Written by Olivia Norbury
CW: This article contains a brief mention of sexual assault, torture, and rape.
It is easy to forget about queer history in the context of oppression under an authoritarian regime. Such is the case in Iran, where LGBTQ+ individuals face oppression from multiple directions. Thus, they are often silenced within the global historical narrative, as well as being legally and socially marginalised within their own country. Therefore, through an intersectional lens, this article seeks to give a voice to Iranian LGBTQ+ individuals, whose marginal status is exacerbated in the quest for wider Iranian liberation.
A brief history of Iran will help to contextualise the conditions that LGBTQ+ Iranians are facing. Under the Pahlavi dynasty (1925-1979), homosexuality was criminalised. The 1979 Iranian Revolution was a culmination of protests against the Pahlavi dynasty, which rejected secular, authoritarian rule of the Shah and Western intervention. Iran became a political theocracy under Ruhollah Khomeini, and his anti-Western Islamist theocracy, termed ‘political Islam’. The revolution toppled the political repression of the Shah, but the rule that replaced it was not liberal and leftist as some had hoped. Khomeini’s vision had united people against the Shah, but the constitution consolidated his revolutionary vision of God’s exclusive possession to sovereignty and right to legislate. Under Khomeini, democracy and political parties were banned, universities were purged, and several thousand protestors were injured and imprisoned. Thus, the 1979 Revolution did not represent a transition to freedom that many had hoped when they toppled the Pahlavi dynasty, including the status of LGBTQ+ Iranians: thousands were executed post-revolution, including homosexuals. Iranians were severely repressed, with minimal signs of liberalism or progress.
One authoritarian rule had been replaced by another. In post-revolutionary Iran, Islamic law determines the legal code, illegalising any sexual activity outside of heterosexual marriage, punishable by fines, imprisonment, and death. Sodomy is more harshly penalised as both partners can be punished by death, whereas female same-sex sexual activity is punished by death on the fourth occasion. These codes essentially completely banned homosexuality in Iran and are rigorously enforced: The Boroumand Foundation has recorded at least 107 executions with charges related to homosexuality between 1979 and 1990. Same-sex marriage and civil unions are not legally recognised in Iran, and few LGBT Iranians feel comfortable coming out. Furthermore, no legislation exists to address discrimination or violence on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. LGBTQ+ Iranians face political and legal repression, and as well as social and cultural repression of queer identities.
LGBTQ+ Iranians are therefore one of the most harmed groups by the Islamic Republic: violence and discrimination against them is promoted and legitimised. Thus, organised queer resistance is not feasible as the community are not able to gather in public. Nonetheless, LGBTQ+ Iranians are finding ways to make their voices heard. HOMAN, an organisation and magazine formed to advocate the rights of Iranian LGBTQ+ people living abroad, produced eighteen print issues between 1991 and 2002 which were distributed worldwide. HOMAN supported the LGBTQ+ Iranian community worldwide, and confronted homophobia within the larger Iranian community. Moreover, Iran Pride Day has been held on the fourth of July since 2010, where a small group of twenty to thirty LGBTQ+ activists celebrate in secret. They gather in Iran’s capital, Tehran, and secretly take pictures of themselves holding rainbow flags and slogans. These activists cover their faces to avoid persecution, but nevertheless the public commemoration of LGBTQ+ pride in Iran exemplifies how Iranians are circumventing repressive laws to celebrate their community. Their impact was manifested in 2017, when they were offered a float in the Amsterdam Pride festival but had to cover their faces for the same reason aforementioned. The group won an award for their float but had to take precautions for their safety: this dichotomy epitomises the tension still present in the Iranian LGBTQ+ rights movement.
Individual action is a significant method of LGBTQ+ resistance due to the public repression they face under the Islamic Republic. Arsham Parsi formed a small LGBT group online called Rangin Kaman (Rainbow Group) in 2001. As a gay Iranian who felt alone, he sought to meet others online and form a community of alike people, further organising group chats for gay Iranians in 2003. His work was recognised when less than three years later, he was invited to publicly speak in Geneva at a UN convention, testifying to his impact within the LGBTQ+ community. Parsi formed and directed the Iranian Queer Organisation, and in 2008 launched the International Railroad for Queer Refugees, an advocacy group for LGBTQ+ rights in Iran, for those seeking refuge both within and outside of Iran. It is the first Iranian NGO, indicative of his pioneering work which sought to alleviate the pressures and alienation imposed on LGBTQ+ Iranians. Nonetheless, Parsi is now exiled and based in Canada, demonstrating the difficulties faced not only in protesting, but even existing as an openly queer person in Iran. These examples are indicative of the challenges faced by the Iranian LGBTQ+ movement in Iran, but nevertheless exemplify their unwavering determination to protest their marginal status in the Islamic Republic, and arguably as importantly, forge a sense of queer community and comfort amongst the isolation imposed upon them.
Iranian LGBTQ+ voices have recently been further amplified. In September 2022, Mahsa Amini was arrested by Iran’s Gasht-e Ershad (morality police) for violating the law that women must wear head scarves to cover their hair. She was insulted and tortured on her way to the police station and died three days after being taken into custody. The Iranian government propagated the official reason of her death as a heart condition, but Iranians widely believe that the police killed her. The event ignited protests not only in Tehran, where at least 92 Iranian protests have been killed, but globally, not only against the hijab law, but more widely against the entrenched repression of women and LGBTQ+ people in the Islamic Republic. Amini’s death sparked the protests, but they were rooted in the systematic oppression of and violence against women. The protest comes in the context of increased organised resistance to veiling in the last decade. The current president Raisi cracked down on dissent in 2021, focusing on veiling; but women are refusing to concede, and instead are calling for an end to the Islamic Republic. Western media has framed the protests as a women’s issue, but it is more widespread – the oppression of marginalised identities.
An interview conducted with Raha, an Iranian LGBTQ+ rights advocate, reveals that protests in Amini’s name are multifaceted, concerning not only cis women, but transgender women, transgender men, and nonbinary people, explaining that all queer people undergo multiple intersectional discriminations regarding their gender expression. The LGBTQ+ community are on the frontline of protests, using them as an outlet to challenge their oppression, given that the community cannot necessarily gather in public. Individuals such as Zahra Sedighi-Hamedani and Elham Chubdar show the difficulty for queer Iranians to protest: they were sentenced to death for ‘human trafficking’ and ‘corruption on earth’ and remain on the death row. They are part of the LGBTQ+ community, and there is no evidence for their alleged crimes; their persecution is likely due to their queer identities. LGBTQ+ Iranians cannot use their own slogans and assert their own existence, and thus protest the wider repressive regime through other protests. Raha asserts that the ultimate liberation for LGBTQ+ Iranians is the overthrow of the Islamic Republic, and thus these protests are a vessel for queer Iranians to achieve liberation.
However, LGBTQ+ Iranians still face considerable limitations in protesting. Iran is one of seven countries which enables execution for consensual same-sex conduct. Amnesty International reports that 5,000 gays and lesbians have been executed since the Iranian Revolution. LGBTQ+ Iranians are therefore legally oppressed, making it impossible to organise resistance. Furthermore, the social stigma faced by the community exacerbates the difficulties they face. President Ahmadinejad declared there were no gays in Iran in 2007. The cultural and social erasure of the Iranian LGBTQ+ community, as well as legal repression, contributes to their difficulties in protesting their marginal status. Iranian security forces rely on discriminatory laws to harass, detain, and arrest suspected gay Iranians, who are maltreated, tortured, sexually assaulted, and even raped in detention facilities. Ultimately, LGBTQ+ Iranians are systematically oppressed, and the cycle of repression limits opportunities to protest, which in turn sustains this systematic oppression of the community. The corruption in the Islamic Republic means that LGBTQ+ individuals are not afforded a fair trial: judges ignore the penal code and rely on confessions extracted by torture and subjective evidence such as ‘knowledge of the judge’. Iranian laws on transgender people seem accommodating, as the state recognises trans Iranians. However, they have to undergo gender reassignment surgery, which ultimately is another form of repression aiming to enforce conformity to heterosexual standards.
Therefore, it is challenging for LGBTQ+ Iranians to achieve liberation whilst under an already corrupt and oppressive regime. The Human Rights Watch has called on the Iranian government to abolish laws criminalising homosexuality, rescind death sentences against individuals for consensual same-sex conduct, and prohibit abuse and violence against sexual minorities, particularly by the police force. Of further importance is the oppressive institution of the Islamic Republic itself; the ultimate freedom of the Iranian LGBTQ+ community, women, and other marginalised identities requires a change in the regime which has subjugated them for decades. As Raha states, ‘be the unheard voice of the Iranian queer community, spread our voices, spread out stories, and acknowledge our existence and existence in Iran’. Her call on the international queer community to use their privilege to advocate for similar rights for all queer people highlights the international solidarity required if rising LGBTQ+ voices in Iran are to enact fundamental change.
Bibliography
Abrahamian, Ervand. A History of Modern Iran. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Factora, James. ‘Iran’s Mahsa Amini Protests Are an LGBTQ+ Fight, Too.’ https://www.them.us/story/iran-protests-mahsa-amini-zahra-sedighi-hamedani-elham-chubdar accessed 14/03/24
‘Iran: Discrimination and Violence Against Sexual Minorities.’ https://www.hrw.org/news/2010/12/15/iran-discrimination-and-violence-against-sexual-minorities accessed 16/03/24
Parsi, Arsham. ‘Iranian Queers and Laws: Fighting for Freedom of Expression.’ Harvard International Review 36, no. 2 (2014), 49-53.
Shannon, Kelly J. ‘Four decades of smoldering discontent among Iranian women is erupting.’ https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/09/26/iranian-women-uprising-against-oppression-history/ accessed 16/03/24.
Featured image credit: “Trans – Life – Freedom” by alisdare1 is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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