3.8.05

32

I've added a link to Transdada, a clearinghouse for "poetics, time, body disruption and marginally queer solutions" and its sister-site, In Words, "documents of personal struggles for queer freedom." On the latter, read an interview with gay activists in Iran, publishers of MAHA, a Persian queer e-mag. Here's an excerpt in which they discuss reaction to the July 19 execution of two gay teenagers and, more generally, being queer in Iran:

"MAHA: inside Iran, there is a large number of NGO like children's rights, women's rights, human rights groups etc. but also Ms. Shirin Ebedadi (peace Noble prize winner) protested against the execution. The situation in Iran is so that no one can talk openly about GLBT rights so those who protested, they protested against execution of children (one of the boys was clearly under 18 years old). The other problem is the conflicting messages from authorities, so no one wants to defend someone who raped a young 13 years old boy, as authority claims now.

GayRussia: What is the situation of gays in Iran? How can gays live in the atmosphere of constant fear?

MAHA: The GLBT situation in Iran has changed over the past 26 years. The regime does not systematically persecute gays anymore, there are still some gay websites, there are some parks and cinemas where everyone knows that these places are meeting places for gays, furthermore it is legal in Iran that transsexual applies for sex change and it is fully accepted by the government. There are some medias which sometimes (not often) write about such issues. Having said that, the Islamic law, according to which gays punishment is death is still in force but it is thought not much followed by the regime nowadays."


The interview was conducted by Nikolai Aleksiv of GayRussia.ru.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home