Death Penalty News

Iran’s regime frequently uses the charge of sodomy to impose the death penalty on gays and lesbians. The Islamic Republic of Iran continued its lethal homophobic policy, executing on Sunday two men based on its anti-gay Sharia law system. The two Iranian men, Mehrdad Karimpou and Farid Mohammadi, were killed in the Maragheh prison in northwestern Iran, according to the organization Human Rights Network in Iran. The men were arrested six years ago. Iran’s regime frequently uses the charge of sodomy to impose the death penalty on gays and lesbians. According to a 2008 British Wikipedia dispatch, Iran’s theocratic state executed between 4,000 and 6,000 gays and lesbians since the country’s 1979 Islamic revolution. Human Rights Network in Iran said the Iranian regime-controlled media has not reported on the executions of the two men based on the country’s anti-gay law. “The two Iranian men were executed today after being found guilty of charges related to homosexuality," Iran Human Ri...

As Hassan walked -- well, more like sashayed -- through the market in this southern Turkish city, the population on the sidewalk -- elderly women in dark veils, men behind stalls selling Turkish pears, children in woolly striped sweaters -- all gawked. "Yes, look! Look all you want," Hassan said with a flourish, opening his arms in a benevolent gesture, as if their stares were rooted in adulation and not curiosity bordering on disgust. A portly, middle-aged woman narrowed her eyes and curled her lip at him. "What?" said the 34-year-old Iranian refugee. "Is this the 1st time she's seen a man wearing makeup? Maybe she should take notes. She could use a few beauty tips." Behind him, Farzan giggled. The slight 25-year-old, sporting a shoulder sack that would be labeled a purse even in the male-bag capitals of Tokyo and Paris, offered up a quick tale in his feminine lilt. "The other day I was buying some eggs, and the man would not even take the mo...

An Iranian court has sentenced four men from the town of Choram, in the Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province, to death by hanging for sodomy. The four men — identified as “Saadat Arefi,” “Vahid Akbari,” “Javid Akbari,” and “Houshmand Akbari” — were due to be executed shortly after their verdict was approved recently by high court judges, according to a report from the Human Rights Activist News Agency ( HRANA ) in Iran. According to HRANA and JOOPEA , the men will be hanged for sodomy in accordance with Sharia law. A gay activist based in Iran said, “Although being gay is not a crime based on Iranian criminal law but this is the most clear statement against same sex-acts in past months.” He added that “there wereof our other men hanged in past five months.” London based Iranian Human Rights Lawyer, Mehri Jafari said, “I am horrified and saddened to have heard the news about these four men. Not only with regards to the execution which is about to take place, but th...

Iranian media reported that the 31-year-old kidnapped two 15-year-olds. The Islamic Republic of Iran publicly hanged a 31-year-old Iranian man after he was found guilty of charges related to violations of Iran’s anti-gay laws, according to the state-controlled Iranian Students’ News Agency. The unidentified man was hanged on January 10 in the southwestern city of Kazeroon based on criminal violations of “lavat-e be onf” – sexual intercourse between two men, as well as kidnapping charges, according to ISNA.  Iran’s radical sharia law system proscribes the death penalty for gay sex. The ISNA reported that the 31-year-old kidnapped two 15-year-olds. The opaque inner workings of Iran’s judicial system create enormous difficulties for journalists and human rights advocates to examine judicial cases. “The LGBT community in Iran has lived in terror for the last 40 years,” said Alireza Nader, CEO of Washington, DC-based research and advocacy organization New Iran. “N...

His name was Alireza Fazeli Monfared and he was only 20 years old. Fazeli Monfared was homosexual and due to the difficulties he faced because of his sexual orientation, was about to flee his native Iran for Turkey. But he was reportedly killed by his family members before he could leave the southwestern province of Khuzestan after they accused him of dishonoring the family. Fazeli Monfared's killing has put the plight of Iran's LGBT community in the spotlight amid concerns that this will not be the last suspected case of so-called honor killings of homosexuals in the Islamic republic. "There's no guarantee that this won't happen again until our society becomes educated and informed," Arsham Parsi, a Toronto-based, Iranian gay-rights activist and head of the International Railroad for Queer Refugees, told RFE/RL. Killed For Being Gay Fazeli Monfared was reportedly killed on May 4 by his half-brother and cousins who, according to some reports, beheaded him and ...

Air France crew Gay Air France attendants want to be excused from working flights to Iran, because Iran applies the death penalty to gay people. It’s yet another exposure of multiculturalism’s contradictions. Air France is about to resume flights to Iran after an eight-year hiatus, and in an internal memo told their female flight attendants that when they deboard in Iran they must wear a headscarf to comply with Iranian laws. Not surprisingly, the French flight attendants revolted. They claimed this would seriously violate their right to the secularism that is so fundamental to the French state. In response, Air France agreed to allow them to opt out of working Iran-bound flights. Now, another group of Air France employees is protesting the requirement that they work this new route . Gay male flight attendants have started a petition that would give themselves a similar option as their female colleagues. But their cause goes beyond a violation of their secular rights. I...

Earlier this week, Air France announced that female flight attendants can opt out of flights on the carrier’s new route to Tehran after some said they didn't want to cover their hair upon arriving in Iran. Now, Air France’s gay flight attendants are attempting to use the momentum generated by the decision by taking a stand against flying to Iran, where homosexuality is punishable by death . More than 26,000 people have signed a Change.org petition , created by someone known only as “Mr. Laurent,” which seeks to give gay flight attendants the right to refuse travel to the country. The petition is addressed to the CEO of Air France, Frédéric Gagey, and France’s minister of transport, Alain Vidal. “It is inconceivable to ask someone to go to a country where his kind are condemned for who they are,” Laurent said in the petition. Jean Marc Quattrochi, secretary general of Union des Navigants de l'Aviation Civile (UNAC), the union representing French flight and cabin c...

Gay staffers are now also rebelling against the route, as Iran continues to enforce the death penalty for homosexuality Air France is facing a rebellion from gay air stewards – who are refusing to fly on a new route to Iran. The company is launching a new route from Paris to Tehran, the capital of the reclusive state, with flights set to begin on April 17. However, the new route has been controversial with cabin crew – after a memo instructed female staff members to wear heardscarves and modest trousers. The company last week said it will introduce an exception so that female employees who don’t want to work on the route will be granted exemptions. But gay staffers are now also rebelling against the route, as Iran continues to enforce the death penalty for homosexuality. Laurent, a gay air steward, started a petition against the route that has attracted nearly 2000 supporters. He urged the company to “grant gay crew members the right to refuse to go to a...

For a country that executes gay people, it offers a surprising procedure. But those going through it face unqualified doctors and humiliation. Death or surgery? It’s a capital offence to be gay in Iran. But gender-change surgery is legal. Now, 4000 Iranians are undergoing the life-changing procedure every year. And many of them are juveniles. The plight of Iran’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) was brought back to the attention of the world after the belated arrest of a provincial “morality police” chief last month after video of him engaging in homosexual acts began circulating on social media. Seven of his sexual partners were arrested immediately. Then, after six months of public outrage, Reza Seghati, the director general of the Office of the Ministry of Culture in Iran’s Gilan province, was detained. Seghati was just one of a half-dozen similar exposes in the past year involving senior members of Iran’s clerical religious ruling class. RELATED |  Iran’s governm...