Gay Iranians |

Contents:

• GAY IRANIAN MAN AD ALLEGED 'HONOR KILLG,' RIGHTS GROUP SAYS
• GAY IRANIAN MAN ALLEGEDLY KILLED BY FAY DAYS BEFORE SEEKG ASYLUM
• IRANIAN GAY/QUEER ACTIVISTS AND ACTIVISM
• IRANIAN, GAY & SEEKG ASYLUM
• Y, THERE ARE GAY PEOPLE IRAN
• IRAN PURPORTEDLY EXECUT 2 GAY MEN OVER SODOMY CHARG
• ALIREZA FAZELI MONFARED WANTED TO LIVE AS A EE GAY MAN THE WT. HIS FAY IRAN BEHEAD HIM DAYS BEFORE HIS DREAM ME TE, SAY ACTIVISTS.
• GAY IRAN: NO PLACE TO CALL HOME
• IRAN IS FORCG THOANDS OF GAY PEOPLE TO HAVE GENR REASSIGNMENT SURGERY AGAST THEIR WILL OR FACE EXECUTN

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

Ali Fazeli Monfared, a 20-year-old gay Iranian man, was allegedly killed an “honor killg” by some of his male fay members after they found out he was gay, acrdg to an LGBTQ rights group Iran and Monfared, who was known as Alireza by iends and fay, lived a cy southwt Iran. He had applied for an exemptn om pulsory ary service so he uld leave the untry and move to Turkey to live wh his close iend, Aghil Bayat, acrdg to 6Rang, the Iranian Lbian and Transgenr homosexual nduct is crimalized Iran, part of the ary exemptn law allows gay and transgenr people to receive a medil exemptn om service for their inty.

”Fazeli Monfared received an exemptn rd the mail om the Islamic Revolutnary Guard Corps after disclosg his homosexualy, but one of his male relativ found and disvered he was gay, acrdg to 6Rang. If Fazeli Monfared’s alleged killers had ught him havg sex wh a man, then they might receive lser punishments for his is one of an timated 11 untri where same-sex sexual acts are punishable by ath, acrdg to the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn, and one of almost 70 untri where is crimalized, acrdg to Human Rights Watch, an ternatnal human rights group based New York. "The are moral prcipl regardg the behavr of people general, ” he said at the time, acrdg to German broadster Dtsche are no statistics or rerds of the number of anti-LGBTQ “honor killgs” — which are perpetrated by relativ who feel the LGBTQ person has brought “dishonor” to the fay — that happen Iran or other untri that crimalize homosexualy, Tara Sepehri Far, who vtigat human rights ab Iran and Kuwa for Human Rights Watch, told NBC said Fazeli Monfared’s se highlights the importance of the role of the fay LGBTQ people’s liv when the state crimaliz who they are.

“Exposg that to the very same thori who, theory, have the thory to arrt and prosecute you is very risky, ” she said other untri should prsure Iran to remove the law crimalizg homosexualy and the ath penalty “bee this is the reason why the fai, they allow themselv to have the right to vlate their children. Sexual teractn between two women is punishable by floggg.The vast majory of media reports about homosexualy Iran are based on acunts of torment and opprsn om gays and lbians who have fled the untry.

GAY IRANIAN MAN ALLEGEDLY KILLED BY FAY DAYS BEFORE SEEKG ASYLUM

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 leave.Gays 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.

The people — men like Saeed — are the lucky on."Nety-five percent of gays Iran will never e out," Saeed says over pasta at one of northern Tehran's ffee shops, where the atmosphere is relatively permissive. | (VOCATIV/SUNE ENGEL RASMUSSEN)"The number one threat to gays and lbians Iran is the fay," agre Hosse Alizah of the Internatnal Gay & Lbian Human Rights Commissn (IGLHRC), and himself an Iranian. "Nam, tails, everythg."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.

IRANIAN GAY/QUEER ACTIVISTS AND ACTIVISM

The park is also one of the most popular pickup spots for Tehran's gay men.Around 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.

It also provis a temptg e, for gays and straights alike, an enomy bet by flatn and unemployment.And though the typ of -person enunters are a way to elu virtual spi, they are still ght wh risk.

IRANIAN, GAY & SEEKG ASYLUM

He was jt strangled to ath," says Saeed, who has bee more ut about meetg up wh strangers bee of siar cints.Tehran's parks are always crowd, and particularly around dk, many of them bee popular cisg spots for gay men.

Y, THERE ARE GAY PEOPLE IRAN

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 iends.The challenge of fdg a steady partner weighs heavily on Iranian gays; many speak of prsn, lonels and paranoia as almost permanent mental stat.

(In a male-domated society like Iran, homosexual women have even ls privacy than men, and often risk beg shunned by neighbors if they rent an apartment whout a hband.)A star of the 1970's, Googoosh is also hugely popular among Naeem and Behram's parents' generatn, so for the past six months, Naeem has tried to get his mother to watch the vio to gge her reactn, always leavg the TV tuned to a mic vio channel. "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 lghs.Part of the stigma agast homosexuals is trsic to the Persian language, which has two different words for homosexualy.

IRAN PURPORTEDLY EXECUT 2 GAY MEN OVER SODOMY CHARG

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 Alizah.And spe s often venomo rhetoric, the Iranian regime silently accepts that gays do exist, and tak a few pragmatic steps to acunt for that realy.The Quran, the foundatn of Iranian law, explicly bans homosexualy. You take wheat and turn to flour and turn that to bread… There are thoands of thgs we do every day that are chang God's natural orr."Another piece of pragmatism by the ernment is their le meant to keep gays out of the army.

ALIREZA FAZELI MONFARED WANTED TO LIVE AS A EE GAY MAN THE WT. HIS FAY IRAN BEHEAD HIM DAYS BEFORE HIS DREAM ME TE, SAY ACTIVISTS.

If a man n get a doctor to ttify he is gay, he will be exempt om ary service.Still, the small ncsns hardly amount to any sort of tangible eedom for Iran's gays, many of whom ntue to fight their own sexualy.

She will often make him n errands to the pharmacy bee Saeed has the hots for the clerk, he says wh a smirk.However, Saeed's sexualy has st him his relatnship wh his sister, who ially was the first person he me out to, but whose new hband is ls supportive."He is a jerk, and he is homophobic," Saeed says of his brother--law. "You n have someone who has studied at Yale or Prceton, and when he back to Iran, he still don't unrstand," he says.Alizah says that though there is a small movement toward broar acceptance of homosexuals Iran, the improvements are feeble."There's a new generatn of people who are more tolerant of the issu," he says. "But at the end of the day, only tak one person to stroy your life."(*Some nam have been changed to protect sourc.)This article origally appeared at : Livg dangeroly: What 's like to be gay Iran.More om Votiv...Attempted up agast fiercely anti-LGBT dictator failsActivists send mixed msag on French terror attacksThe new weapon the Rsian cultural wars: Stickers.

GAY IRAN: NO PLACE TO CALL HOME

"I believe the exact term for this horrendo murr is gay-killg rather than the general term of honor-killg, " Ma Khani, an Iranian LGBTQ and women's rights activist based Germany, told ABC News. "Of urse the motive of such murrs by fay members is to fend the 'honor' of the tribe or fay, but we should never fet the social stigma and hatred nstantly reproduced by the social and legal nstcts agast LGBTQ members, " she this area of the world face enormo dangers for beg openly gay.

Iranian law stat that men over the age of 18 need to serve the ary before they may leave the untry, but homosexualy is classified unr "psychologil disorrs, " which n lead to an exemptn om service. We are still aaid of the regime makg a database of gay and transgenr people and puttg them unr prsure whenever they want, " Shadi Am, an LGBTQ activist based Germany, told ABC ia of receivg an exemptn rd is leavg many gay and trans Iranians worried they'd be brand and vulnerable to harassment and discrimatn.

"People hold banners prottg agast discrimatn and persecutn agast homosexuals Iran, July 28, 2007, ont of the Eiffel tower Meda/AFP via Getty Imag, File Mahdi, a 36-year-old Iranian gay man who did not want to e his full name over safety ncerns, told ABC News that hearg the news of Monfared's murr broke his heart.

IRAN IS FORCG THOANDS OF GAY PEOPLE TO HAVE GENR REASSIGNMENT SURGERY AGAST THEIR WILL OR FACE EXECUTN

"Bis the immediate threat that many gay exempts face now, such way of verage and the prsure om outsi of the untry is not likely to have any impact on the illogil and nservative officials Iran, " he said. Its aim was to elimate homophobia and crease LGBT her ethnographic study on lbian activists New Delhi, Dave theoriz activism as an ethil practice, argug that activism “reli on s own nstant terrogatn and how moments of closure are the impet to new kds of prevly unthkable emergenc” (Dave 2011, p. It was then, the 1990s, that gay Iranian activists reclaimed the word through Persian Gay and Lbian Organizatn (now named The Iranian Queer Organizatn) was found 2006 by the human rights/queer activist Arsham Parsi.

However, here needs to be noted that reprsive measur affected everybody durg Ahmadejad’s princy, not only those who intified as gay or lbian, although some of them might have experienced some further repercsns.