Iran: Gay Teens Executed by Hanging
Direland reports:
Consensual gay sex in any form is punishable by death in the Islamic Republic of Iran. According to the website Age of Consent, which monitors such laws around the world, in Iran “Homosexuality is illegal, those charged with love-making Irangay_teens_2 are given a choice of four deathstyles: being hanged, stoned, halved by a sword, or dropped from the highest perch.
According to Article 152, if two men not related by blood are discovered naked under one cover without good reason, both will be punished at a judge’s discretion. Gay teens (Article 144) are also punished at a judge’s discretion. Rubbing one’s penis between the thighs without penetration (tafheed) shall be punished by 100 lashes for each offender. This act, known to the English-speaking world as frottage,’ is punishable by death if the ‘offender’ is a non-Muslim. If frottage is thrice repeated and penalty-lashes have failed to stop such repetitions, upon the fourth ‘offense’ both men will be put to death.
According to Article 156, a person who repents and confesses his gay behavior prior to his identification by four witnesses, may be pardoned. Even kissing ‘with lust’ (Article 155) is forbidden. This bizarre law works to eliminate old Persian male-bonding customs, including common kissing and holding hands in public.” And Outrage, in its release about the gay teens’ execution, noted that, “according to Iranian human rights campaigners, over 4000 lesbians and gay men have been executed since the Ayatollahs seized power in 1979. Last August, a 16-year-old girl was hanged for ‘acts incompatible with chastity.’”
According to Outrage:
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.
One of the comments at TalkLeft says:
What I’d like to see from conservatives and, indeed, the Bush Administration is the condemnation and repudiation of the following:
1. The indiscriminant use of the death penalty
2. The use of torture as a means of punishment and interrogation
3. The barbaric practice of executing minors
4. Criminal statutes that punish individuals based on their sexual orientation or consensual homosexual sexual acts
That’s very good, I think. If conservatives don’t condemn this, then by implication they at least tolerate (if not support) the actions of the Iranian government. If they do condemn this, they by implication they also condemn many of the actions of the Bush administration. It’s a curious predicament to be caught in, but it’s important to understand that it’s simply not acceptable to use brutal and immoral methods against people we don’t like while also condemning others who use the same methods.
Bush has claimed off and on that the invasion of Iraq was necessary to save its citizens from a brutal government, but is there any chance that he would invade Iran to save gay people from the brutal government in that nation? Probably not — I doubt that his Christian base of supporters would also support such an action.
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The article says:
“Bush has claimed off and on that the invasion of Iraq was necessary to save its citizens from a brutal government, but is there any chance that he would invade Iran to save gay people from the brutal government in that nation?”
The assertion that conservatives are “OK” with the torture and execution of these two gay teens is asinine. There are those on the moonbat right who may be just as there are those on the moonbat left who say that the US military is a terrorist organization (see John Murtha).
The left (and that includes the gay left) needs to own up to its part in the fact that we are crippled when it comes to dealing with Islamofascist states.
What pressure can we exert on Iran and N. Korea with the American left undermining every effort in cahoots with the French, Russians, Chinese, etc.
If Bush ordered an invasion of Iran to topple the Mullahs, I would wager that the “blood for oil” mantra would appear within hours.
Who asserted this?
Please quote Johnh Murtha saying this.
If that’s the case, it’s only because of the actions and polices of the Bush administration.
What pressure can we exert on anyone with our military and respect all shot to nothing now?
So, do you support an invasion of Iran?
Athiest,
I just came across this, way after it was written and you will probably never see this. Your comments are insane. If what you are saying is true than it is equally true that the Democrats must “at least tolerate (if not support) the actions of the Iranian government”
Since they didn’t condemn this they obviously SUPPORT what the Bush adminsitration is doing…
You do raise one good point. Both the Bush administration AND the democrats should be loudly complaining. They are not, Nether is the EU, UN, any human rights group I have ever heard of….. so what does that say?
I read your article, and it was enlightening until the end… I am a gay conservative christian. I must say that you are way out of touch with how most conservatives think and feel. Most conservatives would love to see the “brutal” government in IRAN overthrown, but would the left support such an act? No way… Furthermore, IRAN is not just brutal when it comes to how they treat homosexuals. IRAN would be more difficult to overthrow than IRAQ, and look at the trouble we are still having there? Its easy to make the right wing look like a monster when you twist the facts, or leave out bits and pieces… It should be noted, if you really cared, you would be denouncing IRAN and ISLAMOFACISM as the real enemy… instead of the right wing. In my opinion, when the left wing points the blame at the wrong people, they in effect are enabling the problem to continue.
Well, point to any actual examples, please.
Overthrown by us? No - we don’t have a good track record doing that sort of thing. Overthrown by their own people? Sure.
Given all the brutal things I listed, I think you know that I already know this. Curiously, few conservatives in America disagree with doing all those other brutal things.
Exactly, which is why liberals would oppose trying to overthrow Iran. Sensible conservatives should agree.
Feel free to point to anything I have twisted or left out, rather than just make an unsupported accusation.
It should be noted that Iran is a Shi’ite government which opposes, and is opposed by, Sunni Islamist movements like Al Qaeda.
The “real enemy” is religious fanaticism and theocratic movements, things which exist in America among Christians as well as elsewhere among Muslims.
In my opinion, when the right wing points the blame solely at Muslims and refuses to do anything about the theocrats who have so much power in the GOP, they are part of the problem.
No gays in Iran: Ahmadinejad
Visit: http://gay.orq.ir