Iranian man ‘publicly hanged for having gay sex’
Women demonstrate against the situation in Iran during the Christopher Street Day (CSD) gay pride parade in Berlin on June 19, 2010. Gays and lesbians around the world celebrate the Christopher Street Day (CSD) gay and lesbian pride parade, arguably the most important date in their calendar. AFP PHOTO / JOHANNES EISELE (Photo credit should read JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images)
A man has reportedly been hanged in Iran for having gay sex and kidnapping two teenage boys.
The unnamed man was publicly executed on January 10 in Kazeroon, south Iran, reports the Iranian Students’ News Agency.
He was charged with having gay sex, which is punishable by death under Iran’s Sharia law, and kidnapping the two 15-year-old teenagers.
Iranian man is executed for having gay sex
According to the report from the Iranian Students’ News Agency, following the hanging, “the citizens of Kazeroon expressed satisfaction and thanked the judiciary.”
Gay sex has been illegal in Iran since the revolution in 1979.
People protesting against Iran’s anti-gay legislation. (JAY DIRECTO/AFP/Getty)
Authorities periodically crackdown on LGBT+ activity in the country.
According to Human Rights Watch, in February 2008, the police in Isfahan raided a party in a private home and arrested 30 men, who were held indefinitely without a lawyer on suspicion of homosexual activity.
LGBT+ community living in “terror” in Iran
In April 2017, police reportedly arrested 30 men at an event in Isfahan Province, and charged them with “sodomy, drinking alcohol and using psychedelic drugs.”
Alireza Nader, CEO of US-based advocacy group New Iran, told the Jerusalem Post that the LGBT+ community in Iran is living in fear.
“The LGBT community in Iran has lived in terror for the last 40 years.”
—Alireza Nader, CEO of US-based advocacy group New Iran
“The LGBT community in Iran has lived in terror for the last 40 years,” he told the publication.
“Next time Foreign Minister Zarif speaks in Washington, the host and audience should ask him why his regime is one of the top executioner of gays in the world.”
In January 2018, the then-Labour shadow minister Andrew Gwynne condemned Iran’s anti-gay legislation, after leader Jeremy Corbyn was criticised for not speaking out against it.
Appearing on the BBC’s Pienaar’s Politics, Gwynne was challenged over the issue.
He said: “It’s above my pay grade to step into Middle Eastern politics, but the Iranian regime, much of what it stands for I find completely abhorrent—the hanging of gay men for example.
“I think they should be called out and condemned, rightly.”
Asked about his party leader, he said: “I would be surprised if Jeremy Corbyn doesn’t condemn the fact that gay men are hanged by the Iranian regime.
“That is abhorrent and it runs against everything the Labour party stands for.”
