Iran Executes Two Men for Being Gay

So, those of you who read my blog (yes, both of you!!) will know that the majority of the stuff I write is complete tripe, and basically designed to catalog stuff for my family and friends who live a long way away, and to keep a record of me and my family over the years so that I will have something to look back on and reflect on.

Occasionally though, I will find something that has a little more substance and is a little more politically charged than just my daily life. Today is one of those days.

The following is a story (with pics) that I read about in the Portland Independent Media Center today, and it outraged me. I cannot believe I live in a world where this shit still happens. It is seriously like the Dark Ages in Iran. Don't get me wrong, I am all for the freedom of religion and such, but such 'crimes' like these are ridiculous. I can only imagine the horror that these boys went through at the end.

It covers not only the scope of crime and punishment, but the validity that homosexuality is a crime and a sin. Many people honestly believe that it is a sin, based purely on religion grounds. I know many gay people and, wait for the shocker here, they are normal people! Wow. Imagine that. Yes, it's true, these people are fully-functioning normal people like myself and you.

I know in the Bible, Leviticus chapter 18, verse 22 says that 'homosexuality is absolutely forbidden'. Okay, point taken. It also has a lot of other things in there that are not accepted as law nowadays by modern society. The argument has always been that is SHOULD be the same, and I don't dispute that you cannot pick and choose your parts of religion...it should be an all of none. So, what about the eye-for-an-eye thing? What about women honoring and obeying their men? You can't pick and choose. All or nothing. So why is the homosexuality clause pulled out by every religious nut?

Over here in the United States it is particularly bad because of the religious groups. Oregon isn't too crazy, but the whole legalizing gay marriage was a HUGE issue in the last election. Sad. They are regular people...let them have regular lives. If they want to get married, who am I (or anyone else) to stop them. People over here are so opinionated and there is a drive to make people conform to what you believe. What I believe is for me. No-one else. For those religious nuts that think God will be keeping score in such a way, I think are off the mark.

Islam is just another religion. I know, at this particular time with all the Muslim factions bombing people and creating mayhem in the world there is a lot of dissent towards them in particular. I think that is unjustified. They are just whacked out people who carry out their mission under the guise of religion. Islam, I read, is a very peaceful religion. History, on the other hand, shows that Christianity was responsible for the massacre for (hundreds of?) thousands of people in the middle ages.

This story however is just wrong. The laws of Islam should be tolerant of gays. So should everyone else. Why can't everyone just accept people for what they are? What is wrong with that theory? Isn't it about loving your neighbor, after all?

Anyway, I don't want to take away from this story with my own rhetoric, so please take the time to read the story below. I would love to know what you think. Please leave a comment.

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Iran Executes Two Young Men.

Two gay Iranian teenagers -- one 18, the other believed to be 16 or 17, were executed this week for the "crime" of homosexuality, the Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) reported on July 19. (The ISNA report is in Farsi, and was translated into English by the British gay rights group OutRage!, which released its report today--ISNA also provided the terrifying photos of the teens' last moments you see on this page. You can see an enlarged version of each photo by left-clicking on them) The two youths -- identified only by their initials as M.A. and A.M., were hanged on July 19 in Edalat (Justice) Square in the city of Mashhad in north-eastern Iran, on the orders of Court No. 19. The hanging of the teens was also reported by the National Council of Resistance of Iran.



The website, Iran Focus, not only confirms the story but provides more details, reporting that "Members of Iran's parliament from the north-eastern city of Mashad, where a minor and an 18-year-old man were publicly hanged yesterday, vented their anger on Wednesday on foreign and domestic news outlets for reporting the ages of hanged prisoners...

Ultra-conservative deputy Ali Asgari said that the two deserved to be hanged in public, adding, 'Whatever sentence is decreed by an Islamic penal system must be approved, unless proven otherwise.' Asgari complained of foreign and domestic reporting that the two were mere boys. 'Instead of paying tribute to the action of the judiciary, the media are mentioning the age of the hanged criminals and creating a commotion that harms the interests of the state,' the member of the Majlis Legal Affairs Committee said. 'Even if certain websites made a reference to their age, journalists should not pursue this. These individuals were corrupt. Their sentence was carried out with the approval of the judiciary and it served them right.' "



Consensual gay sex in any form is punishable by death in the Islamic Republic of Iran. According to the website Age of Consent, which monitors such laws around the world, in Iran "Homosexuality is illegal, those charged with love-making are given a choice of four deathstyles: being hanged, stoned, halved by a sword, or dropped from the highest perch.

According to Article 152, if two men not related by blood are discovered naked under one cover without good reason, both will be punished at a judge's discretion. Gay teens (Article 144) are also punished at a judge's discretion. Rubbing one's penis between the thighs without penetration (tafheed) shall be punished by 100 lashes for each offender. This act, known to the English-speaking world as 'frottage,' is punishable by death if the 'offender' is a non-Muslim. If frottage is thrice repeated and penalty-lashes have failed to stop such repetitions, upon the fourth 'offense' both men will be put to death.

According to Article 156, a person who repents and confesses his gay behavior prior to his identification by four witnesses, may be pardoned. Even kissing 'with lust' (Article 155) is forbidden. This bizarre law works to eliminate old Persian male-bonding customs, including common kissing and holding hands in public." And Outrage, in its release about the gay teens' execution, noted that, "according to Iranian human rights campaigners, over 4000 lesbians and gay men have been executed since the Ayatollahs seized power in 1979. Last August, a 16-year-old girl , [Atefeh Rajabi] was hanged [in the Caspian port of Neka] for 'acts incompatible with chastity,' [i.e., sex before marriage]."



In the case of the two teens hanged in Mashhad, "They admitted having gay sex (probably under torture) but claimed in their defense that most young boys had sex with each other and tdhat they were not aware that homosexuality was punishable by death," according to the ISNA report as translated by OutRage. "Prior to their execution, the gay teenagers were held in prison for 14 months and severely beaten with 228 lashes. The length of their detention suggests that they committed the so-called offenses more than a year earlier, when they were possibly around the age of 16."

"Ruhollah Rezazadeh, the lawyer of the younger of the two boys, had appealed that he was too young to be executed and that the court should take into account his tender age (believed to be 16 or 17). But the Supreme Court in Tehran Ordered him to be hanged." The Iranian authorities are putting out a cover story that the two boys had participated in the rape of a 12-year-old, but OutRage affirms from its sources that this accusation is a smokescreen for inhuman conduct and is without foundation. However, the Murdoch press (e.g., the Times of London) is putting about the Iranian government's story as a virtual statement of fact. But there is no mention of this Iranian government accusation in the original ISNA report, otherwise quite detailed.-- which rather suggests it's a recent invention.

Left-click on the first photo above and look at the enlarged version, which shows the younger of the two adolescents weeping as he faces the end of his young life. Then, if you would like to protest the barbaric hanging of these two lads to whom nature gave same-sex hearts, be aware that, while the U.S. has no diplomatic relations with Iran, there is an Iranian embassy in Canada. You may write, telephone, or fax the Iranian ambassador in Canada:

Ambassador Seyed Mouhammad Ali Moosavi, Embassy of Iran, 245 Metcalfe St., Ottawa, Ontario .K2P 2K2 Canada Telephone (OO1-613- 235-4726, 233-4726; Fax, 233-5712

The full story, in it's entirity, can be read by clicking
here.