"No gays in Iran" because they are executed...

[NathanATX]

The Iranian dictator spoke at Columbia Unversity for some unfathomable reason...

He said there are no gays in Iran.



Yet... two years ago, two young boys were killed for being gay.







..."and we are proud of this culture..."

[mjules]

Ah, I was actually listening to the NPR program about that. My mother called me over to listen to it after she heard it this morning. They play the sound clip (notice how at first the crowd's reaction is laughter, then booing) and then have an interview with Arsham Parsi, the executive director for IQO (Iranian Queer Organization) who now lives in Toronto. She asks some pointed questions about the gay culture in Iran, and gets some straight -- er, no pun intended? -- answers.

You can hear it here.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...oryId=14698624

[Jamie McDaniel]

Looking at those photos, especially the boys' faces in the third one you posted, really makes one reflect on the larger struggle. I guess sometimes I get caught up in the belief that justice will be ushered in the day the United Stated grants same-sex couples marriage licenses. And then these last moments of two Iranian boys' lives, captured in these pictures.

[Daniel]

http://www.ajihadforlove.com/

Fourteen centuries after the revelation of the holy Qur'an to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), Islam today is the world's second largest and fastest growing religion. Muslim gay filmmaker Parvez Sharma travels the many worlds of this dynamic faith discovering the stories of its most unlikely storytellers: lesbian and gay Muslims.

Filmed over 5 1/2 years, in 12 countries and 9 languages, "A Jihad for Love" comes from the heart of Islam. Looking beyond a hostile and war-torn present, this film seeks to reclaim the Islamic concept of a greater Jihad, which can mean 'an inner struggle' or 'to strive in the path of God'. In doing so the film and its remarkable subjects move beyond the narrow concept of 'Jihad' as holy war.

http://www.ajihadforlove.blogspot.com/

The filmmaker has also written on HuffintonPost.

Ahmadinejad and the Homosexuality He Seeks to Deny
Posted September 27, 2007 | 05:41 PM (EST)

Mahmoud Ahmadi Nejad, the "humble" former mayor of Tehran, has now been thrust on the international stage and if most of the media in the West is to be believed, he is positively Hitlerian.

Not particularly blessed with the dashing good looks I associate with so many Iranian men, the president's refusal to wear the illegal tie (that great symbol of Western imperialism) with his suits gives him at least that "air of debonair," as an Iranian homosexual friend of mine pointed out (Being particularly randy, my friend admits to having a secret crush on the president. I look at him speechlessly, and blame it on the Iranian national condition of taarof).

I am not surprised at Mr. Ahmadi Nejad's denial of homosexuality in the country he tries hard to rule. I expect nothing less of him or any other leader, really, in the so-called Middle East.

Unfortunately, this former mayor falls easily into the post-September 11 trap and satisfies the hunger that Americans have for "Evil." There seems to be no better caricature of the other side of the Good vs. Evil world now as persistent in the American mind as post-1979 Iran. New York's right-wing tabloids feed this hunger and proclaim "the evil has landed" barely minutes after his plane touches down.

Clearly George Bush's ridiculous simplification of the world into the good guys and the bad guys, into black and white, seems to have worked considerably in many parts of the nation formerly known as "the land of the free." And Mr. Ahmadi Nejad lands headfirst on top of the pile. Here the torch that the lady on the Hudson holds has never burnt more feebly. And here indeed, in the heart of Manhattan, thrives the "evil Zionism" responsible (in the former mayor's opinion) for the state-he-dare-not-name.

The former mayor loves denial and knows his time might just be running out, not least because elements within his bosses in the Guardian Council back home and, indeed, even in the corridors in Qom, have recently not been very pleased.

However Columbia President Bollinger, that sad manifestation of dubious academic authority, is clearly as much a victim of the Good-vs.-Evil caricature as a certain other and not-so-likable president is. Mr. Bollinger, who saw it fit to invite the hysteria-whipping and ill-informed Minutemen to his campus in August, also saw it fit to invite this ultimate Bad Guy and then viciously denigrate a man who is after all the elected leader of a feeble democracy in a region where such things have not been known to survive. Clearly the laws of civil discourse or indeed basic common sense are not being followed in either case.

I am writing from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, the largest nation in a continent where certain leaders would appreciate Mr. Ahmadi Nejad's qualities much more than Manhattan academia's hyper-privileged Upper West Side. Here the favelas and their poor inhabitants sit atop hills, littered throughout the city in a climate of constant chaos and unease. If I were not in Brazil at the moment, speaking to packed audiences who have been applauding and crying with the four Iranian homosexual men I filmed fleeing Mr. Ahmadi Nejad's nation, I would have made sure I was at Columbia to hand-deliver to the former mayor an autographed copy of the DVD (conforming to all Iranian copyright laws) of A Jihad for Love, my recently finished, six-year documentary project on Islam and homosexuality (currently playing to the aforementioned packed houses at the Rio International Film Festival). (www.ajihadforlove.blogspot.com is my other blogging home with real-time updates everyday).

Clearly the homosexuality he seeks to deny is alive and (sometimes) thriving from Shiraz to Tehran to Isfahan and wherever else he may choose to look. Homosexuality, a "condition" as natural as heterosexuality, has thrived as long as Islam has, and has often spread rapidly through Islamic lands with the blessings of rulers, artists, poets, musicians, Sufi mystics and many others. Mr. Ahmadi Nejad, so occupied with trying to make sure that America's overextended Marines do not enter fairest Persia, clearly has had little recourse to his own nation's remarkable history, from around 559 BCE onward, in making his claim that Iran is homosexual-free. He would need to travel outside Tehran for just a few hours and pay homage at Hafez's grave in Shiraz -- to realize that this man, the poet known as the "soul of Iran" to this day had a more nuanced understanding of the persistence of same sex love in Persia. He would also need to re-visit the portions of his constitution that make homosexuality 'punishable by death' and that are frequently used to torture those whose existence he denies.

What Mr. Bollinger has done successfully is to give much fodder for the "Evil Satan" mills, running on borrowed time in recent years; what Mr. Ahmadi Nejad does so well is keep the well-oiled machine of Iran-phobia and Islamophobia running rapidly in this nation, America, that I have chosen to call home. It is clear that the sometimes tragic and sometimes comical events at Columbia were peopled with many who have never visited Mr. Ahmadi Nejad's Iran, and that their knowledge of the country is mediated largely by the hysterics of the mainstream Western media. The friendly folk at Fox and friends of course have continued to supply their ignorance in frenzied fashion during this short 'visit'.

A copy of A Jihad for Love should be made available now to both these Presidents -- one elected, the other not -- as its very Muslim, very homosexual and very real subjects will teach them both a great deal about love, about civility and, indeed, Islam. Clearly both Ahmadi Nejad and Bollinger are strangely similar and in need of lessons on my religion and my fellow homosexuals, as we attempt to tell the story of Islam, knowing full well that we are its unlikeliest storytellers.

[Depdem]

Hadnt seen that last photo... and I couldnt help my tears .

btw, theyve executed just two in the past two years? Or was this just a very rarely publicized event there?

Thought they condemned homosexual acts to death or just the mere knowledge of knowing someone is gay is enuf?

[dsdrane]

I was aware of this story and these pictures.

They still make me speechless...and not very non-violent.

[BrentRichards]

Originally Posted by Depdem

Hadnt seen that last photo... and I couldnt help my tears .

btw, theyve executed just two in the past two years? Or was this just a very rarely publicized event there?

Thought they condemned homosexual acts to death or just the mere knowledge of knowing someone is gay is enuf?

This was an incident that got out to the world media ... I can't imagine it was unique. Others have not been acknowledged. In fact, the official line denies that these boys were executed for being gay ... after the photos hit the world scene, Iran claimed they were executed for rape. Not surprisingly, no one has been able to "uncloud" the issue entirely since the wagons circled.

[pnggrad79]

unspeakable brutality! why isn't anyone speaking out against this? like the UN or EU or somebody?

[gman620]

I'd like to offer my own two cents on this. Where I go to school, I have an Iranian friend who goes to Iran from time to time to visit her family. She is quite liberal though, which I thought odd for an Islamic Iranian culture. When I asked her about gays in Iran and the culture in Iran in general, she said that there are of course many gays in Iran as there are everywhere. There are also many transsexuals. With gays though, they have to be careful about exposing it but not really paranoid. As for Iranians themselves, she said not to let the media deceive me. A good chunk of Iranians think the Iranian president is a total joke. Most of the people that we see in assemblies cheering him are his personal friends, relatives and hand-picked hardliners. Please don't think that most Iranians are like their evil president. And by the way, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not really their dictator. He is supervised and controlled by the real dictator of Iran, the Supreme Leader ayatollah Khameini (not to be confused with the now dead Ruhollah Khomeini). And a lot of Iranians, especially the younger ones, are unhappy. Of course, it's ironic that Ahmadinejad entertained questions in Columbia University, whereas in Iran my friend told me that students on college campuses there are always watched by the VEVAK, which is the Iranian secret police, and "disappear" when they decide to question the regime!

And one more little tidbit of info: right after 9/11, a group of Iranians actually banded together in Tehran (the capital) and held a candlelight vigil in honor of the victims of the attacks, and in doing so were taking a big risk. You'd never know this, given how Iranians are portrayed.

Originally Posted by pnggrad79

unspeakable brutality! why isn't anyone speaking out against this? like the UN or EU or somebody?

That's a good question. To make it short and simple, the UN is a useless, corrupt anti-Semitic group of dictators and terrorists. They didn't condemn Rwanda in 1994, so what makes you think they'll condemn Iran's own atrocities? As for the EU, they're more concerned with making money than human rights (just look at the recent attempt to lift the Chinese arms embargo).

[Depdem]

Originally Posted by BrentRichards

This was an incident that got out to the world media ... I can't imagine it was unique. Others have not been acknowledged. In fact, the official line denies that these boys were executed for being gay ... after the photos hit the world scene, Iran claimed they were executed for rape. Not surprisingly, no one has been able to "uncloud" the issue entirely since the wagons circled.

Interesting... i was surfing around on the interent and there was a comment that these two were really killed for killing a young boy.

[dsdrane]

Originally Posted by gman620

I'd like to offer my own two cents on this. Where I go to school, I have an Iranian friend who goes to Iran from time to time to visit her family. She is quite liberal though, which I thought odd for an Islamic Iranian culture. When I asked her about gays in Iran and the culture in Iran in general, she said that there are of course many gays in Iran as there are everywhere. There are also many transsexuals. With gays though, they have to be careful about exposing it but not really paranoid. As for Iranians themselves, she said not to let the media deceive me. A good chunk of Iranians think the Iranian president is a total joke. Most of the people that we see in assemblies cheering him are his personal friends, relatives and hand-picked hardliners. Please don't think that most Iranians are like their evil president. And by the way, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not really their dictator. He is supervised and controlled by the real dictator of Iran, the Supreme Leader ayatollah Khameini (not to be confused with the now dead Ruhollah Khomeini). And a lot of Iranians, especially the younger ones, are unhappy. Of course, it's ironic that Ahmadinejad entertained questions in Columbia University, whereas in Iran my friend told me that students on college campuses there are always watched by the VEVAK, which is the Iranian secret police, and "disappear" when they decide to question the regime!

And one more little tidbit of info: right after 9/11, a group of Iranians actually banded together in Tehran (the capital) and held a candlelight vigil in honor of the victims of the attacks, and in doing so were taking a big risk. You'd never know this, given how Iranians are portrayed.



That's a good question. To make it short and simple, the UN is a useless, corrupt anti-Semitic group of dictators and terrorists. They didn't condemn Rwanda in 1994, so what makes you think they'll condemn Iran's own atrocities? As for the EU, they're more concerned with making money than human rights (just look at the recent attempt to lift the Chinese arms embargo).

I appreciate hearing about the other side of Iran that doesn't get reported the way it should.

However, your important point risks being lost in your ironically unbalanced tarring of the United Nations.

Care to elaborate?

[dsdrane]

Originally Posted by Depdem

Interesting... i was surfing around on the interent and there was a comment that these two were really killed for killing a young boy.

Where did you read this, depdem?

[BrentRichards]

Originally Posted by Depdem

Interesting... i was surfing around on the interent and there was a comment that these two were really killed for killing a young boy.

Originally Posted by dsdrane

Where did you read this, depdem?

I've read similar stories ... any number of versions have floated around the blogosphere ... I also remember the suggestion that they were executed for raping a younger person (boy or girl, depending on the version) ... problem is, as I understand it, Shariah law would then have called for the execution of the "tainted" victim, as well (think "honor killing"), which no one seems to be saying had happened. Three cheers for theocracy. Or not.

[kimmyd]

Originally Posted by NathanATX

The Iranian dictator spoke at Columbia Unversity for some unfathomable reason...

He said there are no gays in Iran.



Yet... two years ago, two young boys were killed for being gay.







..."and we are proud of this culture..."

Does anyone else see the anguish on the faces of those boys as they are being driven to their death site? It is unforgivable, what they went through. It is a photo of hatred murdering two innocent kids for absolutely no crime. I am outraged at the injustice.

I beleiev there ARE gays there. But who would dare to 'come out', and be counted as one?

Heartbreaking.