Figure 1.-- These two boys were found guilty of having sex with each other -- a capital crime in Iran. Iranian officials here are about to hang the two teenagers (July 17, 2007). This is what President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad meant when he told Colombian University students that homosexualty was a product of Western degenercy and there were no homsexuals in his country. This looks like a movie scene, but tragically it is all too real. Source: ISNA.

The Islamic Republic considers homosexuality to be a grave sin and people found guilty of homosexual acts are pubically hanged. The Iranian laws are based on provisions of the Holy Koran. Some sources suggest that the Iranian Islamic regime since seizing power in 1979 has executed about 4,000 homosexuals, including juveniles. The Irnian regime's policies are so aberant that autorities in the West often fail to believe that the execution of homosexuals can actully be the policy of the Iranian Government. Swedish authorities denied asylum to a gay man from Iran, stateing that they didn't believe his story that police had visited his parents and promised to kill him if he ever returned to Iran (1996). Consensual homosexual sex in any form is punishable by death in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Those found guilty are given a choice of four death styles: hanging, stoning, halved by a sword, or dropped from the highest perch. According to Article 152, if two men not related by blood are discovered naked under one cover without good reason, both will be punished at a judge's discretion. Gay teens (Article 144) are also punished at a judge's discretion. Two gay Iranian teenagers were executed for the "crime" of homosexuality (July 2007). [ISNA] ISNA also provided terrifying photos of the teens last moments. The two teenagerswere were identified only by their initials as M.A. and A.M., were hanged in Edalat (Justice) Square in the city of Mashhad in north-eastern Iran, on the orders of Court No. 19. The teens hanged in Mashhad "... admitted having gay sex (probably under torture) but claimed in their defense that most young boys had sex with each other and that they were not aware that homosexuality was punishable by death. .... Prior to their execution, the gay teenagers were held in prison for 14 months and severely beaten with 228 lashes. The length of their detention suggests that they committed the so-called offenses more than a year earlier, when they were possibly around the age of 16." [ISNA] President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Colombia University students that Iran does not have any homosexuals, explaining that it is a "phenomenon" that does not exist in Iran (September 24, 2007). The students understandably broke out in laughter which surprised him. There is no vissible homosexuality in Iran. This is of course because if they are identified, the Iranians hang them--even juveniles as we see here.

Sources

Bencomo, Clarisa. Human Rights Watch. "Iran Leads the World in Executing Children: New Executions Highlight Arbitrary Nature of Iranian Justice," Human Rights News (June 20, 2007).

Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA), July 17, 2007.

Created: 4:58 AM 9/11/2007
Last updated: 8:42 PM 9/24/2007