"Ich bin ein Niemand" ["I'm a nobody"]: Gay Iranian refused German asylum

Sepehr Nazari

Source: Frankfurter Rundschau (via Google translate)

By Von Marian Brehmer

Sepehr Nazari is gay and comes from Iran. Where gays are executed when they are discovered. Nazari took refuge in Germany, presented an application for asylum, and learned that he is not welcome here.

Sepehr Nazari, 25 years old, would like to start a new life without fear. But it's not that simple.

In Iran, the country Sepehr Nazari comes from, men like him do not exist. At least, says the  Iranian president,Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. When asked in 2007 during a visit to New York's Columbia University about homosexuality in Iran, he shrugged his shoulders. He did not know what was the question. There are gays in America perhaps, but not in Iran.

The country Nazari talks of seems to be another one to Ahmadinejad's. He knew many gay men in Iran. He tells of secret hangouts and gay cafes, five queer identified online newspapers he has written for. At an international Online Dating Service for homosexuals were just in his home city of Tehran thousands of gays with profiles - more than in Berlin, he says.

Being gay in Iran is dangerous. The article 110 of the "hadd punishments for homosexuality" is: "The hadd punishment for homosexuality in the form of transport is the death penalty. The method of killing is at the discretion of the judge." But even "who has a kissing another of sensuality, is punished with a Tazir penalty of up to 60 lashes." Since 1979, according to Iranian human rights activist, four thousand homosexuals have been executed.

Sepehr Nazari in the spring of 2011 sought asylum in Germany, he currently resides in Dresden, and often comes to Berlin. As a meeting place the 25-year-old has picked his favorite cafe, located in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin Reichenberg. In perfect English he tells his story.

Sent to the psychologist

At fourteen, he knew he was gay. Once, when his friend was visiting, Sepehr's mother burst into the room. She saw her son, entwined with a man, "This is immoral! I knew that you're spoiled," she shrieked. The friend fled from the apartment. Sepehr locked himself in the shower, until his father persuaded him to come out. This is only a phase that will pass soon, his father said. Since then the two have never spoken a word about his homosexuality.

Homosexuality is against nature, it is contrary to God's will. How often has Sepehr heard this. However, his parents are not religious, but rather concerned about the family, neighbors and friends. What to think? "I've always asked my mother what she really thinks," said Sepehr. He never received a reply.

Instead, his mother sent him to a psychologist. Some doctors in Iran are focused on the "disease" of homosexuality, prescribing electric shocks as therapy. Sepehr Nazari was lucky. The lady examined him and asked many questions. The result: He had a strong personality. Nothing more.

Sepehr never had trouble with the police. In the university no one knew about his homosexuality, he never talked to anyone about it. A double life? He laughs. "No, a multiple life. A life for the university, one for work, one for friends, one for close friends and one for the family. "

Once, Sepehr complained about a professor at the university because the language students had been only hours to translate Koran verses. He wrote a complaint letter to the dean.

Shortly after Sepehr got a call from the Secret Service. They want to meet with him to clarify a few things, it said. Through friends at the university he learned that the agency knew of his homosexuality. In March, the Persian New Year holidays, Nazari was flying on a Schengen visa to the Netherlands. There he wanted to visit some friends he knew from student exchange. The return ticket was already booked for Iran. But then he came to Berlin, met old friends from the German course. They convinced him not to return to Iran. Only then did he realize that his return could actually be dangerous for him.

He applied for in June 2011. Priority is given to applicants who have been tortured or leave their homeland for political reasons. Homosexuals are not considered hardship cases and thus can not count on a quick settlement of the asylum application. Not even when they face the death penalty in their homeland.

"War zone" in Chemnitz

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Finnish court stops removal of gay Iranian

Image via Wikipedia

Source: YLE

The Supreme Administrative Court sent back a Finnish Immigration Service decision to deport an Iranian asylum seeker who would face persecution in Iran for being gay.

The court sent the case back to the Immigration Service for further reconsideration, stating that case must be examined more closely.

The court said the Immigration Service must carefully examine whether Iranians have a legitimate reason to fear persecution in their homeland because of their sexual orientation.

Last week, YLE reported that Finland has deported asylum seekers to countries where they can be sentenced to severe penalties for their homosexuality.

Homosexuality is a crime punished with imprisonment and even execution in Iran.

Related articles

• Finland deported gays to dangerous countries, report claims (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Dancing Queens Scare Finnish MPs (care2.com)

Looming Internet 'disaster' for Iranian LGBT

By Paul Canning

Iran is instituting new clampdowns on Internet use, and is about to cut itself off from the World Wide Web. Activists trying to support gay people inside Iran say this will be "a disaster".

Iran has placed new restrictions on cybercafes and is preparing to launch a 'National Internet' as part of an online war between Iran and the US and with Iranian democracy activists.

Saghi Ghahraman of the Iranian Queer Organization, an exile organisation which supports people inside Iran and particularly those who need to flee, told LGBT Asylum News that LGBT Iranians will be a casualty of this war as much of what her group does "in terms of communications and both-ways advocacy is done via Internet".

Iranians, like Chinese Internet users, have found ways of going around existing web barriers (Facebook is one of five million blocked websites but it still has 17 million Iranian members) but censorship and monitoring still causes practical problems.

Ghahraman said that recently a gay man "was traced" and they tried to help him to flee Iran, but "he couldn't do it because he had no access to internet at home (the lodgings he was using), and he couldn't down load files we sent him to read to get info, because internet cafes don't allow downloading without the cafe net owners permission and knowledge of the content. The guy could be harmed many times by his own family and by [government] agents."

New rules will make these barriers even higher with cafe owners ordered to check identity cards and record them against their owner's Internet use, which they have to keep records of for at least six months.

"Right now, when a young gay man in a remote village fears for his life, or a TS [transsexual] student is hurt by university staff, or someone is missing, or an activist wants the translation of a piece of news, we reach out and help, and believe me it goes way beyond what I can or I am allowed to put to word," says Ghahraman.

"Being connected to the outside, having access to internet and phone lines, for the ordinary people as well as the activist is what that saves their lives."

A gay Iranian exile explained to LGBT Asylum News that all Iranian Internet access currently passes through two Internet servers:

"Now they are planning to unplug internet from these two servers and it means there would be no more internet in Iran."

"If they unplug internet nobody can access to internet in Iran anymore. This would result in no contacts through internet to outside of Iran, no more news broadcasting, no more activities!"

Says Ghahraman, "even communication within Iran is going to be impossible."

Since 2009 and the disputed presidential election, Iran has been planning to shut off Internet access. In April, a senior official, Ali Agha-Mohammadi announced government plans to launch what he called "Halal Internet".

Iranian newspaper Roozegar has reported that the existing Internet access has dramatically slowed, because, it believes, the new 'National Internet ' is being tested.

Speaking to the Guardian on condition of anonymity, an Iranian IT expert with close knowledge of the 'National Internet' project, said that the prime reason for its creation is not actually the opposition to the government but security in the wake of the Stuxnet attack on Iran's nuclear project.

That computer virus, believed to have been a joint US/Israeli project, devastated the uranium enrichment project, as Iran eventually admitted.

The US is funding 'shadow' communications projects globally, including what's called “Internet in a suitcase” which would smuggle technology into countries like Iran.

But Ghahraman said that Western governments had not been effective in supporting the opposition as well as LGBT people in Iran. She criticised "sanctions that hurt people", and urged them to "find ways to isolate and limit the regime of Iran".

One suggestion from activists to the looming Internet access "disaster" would be free telephone access to a dial-up server connecting to the Internet - a technique used in Egypt when that government cut off Internet access earlier this year.

"But it won’t last for a long time," the gay exile said. "[The] government can easily ban the telephone line of this server. So it can be used at most for two months for few people."

The Iranian IT expert also told the Guardian that Iran is working on software robots to analyse emails and chats. For this, and the 'National Internet', Iran is believed to be relying on Chinese technology, although that is denied.

There have been allegations before of the involvement of Western companies in Iran's Internet and censorship monitoring regime. In October the new head of Tunisia's Internet agency alleged that Western companies had secretly offered a free censorship software deal to the now overthrown regime in exchange for testing it on Tunisian Internet users.

Iran's attitude to its LGBT citizens was underscored last week when the head of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights told German politicians in a visit to Berlin that gay marriage is “immoral” and that homosexuality is a “disease.”

“The West says that the marriage of homosexuals should be allowed under the human rights charter, however, we think it is sexual immorality and a disease.”

“Why should we see a disease as a way of life, instead of maintaining our views on homosexuality and act accordingly?” Mohamed Javad Larijani was quoted as saying.

Ghahraman says that the regime is 'aiming on getting rid of all everyone who is not submissive to the regime'.

"Those who are not submissive are not only political opposition, but the ordinary people, among them the LGBT, women, the poor, the ethnic minorities, religion minorities, the young generation, the sick, and everyone who has lost bits of freedom or health or livelihood or loved-ones under this regime. So, the aim is to draw a curtain around the country and butcher the people."

Related articles

• Interview with Iranian lesbian exile (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Iran's repression of LGBT to face challenge at UN (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Tehran flies rainbow flag

Hossein Alizadeh, Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, says that the Tehran city authorities recently flew the rainbow flag.

According to a blog run by a conservative group, they appeared over a major highway. City officials claimed they did not know the symbolic meaning  of the rainbow flag and as soon as they were alerted by the conservatives to the link between the rainbow flag and gay people, the "appropriate measures were taken by the authorities to remedy the situation".

That blog has posted several images of the rainbow flags covered with messages like "down with USA" and the proverbial "death to America" - to "ensure the images are not exploited by the enemies".

Related articles

• Advancing LGBT Human Rights in Iran: A Historic Moment (iglhrc.org)

2011 round-up: Part five: Backlash and repression

Image via Wikipedia

By Paul Canning

I'm rounding up the year in a series of posts - in which no doubt I've missed something, so please let me know what I've missed in the comments!

Backlash and repression

A whole new country, South Sudan, was born with a sodomy law and exclusion of LGBT from rights supposed promised to 'all'.

Turkish LGBT groups suffer repeated attempts to legally shut them down and to block their websites.

The increasingly visible LGBT organising in Malaysia suffered a backlash including law change proposals in two states and the banning of events.

An attempt to use gay rights as a 'wedge' issue failed in Zambia as the opposition leader Michael Sata was elected President. Gay rights was also used as a 'wedge' in Zimbabwe, most awfully to divide the Anglican Church leading to Church resources like orphanages closing and children going hungry.

Malawi criminalised lesbians. This was an issue, but a minor issue, in a subsequent aid reduction by the country's biggest donor, the UK. It was mainly the Malawian government's other walk-backs on human rights and a diplomatic spat which caused the UK's change of approach on aid, but it was played up by them as a 'wedge issue' against the opposition with protests against the state of the economy and human rights abuses called 'gay rallies' in state media.

The so-called 'Kill gays' bill failed to pass at the end of Uganda's parliament in May, probably more by luck than design. It has been reintroduced into the current parliament. The bill provoked the biggest international petition drive for LGBT rights ever, well over two million supported different efforts. Activists pleaded for such support to be offered in the context of the general human rights problems in the country, but most solidarity work continued to single out the gay issue from the bigger crisis. Protests against the bill raised, again, the use of development aid redirection from governments and other government-to-government 'leverage' by Western countries in front of and behind the scenes. The atmosphere generated by the bill led to increased government and societal repression of Ugandan LGBT, highlighted by the murder of leader David Kato in January. Three brave Ugandan activists won international human rights awards, including one described as the most important after the Nobel Peace Prize.

There were a series of arrests of gays in Cameroon, followed by convictions including some based solely on people's appearance, not their acts. There was violent rhetoric, organised hunts for gay people using entrapment and the government ended the year proposing a 'tightening' of the anti-gay law.

Anti-gay rhetoric in Ghana's media and agitation by religious leaders over the past few years produced a proposed witch-hunt by a state leader - and subsequent international attention. In the ensuing fallout, local human rights and civil society groups failed to defend LGBT. The year ended with proposals in parliament for further criminalisation of gay people.

Nigeria reintroduced anti-gay legislation which was then extended in the parliament to attack any pro-LGBT human rights organising, potentially fatally undermining HIV/Aids work amongst other impacts.

There were sporadic reports of death sentences for homosexual offenses in Iran but little follow-up on these reports by either media, human rights or LGBT groups due, in part, to issues with verification and dangers to sources in Iran.

Honduras finally acted on the large number of unsolved murders of LGBT in that country, after US prompting. The rate of murders of LGBT elsewhere in Latin America - particularly in Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela - drew little international attention. As did the failure of the international community to support devastated local LGBT in Haiti following the earthquake, though the UN finally pledged a response.

Anti-gay laws were passed or proposed in Russia and in Ukraine. Pro-gay demonstrations in Russia, and in Belarus, were banned and violently broken up - whilst vicious anti-gay ones permitted. Though Russians finally won a European Court of Human Rights ruling that the ban on Moscow's gay pride march was illegal.

There were reports of arrests of gay men in Tanzania, Kurdish Iraq, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi.

The Serbian gay pride march was banned, reportedly for political reasons. The gay pride march in Split, Croatia was attacked, video of which ensured worldwide attention but in the capital, Zagreb, pride went ahead with no problems - and little attention. In Montenegro the government publicly backed LGBT rights.

The fake 'Syrian lesbian blogger' scandal in June created a huge international storm, outraging real activists participating in the revolution there. Local LGBT in the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region report mixed feelings about the potential outcomes of the 'Arab Spring' for them - in Syria, gays are reportedly divided on participation in that country's revolt. The devastating impact of the Iraq war on LGBT continued to be felt. A new project documented those who have fled to Jordan, but the year went by with almost no media attention to these 'forgotten people'.

A criminalisation attempt in the DRC (Congo) parliament was started then put on hold.

The UK's foreign aid policy relationship to LGBT human rights became the focus of a major backlash following an anti-aid story in a right-wing British newspaper, particularly in Africa and including from some LGBT activists. In a messy PR foul up, the UK was forced to clarify it wasn't planning to remove aid but redirect it.

The so-called 'curing' of LGBT people continued to spread worldwide from its US origins with a backlash in Ecuador leading to closure of some 'clinics' and the discovery of supposed 'conversion therapy' being payed for by Hong Kong's government. In the US itself 'cure the gay' drew both ridicule and outrage, the latter in particular highlighted by a media expose about the suicide of some gay people forced when they were children to go through it and the discovery that a Republican presidential candidate's camp husband was selling 'conversion' therapy.

Related articles

• The battle of the bins in Bulawayo (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• UN publishes landmark LGBT rights report (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Interview with Iranian lesbian exile

Source: PBS

By Rasheed Abou-Alsamh

Saghi Ghahraman is an Iranian lesbian poet and gay rights activist who lives in Toronto. Born in 1957 in the holy city of Mashhad, she studied classic and contemporary Persian literature at Azarabadegan University in Tabriz. She left Iran in 1982 after attacks on the women's organization she worked at, and was a refugee in Turkey until 1987 when she emigrated to Canada.

She now works with PEN Canada's Exiled Writer program. She has published three collections of poetry and one collection of short stories. She also serves on the board of the Iranian Queer Organization.

Ghahraman recently spoke about what life was like for her growing up as a lesbian during the Shah's regime and just after the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Q: Lesbians in Iran do not get much attention internationally. Is this because the Iranian authorities pay less attention to them than to gay men? Are some of them also arrested and charged with being homosexual?

A: The gay movement in Iran started right before the Revolution, and then picked up again around 1990, with gay men leading the fight without any lesbian involvement for a very long time. Lesbians appeared very slowly and reluctantly around 2005 or 2006, and without much fuss or pretense in making their presence felt as part of a social movement. So the attention is rightly given to gay men.

Iranian lesbians were heavily oppressed by the Iranian women's movement and its concerns. Lesbians were told to be quiet so as to prevent any labeling of the movement by the regime. They argued that all activities in the women's movement should deal only with Muslim women's requirements, lest the movement [be] attacked by the regime with allegations of Westernization of the movement.

When lesbians began to show up in society, or online, they were mostly interested in meeting, eating out, and having some fun with other women, and then going back to their "normal" lives. Many of the lesbians have married, either by force or by choice. You might know that, according to sharia in Iran, women aren't allowed to study, get a job, rent apartments, be operated on in hospitals, travel, rent hotel rooms, etc., without a male kin's permission. To have this permission, many lesbians have to get married and comply with traditional requirements and respond to their own desires and preferences only in the private setting of "all-women parties." That limited women being outspoken, or from taking chances with the law and/or the negative publicity of being openly gay.

Q: I have heard about lesbians in various cities of Iran being murdered, or arrested and jailed. I have even heard of harsh treatments in jails of lesbians, but I have not directly interviewed women who have been arrested or jailed.

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Iranian asylum seeker hunger strikers win UK asylum

Source: Croydon Advertiser

Three Iranian asylum-seekers who staged a 37-day hunger strike have won their battle to remain in the UK.

The men demonstrated outside Lunar House, the UK Border Agency's headquarters in Wellesley Road, for nearly five weeks after their initial applications for asylum were turned down.

Keyvan Behari and brothers Mehran and Mahyar Meyari starved themselves in a desperate attempt to prevent deportation to Iran, where they feared torture and death for taking part in anti-Government protests.

But that prospect ended last week when the Home Office, presented with fresh evidence of torture, officially recognised the group as refugees.

Their lawyer Hani Zubeidi, head of immigration at Fadiga and Co, said "common sense" had prevailed.

He said:

"After months of waiting it took just a few short interviews for the Home Office to recognise these men would be persecuted if sent back to Iran. Any other outcome would have been preposterous."

Keyvan, 30, Mehran 20, and Mahyar, 17, are members of Green Wave Voice, a political movement in Iran which formed after the re-election of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009.

Keyvan was beaten by Iranian police after he was arrested during pro-democracy demonstrations.

Mayhar was 16 when he was arrested and raped, as the authorities cracked down on protesters.

After escaping from prison, the pair fled from Iran and across into Turkey, and then travelled across Europe, hidden in a truck for 17 days, before entering the UK.

But when they arrived, a legal representative supplied by the Home Office failed to provide evidence of their injuries to a judge.

When their applications were rejected Keyvan and Mahyar set up a tent outside Lunar House and stitched their lips together, refusing to eat.

After living on just sugar and water for 37 days, Mr Zubeidi took up their cases. He said:

"Their claim was based on their involvement in protests against the regime, but the way in which this was presented meant the Home Office didn't believe they were in genuine danger.

"One of the hunger strikers has a huge scar on his back that was never shown to the immigration judge."

"Out of desperation they were then forced to conduct a hunger strike. They should never have had to go through that."

After publicity of their cause by the Advertiser, Croydon Central MP Gavin Barwell intervened, describing their case as "compelling".

He said:

"It was quite clear from the evidence on their bodies that they had been the victims of maltreatment.

"From the evidence I saw I believe justice has now been done."

"How does a lesbian come out at 13?" UK treatment of lesbian asylum seekers

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Women's Asylum News

By: S. Chelvan*

In September 2011, an Immigration Judge addressed this question to the representative of a lesbian appellant from Pakistan, highlighting her disbelief of the appellant, despite the appeal being ready to proceed.1 It is astounding that there are still those who need educating in the simple facts that the differences between straight, as compared to lesbian, gay and bisexual appellants, are in fact found in the experiences of all human beings. This is particularly shocking after the training provided to Immigration Judges by STONEWALL earlier this year following HJ (Iran) and HT (Cameroon),2 which repeated the mantra to the judges, “It is not what we do, but who we are”. Would anyone ever ask “How does a teenager come out as straight at 13?”. In the hetero-normative society we live in, there are still those who assume that every child is programmed as straight as this is ‘normal’, ignoring the core development of a sexual and gender identity, straight, bisexual, gay, lesbian, trans or intersex, based on identity (including desire and love), and not merely conduct, in all human beings.

The rejection of a straight life

Following guidance and training since the UK Supreme Court’s July 2010 landmark ruling in HJ (Iran) and HT (Cameroon)3 there are decision-makers who engage with detailed analysis of such claims, and who would reject as highly unacceptable and legally flawed decisions which are based on personal ignorance, or in some instances blatant homophobic bigotry. For example, in July 2011, the Upper Tribunal reversed the dismissed appeal of a gay man from Uzbekistan, finding the adverse credibility findings as perverse. The deeply flawed approach of the Immigration Judge in the initial appeal included the question “When did you first engage in buggery with your boyfriend?” clarifying that the reference to ‘buggery’ was perfectly acceptable.4 The invisibility of lesbians, bisexual women, trans and intersex women, has until recently reflected the blatant ignorance of asylum decision-makers. The recent Upper Tribunal country guidance case on Jamaican lesbians,5 shows a much welcomed engagement with the core issues of difference, stigma, shame and harm (‘DSSH’)6 which are at the core of the narrative of the majority of LGBTI claims. SW importantly identifies risk categories to those who are, or those who are perceived as lesbian in Jamaica, where an individual does not live a ‘heterosexual narrative’ (i.e. have men ‘calling’ or have a boyfriend/husband and/or have children). Six years since the Tribunal concluded that the finding “there is some force that perception is key” was non-binding,7 the Tribunal has finally applied this to the core trigger of “difference”.

Correcting a historical wrong

This article explores how the development of case law in the past twelve years shows a significant attempt by the UK to identify what is at the core of asylum claims made by lesbians.8 There is a need to recognise that it is the failure to abide by the “heterosexual narrative” which creates the “difference” with heterosexual individuals. This difference is linked to stigma and results in asylum seekers’ shame and a continuing fear of harm in their home country. This understanding is at the heart of identifying the protection needs of women in sexual and gender identity asylum claims. It was the case of two women who feared domestic violence at the hands of their husbands in Pakistan9 in 1999, which established that “homosexuals” could be considered a particular social group in addition to women. Lord Steyn recognised an international consensus based on prosecution, or the potential prosecution, of predominantly male same-sex conduct. This landmark judgment reflects that the Refugee Convention is a living instrument and should be interpreted as such. Ironically and shamefully, this corrected the historical wrong which hid the fact that ‘homosexuals’ were also part of the persecuted in Nazi Germany: in ignoring such facts, the framers of the Convention created a protection gap in the UK of nearly fifty years.10

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Iran's First GAY Movie?

By Paul Canning

Does this look GAY to you?

That's GAY as in two men in a relationship, not pejorative GAY.

No? Well according to an Iranian clergyman is fair screams GAY (as in two men doing the wild thing together).

"Shish va Pish" is a new comedy featuring two top-selling Iranian actors and it has caused widespread controversy.

It's about two young male friends who want to strike it rich through 'wild' - and illegal - activities, like 'western-style' parties involving alcohol. All very taboo in Iran. Although the two actors are introduced as friends - and not gay partners - in the movie, their body gestures, show of emotions for each other, and constant physical contact have been interpreted by some of the audience as two men in a GAY relationship.

The stars are the extremely popular actors Mohammad Reza Golzar and Amin Hayati.

Well one conservative and highly influential clergyman, Ayatollah Alam ol-Hoda, in his review of the movie condemned it for "promoting Hollywood-style homosexuality".

During the Friday Prayer Imam in the holy city of Mashhad in Eastern Iran, he dedicated his Eid Praying service - which marks the end of the Hajj Pilgrimage - to the subject of promotion of cultural corruption in the society. In his sermon, he sharply criticized government officials for even licensing the movie, which, in his view, is part of a US conspiracy to undermine the morale of the Muslim society and promote homosexuality through laughter. Though he said "We are not opposed to the laughter and joy".

HT: Hossein Alizadeh

Related articles

• UN addresses repression of Iranian LGBT for first time (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Video: Ahmadinejad: 'No, still no gays in Iran' (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• In Iran, report says brave LGBT distributed leaflets against homophobia (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Video: Butt grab could lead to lashing for Iranian soccer players

By Paul Canning

Two Iranian soccer players who used "inappropriate" behavior to celebrate during a nationally televised game on Saturday may face lashings and imprisonment.

Iranian media have been up in arms over the celebratory scene captured on camera after a Persepolis goal, ending the team's losing streak, in which one player touched the others' buttocks.

The Washington Post reported that the action could be construed as a violation of public chastity, punishable by two months in prison and a public 74-strike lashing, taking place in the same soccer arena where the situation occurred.

Iranian media reported that Perspolis chairman Mohammad Royanian fined one player $194,000 and the other $230,000, who was also fired.

Royanian also criticized the Iranian football federation as well as the head of the Iranian Pro League for hyping the 'unpleasant incident 'in front of news media representatives.

A judiciary official has called for the two men to be flogged and imprisoned.

Members of the National Soccer Team, however, have issued a statement in support of their colleagues, insisting that the affair was not intentional.

Both players have also issued public statements saying they committed no indecency, and all the negative interpretations of the scene are misunderstandings.

Former national team player Mehdi Mahdavikia said Iranian media were making a big deal out of the incident.

“When I was playing in Germany, such things happened all the time,” he said.

Watch what happened:

Related articles

• Iran frees actress sentenced to lashing, says Amnesty (independent.co.uk)
• Video: Ahmadinejad: 'No, still no gays in Iran' (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Iranian official media reports three sodomy executions (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

UN addresses repression of Iranian LGBT for first time

Image via Wikipedia

By Hossein Alizadeh, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission

“For years, Iranian authorities have committed atrocities against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, incited violence by others, and refused to admit that LGBT Iranians exist,” said Hossein Alizadeh, Regional Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa at the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC).

In the Concluding Observations [PDF] from its 3rd periodic review of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the United Nations Human Rights Committee has made clear that the government’s conduct amounts to a violation of the international laws that it has agreed to uphold. “As a state that prides itself in tradition and morality, Iran must now take immediate action to ensure its definitions of tradition and morality are in accordance with the fundamental principles of international human rights law.”

“The UN Human Rights Committee has sent a powerful message to the government of Iran that its treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people constitutes systematic human rights violations that amount to failure to uphold its treaty obligations. The Committee has asked the Iranian government to widely circulate their Concluding Observations to the Iranian judiciary, government and civil society. After consulting with civil society, the government must submit a progress report about the implementation of the recommendations included in the Committee’s Concluding Observations. The Committee has specifically asked the Iranian government to include detailed information on the enjoyment of Covenant rights by members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community in its next periodic review."

“We at the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission are both inspired and hopeful for continuing advances in human rights for everyone, everywhere. We are proud of the collaborative work of IGLHRC and our Iranian partners, the Iranian Queer Organization (IRQO), in contributing to this important advance through our joint Shadow Report entitled: Human Rights Violations on the Basis of Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Homosexuality in the Islamic Republic of Iran and testimony before the UN Human Rights Committee.”

Key points from the UN Human Rights Committee Concluding Observations:

On November 3rd the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the sole authority within the United Nations system to evaluate and monitor states’ compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), informed the government of Iran that it must act immediately to eliminate the systematic discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.

The Human Rights Committee has urged the government of Iran to repeal or amend legislation that “could result in the discrimination, prosecution and punishment of people because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.” There is a range of discriminatory laws in Iran, among them laws criminalizing homosexual sex and punishing it with death.

The Human Rights Committee has called on the government of Iran to unconditionally release “anyone held solely on account of freely and mutually agreed sexual activities or sexual orientation.” Due to Iran’s opaque and corrupt justice system, the exact number of people held in detention on the basis of homosexual acts is unknown, however even one person incarcerated on this basis constitutes a violation of fundamental rights to privacy and non-discrimination.

The Human Rights Committee has called upon the government of Iran to “take all necessary legislative, administrative and other measures to eliminate and prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.” The Committee references different spheres of life, including “employment, housing, education and health care” and calls upon the state to ensure that LGBT people are “protected from violence and social exclusion.”

Background

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Audio: LibDem MP slams record on LGBT asylum

LiberalDemocrat MP Mike Hancock has slammed the record of the government on LGBT asylum.

Hancock is the MP of Robert Segwanyi, a gay Ugandan asylum seeker who was saved from removal at the last moment last month. Segwanyi has a fresh judicial hearing November 3.

He is also the MP of a gay Iranian whose asylum case Hancock is supporting.

Speaking to Gaydar radio's Scott Roberts, Hancock said of the government's commitment to LGBT rights globally, championed by Prime Minister David Cameron this weekend, in the light of these asylum cases, "they say one thing and do another." Hancock charged that these cases had been "mishandled" and that others had also been.

Hancock's comments came on the eve of the attempted removal of another gay Ugandan, Kenneth, only stopped because he fought all the way on to the plane and a couple of weeks after the removal of gay Ugandan David, who has subsequently disappeared.

Related articles

• 'Obviously gay' Ugandan asylum seeker faces removal by UK Wednesday (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• How the Home Office is misusing law in gay Ugandan asylum seeker case (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• UK's removal of gay tortured, imprisoned Ugandan stopped at last moment (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Iranian refugees in Sweden go on hunger strike, sew lips together

By Paul Canning

A large group of asylum-seeking Kurds in Stockholm have gone on hunger strike with some sewing their lips together in a desperate attempt to try and stop their removal to Iran

The men and women, who are also with their children, have been refusing food since 25 September.

They are political activists who have worked hard for human rights and for introducing democracy in Iran. As a result of their activities and their membership in various Kurdish political parties, they were forced to flee Iran and take refuge in Sweden.

Despite having been in the country for  up to eight years, and despite having photos and documents from the Nations High Commissioner for Refugees that confirm the obvious threat to their lives, the Swedish Migration Board has rejected their applications to stay in Sweden.

Their condition is deteriorating for every hour that passes - five men have already collapsed from hunger and been taken to the hospital.

One of those who sewed his lips together said:

“I am not treated as a human being. Most of us here have the same problem. The Migration Board does not understand our situation, they refuse to listen. We want to know why we have been refused a residence permit. Everybody here would rather die of starvation than be sent back.”

“We have begged and shouted, but the Migration Board has not listened. Now we will silence our voices, perhaps then they will listen”.

One of the photos pinned to a tent in which they are staying shows an Kurdish teacher in Iran, Farzad Kamangar, surrounded by some twenty children. Kamangar was executed three months ago for having taught the children to read and speak Kurdish. Another picture shows another Kurd, Shirin Alanholi, who was executed because she wanted freedom and democracy in Iran.

The Iranian Penal code detains and prosecutes political refugees who are returned to Iran.

Last year the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg ruled that Sweden’s deportation of an Iranian was in violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Despite this, Sweden has repeatedly made unlawful deportations.

Last December I reported on how the removal by Sweden of a lesbian Kurdish couple from Iraq had only been stopped by a ECHR ruling.

Iranian refugee activists have also been engaged with protesting the removal of asylum seekers from Norway, and abuse of Iranian refugees in Cyprus. In July, Cypriot police officers and other Cypriot authorities violently assaulted a group of Iranian and other refugees, including a 72 year old man, held in Larnaca detention center. Neither the government of Cyprus nor the UNHCR has taken any substantive action.

Iranian refugees in Greece have also gone on hunger strike in protest at their treatment and sewn their lips together. Refugees in Athens and other Greek cities have suffered repeated and violent vigilante attacks.

• Petition to Swedish authorities
• Petition to Cypriot authorities

Related articles

• Video: Ahmadinejad: 'No, still no gays in Iran' (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Video: In Cyprus, asylum detainees suffer violent, unprovoked assault (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Iran's repression of LGBT to face challenge at UN

Saghi Ghahraman

Iran's human rights violations on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity will be considered by the United Nations Human Rights Committee Universal Periodic Review 17 October.

Human Rights Watch has made a detailed submission, as has Amnesty International. Excerpts from Amnesty's submission follows below as does the submission of the Iranian Queer Organization - IRQO.

~~~


By Saghi Ghahraman (IRQO)

Right after the revolution, execution of Gay and Transsexuals began, by the ruling clergies, illegally; it was legalized in 1995 - two decades after the revolution – when Shari’a law, Islam’s Code of Conduct, legally replaced Iran’s penal code.

Article 110 – executions based on sodomy; Article 130 – executions based on lesbianism; Article 220 – granting fathers the right to kill their children, recognizing fathers as blood-owners of their own children, turned State and Society, equally, into executioners of gays, lesbians, bi, and transsexual population, and also the heterosexuals; clergies have used sodomy laws against those prisoners who couldn’t be executed or persecuted otherwise.

Shari’a law is not only responsible for killing of LGBT members of society in Iran, it is also the basis of generations of LGBT’s lack of parenting, education, carrier, housing, and overall security and safety.

The fact that no LGBT Iranian dares to introduce themselves as L, G, B or T by their own voice, face, name is because of the fear-mongering articles of Shari’s sodomy law.

Since the government in Iran doesn’t offer any explanation for hostility against the gay community, and because there are signs of lack of relevant information in the government re homosexuals, I would like to quote a gay blogger’s advise to Mr. Ahmadinejad when he was first elected president of Iran on 2005:

"I urge you, Sir, as the president of Iran, to employ a team of medical scientists and lawyer to study and investigate homosexuality, come up with a result of the studies, and present it; if they announce homosexuality illness or crime, we oblige; if they say it was not, you, as the state of Iran, oblige, and decriminalize homosexuality and let us live in peace."

The task has not been undertaken by the government Iran, curiously.

While Mr. Ahmadinejad claims 'There Are No Homosexuals in Iran', his statesmen and spokespersons claim 'Homosexuals Are the Force behind Iran’s Green Movement'. Question is: Do we not have homosexuals in Iran? Or, we do, and they’re so many and so capable as to be the back-bone of a huge civil movement as Iran’s Green Movement? Question is: what is considered crime, or what is considered crime on the part of homosexuals? Sexual orientation, or doubting patriarchy in the face of a primitive ideology?

Living as a Queer woman over 50 years, a Queer poet over 20 years, directing a LGBT advocacy organization over five years, I have been witness to the horror the community in Iran goes through, everyday, not only by way of murders and executions but in everyday life of Not Living a simple, decent, dignified life human beings deserve in the realm in the Age of Democracy and Human Rights. And I am not talking only about those of our children who are disadvantaged and deprived, but also about gay professors, TS engineers, lesbian and gay specialist medical doctors, gay and lesbian poets, writers, artists, journalists and more, of highly accomplished status, all working inside Iran, who are victims in the hand of a hostile set of laws, and are most vulnerable.

I would like to offer the government of Iran to give account and explanation for violations of LGBT human rights. Or, to replace the primitive penal code of Shari’a law with constitutions based on 21st century human rights. Or if either is not doable, I would like to suggest that Mr. Ahmadinejad, the head of state of Iran, in his trips to the UN, travel to the USA on the back of a camel. After all, we, the LGBT of Iran shouldn’t be only ones treated with the mind-set of the dark-ages of 1400 years back in history.

~~~

Amnesty International has called on the Iranian authorities to cooperate fully with all UN human rights mechanisms, including by allowing the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran to conduct fact-finding missions to Iran.

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Video: Ahmadinejad: 'No, still no gays in Iran'

Mocked at London Pride 2008

By Paul Canning

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was questioned yesterday by CNN about his infamous address at Columbia University in 2007.

Asked a question in 2007 about executions for sodomy in Iran, Ahmadinejad attempted to deflect to the death penalty in the United States. But moderator Dean Coatsworth pressed him and Ahmadinejad said:

"In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country. We don’t have that in our country. In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon. I do not know who has told you that we have it."

Ahmadinejad was then booed by the audience.

Yesterday, he didn't try to deflect CNN's question, saying:

"My position hasn't changed."

"In Iran, homosexuality is looked down upon as an ugly deed. Perhaps there are those who engage in such activities and you may be in contact with them and more aware of them. But in Iranian society such activities, thoughts, and behaviors are shameful. Therefore, these are not known elements within Iranian society."

"Rest assured, this is one of the ugliest behaviors in our society. It is against divine will, divine teachings of any and every faith, and it is certainly at the detriment of humans and humanity. But as the government, I cannot go in the street and stop my population and ask them about specific orientation, so my position is clear about that."

Ahmadinejad's 2007 comments have been much mocked and Iranian LGBT have directly answered them.

In May, Iranian gay refugees marched in Ankara carrying placards with the slogans "Ahmadinejad, we’re here!" "Iranian queers will not keep silent anymore!" and "Iranian queers, we’re altogether now!."

In 2008, the Iranian asylum seeker Mehdi Kazemi - who this website was established to campaign for - wrote:

I do exist as an Iranian homosexual

I have got very surprised, very angry of this article and I do not understand really what is point of President of Iran. If Iran do not have any homosexual then I do not understand who I am then because I am an Iranian Gay and I have so many problem back my country where is Iran because of my sexual orientation

my life is in danger in Iran then what is that?

What is the piont of seeking asylum for Iranian Homosexual? They do not want to leave their country, family, friends,...... . Why is that? They put everything behind theirself to go to another country that they anything about it.

And what is the piont of tourting, killing, .... of Homosexual if there is not?????!!!!

My purpose of this letter is to kind of answering President Ahmadinejad and to say that I do exist as an Iranian homosexual and it does not matter where I am.

Related articles

• Are a third of young Iranian men having anal sex? With each other? (madikazemi.blogspot.com) 
• Iranian President mocked at London Pride (madikazemi.blogspot.com)  
• Video: “Ahmadinejad! We’re right here!” LGBT Iranian asylum seekers march in Ankara (madikazemi.blogspot.com) 

Paper: Credibility issues of LGBTI asylum seekers in Turkey

By Marta D'Epifanio

Recent research has shown how after a general acceptance of the fact that it is a human right to live out sexual orientation and gender identity and claim the refugee status on the persecution on such ground, the process to prove the genuinity of such an identity has encountered several obstacles. While usually information and reports come from English speaking countries and common law jurisdictions where the asylum procedure is run by different institutions, the UNHCR runs the refugee status determination (RSD) procedure in Turkey. Turkey has ratified the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol which removed the previous limitations; however, despite many calls for the lifting of the limitation, Turkey still maintains the geographical ban created by the Refugee Convention

It was not until September 2008 that UNHCR started to include sexual orientation or gender identity as a field ‘of action’. That same year, UNHRC issued a guidance note recognizing that individuals being persecuted due to sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) should be considered to be ‘fleeing due to membership of a particular social group.’ This applies to Turkey too so that in the aftermath of the decision by the UNHCR, asylum seekers are either resettled to a third country or deported. Despite these limitations, Turkey is the recipient of the largest number of Iranian LGBTI refugees because of its position in close proximity to the Islamic Republic of Iran and because it does not require a visa for Iranians. that prevents the resettlement of non-European refugees inside the country. Non-European asylum seekers are considered as
‘temporary asylum seekers’ and are allowed by the ‘foreigners’ police to stay in the country while waiting for the assessment and decision of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

In this paper I will address the process of credibility assessment for LGBTI asylum seekers in the interviewing process by the UNHCR in Turkey, differences from earlier years and what are the indicators considered in order to ‘confirm’ a LGBTI identity.

CREDIBILITY ISSUES OF LGBTI ASYLUM-SEEKERS IN TURKEY

Related articles

• In Turkey, improvement documented in LGBT refugee processing (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Paper: Basis of claims and background information on LGBT asylum-seekers and refugees from Belarus (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Resource: UNHCR guidance note: LGBTI refugees in forced displacement (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Iranian official media reports three sodomy executions

By Paul Canning

An Iranian media report picked up by an exiled Iranian opposition group says that three men were executed for homosexual sex 4 September. The report mentions 'lavat', articles 108 and 110 of the Islamic Penal Code.

Article 108 says "sodomy (or lavat) is sexual intercourse between men”, and article 110 says ”punishment for sodomy is killing; the Sharia judge decides on how to carry out the killing".

The report on the official ISNA Iranian news website was viewed by Soheila Vahdati, an independent human rights defender based in San Francisco working with Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Iranian Queer Organisation (IRQO).

She confirmed that the translation of the official report by the opposition group Iran Human Rights was accurate.

Numerous sources including international NGOs have reported the use of rape charges rather than sodomy in execution cases and the use of such charges against opposition activists and others whom the Iranian regime wants to punish.

The executions took place in the South-Western Iranian city of Ahwaz, near the Iraqi border, which is predominately Iranian Arab (Ahwazi), a minority which has suffered repression. However a source indicated that those executed may have been brought there from another part of Iran. The Iranian media report is based on a statement by the Prosecutor General of Ahwaz.

Vahdati said:

"From the text of the original news it is clear that the main "crime" was sodomy and that they had been involved in kidnapping, etc. too. [But] no article of the Penal Code has been quoted for kidnapping. That is, chances are they would not be considered people deserving to be killed if they were not involved in same sax relationship."

"The main reason for killing the .. three people is obviously sodomy, though [the report says] they had committed other illegitimate activities like kidnapping and theft associated with harassment - but there is no explanation of the details of kidnapping and theft .. which if it was true, must have made a lot of noise in town and there would have been a hint about it too."

The Iranian media report, she said, however does go into detail regarding three others executed at the same time.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its report 'We are a Buried Generation: Discrimination and Violence Against Sexual Minorities in Iran', released last December stated that because trials on moral charges in Iran are usually held in camera, it is difficult to determine what proportion of those charged and executed for same-sex conduct are gay and in what proportion the alleged offense was consensual.

Because of the lack of transparency, Human Rights Watch said:

"it cannot be ruled out that Iran is sentencing sexual minorities who engage in consensual same-sex relations to death under the guise that they have committed forcible sodomy or rape."

Their report also documents serious abuses, including due-process violations that occurred during the prosecution of sexual minorities charged with crimes.

Those charged with engaging in consensual same-sex offenses stand little chance, HRW say, of receiving a fair trial.

"Judges ignore penal code evidentiary guidelines in sodomy cases and often rely instead on confessions extracted through physical torture and extreme psychological pressure. Both Iranian and international law consider such evidence inadmissible."

The Iranian government maintains that "most of these individuals have been charged for forcible sodomy or rape."

In January a stoning sentence against two teenagers in the Kurdistan city of Piranshahr in northwest Iran was reported, it was not clear whether this was for rape or sodomy Also in January the government run Iranian judiciary website reported that three men were hanged for allegedly raping a teenage boy. In February Amnesty International issued an action alert regarding a death sentence for 'lavat' given to a teenage boy in the city of Shiraz.

Updated to add: Mohammad Mustafaei, the Iranian lawyer well known for defending stoning victim Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani and who is in exile in Norway, has written an open letter to president Ahmadinejad in protest of the execution of the three, says Gay Middle East. He called the execution arbitrary and demanded further clarifications:

“Where the cases approved by the Supreme Court and given a hearing as well as permission for execution?” “Where the three represented by lawyers, and what are their names?” are some of the questions he posed.

“Three men under the pretext of being ‘gay’ and committing sodomy were sentenced to death and executed”. 

Mustafaei said that they may have been tortured by the authorities to confess for the “crime”.

“Mr. President,” he protested, “you have blood on your hands.” 

Related articles

• Resource: The Iranian Queer Organization (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• "The first time I was raped": one gay Iranian's ordeal (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• In Iran, report says brave LGBT distributed leaflets against homophobia (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

In Austria, support group forms for LGBT refugees

Negar Roubani at Vienna GayPride

Source: Die Standard

By Sandra Ernst Kaiser

[Via Google Translate]

"If I would live my homosexuality in Iran, there would be no second when I would not fear for my life," says Pedram Bashooki.

"Every meeting with another man, and especially any physical exchange with him, it could mean my death sentence." 

Bashooki's parents fled three years before the Iranian revolution in 1979. Gays are persecuted in Iran by the state, often ending their lives through a public execution. According to Amnesty International more than 4,000 gay men have been killed in Iran since 1979. Lesbian women are rejected by their families and society, losing their jobs or university places and often have to flee even before the violence in their families.

Iran is not the only country where homosexuality means persecution, torture and condemnation. Mauritania, [Northern] Nigeria, Sudan and Saudi Arabia has the death penalty for homosexuality enshrined in law, imprisonment in Angola or Malawi and different lengths of prison sentences in Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Libya, Indonesia, Pakistan - to name just a few countries in which they are named as "perverts", "sick" or "sinners". Worldwide there are 85 countries where homosexuals are persecuted by law. So people go on the run, and there starts the next gauntlet.

Many Iranians and Iraqis flee to Turkey. After the first interview with UNHCR they receive, unless they are not believed, the LGBTIQ refugee status. As of now it is usual to wait up to two years in Turkey for an entry visa to Austria. The problems for the refugees include violence from police and civilians. Because work is prohibited in Turkey LGBTIQ refugees often end up in prostitution because of the UN monthly hand out (converted) 70 € is not enough to live on.

As the Austro-Iranian Negar Roubani explained, her reason for flight was that her sexual orientation could not be concealed. In Turkey the refugees cannot stay in big cities, only in small towns where they are again exposed to homophobia and resentment. "They are like lepers, who nobody wants to touch. Their martyrdom unfortunately continues."

Last year the Oriental Queer Organisation Austria (ORQOA) was founded.

Originally it aimed to support the LGBTIQ migrant community in Austria, to reduce and combat discrimination. However, the organisation has become a focal point for people who are persecuted because of their sexual orientation in their home country, Roubani says.

"The group's existence has spread quickly. Via Facebook, email or by telephone contact, we get asked for help from their home countries  and especially from those when they land in Turkey."

Read more »

Video: US religious right target international bodies, ally with Iran, support anti-gay Africans

Source: Stand for the Family

Sharon Slater discusses the work of Family Watch International. the importance of protecting the institution of the family in order to maintain our fundamental freedoms, the International Planned Parenthood booklet, Healthy, Happy, and Hot that she picked up at the Girl Scout meeting at the UN that promotes sexual rights and sexual pleasure for youth, and she describes her new book, Stand for the Family which was designed to equip citizens with the talking points, facts, and research they need to defend marriage, life religious freedom and parental rights and much more.




Source: Religion Dispatches

By Warren Throckmorton

Sharon Slater, American anti-gay activist and president of Family Watch International, recently encouraged delegates attending a law conference in Lagos, Nigeria to resist the United Nations’ calls to decriminalize homosexuality.

Keynoting the Nigerian Bar Association Conference, Slater told delegates that they would lose their religious and parental rights if they supported “fictitious sexual rights.” One such “fictitious right” is the right to engage in same-sex sexual relationships without going to jail.

According to an email from the organization, Slater’s efforts are already getting results. A week after Slater’s speech, husband Greg Slater, FWI’s legal adviser, told supporters in an email:

As the most populous and one of the wealthiest African counties, Nigeria can serve as a strong role model for other governments in the region to follow on how to hold on to their family values despite intense international pressure. In fact, several days after the conference, the head of the Anglican Church called upon the Nigerian government to withdraw from the United Nations because of its push to further the cause of homosexuality.

In Nigeria, homosexual behavior is illegal and punishable by up to 14 years in prison. In the Islamic North, where Sharia law is enforced, gays can be sentenced to death by stoning.

According to Family Watch International, Nigeria is a role model.

“Aggravated Homosexuality”

A nonprofit organization, Arizona-based FWI is affiliated with the World Congress of Families, an Illinois think tank which conducts international conferences to promote their vision for “the natural family”—“the fundamental social unit, inscribed in human nature, and centered around the voluntary union of a man and a woman in a lifelong covenant of marriage.”

Most of the conferences are outside the United States and have focused on developing nations where their conservative message resonates well. Like FWI, the World Congress of Families opposes decriminalization of homosexuality. For instance, WCF opposed the 2009 UN resolution calling for decriminalization of homosexuality and downplayed the harshness of the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill in a 2009 newsletter. For FWI and WCF, supporting the natural family means resisting the right of GLBT people to live without threat of jail for private conduct.

FWI once considered Uganda’s notorious anti-gay pastor, Martin Ssempa, a volunteer coordinator for Africa. However, according to its website, FWI broke with Ssempa about the same time Ssempa’s support for Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality bill became public. Although Ssempa’s name is still listed as a volunteer, there is a new description accompanying it:

Martin Ssempa, FWI African Coordinator (volunteer) — Martin Ssempa was associated with Family Watch International because of his extensive work with youth promoting abstinence-based HIV education in Uganda. This association ended when Family Watch became aware of Mr. Ssempa’a support of the proposed law in Uganda calling for the execution of homosexuals who engaged in “aggravated homosexuality” (defined as homosexual sex between an adult and a minor or when a person infected with HIV knowingly has sex with another person putting them at risk for contracting HIV).

Slater: “It’s Complicated”

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Resource: The Iranian Queer Organization

Saghi Ghahraman

Source: Shahrvand

By Sima Sahar Zerehi

The Iranian Queer Organization better known as IRQO is likely the name that most people remember when it comes to organizing the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and transsexual Iranians in Toronto. The group was formed in the summer of 2006 by Niaz Salimi, Arsham Parsi, Sam Kusha, Roshan Borhan, and Saghi Ghahraman. Since its genesis IRQO has spearheaded an aggressive agenda of educating, mobilizing and advocating on behalf of LGBTQ Iranians.

Today, although short one of its founding members, IRQO continues to be an active queer rights group working on multiple fronts.

Niaz Salimi and Saghi Ghahraman continue to lead the organization with the assistance of a team of dedicated volunteers including Hamid Parnian, Yegane Dudi, Parastoo Rahmani, Mahiar Fatemi, and Ramin Jafari,

“We work to combat discrimination against homosexuality within the penal code of Iran,” begins Saghi Ghahraman.

Ghahraman a slight almost girlish figure with shocking silver hair is a well-known personality in the Toronto Iranian community.  She’s the kind of trailblazer that creates controversy wherever she goes, a true iconoclast. You can even say that she has a talent for provoking people and making them question the very things they take for granted as essential truths. In short, she’s exactly the kind of person you want standing next to you when you’re fighting a battle to create change.

While today she is known by most people as a queer rights advocate, she is remembered by the founders of 'Tehranto' as a poet and writer with three published books of poetry and a collection of short stories; literary achievements that helped to give a voice to a generation’s experience with migration to Canada.

Ghahraman continues by noting that “Raising awareness about LGBT human and civil rights” is another key goal for the group.

While IRQO is based in Toronto, the organization also advocates for LGBTQs who fled Iran to claim refugee status in Turkey or other transit and or host countries.

“We provide assistance via legal and financial support until they’re granted refugee status and are resettled in a safe country,” Ghahraman explains.

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