Daniel
04-27-2007, 07:24 PM
http://www.gaycitynews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18264776&BRD=2729&PAG=461&dept_id=568864&rfi=6
Brits Ignore Iranian Asylum Bid
By: DOUG IRELAND
04/26/2007
Arsham Parsi, the 26-year-old, Toronto-based secretary-general of the Iranian Queer Organization, or IRQO, is appealing for emergency funds to help a gay activist targeted for prosecution and likely torture escape from Iran.
A 35-year-old gay Iranian is on a hunger strike in a U.K. jail to protest a deportation order that will send him back to Iran. Saeed Faraji was arrested by British immigration police on April 20, and is currently being held in Oakington Detention Center in Cambridge.
The Home Office refused his asylum request on the grounds that he could not prove that homosexuals are subjected to "torture, inhumane, or degrading treatment" in Iran.
Here's what they do to gay people in Iran.
According to Human Rights Watch, "Iran is distinguished by the overt severity of the penalties it imposes on consensual, adult homosexual conduct. 'Sodomy' or lavat -consummated sexual activity between males, whether penetrative or not - is punishable by execution. (Article 111 of the Islamic Penal Code states that 'Lavat is punishable by death so long as both the active and passive partners are mature, of sound mind, and have acted of free will.') Tafkhiz (the rubbing together of thighs or buttocks or other forms of non-penetrative 'foreplay' between men) is punishable by one hundred lashes for each partner, according to Articles 121 and122 of the Penal Code. Recidivism is punishable by death on the fourth conviction. In addition, Article 123 of the Penal Code further provides that 'If two men who are not related by blood lie naked under the same cover without any necessity,' each one will receive ninety-nine lashes. Articles 127 to 134 stipulate that the punishment for sexual intercourse between women is one hundred lashes and if the offense is repeated three times, the punishment is execution."
This reporter has published numerous interviews with gay Iranian victims of torture in this newspaper dating back to mid-2005.
Brits Ignore Iranian Asylum Bid
By: DOUG IRELAND
04/26/2007
Arsham Parsi, the 26-year-old, Toronto-based secretary-general of the Iranian Queer Organization, or IRQO, is appealing for emergency funds to help a gay activist targeted for prosecution and likely torture escape from Iran.
A 35-year-old gay Iranian is on a hunger strike in a U.K. jail to protest a deportation order that will send him back to Iran. Saeed Faraji was arrested by British immigration police on April 20, and is currently being held in Oakington Detention Center in Cambridge.
The Home Office refused his asylum request on the grounds that he could not prove that homosexuals are subjected to "torture, inhumane, or degrading treatment" in Iran.
Here's what they do to gay people in Iran.
According to Human Rights Watch, "Iran is distinguished by the overt severity of the penalties it imposes on consensual, adult homosexual conduct. 'Sodomy' or lavat -consummated sexual activity between males, whether penetrative or not - is punishable by execution. (Article 111 of the Islamic Penal Code states that 'Lavat is punishable by death so long as both the active and passive partners are mature, of sound mind, and have acted of free will.') Tafkhiz (the rubbing together of thighs or buttocks or other forms of non-penetrative 'foreplay' between men) is punishable by one hundred lashes for each partner, according to Articles 121 and122 of the Penal Code. Recidivism is punishable by death on the fourth conviction. In addition, Article 123 of the Penal Code further provides that 'If two men who are not related by blood lie naked under the same cover without any necessity,' each one will receive ninety-nine lashes. Articles 127 to 134 stipulate that the punishment for sexual intercourse between women is one hundred lashes and if the offense is repeated three times, the punishment is execution."
This reporter has published numerous interviews with gay Iranian victims of torture in this newspaper dating back to mid-2005.