Tag: iran gay rights

Sister of Iran’s supreme leader condemns protest crackdown

Badri Hosseini Khamenei says brother’s ‘despotic caliphate’ has brought nothing but suffering Sister of Iran’s supreme leader condemns protest crackdown A sister of Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has spoken out against his bloody crackdown on nationwide demonstrations, saying her brother’s “despotic caliphate” has brought nothing but suffering, according to a letter published by her… Read more »

Iran sentences two gay rights activists to death

Iran’s regime has executed between 4,000 and 6,000 gays and lesbians since the nation’s Islamic revolution in 1979. The Islamic Republic of Iran imposed the death penalty on two LGBTQ activists for allegedly promoting homosexuality, human rights organization Hengaw reported on Sunday. According to Hengaw, an organization that documents human rights violations in Kurdistan, “Zahra… Read more »

Iran arrests lesbian for ‘supporting homosexuality’

The state‘s Sharia law system imposes the death penalty on same-sex relations. The 6G Iranian and Lesbian and Transgender Network reported Tuesday on its website that an Iranian lesbian named Sarah was arrested in the province of West Azerbaijan while seeking to cross the border into Turkey. The Islamic Republic’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)… Read more »

Gay Iranian man allegedly killed by family days before seeking asylum

Alireza Monfared’s death sparked new worries for global safety of LGBTQ people. Alireza Monfared, a 20-year-old who was gay, was allegedly killed by family members, just days before he could leave Iran to seek asylum, according to multiple reports. News of his early May death made headlines in the U.S. this week thanks in part… Read more »

Iran’s transgender community: Legally recognised yet socially ostracised

Transgender people in Iran are both legally and religiously accepted in the country but their existence in Iranian society is not easy. Iran is the only Muslim country in the Persian Gulf region that gives trans citizens the right to have their gender identity recognized by the law—but violence, rejection from their families and society,… Read more »

This Gay Couple Left Iran For A Better Life.

Washington – In the best-case scenario if Ramin Haghjoo and Nima Nia still lived in Iran, they would be married. Just not to each other to women, probably through arranged marriages. Perhaps they could have found women also attracted to their own gender and looking to hide the fact, like one of Haghjoo’s friends did.… Read more »

After firing several gun shots, police arrested more than 30 men apparently between the ages of 16 and 30 for being homosexual.

IRQR Voice Last Thursday around 8:30 pm, Esfahan’s police raided a private party in Bahadoran, the Garden region of Esfahan. After firing several gun shots, they arrested more than 30 men apparently between the ages of 16 and 30 for being homosexual. IRQR received several reports in last few days and were able to confirm… Read more »

Yousef and Farhad Graphic Novel

Graphic Novel Captures What It’s Like to Be Gay in Iran: Part 4 OutRight Action International | Posted 03.01.2017 | Home Read More: Yousef and Farhad, Yousef and Farhad Graphic Novel, Iran, Iran Gay Rights, Iran Lgbt, Iran Lgbt Rights, Iran Love, Lgbt Love, Amir Soltani, Khalil Bendib, Outright Action International, WorldPost Middle East, WorldPost… Read more »

What Does The Koran Say About Being Gay?

In the wake of the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that took the lives of 49 people, there has been much speculation around gunman Omar Mateen’s motives for the attack. The rationale for the crime, first considered to be a straight man’s act of homophobic violence, became self-loathing when it came to… Read more »

Taliban uses boy sex slaves to dupe & kill Afghan police, survivors reveal

Exploiting the pedophilic boy play ‘bacha bazi’, the Taliban infiltrates the Afghan security forces to attack and kill police commanders. The tactics were revealed by several officials and survivors to AFP. The ‘bacha bazi’ tradition dates back a long time, and is most widespread in the province of Uruzgan, central Afghanistan, where ‘bacha bereesh’ –… Read more »

Gay mullah flees Iran for conducting same-sex weddings

‘They were saying I am a cleric and I shouldn’t be meeting gay men. The other mullahs were suspicious about my sexual orientation and threatened me with death’ A Muslim gay cleric who conducted same sex weddings in secret in Iran has been forced to leave the county after receiving death threats from fellow religious… Read more »

Gay Iranian Poet Flees Persecution, Finds Himself in Israel

Payam Feili fled his native Iran last year because of the persecution he faced over his sexuality. Now, the gay poet has made a years-long dream come true — he is visiting Israel, Iran’s archenemy and a country known for its tolerance toward gays. But the 30-year-old Feili stands out not only because of his… Read more »

Gay student: ‘My dad tried to let ISIS kill me’

A medical student from Iraq has opened up about how his parents were willing for him to be killed because he is gay. Taim, a 24-year-old who only survived by fleeing Iraq for the Lebanon, opened up in a candid interview with the BBC, saying his father threatened to turn him over to ISIS, and… Read more »

Seeking home: The lives of gay and transgender asylum seekers of the Middle East

Beginning in Damascus, Syria, in 2010, photojournalist Bradley Secker began to document the lives of gay Iraqi refugees that had fled Iraq to escape homophobic violence. Shortly after chronicling their stories, Secker crossed borders and traveled to Turkey, following Iranians, Turkish Kurds, Syrians and more Iraqis who were claiming asylum abroad or fighting for their… Read more »

With generous social benefits, a welcoming attitude, and a thriving support community, Toronto has emerged as the unofficial capital for gay Iranian refugees.

When Ali escaped Iran and arrived in Turkey in 2012, he had already decided where he wanted the United Nations High Commission for Refugees to place him. I told them I’m choosing Canada because I’m going to go to university [and] Canada is cheaper than U.S.; Australia is too far; and in some states in… Read more »

Toronto’s gay mecca a refuge for persecuted Iranians

While other Muslims pay homage to the holy city of Mecca, Elina Azari worships Toronto, the gay mecca for queer Iranians. A month ago, the 26-year-old native from Tehran followed the treks of other queer refugees stranded in Turkey and joined the growing Iranian LGBTQ community for a new life in what some of them… Read more »

Love against all the odds: Lesbian Muslim couple from Iran tie the knot in Stockholm… and the delighted imam is gay too!

Sahar Mosleh and Maryam Iranfar married in Swedish capital Stockholm Both were forced to flee Iran where gay people are given the death penalty The couple were married by Imam Ludovic Mohamed Zahed Imam Zahed who is Algerian but lives in South Africa is also gay Beaming with pride, their faces wreathed in smiles, this… Read more »

Study Finds 17% of Young Iranians Are Gay

An official report has found that 17 percent of young Iranians are gay. According to The Economist, the 82-page report was recently issued by Iran’s parliamentary research department. The survey of 142,000 students found that 80 percent of unmarried females have boyfriends and 17 percent of respondents said they were gay. The researchers’ suggestion on… Read more »

Iranian author persecuted for being gay flees to Turkey

Iran: An Iranian poet and writer harassed, blacklisted and arrested for being gay has been forced into exile by the Islamic regime in Iran for alluding to same sex relations in his work. Payam Feili, 29, who was recently incarcerated for 44 days has managed to flee to neighboring Turkey where he has been living… Read more »

A Week of Victories for Iranian LGBT: 6Rang makes History at Istanbul Pride 2014

For the first time ever, 6Rang Network facilitated the organizational presence of Iranian LGBT community and launched a groundbreaking report on state-sponsored medical abuse of its community in Iran at the largest Pride in a Muslim country. Istanbul Pride 2014 was attended by thousands of participants from around the globe including Iran. For the Iranian… Read more »

Iran A ‘Paradox’ For LGBT’

Arsham Parsi had just been accepted into an Iranian university to study to become a veterinarian when three of his friends who were either gay or transgender committed suicide. He had previously worked with a doctor in his hometown of Shiraz in southern Iran who had been conducting research for a study on rates of… Read more »

Being Gay in Iran

Coming Out in a Country Where That Can Get You Killed, and the TV Documentary That Outed Me to the World I Ran From Iran And found myself in this town in Turkey, where I didn’t know a soul. I was one of the lucky ones. I’m 16. “May I ask you something personal?” I… Read more »

Experts Predict: Iran Will Remain Deadly

Two reports indicate that despite a new president’s overtures to the contrary, Iran will remain a deadly place for LGBTs. With the election last June of Hassan Rouhani as Iran’s president, there were hopes for a Persian Spring that would improve human rights for the country’s struggling LGBT community. Those hopes have not been borne… Read more »