PLEASE SEE THE FIVE DEMANDS BEING MADE BY OUTRAGE! AND IDAHO
ON THIS SITUATION. WE DO NOT SUPPORT ANY ATTACK ON IRAN.

( 'twiglet', or whatever your name is, don't bother to post your usual twaddle..we've seen it all before...)

Iran gay rights meeting: House of Commons

Wednesday 19 July 6.30pm, Committee Room 12

Protest against Iran’s homophobic persecution

You are invited to show solidarity with Iranian LGBTs

London – 17 July 2006

To mark the first anniversary of Iran's hanging of two gay teenagers,
Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, in the city of Mashhad on 19 July
2005, Labour MP Chris Bryant will host a public meeting at House of
Commons, in Committee Room 12, at 6.30pm.

Speakers include Chris Bryant MP, Jean Lambert MEP, an Iranian
activist, and Simon Forbes and Peter Tatchell of OutRage!, who will
reveal new information exposing the Iranian regime’s lies and
propaganda about the execution of Mahmoud and Ayaz.

The House of Commons meeting is open to the public. All welcome.
Please allow 15 minutes to go through security.

“We mourn the many lesbian and gay victims of Iran’s homophobic
regime, and express our solidarity with all Iranians who are working
for social justice, democracy and human rights,” said Ramzi Isalam of
OutRage!, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender human rights
group, which is coordinating the House of Commons meeting.

“We stand united with our gay brothers and sisters in Iran who face
the threat of arrest, imprisonment, flogging, torture and execution.

“OutRage! urges the British government to give a public undertaking to
halt the deportation of Iranian asylum seekers who have fled
persecution. Deportation is a potential death sentence,” said Mr
Isalam, who is a gay Muslim refugee from Algeria.

The House of Commons meeting is one of 24 global protests on 19 July
against Iran’s execution of gay people and children.

The common, universal demand of all the 19 July protests worldwide
is:

Iran: Stop Killing Gays! Stop Killing Kids!

OutRage! is, in addition, urging:

1. End all executions in Iran, especially the execution of minors.

2. Stop the arrest, torture and imprisonment of Iranian lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender people and repeal the Iranian penal code's
criminalisation of same-sex relationships.

3. Halt the deportation to Iran of LGBT asylum seekers and other
victims of Tehran's persecution.

4. Support Iranians struggling for democracy, social justice and human
rights.

5. Oppose foreign military intervention in Iran; regime change must
come from within - by and for the Iranian people themselves.

The global protests are backed by the International Lesbian & Gay
Association.

Shocking new revelations concerning the executions follow below.

Photos of the hanging of Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni:

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/outrage/sets/72157594175121502/

19 July protests are confirmed in 24 cities worldwide: Amsterdam,
Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Frankfurt, London,
Marseilles, Mexico City, Moscow, New York, Provincetown, Sacramento,
San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Sioux Falls, Stockholm, Tehran,
Toronto, Vancouver, Vienna, Warsaw and Washington DC.

Protest to the Iranian Ambassador in London:

 info@iran-embassy.org.uk

Tel: 020 7225 3000
Fax: 020 7589 4440

Iranian Ambassador, Embassy of Iran, 16 Prince’s Gate, London SW7 1PT

Iranian sources confirm trumped up charges

Afdhere Jama, editor of the queer Muslim magazine Huriyah
( http://www.huriyahmag.com), supports the view that Mahmoud Asgari and
Ayaz Marhoni were gay and that they were hanged because of their
homosexuality. He bases his belief on evidence he received from three
people in the city of Mashhad, where they were hanged, including
information from a person who knows the family of Ayaz Marhoni.

Afdhere Jama states:

“According to my sources, the boys were arrested about a year and
couple of months before the execution. On the day of their arrest,
five boys were fondling each other in a semi-public area. Their ages
were 13, 14, 15, 15 (Mahmoud), and 17 (Ayaz). These are all boys that
knew each other, and had homosexual relations with each other (perhaps
for years).

“A woman called her civilian police husband who then tried to arrest
them all (with the help of civilians), but only Ayaz, Mahmoud and a 13
year old boy were caught.

“Because the age of consent for men in Iran is 15, the 13 year old boy
is automatically then classified raped by then15 year old Mahmoud and
17 year old Ayaz. So, in the eyes of the Iranian law, that boy was
raped. Whether the other boys were a few years older or not is not
even a question, not to mention whether he (the 13 year old) was a
willing participant. Because the issue is homosexuality, it even
carries a harsher sentence.

“It should be noted that none of the claims about ‘knife’ and ‘drunk’
are true, but trumped up claims to support how these ‘heterosexual’
boys raped a ‘heterosexual’ teen. The father of the 13 year old boy
claimed his son was raped because in the conservative society of Iran
it is much better to have a heterosexual raped son than a homosexual
willing participant. Everyone and anyone from the east can identify
with this.

“In reality, however, these boys faced many charges, including
resisting arrest (for running away), disrupting public peace (because
apparently the whole neighbourhood was in chaos because everyone
wanted to hurt the boys who were committing homosexuality), public
indecency (for having homosexual sex in public), and ultimately for
homosexual/sodomy rape of men (which carries much tougher penalty than
a heterosexual rape, for the 13 year old), etc.

“It should also be noted that the Quds daily (newspaper) Human Rights
Watch relied on is a government-controlled news agency, who have in
the past and the present contribute news only acceptable to the
government. As far as I know, there are really no independent Iranian
news agencies which dealt with this story - because they could not
honestly deal with it and get away with it,” said Mr Jama.

New revelations about the execution of Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni
in the Iranian city of Mashhad on 19 July 2005, based on research by
Simon Forbes of OutRage! and contacts inside Iran:

“A year-long investigation into this case has revealed that the
regime’s allegations against the two hanged youths, Mahmoud Asgari and
Ayaz Marhoni, are riddled with contradictions, implausibilities and
outright lies,” according to Peter Tatchell of OutRage!.

“At first it was claimed by Iranian officials that they were aged 18
and 19, then that they were 19 and 21, then aged 18 and 20, and
finally they made the claim that they were both above 18 at the time
of their alleged crimes.

“However, the best evidence is that both youths were aged 17 when they
were executed and therefore minors, aged 15 or 16, at the time of
their alleged crimes. This execution of minors is in flagrant breach
of international agreements the Tehran regime has signed.

“The method of hanging was specifically designed to cause a slow,
painful death by strangulation.

“Concerning their crimes: at first it was claimed that they committed
one rape and were child molesters, then that they had committed
several rapes. By the autumn of 2005, the supporters of the regime
were spreading rumours that they were serial child killers.

“Local sources in Mashhad state that Mahmoud and Ayaz were lovers, not
rapists or child abusers – contrary to the homophobic propaganda of
the Iranian regime and its western left-wing and Islamist apologists.

“Witnesses report seeing them together and obviously in love at a
private party in 2003.

“Mahmoud and Ayaz were charged with the capital crime of homosexuality
after a disapproving family member reported their relationship to the
police.

“At least one, and possibly both, of the hanged boys were members of
Iran’s persecuted Arab minority. Racism appears to have played a part
in the stereotypical way they were portrayed by the regime as being
‘underclass’ thieves and hooligans.

“Informants inside Iran make it clear that the boys were of good
character and that they came from decent, law-abiding families whose
fathers had good jobs.

“The execution of Mahmoud and Ayaz conforms to a pattern of state
torture and murder of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT)
people by the Iranian clerical regime.

“In publicised executions of gay people, the men are often accused of
the kidnap and rape of a younger male. All such allegations need to be
treated with extreme scepticism, as they tend to follow a suspiciously
stereotypical formula.

“By instituting charges of kidnap and rape, the Iranian authorities
apparently hope to discredit the victims, discourage public protests
and deflect international condemnation. They calculate that there will
be little Iranian or international sympathy for people hanged for
crimes like abduction and sexual assault,” said Mr Tatchell.

Further information from Brett Lock of OutRage! – 0770 843 5917

ENDS
------------------------------------------------------------------