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

Contents:

• A BRIEF HISTORY OF LBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENR SOCIAL MOVEMENTS
• IRAN'S PERSECUTN OF GAY MUNY REVEALED
• PRI IS A PROTT: THE STGGLE FOR GAY RIGHTS IRAN
• HOW ARE IRANIAN GAY MEN COPG WH SYSTEMATIC SUPPRSN UNR ISLAMIC LAW? A QUALATIVE STUDY

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

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.

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.

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. However, throughout 150 years of homosexual social movements (roughly om the 1870s to today), lears and anizers stggled to addrs the very different ncerns and inty issu of gay men, women intifyg as lbians, and others intifyg as genr variant or nonbary.

IRAN'S PERSECUTN OF GAY MUNY REVEALED

Such eyewns acunts the era before other media were of urse riddled wh the bias of the (often) Wtern or Whe observer, and add to beliefs that homosexual practic were other, foreign, savage, a medil issue, or evince of a lower racial hierarchy. Biblil terpretatn ma illegal for a woman to wear pants or a man to adopt female drs, and sensatnalized public trials warned agast “viants” but also ma such martyrs and hero popular: Joan of Arc is one example, and the chillg origs of the word “faggot” clu a stick of wood ed public burngs of gay men.

This creasg awarens of an existg and vulnerable populatn, upled wh Senator Joseph McCarthy’s vtigatn of homosexuals holdg ernment jobs durg the early 1950s outraged wrers and feral employe whose own liv were shown to be send-class unr the law, cludg Frank Kameny, Barbara Gtgs, Allen Gsberg, and Harry Hay. Fstrated wh the male learship of most gay liberatn groups, lbians fluenced by the femist movement of the 1970s formed their own llectiv, rerd labels, mic ftivals, newspapers, bookstor, and publishg ho, and lled for lbian rights mastream femist groups like the Natnal Organizatn for Women.

PRI IS A PROTT: THE STGGLE FOR GAY RIGHTS IRAN

The creasg expansn of a global LGBT rights movement suffered a setback durg the 1980s, as the gay male muny was cimated by the Aids epimic, mands for passn and medil fundg led to renewed alns between men and women as well as angry street theatre by groups like Aids Coaln to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and Queer Natn. In the same era, one wg of the polil gay movement lled for an end to ary expulsn of gay, lbian, and bisexual soldiers, wh the high-profile se of Colonel Margarethe Cammermeyer publicized through a ma-for-televisn movie, “Servg Silence.

Wh greater media attentn to gay and lbian civil rights the 1990s, trans and tersex voic began to ga space through works such as Kate Boernste’s “Genr Outlaw” (1994) and “My Genr Workbook” (1998), Ann Fsto-Sterlg’s “Myths of Genr” (1992) and Llie Feberg’s “Transgenr Warrrs” (1998), enhancg shifts women’s and genr studi to bee more clive of transgenr and nonbary inti. The n be seen throughout Persian Poetry until as recently as the 20th century, wh homoerotic love not only beg monplace, but takg center stage much of Persian Love mentn of homoerotic Persian Poetry would be plete whout Saadi Shirazi, the Persian poet and prose wrer. This is evint om the fact that around 20% of remas seem to belong to a third genr, often acpanied wh both mascule and feme artifacts, such as arrowheads and hair Hasanlu burial seHomosexualy ntued to be tolerated throughout medieval Iran, right up until the 19th Century.

HOW ARE IRANIAN GAY MEN COPG WH SYSTEMATIC SUPPRSN UNR ISLAMIC LAW? A QUALATIVE STUDY

” She ntu to expla how all this changed after 1979 “All the harsh treatment, the stigma and horror around gay men and lbians began right after the Revolutn wh the strong force of the regime enuragg parents and the public to harass homosexuals.

In a 2020 survey of lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, and tersex (LGBTI) Iranians nducted by the Iranian Lbian and Transgenr Network (6Rang), almost 20 percent of participants claimed to have been victims of vlence by police officers, secury forc, prosecutors, and/or judg. The Hengaw Organizatn for Human Rights reported that they were acced of promotg homosexualy, promotg Christiany and munitg wh media opposed to the Islamic 's judiciary later nfirmed the sentenc, but said they were nnected to human traffickg and not activism.

It ced her as sayg that she was forcibly disappeared for 53 days, durg which an IRGC agent allegedly subjected her to "tense terrogatns acpanied by verbal abe" and "threatened to execute or otherwise harm her and take away the ctody of her two young children" January, Seddiqi Hamedani was brought before a prosecutor Urmia, the largt cy Wt Azerbaijan, and told that she was acced of "spreadg rptn on Earth", cludg through promotg homosexualy, munitg wh hostile media and promotg Christiany, acrdg to group said the first two accatns stemmed om her public fence of LGBT rights on social media and her appearance a May 2021 BBC documentary about ab that LGBT people were sufferg Iraq's semi-tonomo Kurdistan Regn, where she had been Iranian law, same-sex sexual nduct is a crimal offence, wh punishments rangg om floggg to the ath penalty. Although the Mizan news agency nied that Sareh and Elham Choubdar were prosecuted bee of their activism, Iranian human rights groups have said they were acced of "spreadg homosexualy", "promotg Christiany", and munitg wh media hostile to the Islamic allegatn about promotn of Christiany is said to have been ma partly bee Sareh has worn a necklace wh a ptn, The US and rabow flags are often disrpected on Iranian social mediaIt's que normal for the Iranian thori to prosecute gay men unr bog charg. Rabow flags have been set on fire alongsi the US and Israeli flags, and there have been reports of people beg arrted for g LGBT datg a few days ago, the untry's hardle print Ebrahim Raissi referred to homosexuals g the highly offensive word and scribed homosexualy as "dirty behavur" and "morn barbarism" March, Supreme Lear Ali Khamenei scribed homosexualy as part of the "moral pravy" wispread Wtern civilisatn.