Country of origin information report Iran January 2010


Part 2: Punishment for Sodomy



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Part 2: Punishment for Sodomy
Chapter 1: Definition of Sodomy
“Article 108: Sodomy is sexual intercourse with a male.

Article 109: In case of sodomy both the active and the passive persons will be condemned to its punishment.

Article 110: Punishment for sodomy is killing; the Sharia judge decides on how to carry out the killing.

Article 111: Sodomy involves killing if both the active and passive persons are mature, of sound mind and have free will.

Article 112: If a mature man of sound mind commits sexual intercourse with an immature person, the doer will be killed and the passive one will be subject to Ta’azir of 74 lashes if not under duress.

Article 113: If an immature person commits sexual intercourse with another immature person, both of them will be subject to Ta’azir of 74 lashes unless one of them was under duress.


Chapter 2: Ways of proving sodomy in court
“Article 114: By confessing four lashes to having committed sodomy, punishment is established against the one making the confession.

Article 115: A confession made less than four lashes (to having committed sodomy) does not involve punishment of ‘Had’ but the confessor will be subject to Ta’azir (lesser punishments).

Article 116: A confession is valid only if the confessor is mature, of sound mind, has will and intention.

Article 117: Sodomy is proved by the testimony of four righteous men who might have observed it.

Article 118: If less than four righteous men testify, sodomy is not proved and the witnesses shall be condemned to punishment for Qazf (malicious accusation).

Article 119: Testimony of women alone or together with a man does not prove sodomy.

Article 120: The Sharia judge may act according to his own knowledge which is derived through customary methods.

Article 121: Punishment for Tafhiz (the rubbing of the thighs or buttocks) and the like committed by two men without entry, shall be hundred lashes for each of them.

Article 122: If Tafhiz and the like are repeated three lashes without entry and punishment is enforced after each time, the punishment for the fourth time would be death.

Article 123: If two men not related by blood stand naked under one cover without any necessity, both of them will be subject to Ta’azir of up to 99 lashes.

Article 124: If someone kisses another with lust, he will be subject to Ta’azir of 60 lashes.

Article 125: If the one committing Tafhiz and the like or a homosexual man, repents before the giving of testimony by the witnesses, his punishment will be quashed; if he repents after the giving of testimony, the punishment will not be quashed.

Article 126: If sodomy or Tafhizis proved by confession and thereafter he repents the Sharia judge may request the leader (Valie Amr) to pardon him.
Part 3: Lesbianism
“Article 127: Mosaheqeh (lesbianism) is homosexuality of women by genitals.

Article 128: The ways of proving lesbianism in court are the same by which the homosexuality (of men) is proved.

Article 129: Punishment for lesbianism is hundred (100) lashes for each party.

Article 130: Punishment for lesbianism will be established vis-a-vis someone who is mature, of sound mind, has free will and intention. Note: In the punishment for lesbianism there will be no distinction between the doer and the subject as well as a Muslim or non-Muslim.

Article 131: If the act of lesbianism is repeated three lashes and punishment is enforced each time, death sentence will be issued the fourth time.

Article 132: If a lesbian repents before the giving of testimony by the witnesses, the punishment will be quashed; if she does so after the giving of testimony, the punishment will not be quashed.

Article 133: If the act of lesbianism is proved by the confession of the doer and she repents accordingly, the Sharia judge may request the leader (Valie Amr) to pardon her.

Article 134: If two women not related by consanguinity stand naked under one cover without necessity, they will be punished to less than hundred (100) lashes (Ta’azir). In case of its repetition as well as the repetition of punishment, hundred (100) lashes will be hit the third time.” [104] (p22)


21.11 Other sources, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) / Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation (ACCORD) Berlin COI Information Seminar Report 2001 [3c] (p105) and the NGO Mission for the Establishment of Human Rights in Iran (MEHR) [66a] also referred to the sections of the Islamic Penal Code as noted above as legislating on same-sex relations, albeit with slightly differing translations. The MEHR version noted that the Penal Code is divided into five books (most of the legislation affecting LGBT persons is in Book Two, Haads – punishments specified by Shari’a); the first four books were ratified in 1991, the fifth (the Ta’azirat, i.e. punishments not specified under Shari’a) in 1996. [66a]
See also Penal code above.
21.12 The Amnesty International report, Sexual Minorities and the Law: A World Survey, updated July 2006 reported, with regard to transgender persons, “Gender reassignment (‘sex change’) [is] legal or openly performed without prosecution. It is illegal to change [a] birth certificate or marry after gender reassignment.” [9aam] A BBC news article dated 25 February 2008, however, noted that it was possible to change an individual’s sex on their birth certificate after gender-realignment treatment. [21r]
See subsection Transgender and Transsexuals below.
21.13 The Berlin European COI Information Seminar Report 2001 stated that:
“The burden of proof is quite high and it would be difficult to prove homosexual liaisons or intercourse. According to some reports in local papers there have been instances of execution of homosexuals. It is not confirmed whether the homosexual act alone led to execution or whether the person was accused on other charges too. However, the fact that, irrespective of the standard/burden of proof, the sentence for homosexuality is death is a very important element in any assessment. It would be inappropriate to water down the existence of the death sentence with arguments of a high burden of proof, relative tolerance or the fact that there is no systematic effort to prosecute homosexuals. The subjective element is essential.” [3c] (p105-106)
21.14 The Danish Immigration Service report from their 2005 fact-finding mission stated that:
“Under the penal code, homosexuality between men is a serious crime and, if there is the necessary evidence or confessions, it can incur the death penalty. According to [Article] 114, the necessary proof is confessions to the judge or the testimony of four men. [Article] 120 also prescribes ‘…That the judge can make a decision in accordance with his own knowledge that is based on general knowledge and judgement.’ …
“Two female defence lawyers with many years’ experience of court cases in Teheran reported that if the judge had detailed knowledge of the homosexuality, this knowledge could be sufficient testimony to pass judgement. …
“UNHCR in Ankara reported that the judge’s knowledge of the circumstances of the case in cases of homosexuality could be sufficient evidence.” [86a] (p10)
21.15 Information from the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board (CIRB), dated 1 February 1998, stated that, technically, same-sex behaviour is sharply condemned by Islam, and the Islamic Sharia law adopted by Iran. Sodomy is punishable by death if both parties are considered to be adults of sound mind and free will. [2j] A Human Rights Watch article dated 28 March 2008 reporting on the arrest of 30 men at a party observed:
“Iranian law provides punishments up to death for penetrative same-sex sexual activity between men on the first conviction, and punishes non-penetrative activity with up to 100 lashes. Homosexual conduct between women is punishable with death on the fourth conviction. Iran’s Penal Code requires four reiterated confessions, or the testimony of four ‘righteous men’ as eyewitnesses, to prove lavat, or sodomy. However, judges are permitted to accept circumstantial evidence or inference.” [8a]
See also Knowledge of the judge.
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Enforcement of the law
21.16 In a letter dated 15 April 2008, FCO stated that:
“We are not aware of any individual who has been executed in Iran in recent years solely on the grounds of homosexuality. A recent press release from Human Rights Watch (dated 28 March [2008]) suggested that the last documented death sentences for consensual homosexual conduct in Iran were handed down in March 2005, but that it was not known whether they were carried out. We have not been able to confirm these cases. We are aware of concerns that homosexuals may have been charged with crimes such as rape and kidnap and then executed, but again cannot confirm that this has happened.
“Although Iran does not publish official execution figures, the impression from our Embassy is that the authorities are usually prepared to announce or confirm executions that have taken place, even for cases that are likely to attract international criticism. However, it is possible that this may have happened and gone unreported, especially in provincial areas.” [26l]
21.17 The Human Rights Watch report, ‘Private Homes Raided for Immorality’, dated 28 March 2008, stated that:
“The last documented death sentences for consensual homosexual conduct in Iran were handed down in March 2005. It is not known whether they were carried out. In extensive interviews with men and women inside and outside Iran, Human Rights Watch has documented widespread patterns of arbitrary arrest and torture based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
“Western sources have suggested that charges of consensual homosexual conduct are converted to charges of rape in the Iranian judicial system, but Human Rights Watch has found no evidence of this.” [8a]
21.18 An HRW article, dated 8 March 2006, stated: “‘Men and women suspected of homosexual conduct in Iran face the threat of execution’, said Scott Long, director of Human Rights Watch’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program. ‘We have documented brutal floggings imposed by courts as punishment, and torture and ill-treatment, including sexual abuse, in police custody.’…’” [8ad]
21.19 The report continued:
“On March 15, 2005, the daily newspaper Etemaad reported that the Tehran Criminal Court sentenced two men to death following the discovery of a video showing them engaged in homosexual acts. According to the paper, one of the men confessed that he had shot the video as a precaution in case his partner withdrew the financial support he had been providing in return for sex. In response to the man’s confession, his partner was summoned to the authorities and both men were sentenced to death. As the death penalty was pronounced against both men, it appears to have been based on their sexual activity.
“These abuses have created an atmosphere of terror for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people throughout Iran.” [8t]
21.20 On 22 November 2005, Human Rights Watch reported:
“Iran’s execution of two men last week for homosexual conduct highlights a pattern of persecution of gay men that stands in stark violation of the rights to life and privacy… On Sunday, November 13, the semi-official Tehran daily Kayhan reported that the Iranian government publicly hung two men, Mokhtar N. (24 years old) and Ali A. (25 years old), in the Shahid Bahonar Square of the northern town of Gorgan.
“The government reportedly executed the two men for the crime of ‘lavat.’ Iran’s Shari’a-based penal code defines lavat as penetrative and non-penetrative sexual acts between men. Iranian law punishes all penetrative sexual acts between adult men with the death penalty. Non-penetrative sexual acts between men are punished with lashes until the fourth offense, when they are punished with death… ‘The Iranian government’s persecution of gay men flouts international human rights standards.’
“In addition to the two executions… there have been other cases of persecution and execution of gay men in Iran in recent years.” [8t]
21.21 An article from RFE/RL dated 1 September 2005 reported on the question of an anti-homosexual campaign:
“According to Islamic law, homosexuality is a capital crime. The execution of two Iranian males in July [2005] and current allegations that two more Iranian men are on death row because they are gay has led to allegations of an anti-homosexual campaign in Iran. But homosexuality is just part of the laundry list of charges leveled against people caught up in the Iranian justice system, and in a country with such a reprehensible human rights record, the actual charges rarely have a connection with reality... Several recent cases have garnered a great deal of attention in this regard, but they appear to be overshadowed by concern over the execution of minors. The freshest allegations are that a homosexual was executed in the city of Arak in mid-August and that two more men there are awaiting execution on similar charges.” [42f] (p1)
21.22 The article continued, reporting on the case of two males who were hanged:
“In July 2005, two males – one of them reportedly a minor – were hanged after being found guilty of raping a 13-year-old boy. However, exile sources claimed that the execution of the two, Mahmud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, related to their engagement in homosexual activities. Human Rights Watch, in a 27 July letter to judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi-Shahrudi, expressed concern with the execution of juvenile offenders, but did not refer to any other aspect of the case.” [42f] (p1)
21.23 An IRIN News article dated 25 July 2005 also reported on the same case, which led to:
“… public hangings of Mahmoud Asgari, 16, and Ayaz Marhoni, 18, on 19 July in Mashad, provincial capital of Iran’s northeastern Khorasan province, on charges of homosexuality.
“Asgari had been accused of raping a 13-year-old boy, though Outrage [a London-based Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transexual advocacy group] said [they] believed those allegations were trumped up to undermine public sympathy for the two youths, both of whom maintained they were unaware homosexual acts were punishable by death…’The judiciary has trampled its own laws,’ Asgari’s lawyer, Rohollah Razez Zadeh, was quoted as saying, explaining that Iranian courts were supposed to commute death sentences handed [down] to children to five years in jail, but the country’s Supreme Court allowed the hangings to proceed. … Prior to the boys’ executions, the 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 offences more than a year earlier, when they were possibly around the age of 16. Citing Iranian human rights campaigners, Outrage claims over 4,000 lesbians and gay men have been executed since the Iranian revolution of 1979.” [75d]
21.24 The USSD report for 2005 also confirmed the executions:
“In July two teenage boys, one 16 and one 18 years of age, were publicly executed; they were charged with raping a 13-year-old boy. A number of groups outside the country alleged the two were executed for homosexuality; however, because of the lack of transparency in the court system, there was no concrete information. In November domestic conservative press reported that two men in their twenties were hanged in public for lavat (defined as sexual acts between men). The article also said they had a criminal past, including kidnapping and rape. It was not possible to judge whether these men were executed for homosexuality or other crimes.” [4q]
21.25 An article on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) titled, ‘Persian Gay and Lesbian Activist Urges Tolerance’, dated 17 May 2007 reports:
“Under Islamic laws as applied in Iran, homosexuality is punishable by death. But in recent years, there have been only a few reported cases of individuals being officially charged with homosexuality.
“Yet Parsi [Arsham Parsi, Secretary-General of the Toronto-based Iranian Queer Organisation] says the spectre of the harsh sentences casts a shadow on the life of homosexuals.… in the case of homosexuals, even if nothing happens, they always face fear. Many believe that the punishments for homosexuals are only on the books and they are not being applied. But we don’t accept this - we think homosexuals are being sentenced, but perhaps [these cases] don’t get reported." [42ae]
21.26 A letter from HRW to Minister Verdonk, the Dutch Minister of Alien Affairs and Integration, Ministry of Justice, titled ‘No Deportations of LGBT Iranians to Torture’ and dated 5 October 2006 stated:
“Trials on morals charges in Iran are held in camera, and international outrage over the frequency of executions (Iran has the highest rate of executions per capita in the world) has led the government to exercise tight controls over press reporting of the death penalty. For these reasons, confirming the frequency of executions for lavat [sexual acts between men] is effectively impossible.” [8ae]
21.27 A number of sources, including the BBC in an article titled, ‘Gay Iranian deportation reviewed’ dated 13 March 2008 and some gay rights groups, have reported that more than 4,000 gay men and lesbians have been executed in the country since the Ayatollahs seized power in 1979. However, no original source for this information has been identified. [21aa]
21.28 Regarding the claim that 4,000 Iranian homosexuals have been executed since 1979, the April 2008 FCO letter stated:
“It is believed that vast numbers of people (possibly tens of thousands) were executed in the 1980s for a range of political and moral ‘crimes’ often with little or no respect for due process of law. This is likely to have included executions for controversial offences such as homosexuality and apostasy. We are not able to put a figure on how many individuals might have been executed specifically for homosexuality, but documentary evidence and our Embassy’s discussions with human rights campaigners and members of the Iranian gay community suggest that such executions would have been carried out in the first 10-15 years after the 1979 revolution. We are not aware of executions solely on the grounds of homosexuality in recent years.” [26l]
21.29 On this issue, the USSD report for 2005 commented:
“According to the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights, the justice system did not actively investigate charges of homosexuality. … there had been no recent reports of homosexuals executed. However, the group acknowledged it was possible that a case against a homosexual could be pursued. Conversely, the London-based homosexual rights group OutRage! claimed over four thousand homosexuals had been executed in the country since the Islamic revolution in 1979.” [4q] (p24)
21.30 Additionally, part of an entry on the San Francisco Bay Times website, published on 12 October 2006, titled ‘Sweden to Deport Gay Iranian’ stated:
“The claim that 4,000 Iranian homosexuals have been executed since the revolution is put forth by the Iranian exile gay group Homan. Documentation for the claim is lacking, but Peter Tatchell of the British gay group OutRage!, which says its extensive research confirms that Iran executes gays, explained: ‘Homan [based the figure] on Iranian media reports of LGBT executions and personal reports from people who had gay friends executed or arrested at private parties who were never seen again and presumed executed.
“‘They told me of cases where 20 or 30 or more people were arrested in a single raid and who subsequently disappeared forever. This was mostly in the early 1980s and again in the late 1980s. Tens of thousands of people were executed in the early 1980s alone for all kinds of reasons - mostly students and leftists. So the idea of 4,000 LGBTs executed does not seem wildly off the mark.’” [108]
21.31 A number of sources have reported on the execution of Makwan Mouloudzadeh in December 2007. The HRW article, ‘The issue is torture’, dated 31 March 2008 stated that:
“In November 2007 in Kermanshah, Makwan Mouloudzadeh, 20, faced the death penalty on false charges of raping several boys seven years before. His accusers retracted their claims. No evidence suggested he had committed any crime under Iranian law.
“However, European activists wildly seized on him as another ‘gay’ victim. They organised a mass petition to Ahmadinejad for mercy for ‘the young Iranian gay’. Their pleas sent an inadvertent message: Makwan was innocent of one capital crime, but Europe believed him guilty of another. On December 5, Makwan Mouloudzadeh, probably neither gay nor a rapist, went to the gallows.” [8ac]
21.32 The FCO letter of April 2008 included the following comments regarding the significance of the Makwan Moloudzadeh case in terms of the general risk to homosexuals:
“Makwan Moloudzadeh was convicted of the rape of eleven individuals, threatening behaviour and blackmail. His flawed trial does raise questions about due process of law in Iran and the use of the death penalty for crimes committed before the age of eighteen, but we do not think his case tells us anything new about the risks for those involved in consensual same-sex relations.” [26l]
21.33 In an article dated 6 December 2007 entitled, ‘Execution of child offender Makwan Moloudazdeh is a Mockery of Justice’, Amnesty International reported that:
“In sentencing Makwan Moloudzadeh to death, the judge relied on his ‘knowledge’ that Makwan Moloudzadeh could be tried as an adult and that the alleged offence had been committed, as is allowed by Iranian law.
“According to Article 120 of the Penal Code, in cases of anal sex between men, the judge ‘can make his judgement according to his knowledge which is obtained through conventional methods’.” [9aae]
21.34 An article on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, ‘Child Offenders Face ‘Imminent Execution’ on Death Row’, dated 15 January 2008, reported:
“… according to recent Iranian press reports, two men convicted of homosexual rape in Fars, southern Iran, were sentenced to death by putting them in a sack and throwing it off the top of a cliff.
“According to Iran’s form of Islamic Shari’a law, homosexuality is punishable by death and the judge can choose from five methods including throwing off a height and demolishing a wall on the offender, a method whose use has not been reported in the past 30 years.” [42x]
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Treatment by, and attitude of, state authorities
21.35 The USSD Report 2008 stated that: “The Special Protection Division, a volunteer unit of the judiciary, monitored and reported moral crimes.” [4a] (Section 5) On the subject of the Social Protection Division, Special Units and vigilantes involved in moral policing, raids and undercover activity targeting gays, the FCO stated in their letter of April 2008:
“We do not have any further specific information on the activities of these groups. Our Embassy spoke to contacts in the gay community in Tehran – some were afraid of random homophobic attacks but there was not a sense that these were carried out by representatives of state entities or the result of official state-led policies to beat, persecute or entrap gay people.
“A recent press release from Human Rights Watch (28 March) alleged that on 28-29 February, police in Esfahan raided a party at a private home and arrested 30 or more men. The men were reportedly referred to a forensic medical examiner to look for evidence that they had engaged in homosexual conduct. We have not been able to confirm this, and it appears to be local police activity. The EU is planning to raise this and ask the Iranian authorities for more information in the course of the next human rights demarche.” [26l]
21.36 On 22 November 2005, Human Rights Watch reported that:
“In September 2003, police arrested a group of men at a private gathering in one of their homes in Shiraz and held them in detention for several days. According to Amir, one of the men arrested, police tortured the men to obtain confessions. The judiciary charged five of the defendants with ‘participation in a corrupt gathering’, and fined them.
“In June 2004, undercover police agents in Shiraz arranged meetings with men through Internet chatrooms and then arrested them. Police held Amir, a 21-year-old, in detention for a week, during which time they repeatedly tortured him. The judicial authorities in Shiraz sentenced him to 175 lashes, 100 of which were administered immediately. Following his arrest, security officials subjected Amir to regular surveillance and periodic arrests. From July 2005 until he fled the country later in the year, police threatened Amir with imminent execution.” [8t]
21.37 Human Rights Watch, in their letter to Minister Verdonk, the Dutch Minister of Alien Affairs and Integration, Ministry of Justice, titled ‘Netherlands: Threat to Return Gay and Lesbian Iranians’ dated 8 March 2006, stated:
“… in late 2004, the national judiciary began establishing, under its own supervision, a new group to police moral crimes called the Setad-e Hefazat-e Ejtema’i or Social Protection Division. This organization - drawing, like many parallel groups, on unemployed ex-military draftees to fill its ranks - aims to control ‘the social ills of each neighborhood and region’ as well as ‘deviant individuals’ (according to its Articles of Association which were leaked to the Iranian press). In July 2005 a senior judicial official in Qom told reporters that 210 units of the Social Protection division employing 1,970 formally accredited volunteers had been set up throughout that city. These divisions would report serious moral offenses to the ‘disciplinary forces of the judiciary’ for further action to be taken. (ISNA News Agency, 10 Tir 1384/1 July 2005).” [8ag]
21.38 An 18 July 2007 news release from the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) reported that:
“In May 2007, the Iranian Queer Organization (IRQO) was the first to report that the police forces in the city of Esfahan had raided a birthday party and arrested more than 80 people. The police apparently suspected that the attendees were gay and were possibly engaged in sodomy, though no proof of either has been established. Later, police unconditionally released most of those arrested, but required substantial bail for 17 of the arrestees. A judge told the families of those set free on bail that they would be tried on sodomy charges. Based on IRQO’s reports and IGLHRC’s investigation, some of the detainees were severely tortured while in custody. In the last two years, IGLHRC has worked with IRQO to find refuge for a number of gay Iranians forced to leave their country and who have applied for refugee status, many of whom faced arbitrary arrests, police brutality and even lashings for being gay.” [99a]
21.39 An article from Human Rights Watch, ‘Private Homes Raided for Immorality’, dated 28 March 2008, reported that sources in Iran have told HRW that since the arrests of May 2007, police have intensified surveillance, harassment and abuse against people connected to the arrested men or otherwise suspected of homosexual conduct. The article continues to state that the police raided another private gathering in Esfahan in December 2007 and arrested sixteen people, subjecting them to forensic examinations and releasing them four days later. The article further reports that a third private home was raided by Esfahan police on 28-29 February 2008 and over thirty men attending a party were arrested. The article states that they were jailed for almost four weeks without access to lawyers and without charge and were reportedly referred to a medical examiner to look for evidence of homosexual conduct. [8a]
21.40 The RFE/RL article, ‘Is There An Anti-Homosexual Campaign?’ dated 1 September 2005, stated that:
“Official Iranian sources occasionally express hostility to homosexual practices. A state radio commentary on 7 March 2005 criticized gay marriages in Western countries. Ayatollah Ebrahim Amini said in his Friday-prayer sermon in Qom that gay and lesbian marriages reflect a weakness of Western culture, state television reported on 13 July 2002. Ayatollah Ali Meshkini in his Friday-prayer sermon in Qom criticized the German Green Party for being pro-homosexual, state television reported on 29 April 2000.
“It is clear that officially and in practice, there is discrimination against homosexuals in Iran. However, systematic repression of homosexuals does not seem to be an issue. The most recent cases of capital punishment for homosexuality are connected with rapes, but the official terminology, Iran’s system of retribution as a form of Islamic punishment (qesas), and the country’s terrible human-rights record make it very difficult to determine the true nature of a so-called crime.” [42f] (p2)
21.41 The UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group Annual Report for 2007 quoted the view of the Iranian President “‘In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country. We do not have this phenomenon. I do not know who has told you that we have it.’ President Ahmadinejad, at Columbia University USA on 24th September, 2007, responding to a question regarding the treatment of homosexuals in Iran.” [105]
21.42 On 13 November 2007, the Times reported the views of Mohsen Yahyavi (deputy chairman of the energy committee of Iran’s parliament, or Majles), as:
“He ‘explained that according to Islam gays and lesbianism were not permitted’, the record states. ‘He said that if homosexual activity is in private there is no problem, but those in overt activity should be executed [he initially said tortured but changed it to executed]. He argued that homosexuality is against human nature and that humans are here to reproduce. Homosexuals do not reproduce.’” [15c]
21.43 The USSD report for 2007 stated: “On August 6 [2007], the general prosecutor ordered to close the last major reformist daily Shargh. The ban placed on Shargh in September 2006 was lifted on May 14, but the paper was operational for less than three months before being closed again. The government reportedly closed the newspaper in response to a published interview with a writer accused of being a homosexual activist.” [4t] (Section 2a)
21.44 A CBC News article about a 2008 documentary, Be Like Others, which reported on the Iranian government’s gender-reassignment programme, observed:
“… homosexuality is a crime punishable by death. But the government has provided a way out for the nation’s gays and lesbians: a sex-change operation. Fully paid for by the state, the procedure would allow these people to conform to Iran’s theocratic standards of sexuality… [the documentary] captures the pain and brutality of a regime that is pushing sex-change operations as the path to a final solution to homosexuality…What… [the] film reveals is a culture so steeped in hatred of gays and lesbians that it deems a sex change preferable to simply accepting differences in sexual orientation. The shift in policy came more than two decades ago, when Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini issued a fatwa (religious decree) declaring sex changes permissible for ‘diagnosed transsexuals.’ Be Like Others introduces us to a number of the people who have been given this label. Some have accepted their fate, and feel the sex change to be a way to avoid further persecution; others are clearly uncomfortable with the idea, but have agreed to it simply because of intense outside pressure. One young woman laments that her boyfriend seems uninterested in her now that she’s no longer a man.” [83a]
See also Transgender and Transexuals below

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