‘Underground Railroad’ Formed for Gay Iranians Fleeing Country

Posted on October 19, 2008
Filed Under Gay News Blog

Gay Iranian activist Arsham Parsi has announced the formation of the Iranian Queer Railroad (IRQR), Gay City News reports. It’s a system implemented to facilitate the immigration of persecuted Iranian gays seeking refuge in other countries by providing contacts and safe houses, as well as assistance in seeking asylum:

Irqr “‘I decided to call our new group the Iranian Queer Railroad after the Underground Railroad in the 19th century, which was an informal network of routes and safe houses helping black slaves in America to escape to freedom in Canada,’ Parsi told Gay City News by telephone from Toronto, where he now lives. He said a board of directors and an advisory committee for the new organization would be announced soon. Parsi said he and his organization are now in contact with 145 LGBT Iranian refugees currently in limbo and seeking permanent asylum – 85 of them are in Turkey, which shares a lengthy border with Iran and where cultural and political homophobia is rampant, while the rest are scattered throughout Europe, including in the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, and Norway. Some 22 are in the United Kingdom, which has been extremely reluctant to grant permanent asylum to gay Iranian refugees, and where in the last several years two Iranians have committed suicide after receiving deportation orders back to certain torture and possible death in Iran. But, said Parsi, ‘there are many, many more queer refugees from Iran who haven’t yet been in contact with us and who also desperately need help.’”