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The shocking photos of the execution of gay teenagers, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, in the Iranian city of Mashhad on 19th July 2005, bought home to many people for the first time the barbaric, inhuman and violently homophobic nature of the Iranian clerical regime.
Their executions were, of course, just two of many state-sanctioned murders of children, unchaste women, gay people, and ethnic, political and religious dissidents. The Islamic Republic of Iran has been repeatedly condemned by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch for widespread and severe human rights abuses, including abuses of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
One man, Mogtaba Barazandeh (pictured), fled the regime seven years ago and came to Yorkshire. He spoke to Paul Hunt about the continuing struggle of Iran’s lgbt community, living in a state where men women and children are torture and hanged for the ‘crime’ of being gay.
This is Mogtaba’s story…..
I was born in 1975 in Tehran and went to university in 1988 for four years. During my time at uni, I realised that I was not ‘straight’ and knew I was gay. Whilst at uni, I and several other students formed a group in an attempt to highlight freedom of speech and thought. The government by that time were really against such things. We dared to hold a demonstration against the government. We wanted freedom for not only students but the gay community in Iran.
The police singled me out as a ring leader and I knew my life was in danger. I had no option but to flee my country, leaving my family and friends. It was a hard decision, but I was determined to continue to highlight the plight of the gay community in such living in the terrible homophobic, brutal state of Iran. I knew my life was in danger!
We had heard that from the news and broadcast media that lgbt people had a different life in UK, they have been allowed to get ‘married’ and had respect in public. The contrast from Iran could not have been different. That was seven years ago when I arrived in Yorkshire.
Back in Iran, life for anyone suspected of being gay is horrendous. It is seen as a crime and anyone practising sexual acts, perceived by the police to be ‘homosexual’ is punished by hanging. Many people are tortured prior to obtaining a ‘confession’ Living in Iran and being gay is like a living nightmare, constantly living with the fear of being found out and the ultimate fear of punishment by torture and death. Families who have a gay child are in fear of losing their loved one and the shame of the community realising that their son or daughter is gay.
On leaving Iran, I made a promise to myself and others to speak out, to ensure the world knows about the barbaric oppression of a community. Being gay in the UK is so much different and we all need to stop and think about how other people are treated in different parts of the world.
I cannot compare living in Yorkshire with living in Iran. Lgbt people in Yorkshire are seen as part of the community and on the whole treated like everyone else. This is the dream of those back home. For me, it is like living in Heaven. But I never forget the lgbt community back in Iran.
Of course I miss my family and friends and realise I will probably never see them again.
Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recently visited the United States and during a speech he denied that gay people exist in Iran. Yet his government sanction the torture and killings of lesbian and gay people. He wants everyone to believe this because it is an Islamic country and being gay is against the religion and the law. Many people will know about the recent hanging of two teenage boys (pictured), done in public and causing a lot of condemnation around the world. They were young and gay. They were each whipped before nooses were tied around their necks. They were suspended on two cranes and loaded onto an open lorry which was driven away; both were hung and died instantly.
Both the president and the government maintain that gay sex is unnatural and should be punished by death. Last year, due to the adverse publicity, the president decreed that such killings not be public hangings. All such killings are now carried out in prison, away from the eyes of the world.
Web: www.petertatchell.net
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