A gay Iranian man says his life was all but ruined when a team of documentary filmmakers shot an undercover exposé of gay culture in his country, DailyXTra reports.
Farzam Dadashzadeh is a gay Iranian refugee currently living in Vancouver. In a lawsuit filed with the Supreme Court of British Columbia late last week, Dadashzadeh claims he was fired from his job, forced to drop out of school, disowned by his family, assaulted, and, ultimately, arrested and beaten by Iranian police all due to a documentary filmed without his consent.
Related: 14-Year-Old ‘Hanged From Tree’ For Being Gay At Iranian Boys’ Summer Camp
Out in Iran: Inside Iran’s Secret Gay World explores gay life in a country where homosexuality is still punishable by death. Dadashzadeh was a closeted, 19-year-old college student and part-time hair stylist at the time it was shot in 2007. According to his lawsuit, no one asked for his permission prior to filming him inside the Jam-e-Jam café, a popular gay hangout Tehran.
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In the scene, filmmakers follow a gay man named Mani, who agreed to be featured, to the restaurant. “Most of the people coming here tonight are homosexuals,” he tells the reporters, then says they “can’t take the camera in there like this.”
That’s when Evan Solomon, one of the filmmakers named in the suit, comes up with what he thought was a brilliant idea: “We keep our camera hidden,” he says over the footage, before later assuring audiences that all of the people inside were made aware and gave “group consent” to being depicted.
This, Dadashzadeh, was a simply not true.
The lawsuit goes on to say filmmakers made no attempt at blurring out anyone’s faces, and that Dadashzadeh can be plainly seen several times, “including several lingering ‘close-up’ images of his face and other identifying features.”
Related: Exile Recounts His “Invisible” Life Growing Up Gay In Iran
After the film was broadcast by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, it was uploaded to Youtube, where it garnered over 650,000 views. It was also shared on Facebook, where it can still be viewed.
Upon learning of the film’s existence, Dadashzadeh says he became “shocked and scared,” especially after his family found out. His parents disowned him and he “remains alienated” from them today, nearly 10 years later. On top of that, he says, the documentary brought unwanted attention to the Jam-e-Jam café. One day, a man who had seen the film specifically went there to cause trouble. He recognized Dadashzadeh and attacked him. When police were called, they took both men into custody.
And that’s when the nightmare went from bad to even worse.
Dadashzadeh says he spent two weeks behind bars. Police interrogated him about his homosexuality for hours. He was also “repeatedly sexually assaulted, which included being sodomized, beaten and kicked by other prisoners, with the knowledge and assistance of, and at the behest, of the police.”
After being released, he fled to Turkey before filing for refugee status and arrived in Canada in 2014. He has been trying to rebuild his life ever since.
Neither the filmmakers or the production company have responded to the lawsuit.
Related: WATCH: The Love Story “Aban & Khorshid” Explores The Plight Of Gay Iranians
h/t: DailyXTra
Stache
Yeah, they better start talking. To some good lawyers that is. What they did was as bad as the hulk hogan story except Hulk didn’t have to worry about being killed.
Xzamilio
How the hell is it that we all live on the same planet and yet reading some of these stories, it feels like I’m reading something that took place hundreds of years ago? Just wow…
IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou
I’m not surprised it was Canadians. They are such Social Justice Warrior hypster frauds.
ErikO
@IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou: LOL very true.
Alistair Wiseman
And yet this is the same mentality, treatment and religion that President Obama and Hillary Clinton cannot emigrate into our country fast enough.
“Let’s be clear: Islam is not our adversary. Muslims are peaceful and tolerant people and have nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism.”
– Hillary Clinton November 19, 2015
Hussain-TheCanadian
@IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou: (rolls eyes)
If you’re an American, you shouldn’t be talking about “social justice” – Your track record is sh*t.
Alistair Wiseman
@Hussain-TheCanadian:
Good! We agree again, as “social justice” is “sh*t”.
Xzamilio
@Alistair Wiseman: We seldom agree on anything, and I don’t even fully agree with you here, but I do think you are right about the hypocrisy of Obama and Clinton regarding Islam. But, I don’t see any issue with hosting Syrian refugees. Just not at the same volume or lack of protocol as with Germany… that’s just a clusterfuck over there. Muslims by and large are peaceful and tolerant, but yeah, to say Islam has nothing to do with terrorism is like saying Christianity has nothing to do with terrorism. It’s an intellectually dishonest statement that requires unpacking.
Hussain-TheCanadian
@Alistair Wiseman: No Alistair we don’t agree; American “social justice” track record is slow and questionable at best. The Canadian sense of social justice emphasizes social fairness, justice, compassion, and equality.
I’m glad that the Canadian government took in this man, after the was outed by the CBC – which rightfully should be held accountable if they indeed did out him without his consent.
Alistair Wiseman
@Hussain-TheCanadian:
Apparently, you don’t understand my humor. I was making a joke that you regard social justice as something to aspire to and that America has failed to that aspiration.
I believe in justice, not a left wing substitute for equality known as social justice. Justice and social justice are very different.
juplinger
@IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou:
We “hypster fraud” Canadians have been far more progressive than the US when it comes to LGBT rights. We legalized same-sex marriage more than 10 years before the US, we have laws that protect LGBT people from discrimination, something the US doesn’t have on a federal level. (Or in most cities or states for that matter).
Before you say stupid shit, remember that when generalize a group of people, like homophobic bigots do, you make yourself look like an idiot.
Alistair Wiseman
@juplinger:
And yet, hundreds of people die every year trying to get to America. Canada, not so much.
If they only knew that Canada has “been far more progressive than the US when it comes to LGBT rights.” 🙁
Hussain-TheCanadian
@Alistair Wiseman: I’m getting use to your humour;)
Hussain-TheCanadian
@Alistair Wiseman: Seriously? We accept 250k immigrants per annum, not mentioning the 30k Syrian refugees extra this year so far.
Alistair Wiseman
@Hussain-TheCanadian:
Great, but I didn’t mention the number accepted but the number dying to get there.
Stilinski26
From Daily Beast to this, regressive left/ SJW causing problems to LGBT people! but thats not the biggest elephant in the room
Mo Bro
@Hussain-TheCanadian: The only people scratching to get into Canada were Vietnam draft dodgers and the R-A-C-I-S-T liberals who claim they’ll go there if Trump loses—R-A-C-I-S-T because going to Mexico and living among brown people would just be too icky for such superior intellects. Oh yeah, and Muslims . . . they go to Canada simply as a quick way into the U.S.
(I hope the word police are happy that in their quest to eradicate words like “R-A-C-I-S-T” we now have to spell them like 6-year-olds to avoid being flagged . . . now THAT’S progressive)
Brian
Gay identity politics is offensive to Middle Eastern governments. However, that does NOT mean that male homosexuality is offensive. If it’s informal and casual rather than political, it’s not considered offensive.
Stache
@IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou: It was one documentary crew. How does that paint the whole country as douchebags?
Hussain-TheCanadian
@Mo Bro: You’re obviously insane; trying to dissect your reply gives me a headache, so I’m going to recommend that you visit your doctor and hopefully be prescribed antidepressants, it should help with your paranoia.
Kangol
@Hussain-TheCanadian: Queerty posts on article on an Islamic country. Cue the right-wing Altnet supremacist homonationalists. Sigh. OK, OK, we get it. All the Breitbart/Milo buzzwords. “Social justice warrior,” “cuck,” etc. Islam/the Left etc. are the main problems LGBTQ people face in the US/across the globe. Got it. Meanwhile, fanatics of all religions, including within the US, are trying to deny LGBTQ people their rights, lives, careers, etc.
But if they’re not radical Islamic terrorists–there, I said–they don’t count. Now, let’s all go the Bush family’s fave Middle Eastern country, Saudi Arabia, which exports extremist fanaticism, and celebrate. Oops, can’t do that or you might get stoned to death or have you head chopped off!
Kangol
And just so everyone knows, any time you hear people spouting terms like “social justice warrior” and “cuck[servative],” etc., they’re using the language of the “Alt-Right” white supremacists. If you need a tutorial, you can find it here.
Alistair Wiseman
@Kangol:
Gosh, thanks for the “tutorial”. I do not find it surprising in the least that you would link to a radical, f@scistic and anti-Semitic website like Media Matters for America.
I see that former Nazi collaborator George Soros, with his billions, is keeping the lights on for this website and its f@scistic vision of politics.
dean089
While everyone is carping about Muslims and other Middle Easterners, you’re ignoring that this goes on right here in the U.S. by “good Christian families.” LBGT teen shelters are full of kids that were tossed out onto the streets and, in some cases, beaten to within an inch of life — and had they not escaped their families might have taken that last inch. Trans teens and young adults, in particular, turn up dead all the time and instantly become a ‘cold case.’ But go ahead, continue pretending stuff like that only happens in Iran. Whatever helps you sleep at night.
Stilinski26
@dean089: You do know being gay automatically leads to death penalty in Iran and other middle eastern countries right? Does USA and other western countries has that law? no. I am very critical to all religion they are all bad!
Stilinski26
@Kangol: A privileged queen probably living in western country enjoying his freedom who has no idea about the suffering of lgbt people in other parts of the world. A gay men from middle east would happily swap places with you.
ShaunNJ
This experience is the perfect illustration of why actions like Nico Hines / Daily Beast were so dangerous. Often in the quest for the juicy / meaty story the press forgets there are consequences for the subjects. Many people asked what’s the big deal about the Olympics story – here’s the answer.
Those who are criticizing Islam for this story, remember similar experiences could occur in non-Muslim nations like Russia, Jamaica, Singapore, Uganda and India – nations which are Christian, Buddhist, and Hindu. Unfortunately there are too many nations where Dadashzadeh’s ordeal would be common.
While the U.S. has marriage equality and gays in the military, we still have legal discrimination in housing and employment, no federal hate crimes statute and many states trying to pass religious freedom laws. There’s still much to do in the world and here in the U.S.
Xzamilio
The topic of Islam is what has brought many conservatives and liberals together. The liberals too far on the left just apologize and dig their heads deeper into the sands, and the conservatives too far on the right just want to nuke all Muslims off the face of the earth, and the rest of us have convened in the middle. It’s why I am glad to see people on this site calling out known regressives who in their zeal to be “impartial” completely ignore the atrocities of one religion just to throw another one under the bus.
Xzamilio
@Stilinski26: Those types of regressives have a very obvious tactic, just like dogmatic conservatives. Create a set of tenets that all liberals/conservatives must abide by and any dissention you have automatically betrayed the group. It’s why liberals like Bill Maher and Richard Dawkins get vilified by regressives for using the same language against Islam that they have against Christianity… because Islam is the religion we as liberals cannot criticize. Because we cannot ever invoke Islam without invoking Christianity, even the opposite NEVER happens. After all, how often did anyone need to bring up Iran to criticize Russia? Blatant hypocrisy.
GayEGO
@Xzamilio: We just have to keeping educating them that we are a normal part of society as Science, our truth provider, stated in the early 1970s. There are religions that have learned and are performing same-gender marriages. We just have to keep on pushing. I like the comment – religion is what science hasn’t proven. Remember that religion used to believe the Earth was flat, as evident by an old map in the Vatican that shows the Earth as flat, and believed that the Sun evolved around the Earth.
Xzamilio
@GayEGO: I like that line about religion being what science has not proven. You are absolutely correct… Religions are not equally yolked when it comes to violence or the dedication of its followers but they are all connected in the same community of superstitious hogwash lacking any objective proof of validity.