UK/IRAN

 Gay Executions and Torture: Does Protesting Really Help?
– Yes, Says Iranian Exile

 
 

 
 
■ Iranian exile Maryam Kousha addresses protesters in London.  Also pictured is Peter Tatchell of Outrage!, the gay human rights organisation.		  

COMMENTARY
 

  
 

 


■ "Hanging" outside the Iranian
Embassy this afternoon during the
"Homophobia Kills" protest.


■ Peter Tatchell is interviewed for
American Q Television


■ axm editor Matt Miles gives a radio
interview.

We often wonder whether protests outside Embassies have any effect.  It might make us feel good as we wave a banner condemning some atrocity or another, as was the case outside the Iranian Embassy in London today when gay rights in Iran – or the complete lack of them – took centre stage.

Sure, we felt good; at least we were doing something.

But what good did it do for our brothers and sister inside Iran?  While we live our “free” lives, in Iran many people – gay and straight – live in constant fear.

Iranian exile Maryam Kousha of the Iran Civil Rights Committee told us that it really does matter that we protest in a public way.

Pointing across the road at the Iranian Embassy, she explained in colourful language.

“They are in there, looking out.  And they will be sh***ing themselves not knowing what to do,” she said.  “They will see the television cameras, the radio reporters … they will be reporting back to Tehran and wondering just how to prevent the news getting into the country.  But they can’t.”

She went on to explain the obvious.  Any repressive regime controls its media.  But in this modern age it is becoming more and more difficult to control what anyone reads, hears or sees.  Only last week we had the news that clandestine audio tapes for the gay community were being distributed in Iran.

“I promise you … by this evening, many people in Iran will read or even watch reports of this protest today,” she said.  “Tomorrow there will be more … and so it goes on.”

So, when we protest – whether it be in London, Paris or New York – many in Iran will know that we are concerned about them and wanting to help them get even the basic of human rights.

Maryam insisted that it was vital to keep up this sort of pressure.  It might not have any effect on the Government, but the news will get through to the people.

And we all know that it is good to know that someone cares.

RELATED:

Celebrities Join London Protest Against Iran Gay Executions and Torture.  TV soap and film actor Jeremy Sheffield, gay rap star Q Boy, comedian Scott Cappurro, Big Brother contestant Josh Rafter, out gay Labour MP Chris Bryant and human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell today joined a 50-strong protest outside the Iranian Embassy in London.

 

 

LINKS

Outrage! website
axm website
Iran Civil Rights Committee website
 Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization website

 

 

 
 

Recent Articles

October 3: 
Iran:  Star Support for London Demo Against Brutal Iranian Treatment of Gays.  A number of stars have backed tomorrow’s demonstration at the Iranian Embassy in London and the international petition organised by the monthly UK gay magazine axm.  The magazine has joined forces with Outrage!, the UK gay human rights organisation, to organise the “Homophobia Kills” protest against the homophobic atrocities in Iran outside the country’s Embassy at 1pm tomorrow (Tuesday October 4).

Nepal:  Call to Intervene to Help Release Five Imprisoned Gay Metis in Nepal, by Sunil Pant in Kathmandu.  Five metis were arrested last night about 10pm in Kantipath while they were on their way to the Thamel area of the Nepali capitol. [Reports from Nepal earlier today said that there were three metis arrested]. They were Suntali Lama (age about 22 years), Neema Lama (age 22), Kanchhi Lama (age 25), Bipasa Rai (aged about 19) and Deepa (age 22).

Nepal:  Three More Gay Metis Arrested and Beaten by Nepali Police.  Reports are coming in of the arrest of another three metis in Nepal. A meti is a M-to-F transgendered person.  “The police are becoming more and more brutal,” said a spokesperson at the Blue Diamond Society (BDS), Nepal’s LGBT human rights and HIV/AIDS organisation.

October 2: 

Lithuania:  Anti-Gay Demonstration in Vilnius, by Juris Lavrikovs.  Around 50 people gathered on the Europe Square in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius on Friday to protest against possible gay pride march and ‘spread’ of homosexuality in Lithuania.  All major Christian denominations expressed their support for this demonstration.

October 1: 
UK/Iran:   New Iran Protest Over Treatment of Gays at London Embassy.  A new protest outside the Iranian Embassy in London is to be staged next week.  UK gay human rights group Outrage!, which last July broke the news to the world of the execution of two gay teenagers, has joined forces with UK gay lifestyle monthly axm to spearhead a further demonstration at the Embassy on Tuesday (October 4).

September 29: 
Iran:    “Please do not leave us alone,” Iranian Gays Urgently Appeal to World, by Doug Ireland.  The Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization (PGLO) has appealed to North American activists for help in mobilizing support for their campaign against the vicious, lethal, anti-gay crackdown taking place in the Islamic Republic of Iran.  The anti-gay pogrom in Iran includes arrests and torture of gay people, executions of gay Iranians on trumped up charges, and a well-organized Internet entrapment campaign by Iran's religious sex police that is ensnaring gay Iranians daily.

UK:  Anti-Gay Christian Voice Director on BBC’s Question Time.  Stephen Green, the national director of the vehemently anti-gay Christian fundamentalist Christian Voice, is one of the panellists on tonight’s Question Time (BBC1 at 10.35pm), which comes live from Brighton at the end of the Labour Party conference.

September 28: 
Nepal:  OutRage! Condemns Police Brutality Against Gays in Nepal.  The UK LGBT human rights group OutRage! has today condemned the police assaults of gay metis last weekend in Kathmandu, Nepal (see UK Gay News report of yesterday).

Turkey:  Gay Rights Violated by Turkey, Says Human Rights Watch.  The threat by Turkish officials to close down an organization defending lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people’s rights violates basic freedoms of association and expression, Human Rights Watch said last night.

Belarus/Sweden/UK:  European Push to Help Belarus Gays.  Concerns are growing over human rights of gays in Belarus, dubbed by activists as “Europe’s last dictatorship”.

UK (England and Wales):  Your Rights Section:  Employment in the Gay Community and the Law. 

September 27: 
 Nepal:  HIV Victim Beaten As Police Taunt Gays In Nepal.  A Nepalese meti afflicted with HIV, the virus that can lead to AIDS, was savagely beaten by police and detained in a Kathmandu police station for a day before being released on payment of what was effectively a bribe.

September 26: 
Moldova:  Moldova: Discrimination Against Gays, Lesbians Is Inadmissible, Says Council of Europe.  Moldova must guarantee the fundamental rights of gays and lesbians, a report from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) says.

September 24:
Russia:  Cashman Pledges Support for Moscow Gay Pride.  Michael Cashman, the out-gay Member of the European Parliament, has invited the Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov to Strasbourg for a “summit” on gay pride events and of LGBT rights to expression, demonstrations and meetings.

September 23: 
Iran:  Holding Iran Accountable for Violating Gay Human Rights, by Paula Ettelbrick.  The president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, joined the largest gathering ever of world leaders last week at the United Nations without one question being asked about his country’s continued violations of international human rights law. Iran has signed both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Both forbid the execution of any person under the age of 18 for any crime. Yet there has been a rash of public executions in Iran that have involved youth or were related to sexuality and gender identity.

Posted: 4 October2005 at 22:00 (UK time)
 

 

 
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