Iranian Gay Activist: "They Forced Me to Watch Executions So I Would Know How Mine Would Be"

Iranian LGBT activist now living as a refugee in Spain. He was sentenced to death by the ayatollah regime for being homosexual and for his support campaign for the community. "The enemy was already at home," he says about the current war

In 11 countries around the world, homosexuality is punishable by death - it is criminalized in almost 70 countries. One of them is the Islamic Republic of Iran, from where Ramtin Zigorat (Tabriz, 1988) managed to escape after avoiding a death sentence and enduring the worst tortures. He has been living as a refugee in Spain for six and a half years.

Question. His life, his testimony, can help us better understand what the Iranian Islamist regime is. I believe that until adolescence, you did not fully understand that you were homosexual.

Answer. As a child, I already felt different, and some paternal relatives bothered me for being effeminate. I remember in elementary school, I had a classmate whom I liked to hug every time he came over to study. But I didn't know the word homosexual or anything about the LGBT community. At 13 - I'm 37 now - I started having some internet access in computer shops, and that's when I began chatting on Yahoo Messenger with people who explained to me what being gay meant. I didn't fully grasp the concept, and I was scared because I lived in an extremely macho society, and I had always heard that homosexuality was terrible, the worst of sins, inhumane... But I couldn't continue like that, so I decided to confide in a teacher. My big mistake.

Q. How did he react?

A. He and a psychiatrist at the school forced me to take very strong pills, demanding that I not say anything at home. I cried a lot, I couldn't study anymore, I couldn't remember things. My family couldn't understand how a kid who had always been cheerful, a good student, who liked to play and dance, suddenly only slept and cried. One day, my mother found the pills. She was very angry with the school, questioning how they had given them to a minor. But they reacted angrily, warning her that they had already shown leniency by not expelling their faggot son and worse things. That's how I came out of the closet, and my aunt found out, then my uncle, my father, my sister, my brother... My mother thought that my homosexuality would change as I grew older, and she suffered a lot, but she also told me she would support me until the end of her life. And she did.

Q. The reaction of other family members was not the same...

A. When the rest of the neighborhood found out, my brother, who is two years older than me, was very bothered by the neighbors' comments, he was ashamed. One day, he and another friend beat me up so badly that I lost consciousness for two days. But what had I done to deserve that? For being who I am? That's the question I've always asked myself.

Q. I have to ask you, not without embarrassment, about one of the most traumatic episodes you suffered later, a multiple rape.

A. I was in my first year of university. One day, when I returned, I saw a friend from the community injured in a park because he had been kicked out of his house. I accompanied him to a health center to have his wounds treated. On the way back, four men beat me up and raped me, several times. I remember telling them that my father was a policeman to see if that would scare them, and one of them laughed, saying that others had already used that line. That's when I fell silent. I stopped going to university. I felt very dirty, I washed myself every day, bought shampoo after shampoo because I was disgusted with my skin. And I cried. I have endured many tortures, but none compare to the two rapes I have suffered. That wound is forever.

Q. And, of course, with no possibility of reporting it.

A. In Iran, homosexuality is severely punished. But the death penalty is usually applied to the passive partner*, even if you are raped. When you are part of the LGBT community, effeminate, gay, you are guilty. You are the one who provoked the rape. I was completely alone. I couldn't tell anyone in my family either. To my father, who no longer cared about me? To my brother, who didn't love me? To my mother, to stress her to death?

Q. What is the situation of homosexuality in Iran today?

A. Under the strict interpretation of sharia, homosexual relationships can lead to the death penalty. For LGBT individuals, life is extremely harsh because the regime seeks to eradicate homosexuality from society by all means. This involves a lot of violence, assaults, and deaths, both at an institutional and social level. Some people commit suicide because they cannot bear the systematic violence they endure. Others are imprisoned or killed by the regime itself. You are not killed for saying you are gay, but for engaging in relationships. In practice, it's the same. 

If they know you are homosexual, you cannot work in any office, you cannot have your own business, you cannot even get a driver's license. You are socially erased.

I don't understand how this regime operates, honestly. The laws of Islam are very painful to me. Religion has a huge misogynistic part deeply embedded in mentalities, allowing heterosexual men to act as they please because everything is for them.

Q. Despite the incredibly dangerous situation, how and when did LGBT activism begin in Iran?

A. Shortly after coming out. I was particularly interested in social injustices from a young age. I couldn't understand how God could allow such things. In fact, a year after telling my family that I was homosexual, I came out as an atheist. I thought, if there is no God, it is up to us as people to act against so many injustices. I started with environmental issues, paying attention to children working on the streets, many mistreated Pakistanis trying to make a living selling flowers... With LGBT activism, I started when a small group of eight or nine of us came together. I had already experienced the multiple rape. I was very aware of the danger. But we told ourselves: "If they kill us, they kill us. We are already dead." In secrecy, we tried to share information on how to take care of ourselves and support each other, we made LGBT calendars, we made trans bracelets and rainbow flags, we printed leaflets and left them on cars at night... We sought to promote some information in such a macho and aggressive society against the community. We are aware that today we are fighting against the regime, but if it were to fall tomorrow, another very tough battle against misogyny would begin.

Q. And then came the terrible moment when you were arrested.

A. The regime had been saying for a while that there was a Zionist group - because in Iran, anyone who is not liked by the ayatollahs is labeled as such - spreading homosexuality in Iran, and they were looking for us. They found me in a park while distributing leaflets. I managed to escape. But in the end, they caught me in a border city with Turkey. It was raining non-stop, it was very cold, I was very tired after 10 days of evading city to city. My mistake was looking for a night in a hotel. Since I had no identification, the owner abused me to let me in. But then he alerted the police. And I spent about 40 days in a detention center of the Revolutionary Guard Corps. They were the worst days of my life.

Q. That was hell.

A. They subjected me to all kinds of physical and psychological torture. They beat you, record you, beat you, record you, ask you many things, but I wasn't going to say anything. I preferred to die than to endanger the lives of others. They urinated on me, threw feces on me, treated me like an animal, played the Quran 24 hours a day... And they took me before a judge, who didn't allow me to speak, who sentenced me to several death penalties: for being a spy for who knows what, for sharing homosexual diseases, for going against Islam, for going against the Islamic State of Iran. A bunch of things. Then they took me to another prison where the torture continued. Every morning, they forced us to look out a window at the courtyard where they executed people so we would know how they were going to kill us. We had to watch for five minutes while they died. If we closed our eyes, they would beat us. I still have nightmares about that.

Q. That's when your mother was able to fulfill the promise that she would always help you.

A. My mother sold all her land and paid bribes to manipulate my documents. That's how they managed to get me out of prison, but with the condition that I remained locked up at home for two years. A year later, my mother died of cancer. A few months later, with the help of some uncles, I was able to leave Iran, first to Turkey and then to Spain. I felt dead. And I still haven't been able to heal.

Q. You have been here for six and a half years. How has this time been?

A. I feel well taken care of in Spain. I still have many nightmares. But here they take care of me, and through my work, I try to take care of others. I have been treated well in Spain.

Q. What is your insight from Spain on what is happening right now in your country?

A. This war is the result of 47 years of systematic violence by the Iranian state against its citizens. The Iranian regime has never respected the authentic culture, customs, or freedoms of its people. The ayatollahs have always prioritized their fundamentalist ideology over Iran itself, seeking to export it to neighboring nations, leading to serious conflicts in Yemen, Syria, or Lebanon, with the support of Hezbollah. Whenever the Iranian people have protested for their demands to be heard, the regime has responded with mass killings, like in January. The Iranian people are diverse, like any other, and there are those who oppose this war. However, my perception is that the majority support it because individuals alone could not confront this regime, which is not like that of Venezuela, Cuba, or Iraq. The Iranian regime is powerful due to its wealth, and Shiite fundamentalism drives its supporters to not hesitate to kill or die. They believe we are in a period of absence (Ghaybah) before the return of the Mahdi, the savior who will bring what they consider the true Islamic order to the world. Therefore, they would be willing to eliminate half of the Iranian population if necessary. This regime is much stronger and larger than we think. Iranians have spent decades seeking help from the United Nations, the European Union... but economic interests have always prevailed. When Western powers supported the arrival of Khomeini in the late 70s, it was primarily to combat the rise of communism and socialism during the Cold War, and because the Shah had increased oil prices in his final years, displeasing the powers. 

Tens of thousands of people have been killed by the regime in the streets, and most of their bodies have never been found. That is why most Iranians are not against this war; the enemy was already at home.

Thus, the monarchy, which also lacked political freedoms and enforced strong repression, was replaced by a totalitarian regime like that of the ayatollahs, who have never cared about the Iranian people. The regime has spent exorbitant amounts on a nuclear energy program that has not benefited the people and has economically favored Russia. The mismanagement of the country's natural resources has been so catastrophic that Iran now faces water shortages. The regime's allies have exploited oil and rare earth minerals, of which China has taken control to support the ayatollahs. When we hear that the U.S. is bombing to seize hydrocarbons, as an Iranian, I can only ask what else is left for them to take that other countries haven't already taken. Iranians have nothing left. All we want is to live and not be killed for who we are. Tens of thousands of people have been killed by the regime in the streets, and most of their bodies have never been found. That is why most Iranians are not against this war; the enemy was already at home.

Q. Do you believe that, as events unfold, the regime of the mullahs could fall?

A. I am optimistic, yes. With the elimination of the regime's leadership, as is happening, Iranians will be able to take to the streets again. I think we will not have a very long war, and this regime will end very soon, sooner than many people think.

Q. But for now, it seems that the Iranian power network is resisting. Many analysts believe that Donald Trump, without clear objectives, has started the war without a roadmap, making erratic decisions, and could soon grow tired of Iran, especially due to the economic consequences. Wouldn't that result in a weakened regime becoming even more repressive?

A. No, because Iranians do not expect the United States to change the regime from the outside but rather to weaken it enough for the people to lead the change. Many Iranians in the diaspora are willing to return to fight for this. Currently, the only one who could lead a transition is the Shah's son, Reza Pahlavi, who has significant support and a viable plan for the country's recovery. Hopefully, if the time comes, he will act as promised and not change, as the Iranian people are relying on him. Fifteen years ago, Iranians wanted a republic, but now we trust in a parliamentary monarchy as a solution. If this regime remains, Iran will be worse than North Korea.

Q. Doesn't Reza Pahlavi's close ties to the Israeli government harm his support among Iranians?

A. No, because it is the Islamic regime that has always been an enemy of Israel, without Iranians understanding the reason.

Why should Israel be our enemy? Iranians do not see Israel as responsible for this war. It's like if every day you threaten someone or show them a knife, one day they will turn around to fight back.

This has been happening for years, with the ayatollahs threatening to destroy Israel. Iranians want to be friends with all countries in the region.

Q. What is your opinion on the stance that the European Union, and specifically the Spanish government, are taking?

A. I understand that the Spanish government does not want to get involved in the war or, as the EU says, "this is not their war." But I did not feel good when the Spanish government spoke about the attacks between Israel and Iran without mentioning the tens of thousands of people killed weeks earlier by the Iranian regime.

How can you talk about peace to a mad killer holding a weapon and shooting?

In the Iranian regime, there have been leaders who have killed their own children because they were not Shiite fanatics who believed in the arrival of the Mahdi. These radicals are capable of anything.

* In Iran, the legal framework for homosexual acts is based on a strict interpretation of Sharia law, and the specific term for male-to-male penetrative sex is Lavat (often translated as sodomy). The passive partner is sentenced to the death penalty regardless of his marital status or whether the act was consensual. The active partner's punishment depends on circumstances. He faces the death penalty only if he is married (committing adultery/incest), used force (rape), or is a non-Muslim having sex with a Muslim. If he's single and the act was consensual, the punishment is typically 100 lashes. Interestingly, Iran has a different legal view on transgender people. Following a fatwa by Ayatollah Khomeini in the 1980s, gender reassignment surgery is legal. Sometimes, gay individuals are pressured by the state to undergo surgery to "correct" their gender so that their attractions are viewed as heterosexual.

Source: mundoamerica.com, Eduardo Alvarez, DPN, March 23, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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