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| PGLL @ Pride 2010 |
Persian Gay and Lesbian Liberators is proud to announce that we will again be at this year's Gay and Lesbian pride in London on Saturday 2 July, raising awareness for LGBTs for those whom are living in such homophobic disasters as Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Iran, and Pakistan.
- time to meet :12 noon
- place: Piccadilly circuses
- For more information please contact pgll2010@aol.com.(Maani)
We assist LGBT Asylum seekers and Refugees who are native Persian speakers such as Afghans, Tajiks and Iranians in the UK.
Help we have given includes:
- Receiving Legal requirement, e.g finding convenient lawyer or Solicitors.
- Assisting with Education e.g finding suitable or local College or school for studying English and learn the English language.
- Assisting with communication such as contact with their designated organisation e.g Home Office, National Asylum Support service (NASS), Asylum Registration card (ARC).
- Assisting with filling necessary forms such as Housing, Hospital, Home office, Job centre, Educational etc.
- Health: register the Client (LGBT Asylum) with their local General Practitioner (GP)
It aims to become an official member of the European-based International Gay and Lesbian Association.
The organization evolved from an Iranian Internet community Facebook page as Persian Liberators, which started in 2009. The Facebook page helps to spread the news of those whom live out of the country aimed to educate its readers to make awareness about issues facing sexual minorities in Iran, who routinely experience discrimination and oppression, including imprisonment, torture and even execution.
Most its members and associates remain in Iran, which is the target of most of the organisation’s educational support activities, but the PGLL is also concerned with the difficulties faced by Iranian refugees all over the world, many of whom flee to the Western democracies to escape persecution on the basis of their sexuality in Iran. The PGLL members distribute leaflets to raise awareness on every Sunday on and around Parliament Square in London. The aim is to reach those without access to the Internet.
The organisation’s Human Rights Office addresses immigration issues, especially the particular problems of
homosexual refugees from Iran, often collaborating with glbtq groups in other countries in order to assist those who have fled Iran, often in fear of their lives.
The need for PGLL’s work is obvious, given the abysmal conditions in Iran for its glbtq citizens under the current Islamic government. The atmosphere of intolerance in Iran and the government’s policy of censorship means that many people have little or no accurate information about sexual issues and identity. This lack of information about sexuality prevents many Persian homosexuals from envisioning the possibility of a better life and of making plans to achieve a brighter future. Glbtq Iranians live in various circumstances, social classes,
and geographies.
Unfortunately, most of the research about glbtq people in Iran focuses exclusively on the capital city of Teheran, and often on the northern, most affluent area of the city. PGLL hopes to reach glbtq individuals all over the country, not just in the largest cities.
Iranian glbtq people suffer not only from the Islamic government’s laws, but also frequently experience persecution in family life, in the workplace, and in other aspects of their lives. If their sexual orientation or gender identity is discovered, glbtq people are often abandoned or fired by their employment, that’s accordance to the current policy of Islamic Republic Authorities. Suicide is not uncommon when this happens.
Lesbians often lives of great desperation. They are frequently forced to marry through family pressure. Those who show no interest in sexual relations with their husbands are accused of failing to obey their husbands, which is grounds for divorce. They are frequently subject to humiliation and beatings.
Because there are no gay bars or other public meeting places for homosexuals, gay men sometimes resort to cruising parks, which are often raided. Those suspected of cruising are routinely beaten and humiliated.
Iran recognizes transsexuality as a mental and physical disorder and permits sexual reassignment surgery, but it regards same-sex sexual expression as a crime. Criminal punishments such as imprisonment, torture, and even execution for homosexual activity are real threats.
Not only does Islam prescribe death for homosexual penetration, but also even kissing “with lust” is forbidden. The.government sometimes defends its harsh laws by insisting that they are “in writing, and not actually enforced.” However, the barbaric laws awake a great fear in the heart of every aware homosexual, for despite the government’s claim, they are often enforced.
Because of the silencing of any discussion of sexuality, many LGBT people do not realise the danger they are in until they are arrested or victimized by the system. Many Homosexual been arrested as result of this. Two were hanged in the northeastern city of Mashhad, most likely after being interrogated and tortured. The boys admitted to having sex with each other and stated that they were not aware that homosexuality was punishable by death.
Prior to their execution, the teenagers were held in prison for 14 months and were severely beaten. The length of their detention suggests that they had committed the so-called offences more than a year earlier, when they were around the age of 16. Thanks to the power of the.global media, the terrifying and tragic photos of the teens’ last moments were released on the Internet. In these photos, the two adolescents were behind the fence of a police van, weeping hopelessly as it carried them off to be executed.
PGLL, based in London, looks forward to a new period of growth and activism. It hopes to work with other glbtq and human rights organizations in order to continue to support and to educate Iranians about issues of sexuality and to bring the persecution of homosexuals in Iran to the attention of the world.
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