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Queer Organization (www.irqo.net) 1 An Iranian Gay Blogger Activist captured by Turkish Police needs your help 4/07 2 Help an Iranian gay in Pakistan 4/07 3 Babak Fled Iran to Turkey Again With Your Help 5/07 4 Change Sex or Die: An Exclusive Interview on Iran's Surgical "Cure" for Homosexuality 5/07 5 80 Gay Men Have Been Arrested in Isfahan 5/07 5a Release of Arrested Gay Men in Isfahan 6/07 6 Journalist, Victim's Lawyer Attest to Executed Iranian's Railroading 6/07 (updated 12/07) 8 Horrific New Photos of Iran's Torture or Gays Plus, 87 Arrested in Raid on "Gay" Party 5/07 9 Interview with Two Iranian Gay Men (in Turkey) By Arsham Parsi Translated by Ramin 5/07 10 Queer Iranians and Mr. Ahmadinejad in the Press 10/07 11 Iran admits that it does have gays 10/07
April 17, 2007 1 Dear Friends, This is an urgent appeal on behalf of a courageous Iranian gay activist who was deported from Turkey back to Iran two weeks ago. For security reasons, we will call this activist Babak. He is 27-years-old, and has been working as a translator/writer for Cheraq, the Iranian Queer Organization's (IRQO) on-line monthly magazine for the past year. He is a gay writer and blogger who actively pursued queer rights through his insightful articles. After receiving threats from under-cover Iranian police, Babak fled Iran and went to Turkey, where he was arrested by police for lack of documents. Arsham Parsi, Executive Director of the IRQO, who was in Turkey presenting a report on queer Iranian asylum seekers, contacted the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) and informed them of Babak's case. The UNHCR office called theTurkish police, and requested that Babak be released and allowed to file a claim for refugee status. Unfortunately, he was instead deported to Iran, where he was jailed, beaten and tortured. After being released on bail, Babak was forced into hiding. He presently has contact with only one person and has no access to internet or phone services. It is critical that he be smuggled out of Iran before his trial. Babak was born in Iran and sent to Bahrain as a child labourer. He returned to Iran a young man with a cause. Fluent in both Arabic and Farsi, he is a precious resource. He translated and wrote tirelessly for the LGBTQ community in Arabic and Farsi newspapers. His research in Persian and Arab classic literature yielded strong evidence of gay men's long history in both nations . This research endows gay Iranian men with a positive, legitimate identity, and contradicts the government's claim that homosexuality is a disease imported from the West to attack Persian social values. The LGBTQ family is a global family. Our mandate is to help out members of this family who are in desperate need – particularly individual activists like Babak and Mani, who have been persecuted for the way they love and for the crime of defending the rights of our brothers and sisters. We at the IRQO have scarcely any financial resources, as we do not charge membership dues. We have sent Babak a few paltry dollars, but our treasury is bare. Please consider making an urgently needed donation to the IRQO to help Babak flee persecution. Your donation will also help support other queer Iranian refugees, who are residing in Turkey until they are granted official refugee status by the UNHCR and find asylum in a gay-friendly country. Even $10 or $20 would be enormously helpful. You can help them now by clicking on the "Donate" button on our website at http://www.irqo.net and using your credit card via the secure PayPal system. Or, you can mail a cheque, made payable to Arsham Parsi and send it to: "Gay Refugees" Thank you for supporting Iran's persecuted gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender people. Financial assistance is urgently needed to get Babak safely out of hiding and into Turkey. Please show your support by donating.
April 22, 2007 2 Dear Friends, Please read the following letter and send it to UNHCR office in Pakistan. He is facing many problems in Pakistan; IRQO, Human Rights Watch and International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission have also sent support letters regarding his case last year. But even after his reorganization, he has been waiting again, with no respond from UNHCR. You can read Sam’s story here: http://direland.typepad.com/direland/2006/01/kidnapped_anoth.html UNHCR email address: pakis@unhcr.org send your email and cc it to: info@irqo.net To: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees – Pakistan, Islamabad Subject: UNHCR case number 622-05C00372 Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing on behalf of an Iranian gay refugee in Pakistan with case number 622-05C00372 who escaped Iran and flee to Pakistan. For security reasons we’ll call him Sam in this letter. Sam has been staying in Pakistan close to 22 months. He has been recognized as a refugee 14 months ago, but unfortunately UNHCR hasn’t sent him to a safe country yet. As you know Pakistan is a homophobic country and execution is the punishment for being gay in that country. Sam is one of many Iranian queers who’ve been lashed because of their sexual orientation. He escaped Iran to protect his life. Sam is fearful for his safety in Pakistan and he is dealing with traumas. I’d like to ask you to give him your support as an urgent case and send him to a country which is considered safe for homosexuals. It will be great if you introduce him to Canadian Embassy because IRanian Queer Organization is based in Canada (formerly Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization) and they can support and help him there. Regards, (Signature) IRanian Queer Organization – IRQO May 02, 2007 3 We are continuing our appeal on behalf of Babak and the other Iranian queers who escaped Iran and are in Turkey now and in need of financial support to for food and shelter. Please consider making donation to the IRQO to help the Iranian queers flee persecution. Your donations will also help support other queer Iranian refugees who are residing in Turkey until they are granted official refugee status by the UNHCR and find asylum in a gay-friendly country. Any donation will be extremely helpful. You can help them now by clicking on the "Donate" button on our website at www.irqo.net and using your credit card via the secure PayPal system. Or, you can mail a cheque, made payable to Arsham Parsi and send it to: May 11, 2007 4 Plus breaking news on mass arrest of gays in Iran (see end of this report). The following article was written for Gay City News -- New York's largest lesbian and gay weekly -- which published it yesterday: The situation of the transgendered in Iran has been the subject of frequent media reports that paint a rosy picture of life for them in the Islamic Republic, and which characterize Tehran - in a recent description in the U.K. daily The Guardian - as "the unlikely sex-change capital of the world." Western journalists seem to find it exotic that, in Iran's patriarchal society - in which sexuality and expressions of sexual identity are religiously codified with the force of law, women are restricted to second-class citizenship, and homosexuality is a crime punishable by death - sex reassignment surgery has mushroomed, with the approval of the country's religious authorities. This came about after Maryam Khatoon Molkara (left), then a 33-year-old pre-op transman, forced his way into an audience in the early 1980s with the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini - leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and founder of and undisputed authority in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Moved by Molkara's pleas, Khomeini was eventually persuaded to issue a fatwa which declared that sex-change surgery was permitted since it was not mentioned as forbidden in the Koran. Western journalists present the contemporary Iranian theological discourse on transsexuality that has developed in the ensuing years since Khomeini's fatwa as a curiosity that contradicts the West's prevailing view of Islamic attitudes toward all things sexual. But Afsaneh Najmabadi, an Iranian who is a professor of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University, says she feels "uneasy" when reading these "celebratory" portrayals of Iran's attitude toward the transgendered. "Every time I read one of these reports I want to say BUT, BUT, BUT, because there are some scary things going on that have gone almost unnoticed," she said. Najmabadi, author of "Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards: Gender and Sexual Anxieties of Iranian Modernity" (University of Chicago Press), says that Iran's official position on the transgendered has manufactured "a religio-psycho-medicalized discourse on 'unnatural and deviant' [ghayr-i tabi'i and inhirafi] sexualities" that is "deeply troubling because of the explicit framing of transsexuality within a particular mapping of sexuality that simultaneously renders homosexuality, and more generally any sexual and gender non-conformity, as deviant and criminal." And while a positive and progressive attitude toward sex-change surgery is liberating for genuinely transgendered people, it can have an enormously deleterious effect when deformed to be used as a supposed "treatment," or even as punishment, to "normalize" homosexual desire. Because homosexuality is a capital crime in Iran, and because the regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been engaged in a what he has called a "cultural revolution" that involves highly-organized persecutions targeting feminists and homosexuals, the choice presented to Iranian same-sexers is often a stark and unpleasant one, a choice epitomized by the title of a recent documentary by the France 2 public television network's newsmagazine "Envoyé spécial," which called its half-hour broadcast on the transgendered in Iran "Changer de Sex ou Mourir" - "Change Sex or Die." How Iran's official discourse on the transgendered conceals a multitude of evils and ills can be seen in the following, eye-opening interview with Atrian, a 26-year-old male-to-female transsexual activist also known as Sayeh, who fled Iran last year to Turkey. Atrian was extensively interviewed in Kaysen, Turkey, on April 5 by Arsham Parsi (left), the 27-year-old executive director of the Iranian Queer Organization (or IRQO, the new name adopted by the Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization, or PGLO). Parsi was on a fact-finding trip to meet and help the many LGBT Iranian refugees in Turkey whom the IRQO is assisting. The interview with Atrian was conducted in Persian, and a transcript was provided exclusively to this reporter, and translated into English for Gay City News by Morteza Dehghani. Atrian says that there are many people who accept sex-change surgery to escape persecution as homosexuals. "A significant number of people who get a sex change in Iran are gay, as you cannot state in Iran that you are a man and want to be with another man, even if your appearance is feminine," Atrian declared. "There are only a small percentage of people who get a sex-change operation who are actually transgendered. Out of some 100 transsexuals whom I've encountered," she reported, "only 20 of them were genuinely transgendered, and the rest are gay." Atrian explained, "If you are known to be gay, you will be hanged. Therefore, many gays try to plead for societal acceptance by announcing themselves as transgendered. A lot of gays have been brainwashed into believing they are ill. Some believe that if they present themselves as women, they might find a boyfriend more easily." It is not often mentioned in Western reports, but to gain approval for sex-reassignment surgery, one must have a certificate signed by the religious authorities declaring that one is "mentally ill." So, Atrian said, "Many gays believe they will get accepted more easily by society by claiming they are ill [as transgendered]." Unable to endure the barrage of government persecution, scathing religious opprobrium, and often the hatred of their own families, said Atrian, "Many gays, for many different reasons, become emotional and get the operation. But soon after getting the operation, they'll cry for days at the mistake they have made." Atrian recalled her visit to one gay man who had opted for sex-change surgery. "I was visiting him in the hospital, and he told me, 'If you can, flee Iran.' I asked him why - and as he was crying like a river, he replied: 'I have committed a huge mistake. Why did I want to become a woman? I didn't even become a woman, I've become something deficient, and I would give anything to go back to my previous state.' In another incident, I was at a doctor's office and encountered two transsexuals who were begging the doctor to operate them to go back to their previous state." This sort of thing, Atrian related, is quite common. Atrian described the typical path of what she calls "the many gays who are forced by the society into believing that they are transsexuals. This group is under constant pressure from their parents, telling them that they have been led into deviation from the righteous path. They start analyzing themselves, thinking 'I am a boy, so how can it be that I like other boys? Because this is a sin! I must be a prostitute. I've deviated from the righteous path!'" So, Atrian recounted, these gays "start contemplating ways to obtain society's acceptance so that it would be okay for them to like other boys. And then they reason: The only way to do that is to attach a label to myself that shows I'm a sick person, because when you are sick, people pity you and say, 'Oh my god, this poor kid! This is the way God has created him, it is a genetic disease!' So, he will be forced to make himself known as a transsexual" who is mentally ill, in order to be treated leniently. "If you want to prove you're not a homosexual," Atrian underscored, "you'll be forced to get the sex-change operation. You don't want to be forced to explain why you are attracted to your own sex, and the only way to avoid that is to get the operation." And, added Atrian, "A lot of people become drug addicts after the operation because they realize it was a mistake, they become depressed, and often commit suicide because there is no way to undo the operation. But neither the doctors, nor the parents, nor anyone else take responsibility for these tragedies, because no one respects or values transsexuals." Atrian said that transsexuals are often raped by the very doctors who are involved in their surgery. "This is a quite normal occurrence, as normal as saying that your doctor smokes," she explained. "The doctor knows that the patient is scared and does not have any family support, therefore he will listen to the doctor who claims he wants to help him. But just because they are doctors doesn't mean they are ethical." Moreover, Atrian said, "You can't complain about these doctor rape cases to anyone, because the police forces themselves commit the same sort of acts. When I'm already depressed and have problems about my situation, and when this doctor - whom I desperately need and who is in control of my future destiny - forces me to have sex with him, I think to myself, 'How can someone possibly take advantage of another human being in this situation? What such a doctor is doing is similar to a supposedly charitable person who asks a hungry person for sex in exchange for a loaf of bread.'" In Iran, Atrian said, sex-reassignment surgery has become a lucrative, assembly-line business. "The doctors performing the operations in Iran are so careless - for them, it is like cutting paper and not flesh," she explained. "Left and right, on a daily basis, they perform sex-change operations on people without even paying proper attention to each case, just because it's a highly profitable business. Yet they are so proud that they are in a country that allows people to have sex changes. But they perform all these operations improperly, and often incompletely." Atrian asserted that, "Out of all the people they operate on, only a few remain healthy. How many of these patients do not become psychotic because of the way they've been treated and mutilated? How many do not commit suicide? How many can live a normal life after their operation? Most of them don't even get the chance of finding a companion - they are shunned as transsexuals, and their past will always haunt them." Atrian added that even some psychiatrists "take advantage of the simpleness of their patients. A couple of years ago, one of my friends visited a psychiatrist - and this doctor told him that, if my friend wanted to prove that he had feminine emotions in order to be permitted to get a sex-change operation, my friend had to have sex with him. This is not a common sort of incident with psychiatrists, but it happens from time to time." (Read this reporter's August 19, 2006 interview with an Iranian lesbian whose psychiatrists attempted to force her to have sex-change surgery.) Transsexuals in Iran, Atrian said, are often targeted for beatings in the streets - both by the Basiji (the thuggish para-police used by the regime to enforce its draconian moral codes) and by people pretending to be Basiji. "Anyone who wears Basiji gear and has a motorcycle can beat you and nobody would question them for it, no one would ever check their IDs to make sure they are Basiji forces." (See this reporter's February 9, 2006 interview with Mekabiz, a 21-year-old, self-described "transsexual man" who was tortured by police and raped with the complicity of his jailers,) Atrian related that, "Even though the special forces of the police have no specific orders to arrest transsexuals, they too can arrest you. I myself have been arrested three times, and was disrespected in the most brutal way possible. I remember how four men who looked like Basiji beat me close to death in the middle of the street. They kept slamming their boots on my head so hard that even now, when I think about it, subconsciously my head starts moving to dodge their boots." For transsexuals, said Atrian, Iran is "a sick society which made you ill in the first place and is now pointing at you and calling you sick." With help from the IRQO, Atrian has obtained a visa to Canada, and is now waiting for a departure date from Turkey, where homophobia and transphobia are rampant and where she has been beaten several times and been threatened with death. "I hope to get to Canada alive," she said. "Even if it is only for one year there, I would like to be myself and live without needing to pretend to anyone that I'm a poor and helpless person, live without needing to beg them not to belittle me or attack me. I don't want to feel the need to explain to people that I'm not a dirty and inferior person. My life," Atrian added, "is not like a cigarette that you can smoke and then throw away, as I will live and suffer in its ashes. I might get to Canada, or I might not. But I will never forget that all my rights were taken away from me in Iran. From now on, I want to build my life." Breaking news: May 11: Arsham Parsi, executive director of the IRQO, has just e-mailed me the following news of some 80 gay and transgendered people who were arrested yesterday, May 10, in a raid on a party in the city of Esfahan, and another report of mass arrests of 200 in the city of Orumiyeh Here is Arsham's summary of his phone conversations with two of his friends and IRQO supporters in Iran about the raid: Payam, 22 years old, in Shiraz, via telephone "I received a SMS from one of my friend (Mohammad) who invited to go to that party. He wrote me all gays were arrested by police and they were beaten. They were about 80 people and about 10 gays and transgender went to Esfahan from Shiraz "This party was Farhad's birthday. He invite his friends but unfortunately police understood about this party. I was invited too but because you (Arsham) told me I must not go to any party or date or event I did not go and stayed in Shiraz. You can call to Mohammad and he has more information. One of my friends told me 2 days ago police arrested about 200 boys and girls in Orumiyeh (North-West of Iran)." Another report, from Mohammad, 26 years old, from Shiraz, in Esfahan, via telephone: "Farhad is one of my pals and I was invited to his birthday party in Esfahan. I went to his home in Vali-e-Asr Blv. Bakhshi St. about 7 PM last night (May 10, 2007) and after few minutes with one of my friends left his home to buy some gifts and go to barber salon. When we came back it was about 10 PM and we found the street is very crowded. Some people watching there. We stand in between people. There was some police cars and one special prison car same. Police arrested all of them, about 80 people. "They have torn clothes and their faces and bodies was bloody, they were heavily beaten and some police were beating them on the street. There was an ambulance too and I heard one of them jumped out a window. Farhad F is 19 years old gay from Esfahan and he invited all his friends from Esfahan, Shahin Shahr, Shiraz and Tehran His family was there and they were arrested too. All of their cell phones is off and I don’t have any information about them. I don’t know where they are. " For more information on the plight of the Iranian LGBT community, or to make a credit card donation via the secure PayPal system to help refugees from persecution like Atrian, visit the IRQO Web site.
5 Translated by Shadi
06 June 2007 All of these men were required to post bail and will reportedly face a trial scheduled to take place in June. There are conflicting reports as to whether the fifth man has been released. They were among 87 people reportedly arrested at the party. Of these, 60 have been released unconditionally, while 26, including those referred to above, were released on bail. The 17 men are believed to have been wearing clothes generally associated with women at the time they were arrested. They are not believed to have had access to lawyers or their families, and a judge has reportedly said that those detained following the private party will be charged with consumption of alcohol and "homosexual conduct" (hamjensgarai). Amnesty International is not aware of any evidence that the men attending the party identify themselves as gay or were engaging in same-sex sexual relations. The arrests took place at a time when the authorities were mounting a security operation to enforce dress codes in Iran. During the arrests, those attending the party were said to have been dragged into the street by police and members of the Basij force (volunteer paramilitary units attached to the Revolutionary Guards Corps), who beat them severely, causing bruising and, in some cases, broken bones. It remains unclear if those detained were allowed access to medical treatment. Amnesty International will continue to monitor the situation closely and take further action if necessary. No further action is requested from the UA network. Many thanks to all who sent appeals.
December 6, 2007 6 by Doug Ireland NOTE: This article is an updated version, supplemented by additional reporting, from that first posted on December 6. The Islamic Republic of Iran murdered Makwan Moloudzadeh, a lad of 21, on the cold morning of December 5. Makwan was dragged at dawn from his jail cell in the Kermanshah Central Prison and hanged in secret within the prison, without the required presence of his lawyer and family, for the so-called "crime" of having had anal sexual relations, which the authorities claimed was rape, with boys of his own age eight years ago, when he was 13. Given recantings by plaintiffs during his trial, it is impossible to know what, if in fact anything, actually transpired during the alleged rape. Amnesty International released a statement denouncing the execution as a "mockery of justice." The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission's executive director, Paula Ettelbrick, said in a statement, "This is a shameful and outrageous travesty of justice and international human rights law. How many more young Iranians have to die before the international community takes action?" "The only plaintiffs who had given statements to the intelligence police saying they had been raped by Makwan came into court and repudiated those statements, saying that they had been extracted under torture," the only Iranian journalist to have covered Makwan's case extensively, Mitra Khalatbari of the newspaper Etemade Melli, told this reporter by telephone from Tehran. Khalatbari, who covered the story for months and courageously agreed to speak on the record to Gay City News, added, "Makwan himself told the judge that his admission to the Intelligence Police that he had had anal sex with one boy in 1999 was also obtained by torture, and that he now denied it and proclaimed his innocence." Prior to his execution, Makwan engaged in a hunger strike of ten days to protest the physical and psychological torture he'd been subjected to while in custody to make him confess. "There was no other evidence," Khalatbari, speaking through a translator, told Gay City News. "The judge did not bother to order medical examinations to see if rape had taken place, nor did he bother to order medical examinations to see if torture of the plaintiffs had taken place," she continued. "The judge's verdict of guilty, and his sentence of Makwan to death, was based purely on his personal speculation," she added. Makwan - after having had his head completely shaved, a grave insult in Iranian culture - was paraded by police through the streets of his home town of Paveh on the back of a donkey, as police permitted passersby to hurl insults and invective at him and pelt him with stones, eggs, and other objects. Makwan's lawyer, 29-year-old Saeed Eghbali, told this reporter by telephone that the so-called "confession" which Makwan gave to the police under extreme duress has no probative legal value under Iranian law. "Iranian law says that a pretrial confession has no value for the court," Eghbali told Gay City News through a translator. "Under our law, to be valid a sexual crime must be confessed in front of a judge four times, in four different sessions to have legal weight, and this did not happen in Makwan's case." Eghbali went on to explain that the prosecution in Makwan's case presented no witnesses and no other evidence against him. "There were six plaintiffs, who were supposed to have a case against Makwan for rape - but they all withdrew their complaints and said their complaints were made under various forms of suasion, and that they should not have heeded those who made them file complaints - and moreover, such plaintiffs must provide evidence that rape actually took place, but no such evidence was presented in court." said Eghbali, choosing his words carefully. Eghbali's name has been in the Iranian press a great deal lately; he has criticized the prosecutors and the judicial system, and given well-known and well-documented regime practice toward domestic critics and dissidents, one must assume that his telephone is tapped. This may well explain why the attorney, unlike the gutsy journalist, deliberately avoided using the word "torture" at any point in his conversations with this reporter. However, Makwan's family told journalist Khalatbari that, when they retrieved the lad's dead body for burial, they discovered both his arms had been broken. Eghbali had every reason to be cautious in his interview with Gay City News. When I asked Eghbali if he were afraid of reprisals from the regime for his vigorous legal defense of Makwan and his public criticisms of the clerically-dominated judicial system, he sighed, paused, and said: "There is always that probability, that fear, that the government would get back at us - but, because I have always adhered to the letter of the law in my pleadings and statements, I hope to avoid any action against me by the authorities." Eghbali pointed out another illegality in the court's guilty verdict against Makwan. "When they withdrew their complaints before the judge, all six plaintiffs offered to take a medical examination to show that no anal rape had taken place, but the judge refused to accept their offer or to order any medical examinations, even though the letter of the law requires it," Makwan's lawyer said. Eghbali said he is currently representing a boy who is under the age of 17, but who has already been in jail for ten months, charged with anal sex and the rape of another boy, for which he too faces the death penalty. The attorney declined to give the name of this defendant at this time or provide any other details, saying that the evidence against his client in this case was so flimsy that he hoped to avoid a trial. But, Eghbali said with emphasis, "It is very important that you understand that under Iranian law, in a sodomy case, both parties to the sexual act must be punished. Iranian law specifically defines the active and passive partners in a case of male sexual relations, and the only way the passive partner can escape punishment is to claim he was raped." This, Eghbali said, helps explain why there have been so many cases publicized by the regime charging rape against a male involved in sexual relations with another male. The state murder of young Makwan - who was only 20 if one uses an American calendar, but 21 if one uses an Iranian calendar - was triply illegal, in violation of international law and Iranian law. Two international treaties to which Iran is a signatory - the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child - both forbid the imposition of the death penalty for crimes committed before the age of 18. As Human Rights Watch pointed out, "These provisions reflect the reality that children are different from adults. They lack the experience, judgment, maturity, and restraint of an adult." Iran has ratified both those treaties, and has taken no steps to abrogate or nullify them. The French government formally "condemned the execution, despite multiple interventions of the European Union, of Makwan Moloudzadeh, for a crime he is supposed to have committed at the age of 13." Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pascale Andréani said the French government "regrets that Iran has not respected its international obligations" under the two treaties, "which both forbid without ambiguity the execution of persons condemned for crimes committed while they were minors." And, although the Islamic Republic of Iran is one of only nine countries in which homosexuality is still punishable by death, the Iranian penal code forbids execution for sodomy of anyone who is not at least 15 years old - and Makwan was just 13 at the time of the alleged crime. Moreover, journalist Khalatbari told me, "Iran's chief justice, Ayatollah Seyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi, declared Makwan's death sentence to be against the principles of Islam, citing a religious decree issued by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei. Ayatollah Shahrudi then ordered the execution halted until there could be a retrial." "A few days later," according to Khalatbari, "the case was sent to Tehran, and despite the chief justice's opinion, Makwan's death sentence was confirmed and sent back to Kermanshah for immediate implementation," in an obvious attempt to rush through the execution before the retrial Shahrudi had ordered. Khalatbari told me that "even in the last hours of Makwan's life, the authorities continued to break the law. The execution order specified that he was to be hanged in the public park in Paveh where the so-called rapes had been committed - that would probably have happened on a 'public day,' like the coming Friday. Instead, he was hastily executed in secret, on Wednesday, in the Kermanshah Prison. There was no prior notification of the execution to the family or the lawyer, as the law requires, so Makwan's lawyer was not allowed to be present, as the law also requires. "Thus, Makwan was not allowed to say goodbye to his family, nor were there any plaintiffs present at the place of execution with whom Makwan could plead for his life and ask their forgiveness to escape death." Khalatbari heard about the execution when she got a phone call from Makwan's lawyer while she was in a bank. "I was so very upset I left all my documents in the bank - I didn't realize it until the bank called me to tell me I'd left all my things there," she told this reporter. Khalatbari immediately returned to her newspaper, Etemade Melli, and wrote a stinging account of the manipulations of the Justice System (Qoveyeqazaiye, which includes all judiciary and prosecutors) and other authorities to bypass the chief judge's "stop and re-try" order and proceed in surreptitious fashion to execute Makwan. But after reading Khalatbari's article, the editorial board of Etemade Melli refused to publish it. I asked Khalatbari why. She replied, "They are constantly afraid that the newspaper will be closed, and they thought I challenged the Justice System too directly." Etemade Melli is controlled by one of President Mahmood Ahmadinejad's opponents in the last presidential election, the Hojatalislam Mehdi Karobi, a former speaker of the Iranian parliament who placed third in the 2005 contest. After her article was rejected, Khalatbari said, "I cried all the way from the newspaper's office to home, thinking about how unfairly Makwan was executed. But all this crying didn't calm me down. Indeed, today was one of the worse days of my journalistic career. I've had many bad days, but I have never been so sad." "I want to apologize to Makwan's father and uncle... maybe we didn't do enough. Maybe. With the execution of Makwan, I feel like I have lost a member of my own family," Khalatbari concluded. Khalatbari subsequently said she had been told by her editors to write no more human-interest stories about Makwan of the kind she had previously filed, and to confine herself to narrow legal issues. In a statement reminiscent of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's infamous claim in New York that "there are no homosexuals in Iran," on December 11 the ISNA news agency reported that a spokesman for the Judiciary, Dr. Alireza Jamshidi, claimed, "The chief justice did not issue an order to stop his [Makwan's] execution." But not only did Khalatbari report the existence of that order, both Makwan's lawyer and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission have copies of the official legal documents containing it. Makwan's funeral in his hometown was attended by large numbers, from 3,000 to 6,000 people according to various reports. "This shows that the people of Paveh had sympathy for Makwan and that he did not have the reputation of being either a troublemaker or a thug, as the authorities tried to claim," said Eghbati, the murdered youth's lawyer. Doug Ireland can be reached through his blog, Direland, at http://direland.typepad.com/direland. Hossein Alizadeh, communications director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (http://www.iglhrc.org), a gay native Iranian granted asylum here as a refugee from sexual persecution, provided translation services for this article. 26 May 2007 7
Interview with an Iranian Lesbian Couple Arsham Parsi: Please introduce yourself. I am Shaghayegh, I’m 33 years old, and this is my girlfriend Nazanin who is 32. We have recently fled Iran. We are lesbians and have been living together for some years. AP: How do you define a lesbian? Shaghayegh: A lesbian is a woman who is sexually and emotionally drawn to other women, only has relationships with women and is never attracted to men. Nazanin: A lesbian in Iran has a different reality. Many are forced to live with a lie, or forced to marry. When they give in to this marriage, they put themselves in a position where they will be in a way violated, and by lying to themselves, their husband and even their children, they commit the greatest sin. Shaghayegh: Lesbians do not have an existence in Iran because they are all forced to be bisexual in Iranian society. They are pressured, because of society or family, to marry at least once or be with a man or be raped by a man. They don’t have a right to choose a life without a man. AP: You are the first lesbians whom I have personally spoken with. Gay men do not personally know of any lesbians. Heterosexuals also don’t know lesbians. Perhaps even some lesbians don’t know of other lesbians. Why are lesbians no where to be seen? Shaghayegh: Fear. Fear of coming out. Fear of what others will think of them once they know. Fear that they do not have a place in our society. We don’t even accept ourselves, how can we expect heterosexuals to accept us? We fear our families. Even the two of us who have had no pretensions and have stood by everything and come this far, until only a few years ago we despised the word ‘lesbian’. Even back when I had a girlfriend, was having sex, and had no man in my life, I ran away from the label ‘lesbian’ because I was unaware of its true meaning. I only began to come to terms with myself when I started to read articles about what a lesbian is and what the term means. Unlike what is generally believed in our society, a lesbian is not someone who acts in porno films. The term is used for someone who only has feelings for other women. And this feeling can be very intense; I only need to believe in myself to know that. Nazanin: Due to
the beliefs Iranian families have and their ancient culture and the tradition
that exists in our society, the most
important of which
is marriage and the limited amount of time a girl has in
her father’s
house. And the accidental comments lesbians may overhear in their
childhood, which
goes back to what social class their family comes from and what
kind of a culture they have been raised in. Although, that is
not a general rule and
some people
who come from supposedly cultured circles also see homosexuality
as a horrifying thing. You must be very strong to wash away from
your mind what you have
grown up hearing since childhood. Some people can fight their
families from the very
beginning. Some girls may be very boyish. Others may be the kind
of people who try to fool themselves and their families. Shaghayegh: It is said our culture does not accept the idea of having girlfriends or boyfriends, but there are girls in Iran for whom this isn’t an issue because they remain unattached. There are many who pass the age of puberty and still have no boyfriends, and their whole family says “wow, this girl is so chaste”, measuring her chastity by her not having a boyfriend. They do not think that perhaps she is not attracted to the opposite sex. Someone who doesn’t have a boyfriend is not necessarily religious or pious. She may be hiding her sexual orientation under the guise of piety, saying “yes it is not right for me to have relations with boys” so she can more easily establish close relationships with girls. We have many such people in Iran and our culture has nurtured this kind of thing. I can say that the percentage of bisexuals, gays, and lesbians in Iran is exceptionally high and unfortunately none dare to speak out about it, so they end up becoming involved in relationships which are harmful to them and to others around them. For example some girls get married and have a relationship with a woman on the side or their husband has a relationship with a man; this infidelity destroys their family and destroys their children. These incidences are not unusual. Nazanin: This issue goes back to our closed culture, a place where extramarital relationships between men and women is forbidden. Well, in some cases sexual attraction is expressed in different ways. Maybe a girl cannot begin a relationship with a boy, so she does so with her best girlfriend. We cannot say this girl is hundred percent a lesbian, this may have merely been a sexual experiment. As Shaghayegh says, same-sex attraction exists in all people, some people encourage it and some don’t. This is why these incidences occur a lot in Iran. They [the parents] can close the door and say “well, since you’re with your girlfriend then everything is fine, go ahead and study together”. So it becomes possible for them to be alone together and have sexual relations. AP: You mean that social situations sometimes force one to engage in same-sex sexual relations, while other times one is personally attracted to someone of the same sex (irrespective of one’s social situation)? Nazanin: Exactly, and unfortunately in Iran this is very common-place. Shaghayegh: Most
people have had this kind of experience
at least once, and it doesn’t necessarily define their
sexual orientation. The person who continues in this vein and
emotionally prefers this path is
called homosexual or bisexual. But a person does not become homosexual
based on one same-sex encounter. I believe the homosexuality
goes back to genetic
factors and exists in a person from childhood; for example, in
school [a girl] falls in love with [another] girl in her class.
There are many reasons
explaining
why this preference is not instilled by society. People who have
just had one experience may forget about it and never engage
in similar acts again – this
is also very common [in Iran]. Nazanin: No, it isn’t used. People make comments like “this girl is manly” which doesn’t necessarily have alienating consequences because in Iranian society people will befriend and support such a woman, interpreting her masculinity as being cool and hip, having an edge, an attitude, a style. Shaghayegh: Lesbian
girls are able to come to terms with these names and these perceptions until
a
certain age. Its effect on
them is visible – they
cut their hair short and wear boyish clothes. Even
lesbians who look very feminine tend to dress differently
than other girls
since childhood and it
causes people
within their family circle to talk and say “this
girl is like a boy”.
If she reaches puberty [and still maintains this
outer appearance], it is said this woman has strength
of character, she’s
a strong woman; they still don’t understand
her. AP: Many women and women’s rights defenders are not necessarily defenders of lesbian rights and are, in fact, sometimes intense opponents of it. What are your views on this? Shaghayegh: I agree that we have two negative labels, one being women in a patriarchal and Islamic country that does not consider women human, and the other our lesbianism. Being a lesbian itself has two negative points. First, that sexual attraction to another woman is haram and blasphemy; if it is revealed, you are killed. Second, that in lesbianism there lies an inherent masculine tendency that does not submit to anyone and as a result is forced to fight, and that fighting causes further problems for a woman. In terms of feminist issues, I haven’t had any encounters. I myself am a lesbian and I oppose men completely; just like how men do not consider women as human, I in turn, as a lesbian woman, cannot consider men as human. I want to show that if a woman is not higher than a man, she is not lower either. I don’t know what feminists are talking about – they want to defend women’s rights, but they themselves violate these rights and abandon a woman because of her sexual orientation and private affairs. AP:You mean some of these people fight against sex-based discrimination, but they themselves discriminate against certain people because of their sexual orientation? Shaghayegh:
It is exactly
like this. Sexual orientation is a completely
personal and private
matter. All people on earth have harboured
these different sexual attractions at
one time or another; even those who claim
they are heterosexual have at one point
in time, unbeknown to others, had a sexual
fantasy, and it may have even been acted upon and no one
else knows because it is
a private instinct that
people
have. But people tell each other “no you
have no right to do this, it is bad”. This
is something that has existed in every stage of
human existence, everyone has experienced these
things. And someone’s private
life only concerns them. It’s as if I condemn
you and say “why
did you dream you had sexual relations with a man
or why are you with a woman?” I
have no right to condemn you for having a dream.
The life of a homosexual in Iran
is exactly this. Meaning, because you have a feeling
that is yours and no one can take it away from
you, you are condemned. AP: You spoke of incrimination. What is the punishment for lesbians in Iran? Some are of the opinion that the conditions for lesbians are better than those for gay men – the punishment for gay men is hanging; while lesbians are whipped the first three times they are arrested and only hanged on the fourth arrest. Nazanin: The punishment
for lesbians is most definitely execution. Before
execution they are raped,
which is a mental torment worse than
death. In my view there is something that
should be considered - that a gay
man, whether physically or mentally, is after all a man. But
a lesbian is a woman - physically
and spiritually she
is more
delicate and emotional. Well, yes,
many people say that in the case of women, the first three
times they are whipped and only
if it is repeated for a forth
time they are hanged. But the reality
is not so, because that very first time they arrest a lesbian,
they take her and torture
her almost to death
and rape
her. Execution is better than that.
Unfortunately, if so far there has no been any talk of these executions
and rapes it has
been to save face for
the families
involved, because she is after all
female, she is considered the daughter of a traditional family.
Revealing the rape of a
woman, even if she is heterosexual,
is very difficult for a family – it
is cause for disgrace. AP: I have spoken with many heterosexuals. Most of them say “we cannot accept gay men but have no problem with lesbians”. Nazanin: Who said this! I think these heterosexuals who say “we accept lesbians” are mostly men. Because they take pleasure in the thought of two women being together and want to see them in the act, and even when we say we are lesbians in an effort to reject a man’s sexual advances, first he take pleasure in looking at us, and with those sick thoughts he has, he thinks to himself that now I can have sex with two women at the same time. It is because of their sick minds that they say “we accept lesbians”. Meanwhile it is enough to say to them “I am not willing for your hand to touch my body and I’m not at all willing to see you”, then that this man who is apparently a supporter becomes an enemy of this lesbian and may even reveal her, something which might cost her her life. AP: Some men, for whom women are only a means to satisfy male sexual desire, look at a relationship between two women in the same vein. Nazanin: It is exactly so. Look at porno films made for a straight audience. It is impossible for it not to include a scene of two women having sex. It is impossible for a man not be shown with two women. Because they [straight men] take pleasure from it, it is only there to serve their carnal and sexual appetite - for them this is one kind of sexual relationship. Shaghayegh: Many people who see these kinds of films say “the lesbians in this film ultimately satisfy themselves with sex toys. Then why don’t they go after men in the first place?” Well this is totally obvious. Because they are not lesbian, they’re only acting in the porno film and have a commercial purpose. Lesbian sex is not like what is shown in these films. AP: What is lesbian sex like, and how different is it from the way it is depicted in porno films? Shaghayegh: Lesbian
sex is emotional, the emotion
of two women for each other.
It is not sex, it is love
making. It is possible that after fifty
times
of lovemaking a couple
might like to, for the sake of fantasy,
have hard sex,
but still emotion plays
a dominant role in the exchange. Commercial
sex differs from real lesbian
sex. We lesbians don’t accept
those figures represented in porno
films as lesbians. Because they
are not lesbian. Lesbians are almost
like feminists in that they do
not
see themselves in need of
a man. Straight men think lesbians
are willing to come to their bed
with another woman, because
a straight woman is not willing
to do such a thing. But they
don’t
realize that lesbians are not willing
to conduct any sexual relationships
with any
men in any form. The best answer
I can give to those people who
think
lesbians and gays are the
same people they watch in porno
films is this: then according
to this mentality, relationships
between heterosexuals are the way
they’re
represented in such films, including
sick sex involving many people
or involving even animals. Nazanin: If someone truly wants to become familiar with the truthful relationships lesbians have and gain information about their sexual lives can watch romantic lesbian films. There is also a TV show called The L Word which is about the lives of lesbians in Los Angeles, and no man exists on that show. The statistics show that most of the audience for the show is straight. Because they want to know what the life of a lesbian is like. All these films are on the internet and people can download them. When I was in Iran, that’s what I did. Shaghayegh: Most people, as soon as they want to get to know a lesbian, ask “how do you have sex?” Well these people can watch these films. I personally don’t like to speak about my sexual relationships and have always had a problem with this question. Instead of porno films, you can watch films about lesbians, [that portray] those feelings that a lesbian woman has. [In terms of sex] gay men have male genitalia, so penetration occurs. But since lesbians do not have such a thing, penetration does not take place. Lesbian sex has no need for penetration with a dildo; two lesbians can satisfy each other without penetration. Ultimately I can say that while they are not lesbian, they cannot understand what this kind of relationship is like. AP: Well, since these films are made in light of the culture of their own countries, they may not give a correct representation to those in Iranian society. What is the difference between Iranian lesbians and those abroad? Shaghayegh:
There is no difference
in terms of emotion, affection, love,
or sex. The only
difference we have is that our rights are taken
away from
us
in Iran and we have
no security of person vis-à-vis
the government. We ourselves have
experienced these circumstances.
If someone were to find
out we were lesbians, threats would
be made, that if you are not with
us
or if you do not do this
or that, we can very easily
drag you to the execution
pole, and we had no defence. But
lesbians in Western countries,
if they are not
accepted by other people
at least they are defended
by the government
and
the law. For a while we lived in
a city that was extremely religious
and
we were not safe, but now
we feel this [Swiss] government
supports us and
if someone
insults us we can seek safety with the police. Nazanin: Worst of all is the seclusion of being an Iranian lesbian; you are unconsciously banished. In the beginning you can have contact with your friends to an extent but in a short amount of time, you lose your closest friends. It is difficult to reveal the truth to your friends, sometimes you are uncomfortable answering their questions, you don’t know what to say. For example this issue of not having a boyfriend - you bring up false names of guys but how long can you keep up these games? And after a while your friends obviously pull away from you and you are left alone. You’re forced to find people like yourself, and well, many problems come up in that community of lesbians and it reaches a point where you can’t even maintain connections with these lesbians and you become completely alone, to the point where you have no reason to leave your room. Shaghayegh: I
can mention two
situations; one, when a
girl knows
herself as a
lesbian; two, when she still hasn’t
come to know herself. When she
still hasn’t
recognized herself, she tries to
keep away from boys and only spend
time
with her
girlfriends. Until a certain age
she can continue in this way, but
after
a certain age they
force her to get married and she
has no way to escape. This is essentially
a rape sentence. Maybe
I can’t find the appropriate
word for this cruelty, this coercion.
Maybe rape is a very basic
term but until that time
that you have not been
raped
you cannot understand it. I think
it is the worst torture. It is
more difficult
than death because
death is one moment and
after that you don’t feel
anything. Nazanin: Many families said “go ahead and commit whatever errors you wish to commit, but don’t do it before our eyes”. Some girls were forced to go out with a boy and then bid him farewell at the edge of the street. Well, all these problems exist and they are beyond explanation and remain like fire under the ashes. They call a gay man effeminate and curse at him in a thousand different ways. He is beaten, sentenced to hanging and torture, etc, but he is marked, identifiable. But a lesbian is not identifiable, she cannot scream, she cannot swear, and all this negative energy remains inside her. Shaghayegh:
Imagine for
yourself someone within whom all this
negative
energy and
problems and rape and pain remains, who does not have
any support
from their
family and cannot get a job and work,
cannot even
rent a room in a hotel (because if she goes
to a hotel
they send her to places where
they
ask her “for what reason
have you left your home? You must
be a runaway.
Tonight we will take
care of you ourselves”…)
so she is forced to sleep on the
street. You can imagine for yourself
what psychological/emotional
situation this person must be in.
Let’s
assume what I just said has happened.
If she is able to,
with difficulty, find a
place she can rent,
she find an
asshole (excuse my language) and
present him either as her boyfriend
or father
or a relative so he
can sign the permit in her name. Nazanin: Many
cultured, wealthy families send their children abroad.
They say “whatever
misdeed you want to commit, do
it there so we don’t
see. Whenever you think you’d
like to return and live here, you
must marry so we won’t
feel ashamed before aunts and uncles.” So
even if they accept it, they say
keep your distance, go so we don’t
see you. We will accept, but leave.
Leave so no one asks questions,
and if they ask what is so
and so doing, we’ll
be able to say “he/she is
abroad”.
No one will be able to reach you
and they won’t
know, and we don’t
lose face. Ultimately, as the saying
goes, open-minded families abandon
their children in a chic
way. AP: What is the lesbian social network like in Iran? Shaghayegh: A number are connected to each other through the internet, through networks where everyone knows each other, and unfortunately none are ready to see each other and many often end up losing face. They tell each other’s families, they complain about each other. For example they say “if you don’t go out with me or if you don’t do this I will tell everyone you’re a lesbian”. They know each other completely and are in touch. Others who are not into the internet are lesbians who have contacts with girlfriends from high school or childhood, etc. They are not informed about any of these things and may not even know they are lesbians, only that they are in love with a girl. Sometimes they are forced to marry. I know people who were together from middle school and were even kicked out of school a number of times; they were always together and would die for each other, but they were forced to get married. Both got married at the same time and the interesting thing is after they married, both couples went to the north of Iran together for their honeymoon and these two women were together and those two men were together. But no one knows and everyone says “wow, what successful couples”, but no one knows what relationships exist between them. Nazanin: Generally the social network between lesbians in Iran is not very interesting. Before there were certain sites through which lesbians would get to know each other. But since they have been shut down [filtered] the situation has become much worse. Most of them say “I am not a lesbian but I’m in love with this person until the end of my life”. They don’t even accept they are lesbians when they have sex with their girlfriend, they think lesbians are actors in porno films. In Iran we have a gay community and a lesbian community and the two don’t have much contact with one another, but in fact they must be in contact because both groups are homosexuals. Nazanin: Because gays do not understand lesbians and do not understand what kinds of relationships lesbians have and when they ask “how do you have sex together”, it is very offensive for lesbians so they quickly pull themselves away. Without anybody being aware of it, a wall is established between them. Shaghayegh: Yet connections do exist; usually gays and lesbians are each in touch with at least a couple of people [from the other community]. But these are not like the extensive connections gays have amongst themselves. Some look for lesbians in chat rooms and well, unfortunately, this is not an appropriate place because most of them are not lesbians. Real lesbians who are in the room are no longer willing to establish connections with anyone, since they constantly come into contact with sick heterosexual people who are there to satisfy their own curiosity. Usually lesbians are not in chat rooms and only establish connections through emails and profiles. AP: What solution do you suggest, as a lesbian couple, for ending this separation and establishing unity? Shaghayegh: Increase the knowledge gay men have about lesbian sex. They have a right to gain correct information, because they’re not aware and would like to know. Nazanin: Giving information, watching appropriate films, getting to know lesbians, all these can benefit the connection between the communities. Unfortunately the symbol of a lesbian woman is two naked women with big breasts. This is completely wrong. Gays must get to know lesbians better, and lesbians in turn must get to know gay men better so they can establish good relationships. Then we must tell all gay men that asking questions about how you [lesbians] have sex is forbidden! AP: Well, lastly, what would you like to add? Nazanin: I would like to say a lesbian can pray and be the most pious person. God has created us and our differences are like [the difference between] white people and black people. We are homosexual while others are heterosexual. Shaghayegh: A lesbian is not someone who sees everyone naked and wants to have sex with everyone around her; she lends more importance to love and emotion. Being a lesbian is not an abnormality, it is a sexual orientation. Do not avoid homosexuals. People don’t avoid vain people or peculiar animals, yet they avoid homosexuals and see them as unnatural. Society places these labels of good vs. bad, abnormal vs. natural vs. unnatural on individuals; who is this society? It is us - human beings.
May 23, 2007 8 Terrifying new photos showing the effects of police lashings last month on an Iranian gay couple have been released by the Iranian Queer
Organization. Also, Iranian authorities staged a brutal and violent May 10 raid on a birthday party in Esfahan which they suspected was a gay party, beating the guests and arresting 87 people, including four women, one of whom had a child with her. Some 80 of those arrested made bail or were released immediately but face possible prosecution in the future; while 17 of those arrested were imprisoned awaiting trial, and a judge told their families that they would be charged with “homosexual conduct” (hamjensgarai in Persian) and the consumption of alcohol. According to the most recent telephonic reports from Esfahan received by Arsham Parsi, executive director of the Iranian Queer Organization (IRQO--formerly the Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization), 12 of the 17 jailed in Esfahan were eventually also allowed to post bail and released pending their trial, which is scheduled for a month from now. Five are still incarcerated -- including the lad whose birthday was being celebrated, 19-year-old Farhad, and his uncle, who were unable to make the $250,000 bail each set by a judge, Parsi told me this Wednesday. “I’ve been told that Farhad faces prison and perhaps execution,” Parsi said by telephone from Toronto, where he has been living since he was granted asylum by Canada last year as a sexual refugee from persecution in Iran. Parsi said that, according to multiple accounts he has received from Iran, police brought along on the raid both a film crew and four mullahs to serve as witnesses to what they suspected would be gay sexual activity at the party. The mullahs accompanied police because, under the religious Sharia aw in force in the Islamic Republic of Iran, four witnesses are required for conviction on a charge of homosexual sex involving penetration, a crime which carries the death penalty. Consumption of alcohol carries a penalty of 100 lashes, and, after a third conviction, the death penalty. Police and members of the Basiji -- the thuggish parapolice attached to the Revolutionary Guards, who are used to enforce morality -- severely beat the Esfahan party guests, both inside the house where the party was held and in the street outside it, resulting in broken bones for some of the partyers, according to these accounts by eyewitnesses and guests at the party. A voice-mail left on the office telephone of the IRQO by one of those arrested said, “The police beat us so hard that one of us threw himself out of the third-floor window and broke his legs; he is now in hospital. When we were arrested, we were forced to sleep on the floor, and the police were walking on us. We don’t have any voice here and you are our voice, please tell the world about our horrible situation in Iran, it is our daily life.” Parsi told this reporter that eight of those jailed were transgendered or had been wearing female attire, that they had all denied having had anal intercourse with men, but that police had subsequently had them examined by a legal medical officer who claimed he had found evidence of anal sexual intercourse on the part of “most of them.” Parsi said those examined all told the arraignment judge that was because they had been raped, but the evidence of the legal medical officer can be used to convict them of a sexual crime that carries capital punishment. Parsi added that he had received a telephone call from one of the transgendered who was arrested, and that “she told me the awful story about that night and her jail experience. She told me that the police kept bags over their heads while they were in jail, and that they were hardly allowed to go to the toilet -- they were permitted to use a toilet only twice in the four days they were in jail.” Esfahan is Iran’s third largest city, with a population of 1,600,000, and is also home to one of Iran’s most important nuclear facilities, and thus is under tight police control and surveillance. Further evidence of the brutality of Iran’s heavy-handed theocracy towards homosexuals came with the release by the IRQO of horrific photos of the wounds of a gay couple who had been subjected to 80 lashes in April “just for being gay,” as Parsi put it. The gay couple -- Farhad, 26, and Farnam, 23 -- escaped from Iran to Turkey last Saturday. They were arrested when police broke into their home in Tehran. According to an Iranian Ministry of Justice document furnished to this reporter by the IRQO, Farhad and Farnam were charged with both “organizing immoral parties” and with the crime of “tafhkiz” , which can be translated as intercrural sex or interfemural sex. Parsi, who spoke to the fled gay couple by telephone, said that “the police told them, ‘The 80 lashes are just for your immoral parties. For your tafkhiz you will get a lot more.’” Fearful of imprisonment and more torture on the tafkhiz charge, the couple fled Iran just days before their trial on that charge. The violent Esfahan raid and jailings were vigorously denounced by both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Amnesty’s statement said in part, “Amnesty International opposes the criminalization of consensual adult sexual relations conducted in private and urges the Iranian authorities to urgently review law and practice to ensure that no one can be prosecuted for such reasons…AI is concerned that [some of] the men may be held because of what they were wearing at the time of their arrest…If this is the case, then they are prisoners of conscience, detained solely for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression.” Joe Stork, deputy director of the Middle East division of Human Rights Watch, noted that the Esfahan raid came as the regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was conducting a new campaign against “immoral behavior,” begun in April, that includes a stringent crackdown on women who violate rigorous Islamic dress codes. According to Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency, police said on April 25 that 150,000 people had been detained so far in this campaign. On May 13, police told the same news agency that 17,000 people had been stopped and interrogated at Iranian airports since the campaign began, of whom 850 women had been detained and released only after signing “commitment letters,” while another 130 faced prosecution. “In Iran, the walls of homes are transparent and the halls of justice opaque,” HRW’s Stork said, adding: “This ‘morality’ campaign shows how fragile respect for privacy and personal dignity is in Iran today.” IRQO’s Parsi told this reporter that Farhad and Farnam were among five new refugees from persecution in Iran -- two of the others gay, one of them transgendered -- who arrived in Turkey on the same train last Saturday. “One of the guys arrived without a penny,” Parsi said, “he completely needs support, and for the moment he is living in one of our safe houses in Turkey, where we have eight people already living in a tiny two-bedroom house.” Parsi said that his organization can only afford two such safe houses in Turkey, and that “both are very, very small and dirty, with totally inadequate toilet facilities and no way to bathe properly.” Added Parsi, “We now have over 30 gay, lesbian, and transgendered Iranian refugees in Turkey who totally depend on IRQO’s support -- they cannot get jobs in Turkey, where there is a lot of homophobia and transphobia -- and our small budget simply cannot adequately meet their needs. We appeal to all our brothers and sisters in the West not to forget the suffering of LGBT Iranians, or that we urgently need your donations.” Contributions to the Iranian Queer Organization -- an all-volunteer group that is the largest Iranian LGBT association, with over 40,000 people on its e-mail list -- may be made on credit cards via a secure PayPal account through the organization’s website at http://www.pglo.net/
9 Could you please introduce yourselves? I am Pooya, 26 years old and I am homosexual. How do you explain the life of a gay man in Iran? Pooya: A gay man has no life in Iran at all to be explained. Life is meaningless for him and he receives no acceptance for himself and his lifestyle. He has lots of problems involving his family, his society, the government, etc. I have a master’s degree, but I was not accepted even as a secretary in Iran as I was different from others. They didn’t say directly that it was because I am gay but they didn’t offer me any job and their reason was clearly implied. My family didn’t understand me. People made fun of me and they tormented me in such a way that I didn’t dare go out of my home. There is no place for a gay person in Iran as the culture does not accept the presence of homosexuality. A homosexual is not allowed to talk about himself and everyone looks at him in a different way. They call him a faggot, or they call him feminine. Whenever I talk to a gay man, I deal with the term “feminine”. Every gay man becomes unhappy of this label and they take it as a humiliation. From your point of view, who is feminine and why is this word used? Pooya: People used to call me feminine in any gathering. Everybody laughed at me and so this word was hateful for me. It was used to humiliate me. That’s why every gay man flees from this word. Soroosh: Feminine was a label that I had to carry since my childhood. This word was not unfamiliar to me as I heard it everywhere – in my family, at school, everywhere in society. They called us feminine so often that we became used to it. Sometimes I really felt that I was feminine and this was my name. This word is very insulting in our society and any man hearing it becomes offended. My father and my brother became so upset when others called me feminine. They were ashamed. Pooya: Even wearing vibrant colors or cologne is considered to be feminine. For example I like wearing red but in Iran I couldn’t do this and it used to be a desire for me. Soroosh: When I carried my back bag on my two shoulders and walked in the streets, the drivers used to blow their horns for me and when I carried it on only one shoulder they passed. Our people do not even have the culture of carrying a bag back and they consider carrying it on two shoulders as a girlish act, let alone wearing vibrant colors or colognes! Soroosh: I believe one person cannot change this culture. It will take a long time. Public awareness and education s |
