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No gay people in Iran?
 02
Oct 2007- Iran- When Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s combative
president, provoked his latest controversy in New York this week by
asserting that there were no homosexuals in his country, he may have
been indulging in sophistry or just plain wishful thinking.
While Ahmadinejad may want to believe that his Islamic society is
exclusively non-gay, it is a belief undermined by the paradox that
transsexuality and sex changes are tolerated and encouraged under Iran’s
theocratic system.
Iran has between 15 000 and 20 000 transsexuals, according to official
statistics, although un- official estimates put the figure at up to
150 000. Iran carries out more gender change operations than any country
in the world besides Thailand.
Sex changes have been legal since the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini,
spiritual leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution, passed a fatwa
authorising them nearly 25 years ago. Whereas homosexuality is
considered a sin, transsexuality is categorised as an illness subject to
cure.
While the government seeks to keep its approval quiet in line with its
strait-laced stance on sexuality, state support has increased since
Ahmadinejad took office in 2005. His government has begun providing
grants of £2 250 for operations and further funding for hormone therapy.
It is also proposing loans of up to £2 750 to allow those undergoing
surgery to start their own businesses.
Maryam Khatoon Molkara, leader of Iran’s main transsexual organisation,
said some of those under- going operations were gay rather than
out-and-out transsexuals. “In Iran, transsexuals are part of the
homosexual family. Is it possible that a phenomenon exists in the world
but not in Iran?”
She added: “Transsexuality is a real disaster. It’s a one-way street.
But if somebody wants to study, have a future and live like others they
should go through this surgery.”
At New York’s Columbia University on Monday Ahmadinejad claimed that
homosexuality did not exist in Iran. “In Iran we don’t have homosexuals
like in your country,” he told a questioner who accused his government
of executing gay people. “In Iran we do not have this phenomenon. I
don’t know who has told you that we have it.”
But Molkara -- who persuaded Khomeini to issue the fatwa on
transsexuality -- said his stance was inconsistent with the state’s
sex-change policy. “They are saying homosexuality doesn’t exist, but
they have never given me a chance to use my influence among transsexuals
to prevent transsexuality from happening. You could change the culture
but the press and state TV are not allowed to write or say anything
about transsexuality.”
The president’s claim was also an eye-opener to Iranian human rights
lawyers, who said the country’s Islamic legal code made draconian
provision for homosexual offences by men and women.
It also outraged international gay rights activists, who recalled
numerous executions under Iran’s sodomy laws. When legal officials
announced the execution of 12 prisoners at Tehran’s Evin prison in July,
they said the condemned included several “sodomites”. According to
campaigners, several gay men have been caught up in a wave of hangings
over the summer under a ruthless public order crackdown, although the
claims are hard to verify.
There have been other high-profile cases, including that of two
teenagers, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, who were publicly hanged in
the north-eastern city of Mashhad in 2005 after admitting having sex.
This year, Pegah Emambakhsh, an Iranian lesbian, was granted permission
to take her case to the court of appeal in Britain after claiming she
would be in danger of execution if the Home Office implemented its
ruling to deport her to Iran.
“Homosexuality is defined both for men and women in law. There is a
section devoted to homosexuality,” Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel peace
prize-winning human rights lawyer, said. “There is one part for
homosexuality in men, which is called lavat [sodomy], which is
punishable by death. There is another for women, which is called
mosahegheh. If the crime is committed up to three times, the penalty is
100 lashes. On the fourth, it is execution.”
Mohammad Mostafai, an advocate, said: “The fact that there is a penalty
for lavat and mosahegheh in our criminal law means they exist. But if
such crimes happen, they are dealt with by guidance courts. These are
closed and acting in them as lawyers is difficult. It means the
defendants hardly have any access to lawyers. As [homosexuality] is a
crime which happens in secret, it is hard to estimate how many there
are, especially among women.”
The severe penalties mean there is no gay “scene” in Iran, although
there are areas in Tehran where homosexuals are believed to meet.
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