirely tolerant, in our understanding of the idea.
And if, as Janet Afary argues, "political homophobia" didn't exist in Islam prior to the onslaught of western imperialism, why does Iran cling to it with such virulence? Seeing as how the whole theme of the Iranian Revolution was to reject western power and influence.
Last edited by voice of the damned on Mon Feb 23, 2009 4:02 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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voice of the damned
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| Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 3:55 pm Post subject: |
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Moral Purity And Persecution In History
Interestingly, Moore views the revolutionary violence of the French Revolution as partly ensuing from the monotheist tradition. |
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voice of the damned
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| Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 4:56 pm Post subject: |
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I just read the review of the Afary book, and she seems to be making roughly the same type argument that Moore makes in his book, including the idea that western-influenced leftists were partly responsible for the incursion of homophobia into Iran.
| Quote: | One of her most stunning revelations is how an Azeri-language newspaper edited and published in the Russian Caucuses, Molla Nasreddin (or MN, which appeared from 1906 to 1931) influenced this Iranian Revolution with a "significant new discourse on gender and sexuality," sharing Marx's well-documented contempt for homosexuals. With an editorial board that embraced Russian social democratic concepts, including women's rights, MN was also "the first paper in the Shi'i Muslim world to endorse normative heterosexuality," echoing Marx's well-documented contempt for homosexuality. Afary writes that "this illustrated satirical paper, which circulated among Iranian intellectuals and ordinary people alike, was enormously popular in the region because of its graphic cartoons."
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Bold emphasis is mine. I am curious about the terms "sharing" and "echoing" as used here. This strikes me as rather ambiguous, in terms of establishing a connection between Marx himself and Iranian homophobia.
| Quote: | Afary also writes that "homosexuality and homoerotic expressions were embraced in numerous other public spaces beyond the royal court, from monasteries and seminaries to taverns, military camps, gymnasiums, bathhouses, and coffeehouses... Until the mid-seventeenth century, male houses of prostitution (amrad khaneh) were recognized, tax-paying establishments."
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Some of the places on that list were also also bastions of "homosexuality and homoerotic expression" in the puritan west as well. Monasteries, seminaries, bathhouses, and the military being the most noted examples. |
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Crippled_Newsie
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| Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 7:24 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | I can't help wondering if "political homophobia" is different from garden-variety homophobia. |
In terms of historical outcomes for GLBT people, I'd say there probably is no difference. However, I think that the latter nearly always becomes the former eventually... and/or vice versa.
Homophobia's usefulness in various movements toward national liberation is well-demonstrated, however. Heck, even Mohandas Gandhi employed it, and he's supposedly one of the good guys.
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voice of the damned
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| Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 7:40 pm Post subject: |
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| Crippled_Newsie wrote: | | Quote: | | I can't help wondering if "political homophobia" is different from garden-variety homophobia. |
In terms of historical outcomes for GLBT people, I'd say there probably is no difference. However, I think that the latter nearly always becomes the former eventually... and/or vice versa.
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It's not clear to me whether "political homophobia", as Afary uses the term, refers to government repression of homosexuals, or the use of homophobia as a tool against one's political opponents. Obviously, there will often be a bit of an overlap between the two things, ie. politicians who attack their enemies as homosexual will also tend to repress homosexuals generally. But they are two distinct things, in my opinion. |
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Crippled_Newsie
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| Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 9:46 pm Post subject: |
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I took the notion of political homophobia to be stuff like the Repubs' "God, Gays and Guns" strategy of elections gone by.
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Fri Oct 16, 2009 2:51 pm Post subject: |
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Iran Executes Man For "Homosexual Act"
| Quote: | The gay witch hunt continues unabated in Iran.
| Quote: | | On October 6, 2009, Rahim Mohammadi was executed in Tabriz, a city in northwest Iran, after being convicted of sexual abuse and rape during sexual relations between males (a homosexual act called Lavat). According to Rahim’s lawyer (here), Mr. Mohammad Mostafayi, there was not enough evidence presented to the court to prove such accusations; the court nevertheless decided that once a person is convicted of Lavat, he must be executed. Mostafayi, who had not been informed of the court’s decision once it was handed down - and was only contacted after his client Rahim had been executed - wrote a letter of further explanation to the authorities. |
The above-linked story from the Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees notes that many European countries continue to deny asylum to gay Iranians, saying there are "no life-threatening risks in their cases." |
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 12:23 pm Post subject: |
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Three more Iranian men face death penalty over gay sex
| Quote: | Three Iranian men face execution for having gay sex, reports Human Rights Watch.
The international rights watchdog calls on Iran to halt the planned executions. The group also notes that the three men were all under the age of 18 at the time of their "offence."
"No date has been set for their execution yet, but the lawyer representing two of the men fears that it could happen any day," says the report.
[...]
See the full Human Rights Watch release for more details, including a run-down of the legal no-nos for gays in Iran |
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 2:47 pm Post subject: |
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Twelve more gay men -- and teens -- face execution in Iran
| Quote: | Twelve gay men are awaiting execution in Iran for the "crime" of homosexuality. Gay City News' Doug Ireland reports:
| Quote: | | Ten young Iranian men, including eight teenagers, are currently awaiting execution for sodomy, and two more are being re-tried on the same capital charge. And, in an exclusive interview with Gay City News, an Iranian student gay rights activist confirmed for the first time the existence of queer organizing on multiple university campuses throughout Iran. The information about the ten youths currently under sentence of death for sodomy (lavaat in Persian) was released on November 25 in a joint appeal by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), the Iranian Queer Organization (IRQO), and COC of the Netherlands, the world’s oldest LGBT rights group, founded in 1946. The three organizations called on Western countries “with significant diplomatic and economic ties to Iran, including Germany, France, Canada, as well as the European Union, to pursue diplomatic efforts to cease these executions.” |
According to the above-linked story, a new movement of queer organizing has sprung up at Iran's college campuses.
| Quote: | | Misaghi confirmed to this reporter the existence of queer organizing on a number of university campuses throughout Iran, marking the first time that a student activist has spoken openly to a Western reporter about this new development. The reason there has been no reporting outside Iran on campus queer organizing, according to the activist, is that “based on what I’ve experienced, there is great secrecy on the part of student queer activists, most of whom use aliases in their work, and in issuing public statements will do so only in the name of a group. There is no visibility, no head figure, no out activists.” |
Read Doug Ireland's excellent investigative report. |
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 8:21 pm Post subject: |
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Human rights advocacy groups in five countries launch campaign to pressure Iran over gay executions:
| Quote: | | The five participating groups in the '346 No Executions' campaign, including the Iranian Homosexual Human Rights Council, are based in the United States, Canada, Britain, Italy and Germany. The campaign’s name refers to the number of executions carried out in Iran in 2008, according to the latest Amnesty International report. The campaign is asking citizens in each member nation to submit letters of petition to their foreign ministries requesting that diplomatic pressure be applied to the government of Iran to abolish the death penalty. |
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Hephaestion
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| Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2010 8:10 pm Post subject: |
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Just ran across this resource: Out in Iran: Inside Iran's Secret Gay World. A 20-minute report, filmed mainly in Terhan, broadcast on the CBC's Sunday Night program on February 18, 2007. From YouTube:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
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Hephaestion
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The Evil Twin
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| Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 4:16 am Post subject: |
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OH NO! Not again! Does this dude not know when to shut up? From Joemygod:
Ahmadinajad: Homosexuality Is Ugly
| Quote: | | "My position hasn't changed. In Iran, homosexuality is looked down upon as an ugly deed. Perhaps there are those who engage in such activities and you may be in contact with them and more aware of them. But in Iranian society such activities, thoughts, and behaviors are shameful. Therefore, these are not known elements within Iranian society. Rest assured, this is one of the ugliest behaviors in our society. It is against divine will, divine teachings of any and every faith, and it is certainly at the detriment of humans and humanity. But as the government, I cannot go in the street and stop my population and ask them about specific orientation, so my position is clear about that." - Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, again claiming that gays don't really exist in his country, despite executions for homosexuality. |
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I can't support bike lanes. Roads are built for buses, cars, and trucks. My heart bleeds when someone gets killed, but it's their own fault at the end of the day. - Assclown Rob Ford |
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TS.
Delicious schadenfreude
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 14585
Location: Toronto, ON
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| Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2011 11:01 am Post subject: |
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My desire to look for the tiniest upside is remarking on the fact that he is actually acknowledging that there are non-het people in Iran. It wasn't that long ago that he attempted to claim there were no gay people in Iran.
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"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear." - Thomas Jefferson |
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Senor Magoo
He's got a big one
Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 8700
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| Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 2:24 pm Post subject: |
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Is he, though?
| Quote: | | Therefore, these are not known elements within Iranian society. |
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ø¤°`°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°°¤ø, |
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Slumberjack
Fulltime enMasse Member
Joined: 13 Jul 2010
Posts: 922
Location: squelch~~big waves and high smiles from the stomach and intestine of capital.
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| Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2011 2:52 pm Post subject: |
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They're known to some elements at least, particularly the security services which are an integral element of the society.
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There is this old notion, Bolshevik, a little frigid for sure; the building of the Party. I think that our present war is about giving new content to this depopulated fiction. |
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