Iran executes gay teenagers

[BrklynLiberal]

Boys didn't know sex was "punishable by death"



By OutRage! News Service

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.

<snip>

"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.'

<snip>

http://outrage.nabumedia.com/pressrelease.asp?ID=302

[Wetzelbill]

1. that is terrible

wow. people do some shitty things.

[wake.up.america]

2. I hope it does not start in America.

I have gay friends in the United States.

[Scottie72]

7. If the radical right could get away with it

do you doubt they wouldn't start themselves?

[im10ashus]

3. That is just atrocious!

I can't begin to describe how upset that makes me.

[Meldread]

4. If Iran...

...wants me to give my support for Bush to invade their pathetic country, all they have to do is keep this shit up. Then I'll smile as their leaders are brought into prison and tortured as these two young men and thousands of others have been tortured. What goes around comes around. Enjoy having your balls electrified.

[ladeuxiemevoiture]

5. While I agree,

what is the administration doing to pressure Saudi Arabia or Pakistan to stop torturing and executing THEIR gay citizens? Nothing, and in addition, it wants to write discrimination into our Constitution where none existed before. And I don't personally believe that any post-theocratic government in Iran is going to be pressured to treat gays any differently than they are currently treated.

So before you make a decision to support a war in Iran, keep your blinders off.

[ladeuxiemevoiture]

6. And bear in mind this tidbit from LBN...

"Iraq Constitution May Erode Women's Rights" -

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A part of
Iraq's draft constitution obtained by The Associated Press gives Islam a major role in Iraqi civil law, raising concerns that women could lose rights in marriage, divorce and inheritance.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050726/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

So here you have a situation where women reportedly had a kind of equality under a dictatorship, and what's replacing it is a system under which they stand to lose rights. It's impossible to argue that gays in Iran have any kind of equality today, but could things get worse there under a different regime? Absolutely, God forbid

[One_Life_To_Give]

8. Iran will pay for my sex change, but execute gays?

If that is the price of trans acceptance. I guess I will have to stay in the closet.