1 out of 3 young Iranian men "gay"? | Disver Magaze

Contents:

• GAY IRANIAN MAN AD ALLEGED 'HONOR KILLG,' RIGHTS GROUP SAYS
• 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 IRANIAN MAN ALLEGEDLY KILLED BY FAY DAYS BEFORE SEEKG ASYLUM
• Y, THERE ARE GAY PEOPLE IRAN
• WHAT 'S LIKE TO BE GAY IRAN
• IRANIAN GAY MAN, 20, MURRED AND BEHEAD BY HIS FAY
• HOW ARE IRANIAN GAY MEN COPG WH SYSTEMATIC SUPPRSN UNR ISLAMIC LAW? A QUALATIVE STUDY
• IRANIAN, GAY & SEEKG ASYLUM
• THE POLITICS OF RECOGNIZABILITY: GIVING AN ACCOUNT OF IRANIAN GAY MEN’S LIVES UNDER REPRESSIVE CONDITIONS OF SEXUALITY GOVERNANCE
• 1 OUT OF 3 YOUNG IRANIAN MEN "GAY"?

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. 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.

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.

The activist hop the vios rm people of queer people's liv Iran, where punishments for beg gay range om 100 lash of the whip to, the munitns director for the Center for Human Rights Iran, said homophobia was wispread the untry. "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.

GAY IRANIAN MAN ALLEGEDLY KILLED BY FAY DAYS BEFORE SEEKG ASYLUM

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.

Y, THERE ARE GAY PEOPLE IRAN

"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. 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).

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. Wh all the media attentn around this subject (pecially onle, satelle televisn programs, and foreign films and seri), homosexuals make peace wh themselv rather quickly and relatively easily, but there are problems, too. 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.

There are those like [Islamic philosopher Abdolkarim] Soroh, who haven’t yet thought about homosexualy; there are those like the [progrsive theologian-cleric Mohsen] Kadivar who, if we nsir him an tellectual, support Islamic punishment agast homosexualy, and others like Akbar Ganji, Ram Jahanbegloo, Arash Naraghi, and others who fend the rights of homosexuals. Discrimatn between the active and the passive partners, opposg transsexuals, misogyny, ternalized homophobia, a tradnal and biased view towards two people’s relatnship, lack of sufficient emotnal matury, and over-emotnalism are some of the thgs that n more or ls be seen among homosexuals. 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.

WHAT 'S LIKE TO BE GAY IRAN

"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.

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.

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.

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

This 20-year-old betiful soul om Iran was btally killed by his brother & s for beg gay as part of an honour 's LGBTQ muny is btalised both by the regime & by bigotry certa fai#علیرضا_فاضلی_منفرد — Masih Alejad ?️ (@AlejadMasih) May 8, 2021. “Alireza’s killg as a rult of his sexual orientatn beg stated on his ary service [exemptn] rd has once aga provid proof for our warng several years ago about the risks ed by the ary service exemptn procs for gay Iranian men and unrl the need for legislatn to prevent the safety risks, ” the anizatn said a statement. Richard Grenell, the openly gay former Actg Director of US Natnal Intelligence and then-Ambassador to Germany, phed back on Zarif’s ments statg, “The Iranian regime has vlated basic prcipl of the Uned Natns.

LGBT dividuals Iran have been sufferg om systematic supprsn and discrimatn for s and, orr for them to survive, like any other mori and isolated groups, they have formed a unique some may nsir homosexualy to be a relatively new Wtern phenomenon, a brief look at the history of same-sex relatnships Iran reveals that is, fact, prevalent throughout Iran’s historil culture. Dpe this long history of homosexualy Iran, many of the untry’s current homosexuals, particularly the younger generatn, tend to intify more wh a morn perspective rather than a historil or even cultural one (Mahdavi 2012; Yagarfard and Bahramabadian 2014). However, a signifint number of those who unrgo the surgery do so not bee they are transgenr but bee they are gay, lbian or bisexual and see sex change surgery as the only optn for them to “erase the ‘sta’ of homosexualy and bee ‘legal’ unr Iranian law” (Human Rights Watch 2010, p.

While a major factor this issue is how the Iranian thori’ policy and law have created an environment of social isolatn, is further pound by profsnal practners and psychologists Iran and their attempts at ‘treatg’ the sexual ‘viancy’ of homosexuals and lbians (see Am 2015).

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

Then through snowball samplg 57 gay men were ntacted through email and only 38 people replied to the ial email, then rm nsent were sent to 38 prospective participants that of them only 29 showed tert to participate the study, the rt dropped out due to the sensivy of the subject, fear of discloser, fear of alg wh strs durg the terview, not knowg the terviewer and lack of tst and not feelg fortable to do the terview trough vio ll. At the same time, however, they exprsed their willgns to participate bee they felt any rearch of Iranian gay men might ntribute to the velopment of knowledge and unrstandg of gay men and their current suatn Iran.

Ined, some of the ma reasons given by participants for agreeg to participate the current rearch were that, through this rearch, the thori might hear their voice sayg “we exist”; they were fightg stigmatisatn and discrimatn; and they were raisg awarens society about gay men Iran.

IRANIAN, GAY & SEEKG ASYLUM

Thirdly, sex helps them to nnect to other gay men and engage social workg as a pg strategy for social isolatn and narratns of the participants’ sex experienc were very varied; for stance, two participants mentned that bee they had their own home, they uld have sex 3–4 tim a week. There is a school of thought which suggts that the practice of engagg risky sexual behavur serv as a symbolic act of rebelln by gay mal, albe one that may be rried out subnscly or even jt as part of the accepted gay culture (Crossley 2004).

Psychologilly, the act of engagg risky sexual practic may provi some members of the gay muny wh a fulfillg sense of prottg and rebellg agast the domant social valu which they feel opprs their eedom and pennce (Crossley 2004) addn, two participants mentned that they even stood the street, pecially the eveng and at nights, to get picked up by rs. There are many reports of gay dividuals standg the well-known “pick-up pots” who have been beaten to ath by strangers or even by the moraly police or the Basij (UK Home Office 2016) most mon risk takg act intified was “gatherg public and unrground get-togethers or parti”.

In spe of the legal and health-related risks associated wh alhol and dg e Iran, gay men are still misg the substanc as part of their pg mechanism for alg wh the strs and anxiety ed by their social isolatn, discrimatn and systematic has been observed that many members of the gay populatn e alhol and dgs to overe the pa of rejectn, isolatn, and discrimatn (e. For stance, participant 15, who was 30 years old, sgle and not datg, and unemployed, mentned that although he knew that he had no sexual or emotnal sire towards the oppose sex and he was sure that he was gay, he did not follow his sire. Eleven participants mentned that they found challengg believg Islam and beg gay simultaneoly; five participants also mentned that they had left their relign and they now nsired themselv as Iran is an Islamic untry and relig tn is mandatory for everyone at school om a very early age, hypothetilly might have some level of impact on an dividual’s sexual behavurs general.

THE POLITICS OF RECOGNIZABILITY: GIVING AN ACCOUNT OF IRANIAN GAY MEN’S LIVES UNDER REPRESSIVE CONDITIONS OF SEXUALITY GOVERNANCE

(2007) reported how they adopted var methods of gnive behavur therapy (CBT) such as vert aversn (aversn therapy, g electro shock and vom-ducg dgs) to succsfully “treat” three homosexual and two transsexual “patients”, who exhibed heterosexual behavur after receivg the therapy. In this study, was observed by the rearcher that the reason for the succs of the treatment was largely due to the patients’ sire to change bee of their unrstandg that homosexualy or transgenrism was unacceptable Iranian culture. In such an environment of persecutn and neglect, many non-state actors rry out acts of homophobic vlence wh impuny (UK Home Office 2016) of the three who had married mentned that, even though they were married, they had relatnships wh other men secret.

1 OUT OF 3 YOUNG IRANIAN MEN "GAY"?

The suatn is ma worse by the Turkish placement policy of ncentratg homosexual refuge small and often highly nservative ci (Saastamoen 2017) Network and Fay of ChoiceAll of the participants mentned that they eher ed to e social media and/or datg apps or were still g them. The ma reasons for g social media acrdg to the participants were nnectg to other gay dividuals, feelg that they were a safe place, makg nversatn about homosexualy Iran and LGBTQ rights, sex and fdg a sex partner, lookg for a more ser relatnship, chattg wh others which helped them regardg their isolatn and lonels, and also accsg rmatn (see also Karimi 2016). There is no doubt that gay dividuals Iran experience ‘mory strs’, fed as a state rultg om “…culturally sanctned, tegorilly ascribed ferr stat, social prejudice and discrimatn, the impact of the environmental forc on psychologil well-beg, and nsequent readjtment or adaptatn” (Brooks 1981, p.

As prevly intified, there is then a tenncy for gay dividuals to turn to substanc such as alhol and dgs as a pg vice to help them al wh their negative social ClassThe social class of the participants this study were very diverse. In addn, participant 4, who was 41 years old, a relatnship, and self-employed, mentned that he was om a workg-class fay livg the south of Tehran and that the suatn for gay men there was more difficult than for people the north of Tehran, as people the south were more tradnal and nservative than people om the north. The creased probabily of openly admtg to beg gay, the length of time between mencg same-sex relatnships and g out to others, and the high probabily of havg sexual relatns wh women spe a lack of sire to do so are all ditive that the standards of masculy related to social class have a ntrollg effect on the social liv of workg-class gay men (Barrett and Pollack 2005).