Iran Regime Sentences Two Gay Rights Activists to Death

[Valin]

The Foreign Desk

Foreign Desk News

September 5, 2022

The Islamic Republic of Iran has announced the death penalty against two LGBTQ activists for allegedly promoting homosexuality in the country, according to a report from the Hengaw Organization for Human Rights. This latest development comes as the Islamic regime has come under scrutiny for its lack of regard for human rights and political freedom in the country.

According to the Sunday Report, the ruling against the two female activists came from the Islamic Revolutionary Court of the city of Urmia in the West Azerbaijan province against 31-year-old Zahra Sedighi-Hamedani and 24-year-old Elham Choubdar. The court, however, did not issue a verdict against another activist, 52-year-old Soheila Ashrafi.

In July, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) stated that Hamadani faced recent charges of “trafficking Iranian women” to Erbil, in the Kurdistan province in Iraq, referring to her as Zahra Mansouri Hamedani. The IRGC first arrested Hamadani for being linked to an appearance on a BBC documentary on gay rights in Iraqi Kurdistan, highlighting the condition many faces in the region. In October 2021, the Islamic government arrested Hamadani while trying to cross the border and seek asylum in Turkey, holding her in solitary confinement for over a month.

During her imprisonment, the IRGC subjected her to intense interrogations, insults, and threats of execution. In early January, the Islamic Revolutionary Court accused Hamadani of “spreading corruption on earth” through the “promotion of homosexuality, “communication with anti-Islamic Republic media channels,” and “promoting Christianity.”

(Snip)