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EXCLUSIVE NEWS FROM PAGEONEQ: Horrific pictures of a 22 - year - old gay Iranian torture victim have been released. SOON TO be posted on PageOneQ: exclusive interview with Amir, the young victim of the anti-gay crackdown -- whose injuries are captured in the photos, and who recently escaped from Iran -- by Senior Contributing Editor Doug for New York's Gay City News. Advance excerpts from the interview will be posted on PageOneQ as soon as they are available.
Folks, when I get news on torture in Iran, I try to verify it. However, my news budget is somewhat small, and I don't have the ability to fly to Tehran and interview clerics and victims to find out the whole truth. We know Iran tortures and murders gay citizens. If I get information that contradicts these photos, I will also report on it. Again, I live in Brooklyn and I don't have a news bureau in Tehran.
9 Comments:
Regan, I also heard from a friend in London. There are a number of gay Iranians living there who told him that in Iran torture is routine when it comes to someone finding out if you're gay. If you're caught in the act, it usually ends in execution. Makes you wonder what Iraq's future pseudo democracy will look like too. I'm not hopeful about that either, thanks to Bush who doesn't know what violation of human rights is all about to begin with. I didn't hear anyone from our government condemning the atrocities in Iran back in July, did you?
posted by Anonymous, at
9/20/2005 1:18 PM
And the religious right in this country still doesnt think (at least openly) that their hate rhetoric doesnt contribute to this kind of barbarism. I have no doubt whatsoever, that the same thing would happen if the evangelical "christians" were able to establish a theocracy in this country, which they so ardently desire. I'm sure falwell and robertson would supply the whips and chains (and of course charge for them). Gary (NJ)
posted by Anonymous, at
9/20/2005 1:51 PM
If you're caught in the act, it usually ends in execution. Makes you wonder what Iraq's future pseudo democracy will look like too. -- Anonymous Said
Its not just Iran but Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and many other Muslim countries that regularly torture and even put to death homosexuals and justify it with islamic law.
While we listen to Karl Rove and our current criminal administration lecture us on how we have "liberated" the people of Iraq. I agree with you Anonymous -- Dollars to donuts that Iraq will mirror Iran!!
Here's the real humdinger .. more than likely Iran and Iraq will then bury the hatchet once Iran has perfected nuke making capabilities and then tell the US to go fly a kite (... and Bush was worried about Saddam -- They are flaunting their nuke capabilities at the UN ...)
And we know what happens once a country has joined the Nuclear Family ... Bush is afraid to confront them on anything! Case-in-point - North Korea. Makes you wonder how our Gay brothers/sisters fare in this wonderland !
Remember, many of the refugees that left after the fall of the Sha of Iran were intelectuals, thinkers... sounds familiar? it happens with all totalitarian regimens: Even here in USA we can see how the thinkers, the intelectual elite are mostly left wingers, while the blue collar right wing are people usually uneducated and who follow -blindly- a lider who promise power and "safety" and who tell the masses that "the immigran" and the "different" and the "antisocial" (read gay) are "the enemy". History repeats again and again. Hitler was regarded by some as a Mesiah, the Ayatola was regarded as a god in Iran... The Pope is seen as "infalible". It is important that -when we look at what is happening in Iran- we are aware that the Christian conservatives and others like them don't slash us and hang us because they would be persecuted by the Law, but I am convinced that -if they couls- they would do that to us!
posted by Anonymous, at
9/20/2005 5:56 PM
No doubt there would be a willingness on the part of many people in the US to allow such things to happen to us here, as someone implied already, because they want to feel "safe" themselves. There is a prevailing attitude in America that if you are "a good person" then bad things won't happen to you and you won't need things like civil rights laws. If you're "good" you can stay out of trouble. . .which of course is a false perception. But attitudes like that play into the willingness to watch your neighbors carted off into jails and camps, as happened in Germany a few generations ago. Erich Fromm wrote about it back in the 1950s and the social analysis still applies, because it is based on human nature, which hasn't exactly evolved any in the past 50 or 60 years. The picture above tore my heart out of my chest. It is unconscionable that our government says nothing about these reasonless tortures. I too am concerned about the possibility that maybe we might face these things here, if there is any kind of theocratic right-wing takeover that turns this into a police state. But my bet now is that if we see a right-wing takeover, the ultra-religious types will lose out to the big business types, who are just using the religious fanaticism because it is convenient to mobilize a voting-base that puts their moneyed interests in a power position. Doesn't stop me from having nightmares about the witch hunts against gays right here in the States from getting to the level we see in Iran. Fanaticism is fanaticism, and they crave control.
Yep, and Richard Cohen would be at the forefront along with all the other self-loathing phonies. Who are they kidding? They're desperate people and they know they're losing credibility, slowly but surely. The wheel goes around, and they'll get theirs, sooner rather than later.
As for me, I really hate gays! I think they aren't human. Anyway I hate jews too (it sound like I hate everyone who's not like me, but it's not that!) atee1991@freemail.hu it's my msn address, you can write me on it.
posted by Anonymous, at
3/18/2008 4:27 PM
Religion and culture does not excuse hate. It is that simple. This man is a survivor of discrimination, and it is very sad that acts such as this are happening in the name of what is "right". Hope is not lost, however, because not everyone in Iran is going to be closed minded about gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender people. It is just too bad that this is all we ever hear about.
posted by Anonymous, at
6/20/2008 12:56 PM
