Some "80 members of the Iranian gay community" were arrested last Thursday by the police in Esfahan, according to emails being circulated on various gay email groups.
The email quoted a quest, Peyman, who related the incidence to the organisation by phone: "I went to buy a gift for Farhad and so I arrived late for the party. As soon as I turned in to their street, I saw police cars parked everywhere; all my friends were arrested while seven or eight policeman beat them with batons. Fearing the usual punishments for attending a party, two had jumped from the second-floor window and were in a bad condition. Farhad's family were also arrested. Everyone was transported into a big car and taken into custody. All their cell phones are off and we have no information about the situation inside the jail."
Another guest at the party, Kia, was quoted as saying: "Guests had come from Shiraz, Tehran, Shahin Shahr to Isfahan for Farhad's birthday. When they were coming out of the house followed by the police, their clothes were ripped, their faces and bodies were covered in blood. They were beaten up badly."
Reports state that the next morning all those arrested were taken to court, and later to jail. The court is not permitting the families of those arrested to visit their children, and is not accepting bail for their temporary release. Several women were released the next day but the police are continuing to detain the men who are believed to be gay, said the report.
According to new information on the group's web site, the 80 young men arrested are under "severe torture and pressure by Iranian authorities but have not been officially charged" and are held for participating in a party where alcohol beverages were found, music was playing and young people were dancing."
The organisation also reported that it had received news that the arrestees were being tortured in jail and that their lives were in danger.
The statement reads (sic): "Obviously this crackdown is yet another systematic violation of human rights, along with brutal suppression of women's and labor's movements in Iran and must be strongly protested by all human rights organizations as yet another violation of people's private rights and liberties. This means that for now, what is urgently needed is to strongly object to this gross violation of human rights and the invasion of young people's lives and dignity.
"Since these young men are still waiting to be officially charged, it is imperative that interested organizations, for now, avoid naming these arrests as gay crackdown until further notification. We strongly urge you to be vigilant and alert for the next few days and we are immensely grateful for your concerned follow up until the fate of these individuals is determined. In the next few days we will do everything in our power to relay information to all of you especially if and when these young men are officially charged and sentenced by Iran's judicial authorities."
Based on a conservative interpretation of Islamic Shari'a law, Iran's laws provide for the death penalty if sodomy is proved either by a person who confesses four times to having committed sodomy or by the testimony of four righteous men.
In 2005, two Iranian teenagers were both sentenced to death for what some human rights groups claimed was "consensual gay sex" while Iranian authorities asserted that the two were part of a criminal gang that raped a thirteen-year-old boy.
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You guys should check out some video posted about the Iranian gay, just type down "Iran's Secret Gay World".
They will probably die.
It's really hard not to be wary of the people who claim god is with them.
What right do they have to bash, harass, emprison, torture, kill, etc. people on the basis of sexual orientation? And especially in this case simply because they were suspected of being gay and participating in a party? Anyone else thinks that str8 people have an IQ lower than that of dogs?
Without 'Straights', where would 99.99999% of Gay people be?!
Oh... I guess the poster meant to go out and attack somebody Else's Straight mother, father, brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, friends, neighbours, colleagues, mentors - just not His.
Right?
On a more serious [oh, all right, and Relevant] note, this is just further evidence of the ongoing generally dreadful version of human rights being managed by the current Iranian government, which stands accused of a wide-ranging list of poor human rights - and, don't forget, some praiseworthy attitudes as well - towards its citizens.
No country is perfect in its handling or a population, or beyond reproach for areas of generally perceived weakness [from an exterior point of view ], yet Iran seems to stumble more than most.
At this point, with an Irish twinkle in my eye, I note that I can't say too much here on this theme either, given the SG government is hardly a shining example of tolerance and success in its approach to Homosexuality either...
thx God that not happen in Indonesia!!
They claim the right the be happy and claim the right to deny this to someone that thinks or feels differently.
They will be judged, but not by me.
Perhaps, we are all part of a larger religion: Ignorant
again, this event may cause many young gay men to be afraid to come out of the closet which makes them unfree, slaved by fear.
But, i just hope this event would work otherwise. I hope that those young gay men im talking about would be proud of who they are and use this to make a move with these kinds of human rights violations against gay men.
For those gays in Iran, wish you good luck and may you have a brighter way to your freedom.
Having said that, i'm really worried abt PLUs in iran n other mid-east countries. Seems like they've living beneath their dignity- & i thought Russia'a alrd bad enough :( I know this sounds naive, bt is there any way we are able to help them?
'Quoting the Toronto-based IRanian Queer orgaanisation'
many men were brutalised or murdered while having "queer" spat at them...even in that hideous book made into a soppy movie "Brokeback mountain' they rubber burnt 'queers'... the writer of this news peice is a disgrace...Queer for many is not a legitimate way to describe the bulk of same sex attracted pple, while it is true some Gay men are scummy queers not all of us are...it is not clever or revolutionary it totally dishonours the thousands of decent gay men globally who were brutalised while having it delivered with a fist or boot.... to negate a slur is one thing...to legitimise it is another use your brains pple.
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