The international press aren’t given much freedom in Iran. Thus, no Western journalists were allowed access to Makwan Moloudzadeh, the gay man the state executed earlier this week. The Iranians claim the 21-year old raped another boy eight years ago, when they were both 13. Moloudzadeh and the alleged victims all denied it, saying any admissions were extracted through torture.
While no American reporter can confirm these details, Tehran-based reporter Mitra Khalatbari offers an eye-witness account of Moloudzadeh’s trial.
The only witnesses who had given statements to the intelligence police saying they had been raped by Makwan came into court and repudiated those statements, saying that they had been extracted under torture.
Makwan himself told the judge that his admission to the Intelligence Police that he had had anal sex with one boy in 1999 was also obtained by torture, and that he now denied it and proclaimed his innocence.
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The judge did not bother to order medical examinations to see if rape had taken place, nor did he bother to order medical examinations to see if torture of the witnesses had taken place. The judge’s verdict of guilty, and his sentence of Makwan to death, was based purely on his personal speculation.
Khalatbari wrote an article criticizing the trial’s legitimacy, but her newspaper editors refused to publish the story for fear of being shut down.
The journalist also tells Gay City News that Moloudzadeh protested his imprisonment with a 10-day hunger strike. Prison officials punished him by shaving his head and marching him through the streets, where civilians reportedly pelted him with eggs, stones and sticks. Moloudzadeh never got to say good-bye to his family. Shame.
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Lelend Frances
Isn’t this ths same image that was up yesterday? Don’t you guys have access to new art?
Lone Ranger and Tonto
What would that tired bitchy and obnoxious queen like to see in art form , huh, an “after picture”?
The Christofascists are jealous that civil law doesn’t allow them to hang gays here in this country. It would be the first laws in an American theocracy – the Holiness Code made law.
Minorities in our country have always been lynched, legally or illegally, or vigilante “justice” for crimes against white people – true or false was inconsequential.
hells kitchen guy
“Minorities in our country have always been lynched”
Yeah, those lynchings are in the news all the time. It’s just this kind of “We have no moral right to criticize these bastards because we have such horrible racism here” bullshit that infuriates anyone of good conscience. We have EVERY right to condemn Iran. The US isn’t perfect, but compared to that fuckwad nation, we’re Paradise.
REBELCOMX
HellsKitchenguy, I don’t think Lone Ranger was giving us the attitude you were thinking. He was just saying how this country, if taken over by the christian right, will have the same thing happen here. He’s just reminding us that in the past, we have had similar problems to what is happening in Iran, and that is Religious extremism is alowed to take over here, we will have it again. nowhere in his post did he say we should not, or do not have the right to condemn Iran. We certainly do have that right. Just as we have the right to take precautions to make sure such a vile and frightening theocracy isn’t established here in the USA.
Robert Stanfield
Is the self-pitying equivalentising from Americans really necessary? You are NOT living under a theocracy and you are not likely ever to be living under one. You have a good Constitution and a good history of rights being increased and guaranteed rather than undermined.
Congratulate yourselves or feel smug by all means, but stop making this all about the USA. You don’t know how fucking lucky you are. I admire your country immensely. I’m gay and am glad I can visit your country and not be arrested for being gay. I don’t respect at all those who treat illegal violence in the USA as equivalent to legal sanction against gay people in Iran. You cannot be jailed or executed for your sexuality. This Iranian man was. As for gays being executed in a US theocracy, sure, and if Aliens invaded the US, they might use ordinary Americans to gestate their young in and if the whole of the US was permanently under snow you might have to ecvolve your feet into skis. So what? None of those are likely.
One thing is for sure: that such relativist posturing about a non-existent US theocracy is of absolutely no help whatsoever to gay people who actually ARE living in countries where you can be jailed o executed. Your deflectionary response away from an actual atrocity to a ludicrous hypothetical one, serves regimes like Iran perfectly well. And it’s a tactic particularly common among US ‘liberals’, I have noticed.
Anyway, carry on your self-pity party by all means. After all, it’s all about you, isn’t it?
Matt
Robert: I completely agree with your point. However, the reaction may not be so much “making it all about us” as it is using the horrific experiences of people far less fortunate to point out the dangers of related attitudes here. Fundamentally, we can’t do anything about the evil theocracy (is that redundant?) in Iran or anywhere else; we can take action at home to ensure that the freedoms and protections we DO have are kept secure.
The legal/political challenges of gays in the US are not at all the equivalent of those suffered in Iran and elsewhere. But they are the upper end of the slippery slope. And I wish I could share your confidence that “it can’t happen here.” Slowly, insidiously, with a friendly smiling face and acres of apple pie and bunting, it totally can.
Puddy Katz
evil exists in the world boys
at least call it by name without all the bullshit
hisurfer
I think there’s a few fundamental differences between Christian and Muslim right-wingers – and I’ve been around both. Islamic fundamentalists seem to have a complete lack of empathy for anyone who doesn’t share their exact ideology. It’s almost Marxist in it’s brutal moral simplicity. That said, they’re rarely anti-intellectual. Iran is actually a world leader in cutting edge science.
Western Christian fundamentalists aren’t nearly that brutal. Even if they took over (as if they didn’t come close) I don’t think we’d see a return to the Inquisition. Hate the sin and love the sinner and all that. But sweet Jesus do they hate the intellect with a passion. It’s as if they think history, science, and reason are tools of the devil.
(fundies, now, I’m talking about fundies …).
I’m disappointed by all the mainstream media coverage & it’s focus on Iran’s nuclear weapons. Human rights seem to be all but forgotten.
Bill Perdue
‘hells kitchen guy’ is a sick joke. He claims to be of ‘good conscience’ but his conscience is very much like those of Bush, Cheney and Hillary Clinton – they all want to use nuclear weapons to kill Iranian civilians. They all refuse to admit that US armed Sunni and Shiite jihadists are conducting a pogrom against GLBT folk in Iraq.
I’m not really trying to compare ‘hells kitchen guy’ to Bush; I understand that he’s just a demented, trivial sociopath who’s craving to see Iranians burn in nuclear fires is of no consequence. And I’m glad of that. Bush, Cheney and Hillary Clinton are a different story.
Our movement, in spite of the wishes of Dr. Strangelove’s lunatic love child ‘hells kitchen guy’, is nothing if not international. We have everything in common with our brothers and sisters in Ireland, Iraq, Iran etc. and nothing in common with the leaders of the American government, who are enemies to us all.
Finally ‘hells kitchen guy’ thinks that nations and peoples aren’t ‘fuckwads’. They’re not but compulsive sociopaths who characterize them as such and want to burn them in nuclear fires are.
Robert Stanfield comments are different, and if he’s not from the US ‘possibly’ based on ignorance. He knows little about conditions here and less about reasoned political dialog. He claims that ‘Lone Ranger and Tonto†say that the US is theocracy. That’s a lie. They said ‘The Christofascists are jealous that civil law doesn’t allow them to hang gays here in this country. It would be the first laws in an American theocracy – the Holiness Code made law.†This is a difference between present and future verb tenses. If you want to joust with straw men at least have the decency to tell us before hand so we can move on to serious discussions.
The real question is that religious bigotry is used to cover a reactionary political agenda. That’s true in occupied northern Ireland where conservative pro-English Paisleyite goons use religion to go after GLBT folk and the Irish. It’s been used by US armed Shiite ayatollahs in Iraq to hunt down and murder hundreds of GLBT folk. It’s used by bigot goons in this country who are responsible for 20 plus murders and lynchings a year and thousands of beatings. It’s used by the Iranian ayatollahs who are responsible for the brutal torture and murder of thousands of gays and lesbians, feminists, student rebels and trade unionists.
The distinction between christian bigots here and in some muslim societies is a difference in their ability to kill us, not their intent.
And yes, Stanfield we should be thankful for that but watchful. If you were aware of what’s going on here you’d be as terrified as the ACLU is of the bipartisan attacks on the Constitution, particularly the Paytriot Act.
Bill Perdue
According to a report yesterday in Gays Without Borders most of the people from Makwan’s hometown, nearly 6,000, attended his funeral. It was a courageous show of solidarity and defiance.
The point is that there is opposition in Iran across the social spectrum. Trade unionists, students, feminists and GLB folk are being killed in large numbers and have been driven them underground. Right now one of the main props of the ayatollah’s regime is George Bush, the Democratic Congress, and their lap dog allies in London, whose war threats cement their power. Iranians are all too aware of the genocidal fury of the oil pirates in Iraq and will support the existing government and army to prevent that happening to them.
Here is a letter from a resident of Makwans home town, also carried in gayswithborders at yahoo groups dot com.
I am a resident of Paveh, the town where Makwan lived in. I knew him very well, everyone knows that he was innocent or at least did not deserve that inhumane verdict which was issued by a gang of criminals who are supposedly in charge of justice in Iran. I have to tell you the truth behind what led to the shocking death of Makwan. The youth living in Paveh are Kurds and Sunnis, they are deprived of a variety of rights, the majority of them are jobless and the town has always faced suppression form the regime after the revolution, for political activities. Now the youth in town are filled with an anger accumulated over years of injustice. To create an atmosphere of fear, the regime sacrificed Makwan so that the youth will not dare to protest against any thing. They executed him and used him just as an excuse to pursue their political purposes behind the scenes. The move, however, has been condemned by the whole residents in the town and has created an atmosphere of unity and awareness among the public. They attended his funeral in masses which was in fact a demonstration against what the regime decided as part of its suppressive policies.
I hereby call on all international rights groups to pursue the case of those behind the decision which led to the death of an innocent youth. The right activists across the world have to fulfill their duty of justice and do their best to bring before law those who issued the unfair verdict and now are walking freely with no sense of guilt.
Thank You.
Hiva
These are not people who deserve to be incinerated by Bush’s nuclear weapons. They deserve our political support as they fight to end the theocracy and stay independent of the oil pirates.
Gregg
Perdue – If your writing really had traction, you would find somewhere better to post/publish it. Why do you keep spouting your long-winded bullshit here as if it were your own personal blog and everyone here wanted you to analyze the world for them? My guess is – because if you did have your own blog, no one would read it.
If you think your ideas are so wonderful, why not put them to better use somewhere other than the comments section here? Probably because this is the only place you can actually foist your ideas on a large-ish number of people – by climbing on Queerty’s back like a parasite.
ProfessorVP
It’s undeniable that Perdue writes too much and the audience here is not appreciative. But he doesn’t use the words shit, ass, fuck you, fucktard, fuckwad, fucked up, dumbfuck, asshole, piss, catheter, rectal thermometer, you are a dwarf with bad breath who works for Blockbuster, or other non-essentials. This one sentence of his… no truer words were ever said:
“The distinction between Christian bigots here and in some Muslim societies is a difference in their ability to kill us, not their intent.”
Think it can’t happen? Lots of unthinkable things have already happened. Suspension of habeus corpus, renditions and secret prisons, warrantless wiretaps, to name a few. Trust me on this one: ANYTHING can happen.
Bill Perdue
Gregg, anytime you want to dispute the facts or analysis feel free, although your rancid rightwing politics won’t ever be very popular.
You’re dead wrong about politics including the war. Which is why reactionaries resort to ham-fisted personal attacks? If you’re unhappy Andrew Sullivan might be more to your liking.
kel777
Yes the Xtian USA really knows better how to treat its gays. Tell them they’re sick perverts from an early age and turn them into sadistic, miserable, repressed sociopaths. We’re so much more evolved than them.
ProfessorVP
Good point, kel. In the USA, the religious pressure on a gay man can cause him to lose his mind. In Iran, or in post-Saddam Iraq, he’d just lose his life.
Gregg
Perdue – wake up. I am more of a “lefty” than most Americans, certainly much farther left than the Dems, I have been against this war since well before it even began, and you clearly know nothing about my politics since there is no way I could correctly be called “right wing” by any measure.
I probably even agree with some of your basic points. But it doesn’t matter because your blather is alienating. I am simply tired of constantly scrolling past your exhaustingly long tirades. Your posts are insufferable and a waste of space here.
ProfessorVP
I am also proud to say I was against the war before it began, knew it would fail, and will go a step further- I am GLAD it failed. But Perdue, there’s no question that the sheer length of what you write counts against the truths you often tell. The things that are appreciated in a book- and I love books- people don’t find so keen on a website.
Bill Perdue
Gregg, your opposition to radicals on this blog is either ego selfabuse or it’s based on politics. Which is it? I reread many of you comments and you’re not even a pinko fellow traveler, much less a radical. Your comments boil down to shabby attempts to insult people. Either argue facts and analysis or go back to sleep. End of discussion.
ProfVP, bigotry, disinformation and ignorance are the basis for conservative politics, which are rife in our communities. Rightwing lies require truthful answers. That, as you’ve demonstrated yourself, can be involved. And gosh, I thought I was being brief.
ProfessorVP
Bill, there are people here- I don’t want to mention names or give initials- who are not big on reading. If they were, they wouldn’t think the thoughts they think and write the things they write. If you are waiting for the day when a conservative writes, “Mr. Perdue, I have read your entire presentation, and now I realize I have been wrong; drowning witches to determine their innocence or guilt is wrong”… that day will not come, not on this particular site.
Gregg
Perdue, I did not call myself “pinko” nor “radical”. I don’t know what “opposition to radicals” you are referring to. The only thing that comes to mind is perhaps my take on the political act of the removal of Trans rights from ENDA, but otherwise I tend towards the Left side of things. Since your dissection of my politics is flatly wrong, your overall take on my comments is meaningless to me.
I do regret being insulting, believe it or not. It is too easy to get snarky on the Internet since it is very easy to forget that there are people attached to the words here. We have all done it, using obscenities or not, in our own ways, so please don’t pretend to be above it yourself. (yes, insulting people’s intelligence counts)
I do partially agree with VP here. I wouldn’t say that I am not big on reading in general. But, Perdue, there is a place for everything, and your very long political rants ultimataly end up being wasted here since this is the comments section of a quippy queer site, not a straightforward political blog.
Know your audience, and don’t waste your energy by directing it in the wrong place. That is my comment, sans snark.