■ Paula Ettelbrick: “We ask that the deportation order be rescinded..”

NEW YORK, August 28, 2007  –  A leading American gay and lesbian human rights group has joined the world-wide campaign to stop the deportation by the British Government of Pegah Emambakhsh, the 40-years-old Iranian lesbian back to her home country.

Paula L. Ettelbrick, the executive director of the New York-based International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission has written to British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith MP saying that the Commission was “troubled”.

She points out that in 2005 the then British Foreign secretary stated that “[t]he signs of slight improvement in Iran’s human rights record we saw after Khatami was first elected in 1997 have not been sustained” and acknowledged this fact “as a matter of profound concern for the British Government.”

“In the two years since this statement was released, there is a new president in Iran, but no signs of a new policy toward the human rights violations of Iranian people," she adds.

“As a woman who has publicly acknowledged her lesbianism, we fear that Ms. Emambakhsh will face the types of abuses that motivated the Foreign Office minister’s report,” Ms. Ettelbrick says in the letter, published late last night on the IGLHRC website.

“Not only have there been accounts of imprisonment, torture and execution performed on open or perceived sexual minorities, but it is reported that Pegah fled Iran after her female lover was subjected to the very abuses that we fear will befall her.”

Ms. Ettelbrick goes on to point out that human rights violations against lesbians and gay men in Iran have been well documented.

“It is not a country in which there is much doubt about the likelihood that [Ms. Emambakhsh] will face persecution,” she writes.

“Given the British government’s great support for the human rights of lesbians, gay, bisexual and transgender people, domestically and internationally, we are at a loss to understand how the circumstances facing LGBT Iranians could not have led to a decision to grant asylum and help her settle into a new life.

“We ask that the deportation order be rescinded and hope to hear soon of your decision to do so.”

SEE ALSO

Iranian Lesbian Freed on Bail From UK Detention at Yarl’s Wood.  Pegah Emambakhsh, the 40-years-old Iranian lesbian who fled to the UK in 2005 seeking asylum, has been freed “on bail” from the Yarl’s Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire.  (UK Gay News, September 12, 2007)

Pink Panthers in Paris Support Iranian Lesbian Facing Deportation from UK.  The Panthères Roses of Paris (Pink Panthers) have weighed-in with support for Pegah Emambackhsh, the Iranian lesbian who is facing deportation from the UK back to Iran.  (UK Gay News, August 28, 2007)

Lesbian Iranian Asylum Seeker: British Govt. Dithers Over Possible Deportation, Italy Acts.  Gay News ran the headline “Ashamed To Be British” on an article about how a gay Algerian was treated over an asylum application.  Two years on, nothing has changed when it comes to the case of Pegah Emambakhsh, the 40-years-old gay Iranian woman who is languishing in Yarls Wood Detention Centre near Bedford facing deportation – and who knows what when she arrives in Tehran.  But it’s a different story in Italy.  (UK Gay News, August 26, 2007)

Gays Worldwide Rally to Aid Iranian Lesbian Facing Deportation from UK.  A last-ditch attempt to stop the deportation early next week to Tehran of a 40-years-old lesbian has been mounted by her supporters in Sheffield.  But already activists around the world are campaigning against the deportation.  (UK Gay News, August 23, 2007)

Gay Iranian Woman Gets ‘Stay’ On UK Deportation Order.   A gay Iranian woman came within minutes of being put onto a non-stop flight to Tehran at Heathrow this evening as the UK Government’s Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) – part of the Home Office – went through the final process of deportation.  (UK Gay News, August 16, 2007)

ALSO

“All This Torture Just For Being a Lesbian”.  An interview with an Iranian lesbian who fled to Europe: "I am a lesbian.  For this reason I was arrested countless times.  I went to prison and ultimately sentenced to death [by hanging].  I remember the first time I was arrested; I was 21 and a student in Esfahan."  (UK Gay News, June 26, 2007)

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Posted: 28 August 2007 at 02:30 (UK time)