Iran's Islamic Law hangs 2 young gay men.

[Postmaster]

Two gay teenagers were publicly executed in Iran on 19 July 2005 for the 'crime' of homosexuality.

The youths were hanged in Edalat (Justice) Square in the city of Mashhad, in north east Iran. They were sentenced to death by Court No. 19.

Iran enforces Islamic Sharia law, which dictates the death penalty for gay sex.

One youth was aged 18 and the other was a minor under the age of 18. They were only identified by their initials, M.A. and A.M. They admitted to having gay sex (probably under torture) but claimed in their defence that most young boys had sex with each other and that they were not aware that homosexuality was punishable by death.
Prior to their execution, the teenagers were held in prison for 14 months and severely beaten with 228 lashes.
Their length of detention suggests that they committed the so-called offences more than a year earlier, when they were possibly around the age of 16.

Ruhollah Rezazadeh, the lawyer of the youngest boy (under 18), had appealed that he was too young to be executed and that the court should take into account his tender age (believed to be 16 or 17). But the Supreme Court in Tehran ordered him to be hanged.

Under the Iranian penal code, girls as young as nine and boys as young as 15 can be hanged.

Three other young gay Iranians are being hunted by the police, but they have gone into hiding and cannot be found. If caught, they will also face execution.
News of the two executions was reported by ISNA (Iranian Students News Agency) on 19 July.

A later news story by Iran In Focus, allegedly based on this original ISNA report, claimed the youths were executed for sexually assaulting a 13 year old boy. But the ISNA report does not mention any sexual assault.
A report of the executions on the website of the respected democratic opposition movement, The National Council of Resistance Of Iran, also makes no reference to a sexual assault.

The allegation of sexual assault may either be a trumped up charge to undermine public sympathy for the youths (a frequent tactic by the Islamist regime in Iran).

Or it may be that the 13 year old was a willing participant but that Iranian law (like UK law) deems that no person of that age is capable of sexual consent and that therefore any sexual contact is automatically deemed in law to be a sex assault.

If the 13 year old was sexually assaulted, why was he not identified and also put on trial (under Iranian law both the victims and perpetrators of sexual crimes are punished)?

"This is just the latest barbarity by the Islamo-fascists in Iran,” said Peter Tatchell of the London-based gay human rights group OutRage!

"The entire country is a gigantic prison, with Islamic rule sustained by detention without trial, torture and state-sanctioned murder.

"According to Iranian human rights campaigners, over 4,000 lesbians and gay men have been executed since the Ayatollahs seized power in 1979. "Altogether, an estimated 100,000 Iranians have been put to death over the last 26 years of clerical rule. The victims include women who have sex outside of marriage and political opponents of the Islamist government.

"Last August, a 16 year old girl, Atefeh Rajabi, was hanged for 'acts incompatible with chasity.'
"Britain’s Labour government is pursuing friendly relations with this murderous regime, including aid and trade. We urge the international community to treat Iran as a pariah state, break off diplomatic relations, impose trade sanctions and give practical support to the democratic and left opposition inside Iran," said Mr Tatchell.

[Postmaster]

To add to this, even though I'm homophobic and anti-homosexual, I think the Iranian laws are sickening and disgraceful.

Long live democracy and Christianity and thank you to my Greek fathers for fighting for them. I praise the Baha'i faith for there efforts of reformation in that region.

[InLove]

Hello, and Peace, Postmaster and All--

If the sources of these reports are reliable, then this is such a sad thing that I don't think there are words to describe the sorrow.

I cannot help but sometimes regard the governments of this world as enigmatic. But then, I am not (as I believe many of us are not) privvy to the inner workings and the interweavings--the compromises that take place for reasons I cannot always understand.

For example, when we impose sanctions on hate-mongering governments, do those who are implementing these acts of evil and hatred suffer? Or is it the people they rule over who are already suffering that bear the weight of those sanctions? I don't know, or at least I do not know how to solve the problem. I wonder if anyone does? Perhaps there are answers, but are they answers that government officials are sometimes unwilling to employ because it would personally cost them too dearly? I would like to believe that this is not the case, but who am I to know or say?

Wouldn't it be interesting to hear what the loved ones of the young people who were executed have to say? Good luck on that one!

I am not very well-educated on the different sects of Islam, nor do I know very much about the Iranian government. What I do know is that there are millions of Islamic people in democratic countries who believe that Islam is not incompatible with democracy, as well as peace and love and freedom of (or from) religion. From what they say, the people who commit these acts of hatred in the name of Islam are dilusional extremists, or just plain evil, non-believers with a political agenda.

At any rate, my heart goes out to those anywhere in this world who have to live in (and sometimes die because of) these kind of conditions.

InPeace,
InLove

[Postmaster]

Hey Inlove, thanks for your response and very interesting what you say.

I originally copied these articles and pictures from a Greek forum that's not a very busy one, the reaction to that same post by the Greeks was big, people said they even lost there appetite to eat and others mentioning being distraught and sickened.

[I, Brian]

It would be great to have a source for this, Postmaster. As the story itself reports inconsistencies with it's own content, it's worth getting a wider view on this to see how reliable it is.

It's also strange to see you cheer Christianity, when it's worth pointing out that making a pariah of homosexuals is something pretty ingrained in Christianity, too. In fact, I think it was only in the last couple of years that homosexuality was removed from the register of mental illnesses used by Western psychology institutions.

As for Peter Tatchell's reported comments - somewhat dumb and naive with regards to how politics and society works, methinks.

[InLove]

Hi, and Peace to All Here--

Well, while I cannot, as I said above, understand all the political stuff, and while I do not know about how reliable the news sources here really are, you know I must comment on the following:

Originally Posted by I,Brian

It's also strange to see you cheer Christianity, when it's worth pointing out that making a pariah of homosexuals is something pretty ingrained in Christianity, too. In fact, I think it was only in the last couple of years that homosexuality was removed from the register of mental illnesses used by Western psychology institutions.

In fairness, traditional Christianity does not accept the homosexual lifestyle--it may condemn the practice, but it does not teach that Christians should condemn to death those who practice it. Hope you understand why I could not let that one go.

By the way, I am not saying that Islam does either--just wanted to make that clear.

InPeace,
InLove

[Silverbackman]

Originally Posted by InLove

Hi, and Peace to All Here--

Well, while I cannot, as I said above, understand all the political stuff, and while I do not know about how reliable the news sources here really are, you know I must comment on the following:



In fairness, traditional Christianity does not accept the homosexual lifestyle--it may condemn the practice, but it does not teach that Christians should condemn to death those who practice it. Hope you understand why I could not let that one go.

By the way, I am not saying that Islam does either--just wanted to make that clear.

InPeace,
InLove

Condem it? Both Judaism and Christianity strongly condem it. And I'm not only talking about the verse in the New Testament that says homosexuality is sexual perversion, In the book of Leviticus it says that homosexuals must be put to death.

Don't get me wrong, I am not crazy about "gay rights" or anything (though I do think the act of killing gays is barbaric), but I don't like it when Christians or Jews try to act as if their religion is any less violent and strict with its laws, like Postmaster is trying to say. Just because most Christians don't follow the Bible literally anymore like the the Muslims do with the Quran, doesn't mean their religion is any better.

The problem is that the Middle East is stuck 500 years in the past. Christianity once did the same thing, hopefully Islam will get a little less violent like Christianity in the future, and that people will stop following the violent verses in the Quran as any Ahbramic Religion.

Oh and Postmaster, Democracy is NOT a Christian concept, not by a longshot. It is a secular concept and the founding father who braught democracy back in the world in the US were Deists, NOT judeo-christians.

[Bandit]

i dont condemn people who are gay. they were only teenagers. it looks to me like it is there government that has perverted minds.

[4peace]

Originally Posted by Postmaster

Two gay teenagers were publicly executed in Iran on 19 July 2005 for the 'crime' of homosexuality.

The youths were hanged in Edalat (Justice) Square in the city of Mashhad, in north east Iran. They were sentenced to death by Court No. 19.

Iran enforces Islamic Sharia law, which dictates the death penalty for gay sex.

One youth was aged 18 and the other was a minor under the age of 18. They were only identified by their initials, M.A. and A.M. They admitted to having gay sex (probably under torture) but claimed in their defence that most young boys had sex with each other and that they were not aware that homosexuality was punishable by death.
Prior to their execution, the teenagers were held in prison for 14 months and severely beaten with 228 lashes.
Their length of detention suggests that they committed the so-called offences more than a year earlier, when they were possibly around the age of 16.

Ruhollah Rezazadeh, the lawyer of the youngest boy (under 18), had appealed that he was too young to be executed and that the court should take into account his tender age (believed to be 16 or 17). But the Supreme Court in Tehran ordered him to be hanged.

Under the Iranian penal code, girls as young as nine and boys as young as 15 can be hanged.

Three other young gay Iranians are being hunted by the police, but they have gone into hiding and cannot be found. If caught, they will also face execution.
News of the two executions was reported by ISNA (Iranian Students News Agency) on 19 July.

A later news story by Iran In Focus, allegedly based on this original ISNA report, claimed the youths were executed for sexually assaulting a 13 year old boy. But the ISNA report does not mention any sexual assault.
A report of the executions on the website of the respected democratic opposition movement, The National Council of Resistance Of Iran, also makes no reference to a sexual assault.

The allegation of sexual assault may either be a trumped up charge to undermine public sympathy for the youths (a frequent tactic by the Islamist regime in Iran).

Or it may be that the 13 year old was a willing participant but that Iranian law (like UK law) deems that no person of that age is capable of sexual consent and that therefore any sexual contact is automatically deemed in law to be a sex assault.

If the 13 year old was sexually assaulted, why was he not identified and also put on trial (under Iranian law both the victims and perpetrators of sexual crimes are punished)?

"This is just the latest barbarity by the Islamo-fascists in Iran,” said Peter Tatchell of the London-based gay human rights group OutRage!

"The entire country is a gigantic prison, with Islamic rule sustained by detention without trial, torture and state-sanctioned murder.

"According to Iranian human rights campaigners, over 4,000 lesbians and gay men have been executed since the Ayatollahs seized power in 1979. "Altogether, an estimated 100,000 Iranians have been put to death over the last 26 years of clerical rule. The victims include women who have sex outside of marriage and political opponents of the Islamist government.

"Last August, a 16 year old girl, Atefeh Rajabi, was hanged for 'acts incompatible with chasity.'
"Britain’s Labour government is pursuing friendly relations with this murderous regime, including aid and trade. We urge the international community to treat Iran as a pariah state, break off diplomatic relations, impose trade sanctions and give practical support to the democratic and left opposition inside Iran," said Mr Tatchell.

It mentioned about this being Islamic law of Iran....this is truly sickining even though Iam against it. There is truly no human rights in these parts of the world and you can see why they mov to the West....I mentioned earlier about how they deal with rape in Pakistan...again downgrading!

[Scarlet Pimpernel]

Although the Dutch government has recently gotten a bit more hard-nosed and less tolerant with asylum-seekers, after the hanging of these two youths any homosexual Iranians already in the Netherlands were automatically granted asylum of indefinite duration (meaning they're guaranteed not to be deported).

I love living here.
And Brian, you asked for sources - I have several publications at home referring to this incident - I can try to remember to bring them to school, and then we can at least have some sources, if not the sources that Postmaster was quoting.