Iran's persecutn of gay muny revealed | Iran | The Guardian

Contents:

• WHAT 'S LIKE TO BE GAY IRAN
• Y, THERE ARE GAY PEOPLE IRAN
• IRAN'S PERSECUTN OF GAY MUNY REVEALED
• NFL'S KEV MAXEN COM OUT AS GAY, MAK HISTORY AS FIRST OUT MALE COACH MEN'S PROFSNAL SPORTS
• A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
• GAY IRANIAN MAN AD ALLEGED 'HONOR KILLG,' RIGHTS GROUP SAYS

WHAT 'S LIKE TO BE GAY IRAN

Now, a forthg book by a leadg Iranian scholar exile, which tails both the long history of homosexualy that natn and the origs of the mpaign to erase s trac, not only provis a superlative reply to Ahmadejad, but monstrat forcefully that polil homophobia was a Wtern import to a culture which same-sex relatns were wily tolerated and equently celebrated for well over a thoand years. Its thor, Ja Afary, print of the Internatnal Society of Iranian Scholars, is a profsor of history and women's studi at Purdue Universy who has already published several thorative works on Iranian sexual polics, notably the revealg and award-wng "Fouult and the Iranian Revolutn: Genr and the Sctns of Islam" (2005), which she already monstrated a remarkable sympathy for gay and lbian people.

Y, THERE ARE GAY PEOPLE IRAN

In her new book, Afary's extensive sectn on pre-morn Iran, documented by a close readg of ancient texts, portrays the domant form of same-sex relatns as a highly-dified "stat-fed homosexualy, " which an olr man - prumably the active partner sex - acquired a younger partner, or amrad.

Afary monstrat how, this perd, "male homoerotic relatns Iran were bound by l of urtship such as the btowal of prents, the teachg of lerary texts, bodybuildg and ary trag, mentorship, and the velopment of social ntacts that would help the junr partner's reer. One of her most stunng revelatns is how an Azeri-language newspaper eded and published the Rsian Cc, Molla Nasredd (or MN, which appeared om 1906 to 1931) fluenced this Iranian Revolutn wh a "signifint new disurse on genr and sexualy, " sharg Marx's well-documented ntempt for homosexuals.

IRAN'S PERSECUTN OF GAY MUNY REVEALED

Wh an edorial board that embraced Rsian social mocratic ncepts, cludg women's rights, MN was also "the first paper the Shi'i Mlim world to endorse normative heterosexualy, " echog Marx's well-documented ntempt for homosexualy. MN nflated homosexualy and pedophilia, and attacked cleril teachers and lears for "moltg young boys, " played upon feelgs of "ntempt" for passive homosexuals, suggted that ele men who kept amrad ncub "had a vted terted matag the (male) homosocial public spac where semi-vert perasty was tolerated, " and "mocked the r of exchangg brotherhood vows before a mollah and pared to a weddg ceremony. MN's attacks on homosexualy "would shape Iranian bat on sexualy for the next century, " and "beme a mol for several Iranian newspapers of the era, " which echoed s attacks on the nservative clergy and learship for homosexual practic.

In the years that followed, "Iranian revolutnari monly berated major polil figur for their sexual transgrsns, " and "revolutnary leaflets acced adult men of havg homosexual sex wh other adult men, 'of thirty-year-olds proposng fifty-year-olds and twenty-year-olds proposng forty-year-olds, right ont of the Shah. Subsequently, "leadg nstutnalists enthiastilly joed the mpaign agast homosexualy, " wr Afary, notg that "the fluential journal Kaveh (1916-1921), published exile Berl and eded by the famo nstutnalist Hasan Taqizah, had led the movement of opn agast homosexualy...

When Reza Kahn overthrew the monarchy's Qajar dynasty and ma himself shah 1925, he hered a new wave of reforms and mornizatn that clud attempts to outlaw homosexualy entirely and a feroc - ultimately succsful - asslt on classil Persian poetry. "Classil poems were now illtrated by miature patgs celebratg heterosexual, rather than homosexual, love and stunts were led to believe that the love object was always a woman, even when the text directly ntradicted that assumptn, " Arafy wr. In the ntext of a triumphant censorship that erased om the popular llective memory the enormo lerary and cultural herage of what Afary terms "the ethics of male love" the classil Persian perd, is hardly surprisg as Afary earlier noted "Fouult and the Iranian Revolutn" that the vilence of the current Iranian regime's anti-homosexual reprsn stems part om the role homosexualy played the 1979 revolutn that brought the Ayatollah Khomei and his followers to power.

NFL'S KEV MAXEN COM OUT AS GAY, MAK HISTORY AS FIRST OUT MALE COACH MEN'S PROFSNAL SPORTS

In "Sexual Polics Morn Iran, " Afary sums up the suatn for homosexuals unr the Ahmadejad regime this way: "While the shari'a [Islamic law] requir eher the actual nfsn of the acced or four wns who observed them flagrante licto, today's thori look only for medil evince of peratn homosexual relatnships. In this necsarily tnted summary of some of Afary's most signifint and nuanced fdgs and revelatns wh rpect to homosexualy, is impossible to do jtice to the full sweep and spe of "Sexual Polics Iran, " the larger part of which is voted to the role of Iranian women, and to their stggl for eedom which began the 19th century. Tehran, the pal cy of Iran, was once scribed the 70s by Jerry Zar (an Amerin profsor who ed to teach Tehran) as a sexual paradise, one that provid him wh the most excg time of his life which he wasn’t nstraed by Wtern rtrictns and homophobia.

Due to the lack of documents about homosexualy durg pre-Islamic Persia, they propagated the ia that this culture was an novatn that took place Islamized Persia and we, as te heirs of the Persians of the past, mt not tolerate . The fact that a few people who were associated wh the royal fay were gay – such as the queen’s drs signer, Keyvan Khosravani – created the image, propagated by the opposn, that the Shah was importg palistic cultur om the Wt, at the peak of which stood the unholy act of sodomy. However, Khomei’s hatred for gay people was only rivaled by his ttatn for irrelig mglg between men and women, which led to the plete dismantlg of mixed-sex spac the 1980s and the return to old-fashned same-sex environments.

Moo Moallem, a scholar of genr studi, said, “The nvergence of popular culture practic ground Shia mythology, morn natnalism and pre-morn and morn views of genr and sexualy creat a homosocial and homoerotic world for warrr men to tablish a muny of brothers who regnize themselv through the nant procs of otherg and domtitg women. And while their experienc are reprentative for some of Iran's homosexuals, they are hugely different om those of the people who choose to stay the untry, or don't have the opportuny to om lower class and ral areas, where stigmatizatn is often most severe, rarely have the abily to move out of the hoe before marriage, let alone leave the untry.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

"The Iranian thori ually turn a bld eye to the gay muny's pas, but much like the telligence servic the former Soviet Unn, Iranian telligence is believed to pile large fil on many cizens, which they n e to build a legal se agast people who might be ught engagg polil activi. The park is also one of the most popular pickup spots for Tehran's gay dk, Maseratis, BMWs and the ocsnal Porsche circle the park; you don't have to wa long to spot one of them slow to a halt and pick up a sgle man cisg the g. Seven months later, they rented an apartment wtern Tehran; they both still live at home and when Naeem here, he tells his parents he is gog out of town wh challenge of fdg a steady partner weighs heavily on Iranian gays; many speak of prsn, lonels and paranoia as almost permanent mental stat.

GAY IRANIAN MAN AD ALLEGED 'HONOR KILLG,' RIGHTS GROUP SAYS

"I thk she tri to not watch the clip so she always chang the channel or pretends that she don't watch the TV, " he of the stigma agast homosexuals is trsic to the Persian language, which has two different words for homosexualy. While the new centrist ernment unr Print Hassan Rouhani matas a siar rea as s precsor, foreign-based media outlets like BBC Persian, Rad Zaman and Voice of Ameri e non-rogatory language about homosexuals, and is slowly tricklg down to reformist outlets si the untry, and to young Iranians, says spe s often venomo rhetoric, the Iranian regime silently accepts that gays do exist, and tak a few pragmatic steps to acunt for that Quran, the foundatn of Iranian law, explicly bans homosexualy.

Through onle activism, publishg poetry, lerature and artwork onle, and engagg wh global gay culture through televisn and the ter, gay Iranians are g of age, spe the myriad of rtrictns they still face Iranian society and at the hands of the state. Unr the current circumstanc, Iranian youth, whether gay or straight, face many different obstacl, some of which have to do wh the regime (social rtrictns and iologil and polil prsure or the enomic suatn), and some to do wh public culture (a lack of acceptance of different liftyl and closed, tradnal thkg).

Homosexuals who live small towns, more sular environments, and those who e om lower social levels and don’t have sufficient avenu for accsg rmatn and fdg others wh siar characteristics, or fdg a more accurate unrstandg about themselv, face other problems.