Iran Hung Two Gay Men Charged with Sodomy Today

Two gay men charged with sodomy six years ago were hung by the Iranian government today according to the Iranian Human Rights Monitor.

The men, Mehrdad Karimpour and Farid Mohammadi were in Maragheh prison until their execution.

Two #Iranian men were executed today after being found guilty of charges related to homosexuality. #Humanrights websites identified the men as 32 yo Mehrdad Karimpour & Farid Mohammadi. They were arrested 6 years ago & were in Maragheh prison until their execution. pic.twitter.com/NyiC0XjzK9

— IRAN HRM (@IranHrm) January 30, 2022

The Jerusalem Post: The Islamic Republic of Iran continued its lethal homophobic policy, executing on Sunday two men based on its anti-gay Sharia law system.

“The Ayatollah regime in Iran just executed two gay men for the crime of sodomy in Iran,” The Iranian-American journalist Karmel Melamed tweeted. He added their pictures and asked, “Where’s the outrage from US Secretary of State Antony Bliken, GLAAD [an NGO that promotes LGBTQ acceptance]  & other LGBT groups in the US to this horrific crime?!”

Peter Tatchell, an LGBTQ+ and human-rights campaigner, told The Jerusalem Post: “Iran is one of a dozen Muslim-majority countries and regions that enforce Sharia law and impose the death penalty for homosexuality. The execution of these men follows a long-standing regime policy of the state-sanctioned murder of gay men, often on disputed charges after unfair trials that have been condemned by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

Sheina Vojoudi, an Iranian dissident who fled to Germany to escape persecution, told The Jerusalem Post: “The prisons of the Islamic Republic is full of people who have committed no crime and the leaked footage of Evin prison proved that. The Islamic Republic in Iran is based on injustice, to make it more clear I want to remind you of Saeed Toosi, the prominent Quran reciter and teacher who’s Ali Khamenei’s favorite Quran reciter. He was accused by 19 of his former underage Quran students of sexual molestation and rape but he had the Supreme Leader’s protection and his case was ignored by the authorities.”

Vojoudi, who has blasted the Iranian regime’s anti-LGBTQ policies, added: “Why someone like him who rapes children can continue his career freely but the transgenders and homosexuals must be arrested or executed? There’s no justice and humanity in the Islamic Republic. The democratic countries and the free world maybe should start to think about their relations with the Islamic Republic.”

The new president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, declared in an anti-gay tirade in 2014 that same-sex relations are “nothing but savagery.”

Iran’s regime frequently uses the charge of sodomy to impose the death penalty on gays and lesbians. According to a 2008 British Wikipedia dispatch, Iran’s theocratic state executed between 4,000 and 6,000 gays and lesbians since the country’s 1979 Islamic revolution. Human Rights Network in Iran said the Iranian regime-controlled media has not reported on the executions of the two men based on the country’s anti-gay law.