executed for being homosexual?

[tgirl in platform heels]

I don't know if this has already been posted and i know it's old news from last week for some but i just wonderd what your take is on this...I know the U.S. has the death penalty in some states but if true this article has made me lose all respect for Iran. How babrbaric must that place be?


Iran publicly executed two teenagers on Tuesday accusing them of raping a 13-year-old boy and having gay sex, according to Iran's ISNA news agency.

The two teenagers were hanged in Edalat (Justice) Square in Mashhad, Iran's second-largest city. They were only identified by their initials, M.A. and A.M.

Before their execution, the teenagers were held in prison for 14 months and lashed 228 times.

Ruhollah Rezazadeh, the lawyer for the youngest teenager, appealed to Tehran's Supreme Court, saying his client was too young to be executed, but the court ordered him hanged.

While the teens admitted to having sex with each other, the London-based gay human rights group OutRage! believes the admissions were coerced under torture.

OutRage! also doubts that the 13-year-old was raped, noting that the crime was not mentioned by some key news agencies. The organization believes the alleged rape to be either a trumped-up charge or, it suggests, the 13-year-old was a willing participant.

"This is just the latest barbarity by the Islamo-fascists in Iran," said OutRage! spokesperson Peter Tatchell.

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

Iran enforces Islamic Sharia law, which demands the death penalty for gay sex. Under the Iranian penal code, girls as young as nine and boys as young as 15 can be executed.

Members of Iran's parliament hailing from the northeastern city of Mashad complained Wednesday about news coverage of the deaths.

"Instead of paying tribute to the action of the judiciary, the media are mentioning the age of the hanged criminals and creating a commotion that harms the interests of the state," said ultraconservative deputy Ali Asgari in a quote published by Iran Focus.

"Even if certain Web sites made a reference to their age, journalists should not pursue this. These individuals were corrupt. Their sentence was carried out with the approval of the judiciary, and it served them right," he said.

http://www.gay.com/news/article.html?2005/07/21/1

[tgirl in platform heels]

It's nice to see the world is taking note of Iran's inhumanity:

Global anger grows over teen executions in Iran
Gay.com U.K. and the PlanetOut Network

International human rights organizations are calling for action to be taken against Iran after officials publicly executed two gay teenagers last week.

The two boys, who were identified only by their initials, were executed for having sex with each other. Homosexuality is illegal under the Sharia law, which allows execution of children as young as 9 years of age.

The teens were also charged with raping a 13-year-old boy, although the majority of news services say this charge has been trumped up by the Iranian state in a bid to avoid international criticism.

Activists believe the boys gave their "confession" after weeks of torture. They were detained and subjected to beatings by local police for up to two weeks before their death.

Now, international groups are calling for stronger action to be taken against Iran. In Tehran Saturday, children's rights activist Shirin Ebadi said that the hangings violated the terms of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Ebadi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, told the Associated Press that her campaign to outlaw the execution of minors had "fallen on deaf ears," but vowed that her Center for the Protection of Human Rights would step up the fight.

In the United States, the Human Rights Campaign is calling for Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to denounce the executions.

"As we have seen in recent weeks, the barbarous punishments for sexual acts in these countries run contrary to the letter and the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," the HRC stated in a letter to Rice.

"For that reason, these acts must be condemned."

In the United Kingdom, Peter Tatchell of the London-based LGBT rights group OutRage! criticized the Labour party for trying to forge closer ties with the government of Iran.

"Britain's Labour government is pursuing friendly relations with this murderous regime, including aid and trade," Tatchell said.

"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."

Tatchell also said the country had become a "prison," with the ultraconservative state blocking any movement toward a more liberal, democratic society.

Elsewhere, activists are calling for their governments to publicly criticize the Iranian-sanctioned executions.

In Sweden, the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights (RFSL) has called on the government to update its asylum policy so that lesbian and gay people are not deported back to Iran.

"I think the Swedish government is extremely cynical when it sends gays and lesbians back to Iran," Soren Andersson told the AFP news agency.

"They keep looking for excuses to send them back there, but it is dangerous for homosexuals in Iran," he added.

However, Iran is standing firm on its decision to kill the two young men. Last week, ultraconservative deputy Ali Asgari stated that the punishment "served them right."

[happyjack]

hey tgiph,does anyone actually have any respect for these backward countries anyway?

[djlindy5763]

Just my 2 cents worth, but have any of us possibly thought that it was the rape that they were being hanged for and not necessarily the homosexuality??

[SexxxyJade]

Just my 2 cents worth, but have any of us possibly thought that it was the rape that they were being hanged for and not necessarily the homosexuality??

Thats what i was thinking, Still a lil harsh to hang teens tho.For whatever reason.

[bootlova]

That country is full of Garbage!! I hate myself for having thier blood in my veins...

[Quinn]

Sharia (Islamic Law) calls for the execution of anyone engaging in a homosexual act. Just to be clear, Sharia is also practiced in a number of Islamic countries outside of Iran.

If you are surprised by this, do a little research and find out just how many other behaviors common to the West also carry the death penalty. The real treat comes when you find out just how many forms of execution are acceptable. Is that burning flesh I smell :shock: :shock: :shock:

-Quinn

[Ecstatic]

Sharia (Islamic Law) calls for the execution of anyone engaging in a homosexual act. Just to be clear, Sharia is also practiced in a number of Islamic countries outside of Iran.

If you are surprised by this, do a little research and find out just how many other behaviors common to the West also carry the death penalty. The real treat comes when you find out just how many forms of execution are acceptable. Is that burning flesh I smell :shock: :shock: :shock:

-Quinn
This is an oversimplification of a very complex set of laws (Sharia, or the human interpretation of the (presumed) divine and eternal Law), which fall into five legal schools (madhhabs): Hanafi, Shafi'i, Hanbali, Maliki, and, according to the Shia, Ja'fari. More recently, some groups have rejected this tradition in favor of greater ijtihad, or individual interpretation. Of these schools, according to Michael Mumisa of the Birmingham-based Al Mahdi institute:

The Hanafi school does not consider same-sex intercourse to constitute adultery, and therefore leaves punishment up to the judge's discretion. Some scholars of this school also specifically rule out the death penalty, while others allow it for a second offence.
Imam Shafi'i considers same-sex intercourse as analogous to other zina; thus, a married person found to have done so is punished as an adulterer (by stoning to death), and an unmarried one, as a fornicator, is left to the judge's discretion.
The Maliki school says that anyone (married or unmarried) found to have committed same-sex intercourse should be punished as an adulterer.
Within the Ja'fari schools, Sayyid al-Khoi says that anyone (married or unmarried) found to have committed same-sex intercourse should be punished as an adulterer.
It should also be noted that the punishment for adultery requires four witnesses; by analogy, the Shafi'i school, at least, requires four witnesses to the physical act of penetration for the punishment to be applied.

Same-sex intercourse carries the death penalty in five officially Muslim nations: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Mauritania, Sudan, and Yemen.[1] It formerly carried the death penalty in Afghanistan under the Taliban, and in Iraq under a 2001 decree by Saddam Hussein. The legal situation in the United Arab Emirates is unclear. In many Muslim nations, such as Bahrain, Qatar, Algeria or the Maldives, homosexuality is punished with jail time, fines or corporal punishment. In some Muslim-majority nations, such as Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, or Mali, same-sex intercourse is not forbidden by law. However, in Egypt gays have been the victims of laws against "immorality".
(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_and_Islam)

[Quinn]

Ecstatic,

Thanks for such an informed and interesting response. You forgot to add Nigeria to your list of nations that enforce Sharia (Islamic North of Nigeria, not the Christian South). The enforcement of Sharia, regardless of the legal school, leads to barbaric edicts of all sorts.

The spread of Wahabism, which relies upon an interpretation of the Hanbali jurisprudential school of Islam and does advocate the execution of homosexuals, is of particular concern in international relations circles. Well funded Wahabi missionaries have been working very hard to convert moderate Muslims to their own radical interpretation of Islam. They have had particular success in the Balkans and Northern Africa - a trend that has strengthened over the last 25 years in particular, thereby turning Wahabisim into one of the fastest growing forms of Islam. The imposition of Sharia – particularly the Wahabi inspired strain – is on the rise, not on the decline. The thrust of my point is this: If you like TS Ladies, which we all obviously do, this should be a cause for concern.

-Quinn

[Ecstatic]

Quinn, you are 100% right there. I try to keep an open mind about Islam, and in general I think it's deserved, but fundamentalism and extremist factions in any religion are the most dangerous, and I'm afraid those in Wahabism are among the worst. Thank you for further clarification of the issue and the spread of Wahabism.

[GroobySteven]

Yet there are open transsexuals in Iran?
Where does their law stand on that.

Seems a little suspicious to me that this is making such national media only two weeks before Bush invades Iran.
seanchai

[Quinn]

Seanchai,

A good point about the presence of TS Ladies in Iran. Iran is dominated by the Shia form of Islam, which adheres to the Ja’fari jurisprudential school of Islam referenced in Ecstatic’s earlier post, and engages in a convoluted application of Sharia. So far as I understand it, TS ladies are not legally permitted to engage in relationships with men or dress as women until they have undergone SRS. Once this point is passed, they are permitted legal status as women and allowed to take part in all actions that this would merit. Engaging in sex with a man or dressing as a woman prior to this is illegal and can carry heavy punishments. Examine the following article by the BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/4115535.stm

So far as Sharia in states outside of Iran is concerned (Saudi Arabia, etc.), Wahabism takes a far more brutal approach to Transexualism, regarding it as homosexuality period.

-Quinn

[Ecstatic]

What Quinn said, but one clarification: homosexuality in itself is not punishable (by death or any other means) in Islam; it's acting on the homosexual impulse which is, by Islamic law, illegal and punishable. IOW, Islam recognizes that a man may be attracted to another man, or a woman to a woman, but so long as they do not engage in sexual activity, they are guilty of no transgression (the principle being that man cannot control his innate nature, but he can control the actions he takes based on that nature). So one could be a TS ... just not engage in sex with a man prior to SRS.

Moreover, at least in most legal interpretations, there must be at least four witnesses to a transgression to prosecute as I understand it (Quinn?).

[Quinn]

Ecstatic,

Definitely and important clarification. It is the act of gay sex and not the sexual orientation itself that "merits" punishment. So far as the number of witnesses is concerned, I do believe that four is the standard for capital punishment to apply. However, as I am not familiar with all of the various legal permutations that exist within each school of Islamic law, I can not say for certain that this is universally applicable to each school in every circumstance.

-Quinn

[tgirl in platform heels]

what's most worrying is that this backwards country is trying to develop nuclear weapons! :(

[Trogdor]

Well, seeing as how more people have died because of organized religion than in all the wars man had combined, I am not surprised.

Funny, everyone's going after Sadam's ass, yet these guys are pretty much untouched.

But di I feel sorry for the iran people....not really....if they wanted to change, they could have, by force if neccisary. But since they simply accept it, that's their fault.

[LAtoNY]

Isn't Ivy (Sofia) (Eros LA) from Iran??

that is really terrible. jail yes, lashing yes, because fucking with children is wrong. 13 year old cannot be willing participants becasue they don't know better however hanging them for that is overkill in my opinion. that is really fierce. kinda makes u appreciate the justice system here. true our system is fucked up BUT not fucked up like Iran and other places.


~*.*~

p.s. tgirl in platform heels i like ya avatar. lolz. did it come from this.....