Y, There Are Gay People Iran

Contents:

• WHAT 'S LIKE TO BE GAY IRAN
• Y, THERE ARE GAY PEOPLE IRAN
• PERSIAN GAY | ایران گی
• GAY IRAN: NO PLACE TO CALL HOME
• IRANIAN GAY MAN, 20, MURRED AND BEHEAD BY HIS FAY
• GAY IRANIAN MAN AD ALLEGED 'HONOR KILLG,' RIGHTS GROUP SAYS
• IRANIAN, GAY & SEEKG ASYLUM
• GAY IRANIAN MAN ALLEGEDLY KILLED BY FAY DAYS BEFORE SEEKG ASYLUM
• 1 OUT OF 3 YOUNG IRANIAN MEN "GAY"?

WHAT 'S LIKE TO BE GAY IRAN

From the dawn of Persian poetry the nth century all through to the twentieth century, not only was homosexualy ndoned Persian poetry, but fact homoeroticism formed almost the only amatory subject of Persian ghazals (short son-like lyrics) and the ma topic of much of Persian love poetry. Novic workg unr master craftsmen, errand boys (šāgerds) shops, and youths workg at different tras were now mostly the targets of homoerotic love poems, although ls equently qasidas than ghazals, quatras, and ocsnal piec (qetʿas). The ḵaṭṭ is scribed varly as green (ḵaṭṭ-e sabz), st-lored (ḵaṭṭ-e zangāri), mk-lored (ḵaṭṭ-e moš-k), buddg ḵaṭṭ (ḵaṭṭ-e now-damida), etc., but most often upled wh ḵāl (bety spot) on acunt of their homonymy.

Y, THERE ARE GAY PEOPLE IRAN

Not only Mlim boys were the subject of homoerotic sir, but so were boys om mory groups, more particularly Zoroastrians boys (mōḡ-bača) servg taverns and Christian on (tarsā-bača), sometim belongg to nvents; for example:.

The social acceptance of homoeroticism, spe of relig prohibn, was such that ʿOnṣor-al-Maʿāli Kay-Kāv, a prce of Ṭabartān, his well-known mirror for prc, monly known as Qāb-nāma, wrten as a pendium of advice for his son Gilānšāh, not only approv of male homosexualy, but suggts the bt way of practicg , even though he is by all acunts a man of piety, bound by the dictat of relign. The public acceptance of homoerotic love Persian lerature, more particularly Khorasan and Transoxiana durg the 10th-12th centuri, spe of strong relig prohibn both pre-Islamic and Islamic Persia, however, requir an explanatn.

” The romanc classil Persian lerature based on Parthian and Middle Persian origals such as Faḵr-al-D Gāni’s Vis o Rām, ʿAyyuqi’s Waraqa o Golšāh, ʿOnsori’s Vāmeq o ʿAḏrā, Neẓāmi’s Ḵosrow o Šir and Haft Peykar, and possibly Attar’s Ḵosrow-nāma all treat of heterosexual love wh no ht of homosexualy. There is a possibily that Greek loni northeastern Persia durg the Hellenistic perd had a share removg or rcg the stigma of homosexual love and makg socially acceptable, whereas southern Persia, a bastn of Zoroastrianism, and where a good al of Zoroastrian wrgs origated, the suatn was different.

PERSIAN GAY | ایران گی

That emotnal ti should velop between Sufi mentors (pirs) and their young discipl the Sufi hospic (ḵānaqāhs) is only natural, given the wispread tenncy toward homoeroticism and s social acceptance on the one hand, and the excln of women om ḵānaqāhs, on the other.

GAY IRAN: NO PLACE TO CALL HOME

In spe of the transparency of homoerotic love the lyril prelus of the qasidas the 10th-12th centuri, the ghazals and robāʿis of the ʿErāqi school, notably Saʿdi and Hafez, and later the poems of the Safavid school and Indian style, as many ocsnal poems (qatáaʿāt), is surprisg that among historians of Persian lerature, om Hermann Ethé (q. 1946) had been published; and his diatrib agast major figur of Persian lerature (wh the exceptn of Ferdowsi) went hand hand wh his homophobia and gave rise to vehement attacks on poets, Sufis, homosexuals, and morn advot of classil Persian poetry, cludg Moḥammad-ʿAli Fo-ḡi, ʿAli Aṣḡar Ḥekmat, Qāsem Ḡani (qq. Recently, however, Šamisā, a lerary scholar, has dited a volume to the subject: Šāhed-bāzi dar adabiyāt-e fārsi (Homosexual love Persian lerature, 2002) which he discs var aspects of the subject and which he has assiduoly brought together ample exampl om Persian poetry and prose.

IRANIAN GAY MAN, 20, MURRED AND BEHEAD BY HIS FAY

The neglect of, or rather, the omissn of and silence about, the subject has been apparently due to a number of , cludg general currents of homophobia both the Wt and morn Persia, aggravated perhaps by the translatn and discsn of acunts of earlier European travelers and wrers on Persia and the Middle East, who had emphasized the strong element of homoeroticism the East. Recently, however, the growg refal of gays and lbians to accept a clanste existence and the rultant visibily of gay culture has led some wrers the Wt to pay attentn also to the wispread currency of perasty the Middle East.

It is possible, though, that wh the emergence of important gay and lbian wrers and poets and their translatn to Persian, addn to the spread of more liberal attus toward homosexualy the Wt, exemplified by the drive towards gay marriag the U. 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.

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

| (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. "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.

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 's parks are always crowd, and particularly around dk, many of them bee popular cisg spots for gay men.

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. "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.

GAY IRANIAN MAN ALLEGEDLY KILLED BY FAY DAYS BEFORE SEEKG ASYLUM

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.

1 OUT OF 3 YOUNG IRANIAN MEN "GAY"?

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. We spoke to him about what life is like the days for gay, lbian, bisexual and transgenred Iranians, and whether is even possible to live a fulfilled, secure life as a gay person a untry such as Iran:. 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).

There will always be teractns among -workers, people on the street and the bazaar, and gathergs that will have trac of homophobia them, and which will create an unwanted distance between a homosexual and his environment.