Earlier last month three handcuffed gay men from the southwestern Iranian province of Khuzestan were led to the gallows in the middle of the city of Ahvaz before a crowd of several hundred people and summarily hung by officials of Iran’s regime. Several months earlier, the three men had being found guilty of sodomy — which is crime in Iran — in what international human rights groups indicate was a sham trial.
Iran’s government follows Sharia or Islamic law that prohibits any type of sexual activity outside the realm of heterosexual marriage, and homosexuality is considered “a violation of the supreme will of God.” Specifically, in Islamic law homosexuality is referred to as “lavat,” which is Arabic for sodomy and in Iran is punishable only by death.
Yet the recent execution of the three gay men in Iran is a mere footnote in the 32-year horrific history of unspeakable human rights abuse and killings carried out by Iran’s current regime against LGBT people living in that country. According to a May 2008 confidential British government cable that was leaked by the “Wikileaks” website and later published by the London Telegraph newspaper, human rights activists believe that since 1979, between 4,000 and 6,000 gay men and lesbians have been executed in Iran for crimes related to their sexual orientation.
On a regular basis, local police or government-sanctioned thugs in Iran arrest, beat, torture and, in most cases, hang or even stone individuals who are suspected or found to be involved in homosexual activity.
http://www.advocate.com/Politics/Commentary/Oped_What_Will_It_Take_for_Americans_to_Help_Iranians/
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