Gay Church raises money for asylum seekers

A Manchester gay church has raised £800 for asylum seekers to help them get legal representation and advice.

Members of the Metropolitan Community Church, based in Victoria Park, donated money from things they gave up during Lent to the Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit.

Rev Andy Braunston, pastor of the 60-member church, said: "We have many asylum seekers who worship with us and we know from their experience the horror of having to flee one's own country to find sanctuary and protection in the UK. Many countries still persecute lesbian and gay people and some even impose the death penalty simply because of how we love.

Over the years we have been impressed by the outstanding work of the Immigration Aid Unit and wanted to help them continue to help some of the poorest and most excluded members of our society."

The money will be handed over in a special service this Sunday at 4pm where one church member's public asylum campaign will be launched. A short video about Prossy Kakooza, a 26 year old lesbian from Uganda, will be shown and church members will be urged to sign a petition and write to the Immigration Minister demanding that she is not returned to Uganda to face further physical and sexual attacks from the authorities.

Further details are available on the church's website: www.mccmanchester.co.uk

Source: LGF

Be Like Others

Be Like Others (also known as Transsexual in Iran) is a documentary film written and directed by Tanaz Eshaghian about transsexuals in Iran. It explores issues of gender and sexuality while following the personal stories of some of the patients at a Tehran clinic. The film played at the Sundance Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival, winning three awards, and has just opened in Toronto.

The documentary follows the journeys of several young people who opt for sexual reassignment surgery in Tehran. Curiously, while homosexuality is still a crime in Iran, and punishable by death, sex changes have been one hundred percent legal since 1983, come Ayatollah-approved and even include the added bonus of an altered birth certificate.

The new religious government that came to be established after the 1979 Iranian Revolution classed transsexuals and transvestites with gays and lesbians, who were condemned by Islam and faced the punishment of lashing and death under Iran's penal code.

One early campaigner for transsexual rights is Maryam Hatoon Molkara, who was formerly a man known as Fereydoon. Before the revolution, she had longed to become a woman but could not afford surgery. Furthermore, she wanted religious authorization.

Since 1975, she had been writing letters to Ayatollah Khomeini, who was to become the leader of the revolution and was in exile. After the revolution, she was fired, forcedly injected with male hormone, and institutionalized. She was later released with help from her connection, and she kept lobbying many other leaders. Later she went to see Khomeini, who had returned to Iran. At first she was stopped and beaten by his guards, but eventually Khomeini gave her a letter to authorize her gender reassignment operation. The letter is later known as the fatwa that authorizes such operations in Iran.

A small number of Iranian clerics have advised that homosexual men and women undergo gender reassignment in order for them to be able to live "normal lives".

The film is both fascinating and sad, especially as it becomes obvious that many of the people who get the surgery in Iran are actually just gay men who would never elect to do so in another country, and that far from solving all of their problems, as women, many Iranian transsexuals wind up on the streets, as prostitutes.

One of them is Ali Askar, a 24 year-old man who faces harassment from other men due to his feminine appearance and behaviour. He does not want to become a woman but sees no other options for him in Iranian society. He decides to go ahead with the surgery despite death threats from his father and finds support from Vida, a post-operative transsexual he meets at the clinic. By the end of the film, Ali has become a woman named Negar. She has been disowned by her family, experienced depression and has had to work as a prostitute.

20 year-old Anoosh is another young man who has been ostracised due to his femininity. His boyfriend feels more comfortable when Anoosh dresses as a woman, and in contrast to Ali, Anoosh's mother is supportive of his desire to change sex. The end of the film shows Anoosh — now Anahita — happy and engaged to her boyfriend.

Eshaghian, an Iranian American film-maker, got the idea for Be Like Others after reading a 2004 New York Times article about sex-change operations happening in Iran and being surprised that such an operation would be acceptable in a Muslim country. She wrote a proposal for a film and tried to find funding, but was unsuccessful. She contacted a British journalist who had written on the subject and he gave her telephone numbers for Dr. Bahram Mir-Jalali and the Muslim cleric featured in the film.

To find subjects, she visited the predominant sex-reassignment clinic in Iran, and spent time in the waiting-room talking to patients and their families. She found that female-to-male transsexuals were generally very successful in living as their new gender and as a result were reluctant to take part in the documentary for fear of being "outed" as transsexual.

She felt that the contrasting stories of Ali and Anoosh highlighted the importance of family bonds in Iranian society. At a question and answer session at the Sundance Film Festival, Eshaghian said that one of the men she met while filming decided to live as a gay man rather than become a woman, and that she is now trying to help him leave Iran.

The film was shown on BBC television as Transsexual in Iran in February 2008.

Australia: Ali Humayun’s bid for freedom

Source: GreenLeft

Ali Humayun, a queer Pakistani, was recently granted permanent residency after spending more than three years locked up in Villawood Detention Centre. He made the following statement to Green Left Weekly on May 23.

In 2001 I arrived in Australia as a student at the University of Canberra College doing a bridging [English] course. I had to pay $48,000 in that first year, yet I didn’t need to do that course. I had to do it to be allowed into the university.

In 2001-03 I studied at the University of Canberra and paid $12,000 per year for a course in IT. That was just tuition fees! Living on campus cost an extra $2000 per semester — just for accommodation and utilities! All this money went to the university.

My studies became hard when I became depressed. In 2002 I had sex with a girl for the first time, which spun me out. I could not stop thinking about the sexual abuse I’d experienced back in Pakistan over many years and at the hands of many men. One was a Muslim cleric who took mass every Friday in my neighbourhood.

This depression made me totally dysfunctional and stopped me from finishing my studies, even though I was undergoing counselling at the university. The academic board said they were considering expulsion, since I had failed all subjects at the end of 2002, unless I was able to provide them with reasonable cause [to allow me to continue]. My psychiatrist and I wrote to them and explained my history of sexual abuse. The academic board approved my reasons and let me off the hook, but said next time there would be no consideration.

When I started studying in 2003 the head of the International Students Department spotted me on campus and called the immigration department. The head of the [International Students] Department would not accept the academic board’s pardon.

The immigration department interviewed me for 24 minutes, cancelled my student visa and put me on a Bridging E visa. The department didn’t look at documented evidence from the University of Canberra one tiny bit.

By the time I got locked up in Villawood, it was January 2005. I rang the Department of Immigration to get them to renew my student visa many times over those two years — they never got back to me. I applied for permission to work three or four times while on that Bridging E visa, but was rejected.

Of course, to support myself, I started working by the end of 2004. Then in early 2005 I was dobbed in by someone and immigration stuck me in Villawood. After they locked me up, they asked for $25,000 as bail for another Bridging E visa.

They said they would have let me out if I had that money, but I didn’t.

I was so depressed when I got into Villawood. On my birthday at the end of January I slashed my wrist, so they put me on suicide watch and fed me tonnes and tonnes of valium. I was placed in Bankstown Hospital in February where they pumped me with pills for two weeks. No counselling whatsoever.

Then, when I’d been in detention for three and a half months they used excessive force to send me to maximum security, Stage One. I stuck to a chair and demanded to know why. They nearly broke my arm getting me to Stage One. Two Global Solutions Limited (GSL) officials, my psychiatrist and two immigration officials came to talk to me, saying they’d got a letter saying I was going to escape, and that’s why I was put in maximum security.

I’d been on a cocktail of about a dozen prescription pills a day and they took me off all these pills. They also pulled my psychiatrist, who knew I had no intention of escaping.

A few months later, in Stage One, a GSL security guard offered me heroin to help me cope. That’s how I got introduced to heroin. Throughout the course of my detention GSL officers offered me — for money — ecstasy, alcohol and marijuana. Then I met Julio, who I had liked and admired. We got together and Julio convinced me to get off the gear.

Then a former detainee who was helped by Community Action Against Homophobia gave me an email [address], so I got in contact with CAAH. Activists came to visit and the campaign kicked off. [Greens senator] Kerry Nettle took up the case. She mentioned my case in parliament. We put my case in lots of media outlets.

Plenty of people kept on coming on board: [socialist youth organisation] Resistance, lots of members of the community. It became a really personal issue to a lot of people.

My release [from Villawood] came as a surprise. Protest action does work. My release is proof.

British Foreign Office instructs embassies to push LGBT rights

Our comment: Whilst one wing of the British government denies LGBT persecution overseas another decries it

British Foreign Office instructs embassies to push LGBT rights

The British government has adopted an official programme to support the human rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans people in other countries.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has issued an 'LGBT Toolkit' to its 261 embassies, high commissions and other diplomatic posts.

The document lists PinkNews.co.uk as an online information resource about gay rights, the only news organisation on the list.

"The FCO fully supports equality in the enjoyment of human rights and the inadmissibility of discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation," the document states.

"This provides the focus of FCO work on this issue."

The kit contains information on the official British policy on gay rights and instructions in how to "provide added value to equality and non-discrimination work."

"Governments have an obligation to promote equality in the enjoyment of human rights, as well as not to discriminate in their application," the document states.

"Frequently there is discrimination in the enjoyment of key rights, even in countries where the criminal laws are neutral.

"Tackling this would require the building up of local coalitions of non-state actors to elaborate action plans for each country, as well as working locally with like-minded states.

"This would not just apply to issues like the state of the criminal law, but also to freedom of association and assembly, freedom of expression and privacy.

"The FCO should identify, with the support of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and international LGBT groups like the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA), countries where support from Posts and The British Council would provide added value to equality and non-discrimination work."

The British Council is a government department, independent of the FCO, that promotes British culture and educational relationships worldwide.

The 'toolkit' covers a wide range of issues, from decriminalisation, sexual health, reproductive rights and health education to bilateral work with other countries.

The document states that LGBT activists are often targets for persecution and that the FCO should ensure these people are "included among human rights defenders concerning whom the UK will lobby and will engage the support of other governments, especially EU members."

It says that initial discussions with the TUC suggest that countries of particular concern include Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Nigeria, Uzbekistan and some of the new democracies of Eastern Europe.

Of particular interest to gay rights activists is this statement from the FCO:

"The nine countries that have a maximum penalty of death for consensual same sex relations are Iran, Iraq, Mauritania, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, UAE and Yemen.

"The ten countries that have a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for consensual same sex relations are Bangladesh, Barbados, Bhutan, Burma, Guyana, India, Maldives, Nepal, Singapore, and Uganda.

Source: PinkNews

• Ministerial statement on the international day against homophobia
• FCO advice to LGBT travellers

Mehdi reaction in the House of Lords

22nd May in the House of Lords

Nb: our emphasis

Lord Roberts of Llandudno: My Lords, I want to express my appreciation of the Home Secretary’s action in giving asylum to Mehdi Kazemi, the young man who was to be forcefully removed to Iran. I am told that that happened yesterday. In view of what is going on in Iran and the possible treatment of those who are repatriated or forcibly removed from here, could there not be a total moratorium on the removal of failed asylum seekers to Iran?

Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, let me return the compliment to the noble Lord and to those in this House who have continuously raised the issue of Mehdi Kazemi. That was instrumental in the Home Secretary’s reconsideration of the case and the decision to grant him a five-year initial stay here in the UK. Equally, however, noble Lords will recognise that we must preserve the right to deal with these matters on a case-by case-basis. That is at the heart of our approach to asylum.

Letter of thanks from Mehdi

I found out on Monday 19th of May 2008 that the government had granted me refugee status for the next five years. I am so happy about this and I just want to say thank you to all the people of Britain, The Netherlands, Italy and across Europe, Canada, America and the world, who have shown their concern for me, who have given me the support that I really needed and who have worked very hard to help me through difficult times and to get me to where I am now. I wouldn’t be alive if hadn’t been for your help. I will never forget everything that you have done.

I also want to say thank you to all the organisations who campaigned on my behalf, especially the EveryOne Group, Dutch COC, IRQO and Human Rights Watch, to UK Gay News and The Independent newspaper who chose to tell my story and to raise awareness of my plight. Thank you to the Members of Parliament in the UK, the Netherlands, in particular Mr Boris van der Ham, and the EU, Marco Cappato, Marco Pannella, Sophia in 't Veld and especially Mr Michael Cashman MEP, who asked the UK government to grant me asylum. I have written a separate letter to the Home Secretary to thank her for granting me refugee status, and to the Members of the British, Dutch and European Parliaments to thank them for their help. Thank you to Mr B.A Palm who represented me in The Netherlands and to my representative in this country, Gabriella Bettiga at Lawrence Lupin Solicitors, who helped me to make a fresh claim for asylum.

I would also like to say some very special thanks. I would like to say thank you to my local MP, Mr Simon Hughes, and his team who gave me the chance to live and made a miracle happen when he heard that my life was in serious danger and asked the Home Office to suspend my deportation in December 2006. I would not be here if it hadn’t been for his intervention. He was here for me then and he was here for me again when I was eventually sent back to the UK in April this year. I do not know if I would have been granted my refugee status without him.
I also wish to say the biggest thank you to my uncles, for all their support, for accepting me for who I am, for their hard work, for everything they’ve done for me, and most of all for their love.

I am so lucky to have them as my uncles and I am so proud of them.

Life has been very hard for me ever since I heard that my former boyfriend had been executed. I was very scared about what would happen to me and this is why I claimed asylum in the UK. I knew that the people of this country accepted homosexuality and that the government gave equal rights to people regardless of their sexuality. So when my asylum claim was refused I was shocked and very disappointed. I had expected more. I had expected to be given the same rights as people here. I thought the government would understand the very difficult situation that I was in.

I couldn’t understand why my claim was refused and then I felt that the judge didn’t listen to me at my appeal. I was detained very soon after my appeal was dismissed and things happened very quickly. One minute I was still going to school in Brighton and the next minute I was told that they had signed a deportation order against me and I would be going back in Iran a few days later. I was devastated and I felt that I was only one step away from death. I was told that I could appeal against the decision to deport me once I was back in Iran, but I thought, how can this be possible? Who will appeal? My dead body? I knew that only a miracle could save me then.

At this point, my uncle, with whom I had originally lived with when I arrived in the UK, contacted the local MP, Simon Hughes. He managed to suspend the deportation order just in time. I couldn’t believe that I had been given another chance. I was temporarily released but I was very scared that I would be in the same situation again just a few months later. I realised that I was not safe in the UK so I decided to flee. I had hoped to go to Canada, but I was arrested in the Czech Republic, taken to Germany and then I escaped again to Holland. I had heard that Holland had a special concession for gay Iranian asylum seekers and that they had a fairer law.

I spent about a year in Holland after I claimed asylum there. It was a very difficult year for me. Asylum seekers have no real rights. All you are allowed to be is an asylum seeker. You cannot study, or work, or do anything. You are only allowed to breathe. I did meet some very kind people in the Netherlands who went out of their way to help me and who became good friends. I would like to go back to see them some time soon. Eventually my asylum claim was refused again, this time in Holland, because under the European Regulation you have to be given asylum in the first country that you arrive in. I was very upset about this decision and I became very depressed. I thought, at least I have tried to save my life, I tried everything that I could but it didn’t work, and you can’t do anymore than that. I had had enough. I just wanted everything to be over. I didn’t want to live anymore.

I was returned to the UK in April. I was very scared but I was so pleased to see my uncles again. I had missed them very much. I was also very grateful and reassured by my local MP, Simon, who told me he would do everything he could to help. My family and I met with him very soon after I came back to the UK and he took the time to really listen to me. He asked me about what I had been through and he explained that he would tell the Home Office and the government why I should be allowed to stay in this country. He put me in touch with the solicitors who helped me to make a new claim for asylum. I am so grateful to Gabriella at Lawrence Lupin Solicitors for all her hard work and all the help she gave me. Simon also wrote a letter to the Home Office in support of my claim. I hadn’t expected to receive so much help and I really felt that there were people here who were fighting my corner.

I was told on Monday that the government had granted me refugee status. I cannot really say how good I feel. It’s the best news I have ever had. I am relieved and just very very happy. I feel that I can start to live again, to plan my life and my future. I can pick up where I left off when my situation became so difficult a couple of years ago. So I am back now and living with one of my uncles. I am making plans to continue with my studies. I would really like to go to university to study Pharmacology.

I am very much looking forward to the future and to doing all the things I thought I would no longer be able to do. But I do miss my family and my friends back at home, and I miss Iran. It is where I come from, Iran is my country and I think it is very sad that people there do not have the same rights as they do in this country and that this means I cannot live there at the moment. I hope that one day I will be safe and that I can live in my country again. I hope that other people in similar situations to mine will have the same rights, that they will no longer fear for their lives and they will have the freedom to live as they want to live and be who they are regardless of their sexuality.

But for now, I am so grateful to be here and to be safe. I want to say thank you again to the people of Britain, The Netherlands, Italy and across Europe, Canada, America and the world for their understanding, for giving me the right to live and to be who I am and who I want to be.

I do not want to say any more than this at the moment and I do not want the media to contact me because I would like to protect my life, my safety and my security. I just want to say thank you.

Mehdi

Disgraceful sexual persecution

Independent Editorial

It is good news that Mehdi Kazemi, who faces the death penalty in Iran merely for being gay, has finally been granted asylum in the UK. But the news is not good enough. Mr Kazemi came to London to study in 2005, but the following year learned that his former boyfriend had been executed for sodomy – and that before he was hanged, he named Mr Kazemi as his partner. Then began his long struggle to find sanctuary.

His application for asylum was rejected by the UK on the grounds that, while it was conceded that Iran executes homosexuals, there was no "systematic" repression of gay men and lesbians.
But when Mr Kazemi fled to the Netherlands to seek asylum there, his application was rejected on the same grounds; no one, he was told, was executed "solely" because they were gay; he would be safe in Iran if he was discreet about his sexuality. This was a disgraceful judgment. Homosexuality is illegal in many Muslim countries, but in Iran the punishments for same-sex relations between consenting adults in private are particularly brutal.

On the testimony of "four righteous men", homosexuals are slowly strangled by being hanged in public from cranes in the street. Human rights groups estimate that some 4,000 gay men and lesbians, some as young as the age of 15, have been executed in the past 30 years. Many more have been given beatings, 100 lashes. In Iran no public discussion of homosexuality is allowed, gay groups are banned and any political party that supports gay rights has its candidates removed from the ballot paper. It is true that the regime often adds sodomy to the list of crimes of which it accuses political dissidents but that does not lessen Iran's offence, rather it increases it.

The idea that Britain will be swamped with bogus asylum-seekers from Iran falsely claiming to be gay is risible.

Mehdi Kazemi, and others like him whose only crime is their sexuality, should not be forced to depend upon individual acts of compassion by the Home Secretary. This country needs something more systematic. That should begin with a moratorium on the deportation of asylum-seekers to Iran.

This is one aspect of asylum policy which does not need prevarication posing as a government review.

Action should be taken immediately to declare that those fleeing Iran, and certain other countries, on grounds of sexual persecution will not be forced to return to their homelands. Not to do so would be tantamount to Britain endorsing state-sanctioned murder on grounds of sexuality. The Government should announce a change in the application of the rules at once.

Seeking sanctuary from persecution

by Caroline Lucas MEP

Today has consisted of a series of seemingly endless meetings in Strasbourg, on issues such as environmental law and waste in the EU. I’ve ended the day on a high though, by giving an interview on BBC Southern Counties Radio about the decision by the government to save the gay Iranian man Mehdi Kazemi from deportation.

Kazemi came to the UK in 2005 to study in Brighton in the first instance and intended to return to Iran, before discovering the threat to his life after his former parnter was hanged. There had been an overwhelming consensus in the European Parliament for resolution B6-0111/2008 in March which expressed ’serious concern’ over the fate of Kazemi, recognising that Iran regularly detains, tortures and executes people on the basis of their sexuality. The case was even taken up by the House of Lords, where 60 members signed a letter to Jacqui Smith.

Homosexual acts have been considered a capital crime in Iran since the 1979 revolution that brought the Ayatollah Khomeini to power, and during a speech at Columbia University in September 2007, Prime Minister Ahmadinejad made the frankly tragic and even amusing claim that "in Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country".

It’s worth remembering that the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), and in particular to Article 3 thereof, prohibits the removal, expulsion or extradition of persons to countries where there is a serious risk that they would be subjected to the death penalty, torture or other inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. So I hope this case sets a new precedent for people like Pegah Emambakhsh, an Iranian lesbian, whose future in the UK is yet to be decided.

COMMENT: A crack in the UK's asylum edifice

PinkNews

By Paul Canning • May 22, 2008 - 12:58

It's very hard for most British gay men and lesbians to imagine what it's like to grow up in a country like Iran.

To fear what you are and to have to act with care 24 hours a day, lest your family finds out and perhaps takes your life in a so-called 'honour killing,' or the state discovers you and tortures you.

So trying to understand the sheer torture of your boyfriend being discovered and executed, seeking safety from what you know is your certain, similar fate, in what you'd always thought was the 'civilised' West - and being disbelieved and rejected - is beyond most of us.

Imagine how much harder this would be when you are still a teenager. Most of us couldn't begin to.

But this has been the life experience of Mehdi Kazemi, still only 19 years old.

We all know the story - PinkNews.co.uk has been one of the few news outlets which has been keeping us informed of the case's twists and turns.

But there are many other 'cases' who have already been kicked out of Britain to unknown fates, who have committed suicide rather than be sent 'home' or shiver in fear today because this 'civilised' country leaves them 'hanging' for years before they learn their final fate.

In Holland their policy is to automatically grant 'leave to remain' to LGBT asylum seekers.

If they commit no crimes, after five years they can claim Dutch nationality.

Sweden has something similar — many other countries, including the United States, treat LGBT asylum seekers better than the UK.

For the UK, 'leave to remain' - what Mehdi has - doesn't necessarily mean that people can stay permanently.

As gay rights activist Peter Tatchell told CNN: At the end of five years [Mehdi] will have to go through the whole appeal process again."

The Dutch Liberal MP Boris van der Ham, who led parliamentary efforts to secure asylum in that country for Mehdi, made a point of finding out just how many gay people are 'flooding' into Holland under their policy.

He did this because the debate there, echoing what some say in the UK, had included that familiar right-wing claim: 'we'll be flooded'.

Six LGBT asylum seekers are expected over the next year and 38 to 40 in total since 2006.

In the UK the ukgayasylum group has about 25 people currently on its books.

These are tiny numbers and both the Dutch and Swedish experience proves that adopting a civilised policy doesn't result in so-called 'flooding'.

But it is clear from my information through back channels that the Home Office has dug in its heels, remains extremely keen to 'not set a precedent' and is influenced by such reactionary ideas.

In a statement issued to CNN the Home Office said:

"We keep cases under review where circumstances have changed and it has been decided that Mr. Kazemi should be granted leave to remain in the UK based on the particular facts of this case."

The truth is that the only circumstance which has changed is the publicity and that cannot be the actual reason otherwise many others, like the gay Syrian JoJo Yakob, who The Scotsman is backing, cannot be kicked out.

The normal sort of statement is such cases is one like this from another gay Iranian's case (my emphasis):

"On the evidence we find the appellant can reasonably be expected to tolerate the position on any return … For the reasons given the appellant's appeal remains dismissed."

This reflects the attitude shamelessly outlined by Home Office Minister Lord Spithead in the Lords at the height of the interest in Mehdi's case:

"We are not aware of any individual who has been executed in Iran in recent years solely on the grounds of homosexuality, and we do not consider that there is systematic persecution of gay men in Iran."

As the Mehdi campaign dragged on, as The Independent newspaper gave it front page coverage, as numerous Labour and other Members of Parliament lobbied, as the European Parliament passed a resolution, as US networks carried it on their evening news, the fear that he would indeed be deported regardless was very real. They have done it before.

As gayasylumuk's Omar Kuddas explains:

"He was almost deported at Christmas. They came for him at precisely the time when they thought it would be hardest to get lawyers and others out to defend him. This is how the Home Office behaves."

There have been others before Mehdi.

Last year the Italian Prime Minister contacted Gordon Brown to argue the case for Iranian lesbian Pegah Emambakash - all to no avail as she slipped from news coverage and is now on her last legal legs to save herself from deportation back to Tehran.

JoJo Yakob in Scotland has just suffered through the blatant homophobia of the Home Office on display at a tribunal and will only be safe if a judge is sympathetic and rejects that homophobic policy and practice for which Jacqui Smith and, ultimately, Gordon Brown are responsible.

is one of the many unsung heroes - gay and straight and from many countries - who have helped save Mehdi.

As you read the many claims of responsibility for 'Jacqui's u-turn' from politicians and some showboating organisations over the next few days bear that in mind.

The only reason that the government shifted in Mehdi's case was because it was all getting just too embarrassing for Gordon Brown.

Him, not Smith. And they hope that by granting leave to remain just to Mehdi, and by twisting their 'rules' in order to do it, that we'll all shut up.

They don't want a policy change and there is no doubt in my mind that the real reason is because they fear the Daily Mail and other agenda-setters and their 'hardline' against asylum seekers more than they fear a backlash from us, the LGBT community.

Tony Blair and David Blunkett set the 'quotas to fill' ball rolling, and Jacqui Smith is the latest to be carrying it through and damn the consequences.

They present one face to us citizens and another face - 'discretion' and blatant homophobia - to persecuted foreign LGBT who dare to claim asylum.

Worse, another government department - the Foreign Office - is out there preaching to other countries about human rights, including LGBT rights. The hypocrisy couldn't smell any stronger.

What I think has been their major political miscalculation is precisely their perception of the attitude of Middle England.

When publicity about Mehdi was at it's height you had to search for hardline opinion saying 'throw him out anyway' and even those saying this had a guilty tinge to their tone.

Comments left with the Daily Mail and - yes - even those of The Sun's readers recognised this country's historic attitude to accepting genuinely persecuted people as refugees - it goes back centuries, it's part of who we are.

It was clear from reading those comments, and many of those on the 7,000 strong petition, that ordinary British people well understood this and accepted that this meant accepting persecuted gays and lesbians from countries like Iran.

It was also clear from the horrified overseas media coverage - 'this is Britain!?'

But this political miscalculation only seriously holds true if, now he has 'asylum', Mehdi's case isn't seen as a one-off and, particularly, if gays and lesbians hold Labour to account for their unchanged homophobic policies towards these members of our community. I fear we won't. So prove me wrong.

For us, I think the government's attitude to the pitifully few LGBT asylum seekers we have in Britain shows them up as hypocrites over LGBT rights.

I honestly think that they think these people are so powerless, that their cases so rarely provoke protest and news coverage, they can safely ignore protest; that they will not face any consequences.

They just don't expect a voter backlash.

For us, I think we need to be collectively saying 'enough is enough' to Labour on LGBT asylum seekers and behave as one community.

I, for one, could not be happier for Mehdi but I am not 'grateful' to Jacqui Smith or her boss for this crack in the asylum edifice.

It will take a lot to get me voting Labour again (after a lifetime of support) precisely because of how I have seen how they treat these weakest members of our community.

I hope you feel the same and I hope you tell Labour why you feel it. Until they change their shameful policy on LGBT asylum seekers they don't deserve anyone's vote.

Paul Canning has been an gay activist in two continents for more years than he cares to remember. He is the webmaster for http://madikazemi.blogspot.com.

News reports updates

Links to news items repeating the press statements republished elsewhere on this site will be added here.

• PinkNews, 20 May
  Praise for Home Secretary as Mehdi Kazemi granted asylum in UK
• BBC, 20 May
  Gay Iranian granted asylum in UK
• International Herald Tribune, 20 May
  UK Home Office says gay Iranian teenager will not be deported
  
• Fox, 20 May
  U.K. Will Not Deport Gay Iranian Teen After Lover Was Hanged
• Associated Press Wire, 20 May
  Gay Iranian teen wins right to asylum in Britain
  
• Times, May 21
  News in brief: Gay Iranian wins plea
• Independent, May 21
  Gay student who faced execution in Iran granted asylum in Britain
• Daily Telegraph, May 21
  Gay Iranian teenager wins right to stay in UK
• Agence France Press (AFP), May 21
  Gay Iranian wins deportation battle in Britain
• Sky News, May 21
  Gay Iranian Student Saved

Statement by Dutch MP Boris van der Ham

(Boris led Dutch parliamentary efforts to grant Mehdi asylum in that country)

Homoseksuele Iranese asielzoeker krijgt toch verblijfsvergunning

158033349_4_m0As.jpg De 19-jarige Iranese homoseksuele asielzoeker Mehdi Kazemi krijgt in Groot-Brittannië een verblijfsvergunning. Dit heeft het Britse Home Office vandaag besloten. De jongen vroeg al eerder asiel aan in Groot-Brittannië maar toen uitzetting dreigde naar Iran, kwam hij naar Nederland vanwege de hier geldende bescherming voor homo's uit Iran. D66-Kamerlid Boris van der Ham is erg verheugd over het feit dat Groot-Brittannië nu toch gevolg geeft aan ons pleidooi

Nederland stuurde de asielzoeker terug naar Groot-Britannië onder voorwaarden dat hij niet teruggestuurd zou worden naar Iran. Dat werd besloten tijdens het door D66-Kamerlid Boris van der Ham aangevraagde spoeddebat. In Iran loopt de jongen kans ter dood veroordeeld te worden.

Google translation from the Dutch

Homosexual Iranian asylum seeker will still permit

The 19-year-old gay Iranian asylum seeker Mehdi Kazemi in Britain gets a residence permit. This has the British Home Office decided today. The boy asked earlier sought asylum in Britain but when threatened expulsion to Iran, he came to Canada because the force here for protection from Iran's gay. D66-Boris van der Ham House is very pleased about the fact that Britain now gives effect to our plea

Netherlands sent the applicant back to Great Britain under conditions that he would not be returned to Iran. This was decided during the House by D66-Boris van der Ham requested urgent. In Iran, the boy likely to be sentenced to death.

Simon Hughes statement

'DECISION THAT MEHDI KAREMI CAN STAY - 'GREAT NEWS FOR A VERY DECENT GUY'- SIMON HUGHES

5.17.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 20th May 2008

Responding to this week's decision that the young gay Iranian Mehdi Kazemi has been granted leave to remain in the UK, Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat MP for North Southwark and Bermondsey who led the argument for Mehdi to be given asylum said today:

"Like Mehdi and his family in Britain, I am delighted by the Home Office decision that my constituent Mehdi Kazemi can now stay in this country and will not be sent back to Iran.

"This is great news for a very decent guy.

"As I have argued over the last eighteen months, the Home Office should not send gay and lesbian people back to countries where they will be at risk of persecution, torture or worse.

" We are already at work planning the next phase of Mehdi's life in the UK. Mehdi now wants to finish his studies and then plans to work. I have no doubt Mehdi will make a very positive contribution to this country and society at large. "

Note for editors: Mehdi has been granted leave to remain for 5 years.

CNN: Britain grants asylum to gay Iranian student

From CNN's Alphonso Van Marsh

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain has granted asylum to Mehdi Kazemi, a gay Iranian student who faced deportation from the United Kingdom and feared execution in Iran for being homosexual, officials confirmed Tuesday.

Mehdi Kazemi feared persecution if he had to return to Iran.

"We keep cases under review where circumstances have changed and it has been decided that Mr. Kazemi should be granted leave to remain in the UK based on the particular facts of this case," Britain's Home Office said in a written statement quoting an unnamed UK Border Agency spokesman.

Kazemi's uncle, known as "Saeed," says his teenage nephew received an "unconditional" letter of asylum from the Home Office on Monday.

Kazemi, 19, moved to London to study English in 2004 but later discovered that his boyfriend had been arrested by Iranian police, charged with sodomy and hanged.

Fearing the same fate, he applied for asylum in Britain but was denied in 2007.

The office of Simon Hughes, the member of parliament who took up Kazemi's cause, said the Home Office has granted Kazemi leave for five years.

"Like Mehdi and his family in Britain, I am delighted by the Home Office decision that my constituent, Mehdi Kazemi, can now stay in this country and will not be sent back to Iran," Hughes said in a written statement.

"As I have argued over the last 18 months, the Home Office should not send gay and lesbian people back to countries where they will be at risk of persecution, torture or worse," he said.

Hughes was expected to meet with Kazemi late Tuesday.

Peter Tatchell, of the London-based gay rights activist group OutRage, said the decision "is a victory of sorts in that Mehdi has gotten only a temporary leave to remain. At the end of five years he will have to go through the whole appeal process again."

He added: "Mehdi wouldn't have got leave to remain if there hadn't been massive publicity to his case. There are many other gay and lesbian Iranian asylum seekers that are scheduled for deportation to Iran."

Human Rights Watch adds Home Office to 'Hall of Shame'

Homophobia Threatens Lives and Families

International Day Against Homophobia Highlights Dangers of Bias

(New York, May 16, 2008) – The president of Poland, the leader of Uganda, and the UK Home Office are making prejudicial policies and public statements that deny people’s dignity and endanger their lives, Human Rights Watch said today in its annual “Hall of Shame” to mark the International Day Against Homophobia.

On May 17, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) groups in dozens of countries will commemorate the International Day Against Homophobia, an initiative launched in 2005 that commemorates the day in 1990 when the World Health Organization removed homosexuality from its roster of disorders.

“Homophobia allows political leaders to smear loving relationships, smash the doors of houses, and slam the doors of a safe haven that should welcome refugees,” said Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. “Where prejudice trumps privacy and intolerance stifles intimacy, no one’s rights are safe and no one’s place is secure.”

Inductees to the "Hall of Shame"

Human Rights Watch named three leaders to the “Hall of Shame” for their actions in the past year in endangering LGBT people’s dignity, families, and safety:

President Lech Kaczynski of Poland: for denying people respect for their family. Kaczynski and his allies – including his brother, the former prime minister – have campaigned for years to deny basic rights to Poland’s LGBT people. In March 2008, in a nationally televised speech, Kaczynski railed against ratifying the European Union Reform Treaty, which would adopt the European Charter of Fundamental Rights. He claimed that provisions in the charter prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation would force legal recognition of same-sex relationships. He used film clips of the Canadian marriage ceremony of the US couple Brendan Fay and Thomas Moulton to warn of the “dangers” of legalizing same-sex marriage.

Fay and Moulton spoke out against how the president exploited their relationship. Eventually, they visited Poland to send a message that their marriage was a promise and affirmation, not a threat to others. Kaczynski is only one among many public figures worldwide who attack LGBT people’s families for political ends. In Guatemala in 2007, Congress debated a bill to eliminate single-parent or other non-nuclear families from the definition of “family,” and bar same-sex couples from any form of legal recognition. A proposed measure in Romania would define heterosexual marriage as the basis of the family, depriving many Romanian families of basic civil rights. In the name of protecting a particular model of the family, such measures deny innumerable families desperately needed protections.

President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda: for denying people privacy and security. In August 2007, after a coalition of LGBT organizations in Uganda launched a campaign called “Let Us Live in Peace,” the government showed it had no intention of doing so. Ethics and Integrity Minister James Nsaba Buturo publicly called homosexuality “unnatural”; while dismissing claims that police harassed LGBT people, he warned, “We know them, we have details of who they are.” The deputy attorney general called for the arrest of gays and lesbians, “because homosexuality is an offense under the laws of Uganda.”

LGBT Ugandans have faced official harassment for years. In 2005, authorities raided the home of human rights defender Juliet Victor Mukasa and forced her into hiding. Government officials have censored media discussions of homosexuality and threatened to respond to any advocacy for LGBT rights with prison terms.

A colonial-era sodomy law in Uganda punishes homosexual conduct with life imprisonment. Worldwide, over 85 countries criminalize consensual homosexual conduct. Such laws give governments like Uganda’s a pretext to invade people’s private lives and deny them an essential right: to live in peace.

Home Office, United Kingdom: for denying people protection. People fleeing countries where they face abuses based on sexual orientation and gender identity often face asylum systems that fail to recognize the reality of their persecution, despite clear legal obligations not to deport individuals to countries where they are at risk of torture and abuse. The recent ordeal of the Iranian asylum-seeker Mehdi Kazemi, who in 2007 faced deportation from the United Kingdom to Iran – despite laws imposing torture and the death penalty for homosexual conduct in Iran – points to how the UK Home Office is failing to implement its human rights responsibilities. In 2008, Lord West of Spithead, Home Office minister in the UK House of Lords, said: “We are not aware of any individual who has been executed in Iran in recent years solely on the grounds of homosexuality, and we do not consider that there is systematic persecution of gay men in Iran.”

“An asylum system where only the dead are found deserving is an asylum system that does not work,” said Long. “Human rights law demands that those who face persecution be given protection, but persecution does not require corpses to prove it.”

Human rights law forbids deporting people – including LGBT people – to places where they risk torture and serious abuse.

Recent Progress in LGBT Rights

Human Rights Watch has also pointed to three areas where advances in human rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people have given reason for hope.

• In Colombia, the nation’s Constitutional Court has handed down landmark decisions protecting LGBT people’s rights in the sphere of relationship and family. It extended health care benefits and pension benefits to same-sex partners on a basis equal to those enjoyed in heterosexual relationships, and condemned the lack of legal protection for same-sex relationships. The decisions cited human dignity, personal autonomy, and equality as the core principles behind these decisions. The court has shown leadership to the country’s Congress, which has debated at least six legislative initiatives to protect LGBT people’s families in the last decade, without enacting any of them into law.


• In Ireland, the High Court finally ended a transgender woman’s 10-year legal struggle for state recognition, by ruling that the government had to grant her identity papers corresponding to the gender she lived in. The decision marked the first time that the High Court had ever found an Irish law incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. The “Yogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Law in Relation to Issues of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity,” which spell out international legal standards for protecting against violence and discrimination, state that: “Each person’s self-defined sexual orientation and gender identity is integral to their personality and is one of the most basic aspects of self-determination, dignity and freedom.”


• In Nepal, after years of civil war accompanied by violence targeting lesbians, gays, and transgender people, the Supreme Court on December 17, 2007, mandated legal and constitutional protections for sexual orientation and gender identity. The landmark decision requires that LGBT people’s human rights be addressed in the process of reconciliation and reform, and may make Nepal a regional leader in addressing discrimination.

“In each of these cases, dedicated judges have upheld rights and the rule of law in the face of prejudice,” said Long. “Their commitment to principle should be an example to political leaders.”

Mehdi granted 'leave to remain'

I am just waiting on confirmation for this but I have just heard second-hand that Mehdi has been granted asylum. More detail when I get it.

2.30pm: It's confirmed, Mehdi told the ukgaynews website that he had received a letter from the Home Office today to say his asylum request had been granted.

“I am so happy,” he said, adding that he was grateful to all the help he had been given, especially by Simon Hughes MP.

A statement will be issued tomorrow.

6.30pm: CNN reporting soon that Mehdi has been granted 'leave to remain' for five years. This is standard Home Office practice and is not the same as 'asylum'.

Further updates will be added as new posts.

Home Office homophobia on asylum

Anti-gay bias exposed
Five reforms to ensure justice for LGBT refugees
International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO)

London - 19 May 2008

by Peter Tatchell

“Britain’s asylum system is homophobic. The Home Office is refusing asylum to genuine lesbian and gay refugees and sending them back to countries where they are at risk of arrest, imprisonment, torture and even execution,” said Peter Tatchell of the gay human rights group OutRage!

“The government seems more interested in cutting asylum numbers than in ensuring a fair, just and compassionate asylum system. It is failing gay refugees who have fled savage persecution, including death squads, vigilante attacks and attempted so-called honour killings,” he said.
He was speaking at Amnesty International headquarters on Friday 16 May 2008, at an event celebrating the worldwide International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO), which was jointly hosted by Amnesty International and the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association.

Here is the text of Peter Tatchell’s speech, followed by examples of lesbian and gay asylum claimants who have suffered homophobic mistreatment by the Home Office:

“Since 1999, the Labour government has repealed most of Britain’s anti-gay laws and introduced new legislation to recognise same-sex partnerships and protect gay people against discrimination.

“These positive gay rights measures are being undermined by Labour’s failure to tackle the homophobic and transphobic bias of the asylum system.

“We need urgent government action to implement five key policy changes to ensure a fair hearing for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) asylum applicants:

“First, all asylum staff and adjudicators should receive sexual orientation and transgender awareness training. They currently receive race and gender training but no training at all on sexual orientation and gender identity issues. As a result, they often make stereotyped assumptions: that a feminine woman can’t be a lesbian or that a masculine man cannot be gay. They sometimes rule that someone who has been married must be faking their homosexuality.
”Second, the government should issue explicit instructions to all immigration and asylum staff, and to all asylum judges, that homophobic and transphobic persecution are legitimate grounds for granting asylum. The government has never done this, which signals to asylum staff and judges that claims by LGBT people are not as worthy as those based on persecution because of a person’s ethnicity, gender, politics or faith.

”Third, the official Home Office country information reports - on which judges often rely when ruling on asylum applications - must be upgraded and expanded to reflect the true scale of anti-LGBT persecution. At the moment, the government’s documentation of anti-gay and anti-transgender persecution in individual countries is often partial, inaccurate and misleading. It consistently downplays the severity of victimisation suffered by LGBT people in violently homophobic countries like Pakistan, Uganda, Egypt, Nigeria, Iran, Cameroon, Iraq, Zimbabwe, Palestine and Saudi Arabia.

”Fourth, legal aid funding for asylum claims needs to be substantially increased. Existing funding levels are woefully inadequate. This means that most asylum applicants - gay and straight - are unable to prepare an adequate submission at their asylum hearing. Their solicitors don’t get paid enough to procure the necessary witness statements, medical reports and other vital corroborative evidence.

“Fifth, the Home Office needs to issue official instructions to asylum detention centre staff that they have a duty to stamp out anti-gay and anti-trans abuse, threats and violence. Many LGBT detainees report suffering homophobic victimisation, and say they fail to receive adequate protection and support from detention centre staff. These shortcomings need to be remedied by LGBT awareness training to ensure that detention centre staff take action against homophobic and transphobic perpetrators, and that they are committed to protect LGBT detainees who are being victimised.

“Labour’s claim to be a LGBT-friendly government rings hollow when it continues to fail genuine LGBT refugees. We must insist on an asylum system that is fair, just and compassionate – for LGBT refugees and for all refugees,” said Mr Tatchell.

Sample case histories of how the asylum system fails genuine LGBT refugees:

• Two years ago, Thando Dube embarked on a 33-day hunger strike in protest at being held in detention for six months. She was not a political dissident held by a brutal regime. She was a regular civilian who was incarcerated in a British asylum detention centre. Her crime? Thando is a lesbian who fled to the UK to escape the well-known persecution of LGBT people in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.
• At least two gay Iranian asylum seekers have committed suicide in UK in the last five years, after being ordered by the Home Office to return to Iran. Israfil Shiri, aged 29, burned himself alive. Hussein Nasseri shot himself in the head. Both chose suicide rather than suffer deportation and probable execution by Iran’s ayatollahs.
• The Home Office insists that Jamaica is a “safe” country. Many LGBT Jamaican asylum applications are rejected, despite evidence from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch that anti-gay attacks are widespread. In the Home Office’s view, gay Jamaicans can seek police protection. But the reality is, according to Amnesty, that “protection is often denied by the police, who in many cases appear to tacitly or actively support such violence.”
• Isaac K, aged 17, fled to Britain from Uganda after he was caught with his boyfriend. A mob, which included local officials, tried to kill him. According to the Home Office, what happened to Isaac does not constitute persecution and therefore he does not qualify for asylum.
• The Home Office likewise denies the abuse of gay men in Algeria. RK was jailed for homosexuality. In prison, he was raped and beaten by inmates and guards. His teeth were knocked out and he suffers from severe post-traumatic stress disorder. The Home Office insists that it is safe for RK to return to Algeria.
• Many LGBT victims are forcibly - even violently - deported back to their homophobic home countries. This happened to gay Jamaican, EB. He alleges violent beatings by Home Office-contracted security guards who forced him onto the plane. When he arrived in Kingston, his family say that he could barely walk.

These abuses are happening under a Labour government - a government that claims to support LGBT human rights.

Green MEP Demands Better Treatment for Gay Men and Women Seeking Asylum

From UkGayNews

Gay men and women seeking asylum in the United Kingdom face detention and having to deal with homophobia not only from other inmates, but even from those who are paid to detain them, a Member of the European Parliament said on Saturday.

Speaking at an IDAHO rally, Dr. Caroline Lucas, the Green Party MEP for South East England, demanded that the British government makes homophobia and transphobia absolute grounds for asylum.

“It’s truly shocking to recall that it’s only 18 years since the World Health Organisation removed
“homosexuality” from the list of so called mental disorders… but that is the anniversary we are marking here in Brighton today,” she told the 200 or so who braved the rain in the seafront..

“There has been progress. But there remain 77 countries around the world where homosexual acts are still a criminal offence and seven countries where the punishment is execution.

“We condemn this as a direct affront to international human rights law, we demand that our government and the EU stop turning a blind eye to these atrocities, and we demand that they work to help to end them.”

“The theme for this year IDAHO event is ‘women’ – which gives us the opportunity to reflect on the compound discrimination faced by LGBT women: as women stereotyped by a sexist society, then by being lesbian in a homophobic society, often isolated within the wider LGBT community,” she continued.

“Take the example of Pegah Emambakhsh, a lesbian, who Gordon Brown is trying to deport back to Iran, where he knows she faces torture and probably stoning to death for her sexual orientation.

“Can we even begin to imagine what Pegah is going through as she continues to fight to prevent herself being sent back to certain persecution?

LGBT ssylum seekers in this country face detention having to deal with homophobia not only from other inmates, but even from those who are paid to detain them.

“Those who assess their claims may have no understanding of homophobia, and be completely unable to understand the real dimensions of the persecution they face.”

Dr. Lucas said on International Day Against Homophobia that out a clear message has to be sent to the government.

“Our message is this: that neither homophobia, transphobia, nor any other kind of prejudice, have any place in society today.”

Turning to Europe, she said that pressure has to be maintained on all EU Governments to respect the human rights of all their citizens, in keeping with the European Convention on Human Rights.

“This impacts on anyone in the UK exercising their right to work and travel in the EU, like those from Brighton who travelled to Riga Pride in Latvia last year in order to ensure that Riga Pride 2007 went ahead.

“Only a week ago, the police in Moldova stood by organised thugs [who] threatened violence against LGBT people who tried and sadly failed to hold a Pride Parade.

“This is a country seeking membership of the EU, which isn’t even adhering to the most basic human rights.

“It is, sadly, no surprise that some of the world’s most oppressive regimes, like those in Iran, China, continue to harass, abuse and discriminate against their citizens on the basis of their sexuality but that our government here in the UK isn’t challenging this daily is totally unacceptable.

“How can Britain send an effective message that homophobic discrimination against LGBT people is unacceptable if the same British Government is forcing LGBT asylum seekers back to countries which they know retain execution and torture for LGBT people.

“It’s true, of course, that there have been improvements here in the UK, thanks to the work and struggle of LGBT people themselves but hard-won battles can be over-turned – and we cannot forget that the new Tory Mayor of London has called gay marriages a 'ludicrous parody of the real thing'.

“It’s time for a renewed campaign to persuade our government to take human rights seriously – and to make stamping out all forms of discrimination a bedrock of British foreign policy.

“To that end, I will be writing to foreign secretary David Milliband with practical suggestions of how we can support Pride events across Europe.

“I am delighted to be able to mark another IDAHO here in Brighton, and to celebrate diversity with one of the most vibrant and diverse LGBT communities in the world,” she concluded.

Union Congress lays wreath at Iranian embassy

Unions mark International Day Against Homophobia

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the Communication Workers Union (CWU) will mark International Day Against Homophobia today (Saturday) by laying a wreath outside the Iranian Embassy in London at 11am to commemorate the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people who have been killed by the Iranian regime.

There are 77 countries in the world today where it is a criminal offence to be gay. In seven countries – including Iran – women, men and children are punished for their sexuality with death sentences.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “While unions have campaigned for equal rights for LGBT people with much success in the UK, around the world the situation is far worse. In many countries LGBT people face harassment, intimidation, violence, ostracism, hate crimes and even death, simply because of their sexuality."

“International Day Against Homophobia is an opportunity for unions to highlight the suffering of LGBT people all around the world, and demand that the way they are treated is improved – both in the workplace and in the wider community.”

The TUC is also organising leafleting in Soho, London, and in Birmingham city centre, where entertainment will also be provided. A meeting on LGBT rights in Europe will also be held by the University and College Union (UCU) in Manchester.

A Jihad for Love on release in USA; trailer and interview

A Jihad for Love is the world's first documentary film on the coexistence of Islam and homosexuality. The film is directed by Parvez Sharma, and produced by Parvez Sharma and Trembling Before G-d director Sandi DuBowski.

• US playdates

Trailer



Interview with Parvez Sharma



Parvez Sharma takes on Ajaz Ahmed from Kashmir who compared homosexuality to theft, prostitution and terrorism at the Amnesty International Annual General Meeting, April 25.

Arsham Parsi Proves There Are Gays In Iran

Interview from MobLogic on Blip.tv

Also ...

Gay USA with Ann Northrop and Andy Humm
-- Podcast, requires Quicktime
'This week at the halfway point in the show, we are proud to have as our guest Arsham Parsi, leader of the Iranian Queer Organizatio.'

Award for Iranian Queer Organization

In an April 28 ceremony at Manhattan's Asia Society, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) bestowed its 2008 Felipa De Souza Awards on the Iranian Queer Organization (IRQO) and Chilean trans activist Andrés Ignacio Rivera Duarte.

IRQO at IGLHRC's "Celebration of Courage" (April 28, 08)

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good Evening,

My name is Hossein Alizadeh and I am the communication coordinator at IGLHRC. As a IGLHRC staff member who has worked closely with Iranian Queer Organization (IRQO) over the past two years, and as an Iranian who extremely proud of IRQO’s activities and outreach, it is my honor and pleasure tonight to present the 2008 Felipa de Souza Award to Arsham Parsi, the founder and director of IRQO, who is here with us to represent his organization.

The Iranian Queer Organization is an all volunteer, grassroots organization that started back in 2001 as a listserv by a group of young Iranian gay and lesbian inside Iran. Despite the risk of wiretapping and infiltration by the Iranian morality police, these brave Iranian queers decided to get together and form the virtual support group to empower members of the community who face similar legal, political, and social challenges.

Over the past seven years, despite limited financial resources and constant threats from the Iranian authorities, IRQO has become the voice of thousands of Iranian LGBTIs both inside Iran and overseas.

Today, IRQO offers phone counselling to it members inside Iran, publishes regular articles on homosexuality in Iran, works with other human rights groups and members of the media to document the human rights violation of LGBTIs, and support Iranian refugee and asylum seekers who are forced to leave their country.

For most people working with IRQO, the organization is almost synonymous with Arsham Parsi, the man whose dream of connecting and organizing Iranian queers has been the driving force behind IRQO. Arsham dedicates his entire life to the cause, selflessly working around the clock, and without pay, to ensure that the Iranian queers are not forgotten or ignored.

Last September, in a controversial talk at Colombia University, the Iranian President Dr. Mahmood Ahmadinejad categorically denied the existence of queers in Iran. “In Iran, we don’t have homosexual like in your country” he said.

By being the face of the Iranian queer movement, and by telling the stories of LGBTQI Iranians, Arsham repeatedly proves the Iranian president wrong. Arsham shows the international community, that in spite of many problems, the Iranian queer movement is very much alive and demands equality, dignity, and justice.

Arsham, congratulation to you and the Iranian Queer Organization for this very well-deserved award…

~~~~~

YES, I do exist.

Good evening ladies and gentlemen,

I’m happy to be here tonight in New York to represent the Iranian Queer Organization along with my colleague Ms. Roshan Borhan.

First of all, we would like to sincerely thank IGLHRC for the 2008 Felipa Award.

When Paula Ettelbrick informed me about the Award, I was working on Mehdi Kazemi’s case. Mehdi Kazemi is an Iranian gay man, who had escaped from the United Kingdom after being denied asylum there. He was detained in the Netherlands, and feared being deported back to Iran, where he could face the death penalty for being gay.

Like Mehdi and his friends, I was in low spirits. At such a difficult time, the news of the Award gave warm encouragement to everyone in the organization, and to all Iranian LGBTs.

Seven years ago, the Iranian Queer Organization was only a web-based group in Iran with a handful of members. We survived numerous difficulties and now we are a well-known organization with representatives who speak on panels and at conferences.

Probably one of the organization’s most crucial achievements was bringing the issue of sexual minorities in Iran out of invisibility and into kitchen-table conversations and seminars, under the banner that queer rights are human rights. Today it’s rare to find an article in Persian that fails to mentions queer rights along with women and children’s rights, and the rights of religious and ethnic minorities.

Our organization is registered in Canada.

Due to our scare resources we decided not to have an office and instead to work as volunteers so that we could allocate our entire budget to asylum seekers, providing for their lodging, food, clothes, and health care.

So far organizations such as IGLHRC, Eagle Canada, Rainbow Railroad, Al-Fatiha, and others have helped queer Iranian asylum seekers with their donations. This is a great platform to express our gratitude.

The Board of IRQO has made a decision to spend the $5000 Felipa Award on publications to promote cultural change and fight homophobia. We have identified a great need for books and brochures in Persian. We’re starting a new project to publish a collection of poems written by Iranian queers in Persian and English. Given the overwhelming number of requests from Iranian activists, students, and everyday people who ask for literature on homosexuality in Persian, we’re planning to publish a series of brochures and booklets on sexuality and sexual orientation.

This is another project that needs the help and support of publishers as well as of human rights activists like yourselves.

To close, I just wanted to thank IGLHRC again for the Felipa Award. I hope there will be a day when IRQO will reach such a level of success that no Iranian queer will be discriminated against, tortured, executed, or mocked, and when their rights will be respected by all.

That day will come; we just need to keep on working toward it.

Thank you.

-- Arsham Parsi

Terrified to return

Source: Xtra.ca 

By James Burrell

Time is running out for an HIV-positive gay man who's been denied refugee status. Joaquín Ramirez is scheduled for deportation to El Salvador — where he says he'll face torture and death — on Thu, May 15.

Ramirez, who came to Toronto as a delegate for the International AIDS Conference in August 2006, says he's afraid that if he's sent back he'll face violence at the hands of three federal police officers who he claims beat, raped and robbed him in a sugarcane field more than two years ago. Since the alleged attack Ramirez says the three men have visited his family in El Salvador threatening to kill him because, they claim, he infected at least one of them.

"I am sure that I will be put through torture," says Ramirez through an interpreter, "and I am sure that I will be assassinated if I go back. There have been four men who have come to my sister's home in a car and have parked outside her house. They have asked my little niece if I had come back yet and they have also called my sister and told her that they were going to kill me.

"Even my sister, whom I have been getting support from, now has said that if I go back she regrets that she wouldn't be able to help me," says Ramirez. "She is afraid for herself."

Ramirez's application for refugee status was denied in May 2007. In his decision Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada adjudicator Chimbo Mutuma stated he didn't believe Ramirez left El Salvador because of the alleged attack since he had already planned to attend the AIDS conference several months before it took place. Mutuma also asked why Ramirez did not go to police to report the alleged crime.

"I have always told them that I didn't go to report it to the police because in El Salvador you cannot do it," says 39-year-old Ramirez. "I couldn't go to the police to report the police. I have submitted reports of gay people who have been assassinated there. They have been killed in very barbaric ways such as stones being thrown at them. And I believe that would have happened to me."

Ramirez, who volunteered as a safer-sex outreach worker and AIDS educator in his native country, says he was approached by three officers on Jan 13, 2006 in a restaurant in Aguilares. He says he was driven to a sugarcane field, where the officers allegedly beat him and forced him to have sex with them. He says he told them he was HIV-positive and asked them to use the condoms he had with him, but that they accused him of lying to try to stop them from having sex with them.

"When the story broke most of my family said they would have rather I died... than bring shame upon the family as I had done," says Ramirez, tears welling up in his eyes. "Now they say that everyone knows that I am not only gay but also HIV-positive and that it has brought shame to them."

"I think that he's someone who fell through the cracks of the system," says Ramirez's lawyer Leigh Salsberg. A Toronto-based lawyer who specializes in immigration and refugee protection, Salsberg says her client has several judicial reviews of the decision in motion.

"They've rejected his individual story as not credible, the events he says happened to him," says Salsberg, "but they've known all along that he is gay and has HIV. In my view no one has fully assessed the risk of him just being a gay man in El Salvador where the conditions — just that in and of itself — are dangerous. They're supposed to look at the conditions in that country."

Salsberg says one of the judicial reviews argues Ramirez would not be able to continue his course of HIV meds if he's returned to El Salvador.

"Our evidence says that if he returns back there will be an interruption in treatment and that is obviously very dangerous for someone with HIV," she says.

Since coming to Canada Ramirez has volunteered with the Toronto People with AIDS Foundation, the queer Latio group Hola and the Centre for Spanish Speaking People.

"He has a lot of support and has brought in so many letters of support from people that he's worked with, from community organizations both here and in El Salvador," says Salsberg. "It's all really well-documented, and I think it adds so much credibility to his case, to have that many people rallying around him."

But Ramirez says he isn't holding out much hope. "I always had a conviction that Canada would give me protection but now I think that's not the case. I've already fought a lot to be heard and now I'm disappointed. I'm very sad because every day that goes by is one day less I have. I don't know what to do anymore. I have done everything I could to try and make people believe that I deserve to be here, but I have no more strength left."

Thank you to Samuel E Lopez for providing translation services

Letter from Caroline Lucas supporting Pegah Emambakhsh

NB: this letter from Caroline is from last year - latest on Pegah - but it's a good example of how these sorts of letters are written.

DR. CAROLINE LUCAS

Green Party

for the South East of England

Rt Hon Liam Byrne MP
Minister of State
The Home Office
2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DF

September 12^th 2007

Dear Minister,

Re: Pegah Emambakhsh – H.O ref: B1191057

Pegah Emambakhsh is an Iranian woman who is being held in Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre. If deported to Iran, Pegah faces imprisonment and execution by stoning, due to her sexual orientation.

Pegah escaped from Iran and sought asylum in the UK in 2005, after her partner was arrested, tortured and subsequently sentenced to death by stoning. Her father was also arrested, interrogated and tortured for information about her whereabouts.

The UK Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) rejected Pegah’s claim for asylum and her appeal against the decision has failed. Pegah was arrested and taken to Yarls Wood Immigration Centre in Bedfordshire, where, as far as I am aware, she is still being held. However, Pegah has recently received the offer of asylum in Italy.

It was a grave miscarriage of justice and contravention of human rights that her appeal for asylum was rejected by the UK in 2005. Despite her traumatic past experiences, Pegah has been an active and respected member of the community in Sheffield, volunteering for a refugee-support organisation.

After her plight received wide media coverage in Italy, Pegah’s case has now been taken up by the Italian government, and she has been offered asylum in the city of Venice. The Mayor of Venice, Massimo Cacciari, has stated that the city “places a secure living facility at the woman’s disposal”.

I, therefore, strongly urge you to ensure that Pegah is not deported to Iran where there is little doubt she would persecuted in an extreme manner, and possibly stoned to death. Pegah is at even greater risk of persecution now that she has received visible media attention. I would strongly urge you to ensure that, if the UK is unwilling to review its position, Pegah is permitted to go to Italy, where she can live in safety and be reunited with her children.

Yours sincerely,

Caroline Lucas – Green Party MEP for South East England.

The dilemma of choosing between being a gay man and a Muslim

Speech by Arsham Parsi of the Iranian Queer Organization, IRQO, at the Equality Forum in Philadelphia (May 1st, 08)

Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen,

It's my pleasure and honour to represent the Iranian Queer Organization and its members on this panel along with my colleague Roshan Boran. Before anything, I would like to thank our generous sponsors, among them Justin Weaver and Jeff Woloson, whose financial support made it possible for us to participate in this panel.

The dilemma of choosing between being a gay man and a Muslim is a personal one for me, since like most of my friends, my identity is formed by two important factors: Islam and homosexuality. For some of us, as queer Muslims, Islam is a divine religion that inspires, and sometimes even dictates the way we live; for others it is simply a cultural foundation that establishes our language, history and social interactions. Regardless of our personal devotion to Islam, every one of us still has to find a way to make peace both with our sexuality and the Islamic dimension of our existence.

Personally, as a Muslim gay man, it is painful for me to see how my fellow Muslims deny and condemn the existence of homosexuality within Islam, and refuse to accept me as a member of their community. It is equally discomforting for me to see how some Western queer activists viciously attack Islam and its perceived intolerance of sexual minorities, not realizing that often it is us, the queer Muslims, who are at the receiving end of these harsh criticisms.

Since I was born queer and was raised a Muslim, through no choice of my own, it is neither desirable nor possible for me to disregard one aspect of my identity to protect the other. The truth is that I belong to both communities: the global queer village and Muslim society.

This dilemma is one shared by many Muslim LGBT people, including a significant number of Iranian queers. As long as they are within their communities, they have to hide their true sexual orientation out of fear for their lives. But once out of their communities and often within Western societies, queer Muslims have to confront endless attacks from the Islamophobic camp. The sad reality is that for most Islamophobes, the only version of Islam is the one promoted by fundamentalist regimes such as Saudi Arabia and Iran. The fact that many Muslims resist these fundamentalist readings of their faith, and are more sympathetic towards issues such as the rights of women, religious minorities, and queers, is never acknowledged or appreciated.

After all, Islamophobia is a hate-based ideology similar to homophobia that disregards the complexity and diversity of human communities, trying instead to portray a shocking caricature by highlighting the most outrageous and often controversial elements.

At the same time I should note though that the experiences of all those Muslim queers who suffer routinely from fundamentalist Islamic laws and practices cannot and should not be denied or overlooked. Apologetic discourses are as counterproductive and dangerous as Islamophobic ones, for they also avoid addressing the real challenges that Muslim queers have to encounter in negotiating their identity. Muslim queers, like all other humans, share the same needs, fears, and desires. As such, their real life experiences must be the starting point for a holistic and objective examination of their challenges.

I sincerely hope our discussion today leads us toward a more sophisticated and multi-layered analysis of queer Muslims' lives. In conclusion, I would like to thank Equality Forum for inviting IRQO to participate in this panel.

Equality Forum Discusses Queer Muslim Issues

May 6, '08 - From Trenton, New Jersey

Last Week Philadelphia, the city known as both "The Cradle of Liberty" and "The City Of Brotherly love" lived up to both titles by again hosting the huge Equality Forum series of events - a series that included panel discussions on a range of queer issues, a showing of "Jihad For Love", art exhibits, parties, a street fair and appearances by LGBT leaders such as Representative Barney Frank. This year's theme was Gays & Lesbians In The Muslim World.

Among the many aspects of this topic, one issue that was discussed from time to time was whether the assumption of Western activists that our paradigm of liberation should be universal can translate into the the traditionalist societies of Muslim and Third World nations.

It sometimes comes a a shock to committed Western activists to learn that our concept of liberation may not be viewed as desirable or even possible by all gays and lesbians in non-western societies. Do the queers of Tehran, for example, actually want the right to parade down the street in drag or leather or thongs in the same way New York queers do in the annual Pride Parade? It may be unthinkable in Tehran now but it was unthinkable in New York as well, within still-living memory. That's an extreme example but it illustrates the question - which is "is there an absolute right way toward and interpretation of queer liberation, a way that is universally applicable?" After even a moment's thought, most people will probably agree that there is not, knowing after all that there is very little that can be said to be universally applicable when it comes to any activist or moral issue. On the other hand, where then is the line to be drawn when cultures conflict? An excellent historical example is the British suppression of Thuggee in India. As a rule, The British Empire took pains to avoid interference in the religious practices of it's citizens. However, a religion based on murdering strangers by the roadside was simply over the line. The ancient nature of the religion or the facts of its cultural context in no way justified ignoring its murderous nature. The Brits put a stop to it without a moment's hesitation, hanging every Thug they could lay hands on.

A good contemporary example would be the practice of involuntary female circumcision in certain African societies. I have no hesitation in saying this is absolutely barbaric, immoral, not to be tolerated and without justification. Those who argue otherwise are wrong - period. The practice should be criminalized and vigorously suppressed. I couldn't care less how ancient a part of the cultures in question this is.

So then - from these extreme examples, we see that we agree to respect SOME aspects of other cultures while fighting tooth and nail to change or suppress other aspects. Where is the line to be drawn? Surely the torture and execution of LGBT people is absolutely unacceptable. But from that starting point, how far do we go in assuming western ideas of liberation are exportable? Equality Forum put this question on the table for discussion and it is one that activists will have to contemplate and debate.

NB: Equality Forum advises "Our Conversation with Barney Frank ended up being replaced by a Conversation with Judy Shepard on the 10th anniversary of her gay son Matthew’s murder."