East Leeds (by osvaldogringo)

A short documentary featuring Ramtin, a gay Iranian man, and the difficulties he faces in trying to seek asylum in the UK.

Q.

You might also want to watch this clip from The Current on trans* youth in Iran:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfT-hto9l8k&feature=share&list=PL005C585D4C8F304F

Q.

State medical records indicate that from 2006 to 2010, 1,366 Iranians acquired permits to undergo sex change operations.

Khabar-on-line reported on Monday that 56 percent were seeking male-to-female surgery and 44 percent were female-to-male operations.

Iranians seeking sex-change operations must apply to country’s courts for a permit, their case is then forwarded to state medical offices to be processed.

Maryam Khatoon Molkara, claimed to be the first Iranian to undergo gender reassigment, was instrumental in persuading Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran’s late spiritual leader, to legalize the operations in 1984.

While homosexuality is considered a sin and crime punishable by death, transsexuality is categorised as an illness subject to cure (i.e. gender reassignment).

Iran has between 15,000 and 20,000 transsexuals, according to official statistics, although unofficial estimates put the figure at up to 150,000.

Iran carries out more gender reassignment operations than any other country in the world besides Thailand.

Under the current Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the state has begun providing grants of £2,250 ( € 2,766 US$ 3,625) for operations and further funding for hormone therapy.

It is also provides loans of up to £2,750 ( € 3,380 US$ 4,429) to allow those undergoing surgery to start their own businesses.

In an interview with the British daily The Guardian, Molkara stated that some of those undergoing operations were gay rather than out-and-out transsexuals.

Under Iranian law, only sexual relations occurring inside heterosexual marriages are permissible, anything else is strictly prohibited with a maximum capital punishment for homosexuality.

The Safra Project 2004 report stated that it is not possible for presumed transsexual individuals to choose not to undergo surgery - if they are approved for sex reassignment, they are expected to undergo treatment immediately.

Those who wish to remain “non-operative” (as well as those who cross-dress and/or identify as genderqueer) are likely to face persecution as gay, lesbian or bisexual people in Iran.

Other reports document gay, lesbian and bisexual people being forced into gender reassigment operations. 

Thus Iran’s police follows the strict Shari’a division of heterosexual gender roles, and many people who are not genuinely transsexual are forced into this procedure.

Furthermore, many transgender people face social persecution, are ostracized, or even killed by their family and community after reassignment.

Commenting on the news, Omar Kuddus, an openly gay Muslim LGBT rights advocate based in the UK told GSN: ‘It is unfortunate that many gay, lesbian and bisexual Iranians have to resort to gender reassignment surgery as a forced choice.

‘The only other viable choice for them if they remain in the country is to try and avoid get caught which could cost them their lives.

‘In fact, the high number of surgeries may indicate this harsh reality – many are probably gay, lesbian and bisexuals who would rather live as such rather than be forced into a gender reassignment surgery.

‘Even then, Iranian society, at large, does not accept transgender people who are murdered because they “dishonour” their families’.

(via SIN - Inspired By A True Story by Wajahat Ali Abbasi — Kickstarter)

Inspired by a true story, ‘Sin’ is an American Feature Film which will bring to life an emotional tale of a teenager who was killed by public hanging along with his partner in Iran because he was gay.

Videos and pictures of this sad incident were released online in July 2005, but the world forgot about it soon after.

Through this movie we will get to know this teenager’s life, whose only crime was that he wanted to be accepted by his society, with his true identity.

By this tragic story we will be addressing an important question; Why some people who are in love don’t have the same rights, as others? Is it just because they are different from what the world expects them to be?

The Iranian authorities have shut down a publisher for ‘promoting’ gay sex and immorality.

Iranian authorities have shut a famous publishing house for allegedly promoting ‘homosexuality, incest, and sexual relations between men and women outside marriage’

Iranian authorities announced last Friday, 22 June, that the reason they shut down a prominent publishing house in Tehran was due to its ‘promotion of homosexuality, incest, and sexual relations between men and women outside marriage’.

On 8 June, Iranian officials decided to permanently shut ‘Cheshmeh’ (Spring in Persian), one of Iran’s leading publishing house, particularly respected in the country’s literary, academic, and intellectual circles.

Read More

Iranian refugee who landed in Winnipeg is one of the lucky ones

By: Carol Sanders

Posted: 05/26/2012 1:00 

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS 

Horst Backe (from left), Hamed and Mark Rabnett. The Winnipeggers sponsored Hamed after communicating with him on Skype.

The president of Iran once infamously said there are no homosexuals in his country.

The truth is, anyone outed as gay in the Islamic theocracy might end up dead as a result.

Hamed is focusing on improving his English and acquiring his driver’s licence. (SUPPLIED PHOTO)

Or as a refugee in Winnipeg, if they’re lucky — like 27-year-old Hamed, who arrived in March.

He was sponsored by a Group of Five connected to the Rainbow Resource Centre in Winnipeg.

“I can’t imagine what would’ve happened to me,” said the young man, who spent 17 months in Turkey waiting to come to Canada after he was outed.

“Being gay in Iran is not acceptable,” said Hamed in carefully chosen English. “If someone wants to hurt me or kill me, there is nobody to protect me.”

Even here in Canada, he’s worried about what could happen to him if homophobic fundamentalists discover his last name and track him down.

Read More

The event takes place the day before IDAHO, the International Day Against Homophobia

An event launching a report on the way the internet affects LGBT life in Iran will be hosted in London this week, days after it was announced that the country was to execute four men on sodomy charges.

According to a Human Rights Activist News Agency report last week, four men from the Iranian town of Choram were sentenced to death by hanging.

The British non-profit organisation Small Media has released a report, ‘LGBT Republic of Iran: An Online Reality?’, looking at how the internet is used by Iran’s gay and transgender citizens and the danger of online entrapment, which can be read online here.

At the event in London’s Shoreditch on Wednesday evening, on the eve of the International Day Against Homophobia, Small Media’s Director of Operations, Dr Bronwen Robertson will present an overview of the report’s findings.

The event will also include a music performance from Iranian guitarist Ramtin Montazemi, a Q&A panel of Iranian experts moderated by the Guardian’s Brian Whitaker, a poetry reading of work by Iranian LGBT literary activists, a short video screening about LGBT asylum seekers in Turkey, and video messages from LGBT Iranians enduring the repression of the Iranian government.

Read More

Photo by Trix5000.

A new report on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Iran highlights the problems they face in their own country and when they flee into exile.

Small Media and veteran UK-based gay activist Peter Tatchell will launch the LGBT Republic of Iran report in London on 16 May, a day ahead of International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO).

In a statement released today they said: ‘LGBT Iranians are routinely harassed both by society and by the state. Many have been physically tortured and punished and some have been sentenced to death solely because of their sexual orientation.

‘One of the few ways LGBT Iranians can express their true selves, find valuable information about sexuality, health and identity, and build a sense of community is through the internet, the use of which is also inherently dangerous in the Islamic Republic of Iran.’

Human rights campaigners have expressed concerns about Iranian plans to introduce a nationally-controlled internet, cutting off free access to information.

One 26-year-old gay man from Bandar Anzali (a harbor city on the Caspian sea) who contributed to the report said: ‘If I said I saw myself as being part of this society, I’d be telling the biggest lie of my life. That’s because of my homosexuality and the Iranian people’s mentality about homosexuality. I usually refer to Iran as “your country” instead of “my country” or “our country”.

‘Words can’t describe how important the internet is for me… Because I live in a really small city, where the homosexual community (if there even is one in our city!) is very secretive. The only way for me is the internet.’

Read More

He is obviously unaware, or doesn’t care, about the history of same sex love in ancient Persia. Homosex ia hardly a Western invention.

Q.

Blindfolded Mahmoud Asgari, 16, left, and Ayaz Marhoni are publicly hanged in Mashhad, Iran, in 2005 on charges related to sodomy. Photograph: AP

An influential Iranian cleric who is entitled to issue juristic rulings according to the Sharia law, has condemned western lawmakers involved in the decriminalisation of homosexuality, saying those politicians are lower than animals.

Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi-Amoli, an Islamic scholar based in Iran’s holy city of Qom, said in a speech among his followers that homosexuals are inferior to dogs and pigs, according to the news website Khabaronline.

“If a society commits a new sin, it will face a new punishment,” he said while interpreting Qur’anic verses about prophet Lot whose tribe Isalmic scholars say was punished by God for sodomy. “Problems like Aids did not exist before.”

Citing the Qur’an, Javadi-Amoli said politicians who pass laws in favour of homosexuals are lower than animals. “Even animals … dogs and pigs don’t engage in this disgusting act [homosexuality] but yet they [western politicians] pass laws in favour of them in their parliaments.”

Homosexuality is punishable by death according to fatwas issued by almost all Iranian clerics. Until recently, Lavat (sodomy for men) was punishable by death for all individuals involved in consensual sexual intercourse.

But under new amendments approved recently in the Iranian parliament the person who played an active role will be flogged 100 times if the sex was consensual and he was not married, but the one who played a passive role will still be put to death regardless of his marriage status.

Despite the horrific punishment for homosexuals in Iran, the gay community in the country is alive underground and has won some recognition by coming out in defiance of the regime.

In September 2011, a group of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Iranians launched a campaign on Facebook, highlighting the discrimination against sexual minorities in Iran where homosexuals are put to death.

Sunday, 8 January 2012

Hossein Alizadeh, Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator, International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, says that the Tehran city authorities recently flew the rainbow flag.

According to a blog run by a conservative group, they appeared over a major highway. City officials claimed they did not know the symbolic meaning  of the rainbow flag and as soon as they were alerted by the conservatives to the link between the rainbow flag and gay people, the “appropriate measures were taken by the authorities to remedy the situation”.

That blog has posted several images of the rainbow flags covered with messages like “down with USA” and the proverbial “death to America” - to “ensure the images are not exploited by the enemies”.

The True Face of Islam : Iran has the highest rate of sex changes in the world (by MolkaMolkan88)

From Joe.my.god

The award-winning documentary Be Like Others has been posted in full on YouTube. The film tracks several Iranians as they navigate the government-approved program for sexual reassignment surgery.

By Andrea Burzynski

NEW YORK | Wed Aug 24, 2011 1:55pm BST

The film, which begins playing in U.S. theaters on Friday after a strong debut at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, tells of two Iranian teenage girls who fall in love. But they face interference from a brother who joins the religious police and a government that refuses to acknowledge gay people exist.

“I’ve seen very few films that address women’s sexuality — in Iran, in the Muslim world, at all,” Keshavarz told Reuters. “As much as some people are upset about the film, there are other people who are like, ‘Finally! Something that’s us!’”

The story and characters are fictional but Keshavarz, who wrote and directed the film, said they are based on real-life experiences among her friends.

The key characters in “Circumstance,” Atafeh and Shireen, have grown up like many young women in Tehran. As teens, they dream of a life of adventure, art and culture. They buy foreign DVDs, listen to western music, dance at underground clubs and dream of running away. Eventually, they fall for each other.

But standing between them is a society that will not accept who they are rapidly becoming. That society is embodied in Atafeh’s older brother, who was once like them but has returned home from drug “rehab” a more conservative and intolerant man.

The movie follows the girls as they explore their feelings for each other and navigate a society filled with peril.

BREAKING RULES

The lesbian subject matter isn’t the only controversial aspect of “Circumstance”. The film violates many cinematic practices common in Iran and other parts of the Muslim world.

“It didn’t adhere to the rules of Iranian cinema, where women have to have their hair covered,” Keshavarz said. “We even have sex scenes and nudity in the film”.

There is also a scene where Shireen and Atafeh, the two main characters, strip down to their underwear for an illicit swim in the sea. Perhaps the film’s most controversial — and talked about — scene is a fantasy sequence in which the women imagine themselves in an amorous tryst in a Dubai hotel room.

In Iran, filming certain realities can exact a high price. Jafar Panahi, an internationally celebrated filmmaker, was arrested in March 2010 amid speculation he was making a film critical of Iran’s current regime. He was imprisoned and forbidden to make any films or leave Iran for 20 years.

There was never a question of filming in Iran, so Keshavarz engaged in “an extensive search” for the perfect location which she found in Beirut. But even in that city, there came risk. While many gay men and women live in and travel to Beirut, homosexuality remains illegal in Lebanon.

To get government permission to film, Keshavarz removed parts of the script she thought censors may find inflammatory, including anything to do with sexuality or religion. “We shot those scenes anyway. We just didn’t submit them,” she said.

Lebanese authorities often came on set during filming, which sometimes forced the crew to scuttle production plans and find innovative means of distraction.

Even after shooting was finished, Keshavarz exercised caution by carrying undeveloped film to Jordan, then shipping it to the U.S. for processing.

Her efforts seem to have paid off. “Circumstance” earned the Audience Award at Sundance, as well as several other honors at gay and straight film festivals throughout 2011.

Now “Circumstance” faces a new test — U.S. audiences and box offices. But even that may not be its biggest challenge. The major hurdle will be when, if ever, it debuts in Tehran.

(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Ashram Parsi, executive director of the Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees and Ashraf, whose grandson, Aliraza Monavari, is now safely living in Norway after leaving Iran thru Turkey on the railroad. Ashraf will march in this year’s Pride Parade.  RICK MADONIK/TORONTO STAR

Look for them on Sunday, marching down Yonge St. among the scantily clad and the corporately sponsored.

They’ll be the ones wearing white T-shirts, their hands raised in peace signs or waving rainbow flags bearing the name of the homeland they fled in fear.

And while other Pride-goers take it all off, some in this group will cover their faces, their open homosexuality too dangerous for family members back home.

It will be the first time an official Iranian contingent marches in Toronto’s Pride Parade.

“Iranian queers do exist,” said Arsham Parsi, executive director of the Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees. “We want to raise awareness for (their) rights.”

Through his Toronto-based organization, Parsi has helped bring more than 50 gay, lesbian and transgendered Iranian refugees to Canada since he fled the country himself in 2005.

Homosexuality is punishable by death in Iran. Its ultra-conservative president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once proclaimed there were no gay people in the country. It’s an atmosphere that puts even relatives of gay Iranians at risk; Parsi’s family had to move to Turkey after his activism led to threats against them.

But after marching in Ankara’s pride parade this May, Parsi was inspired to lead a group in Toronto. His friends in Turkey, many of them asylum seekers staring down an uncertain future, felt so relieved after marching, he recalled.

“They told me, ‘When we’re shouting and chanting in the streets, we do exist. We almost forgot all of the pressure,” he said. “We just shout and tell the world, I’m here and I would like my rights.”

About 35 refugees and supporters will march with Parsi on Sunday. Ashraf, 58, who moved from Iran to Toronto three years ago, will be among them. From her wheelchair, she will send an important message to the Iranian community without even saying a word, Parsi said.

Her presence is proof that being traditional and supporting gay rights are not mutually exclusive.

Ashraf, who asked that her last name not be published, is the grandmother of a gay teenager who fled Iran with his mother and is currently seeking asylum in Norway. Speaking in Farsi, Ashraf is overcome as she talks about her grandson. She cries and chokes on her words as Parsi translates.

“Loving your children is not only about feeding them and taking care of them. You have to support them as well,” she said, adding that many Iranians left their home because they could not bear living under “a dictator” like Ahmadinejad.

“When we cannot tolerate our children’s diversity … and we want them to be like us, it’s a kind of dictatorship,” she said.

Parsi knows that his group’s understated esthetic and serious message might get drowned out by more colourful parade entries. Pride is a time for picking up and partying for many people, Parsi said, and that’s just fine.

“But … for at least one minute they have to think that we have to be thankful that we are in Canada. There are many, many people all over the world that don’t have the same opportunities and are struggling for their rights,” he said. “It’s not about having fun or not, it’s about being alive.”

• Saeed Kamali Dehghan
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 14 June 2011 19.05 BST
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, normally appoints the head of the body under which the country’s moral police function. Photograph: Ho/EPA

Iranian men have been banned from wearing necklaces in the latest crackdown by the Islamic regime on “un-Islamic” clothing and haircuts.

Thousands of special forces have been deployed in Tehran’s streets, participating in the regime’s “moral security plan” in which loose-fitting headscarves, tight overcoats and shortened trousers that expose skin will not be tolerated for women, while men are warned against glamorous hairstyles and wearing a necklace.

The new plan comes shortly after the Iranian parliament proposed a bill to criminalise dog ownership, on the grounds that it “poses a cultural problem, a blind imitation of the vulgar culture of the west”.

The Irna state news agency said the trend was aimed at combating “the western cultural invasion” with help from more than 70,000 trained forces, known as “moral police”, who are sent out to the streets in the capital and other cities.

With the summer heat sweeping across the country, many people, especially the young, push the boundaries and run the risk of being fined, or even arrested, for wearing “bad hijab” clothing.

Women in particular are under more pressure because of the restriction on them to cover themselves from head to toe. Men are allowed to wear short-sleeved shirts, but not shorts.

“The enforcement of the moral security plan was requested by the nation and it will be continued until people’s concerns are properly addressed,” said Ahmadreza Radan, the deputy commander of the Iranian police.

Iran’s moral police usually function under a body whose head is appointed directly by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In a live television programme last year, president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that he did not approve of the crackdown.

Speaking by phone, a Tehran resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said: “It’s not only about clamping down on clothing, but they are spreading panic and fear by sending out this much of police into the streets under the name of this plan, to control the society. It’s unbelievable to see a regime that is not only concerned about its own survival but it goes into your personal life and interferes in that.”

Under Islamic customs, dogs are deemed to be “unclean”. Iranians, in general, avoid keeping them at home, but still a minority, especially in north Tehran’s upper-class districts, enjoy keeping pets. Last year Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi, a prominent hardline cleric, issued a fatwa against keeping dogs and said the trend must stop.

Last summer authorities in Tehran also released a list of approved hairstyles in an attempt to offer Islamic substitutes to “decadent” western cuts, such as the ponytail and the mullet.