To: Iranian president Mahmud Ahmadinejad
Petition to stop the execution of the young Iranian gay Makwan (Makvan) Moloudzadeh - campaign against death penalty in Iran

“FLOWERS FOR LIFE IN IRAN” CAMPAIGN

Let’s send a white flower and a red flower to President Mahmud Ahmadinejad to say yes to life and no to the blood shed by the death sentence:

President Mahmud Ahmadinejad - Pasteur Ave - 13168-43311 Tehran - Iran

Stop the execution of Makwan Moloudzadeh

To save the life of Pegah Emambakhsh (the Iranian lesbian the British Government wanted to deport to her death by stoning in Iran) Gruppo EveryOne – together with the Friends of Pegah Campaign – created a new kind of humanitarian campaign and invited all those who believe in a respect for human rights to send flowers to the prison where Pegah was being detained. Thousands of bunches of flowers were delivered to the prison, putting a strain on the prison system and convincing the authorities to re-examine her case. Pegah is now waiting for her application for political asylum to be accepted.

In Iran, however, the courts continue to sentence dissidents, intellectuals, free thinkers and homosexuals to death. There is a need to approach Ahmadinejad and the judges and tell them, in a peaceful but firm way, that life is sacred is every part of the world and according to all religions - that always invite the faithful to be compassionate.

It is for this reason that we are asking you to send a white flower (symbol of life) and a red flower (symbol of blood) to the Iranian President, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, asking him not to spill the blood of Makwan Mouloudzadeh, the next designated innocent victim, and to abandon the path of terror and violence.

Fresh flowers: one white, one red to say yes to a respect for human rights, no to the death sentence. Choose a company that guarantees deliveries to Teheran (Iran), Interflora, for example.

Send the two flowers to: President Mahmud Ahmadinejad - Pasteur Ave - 13168-43311 Tehran - Iran. We suggest you also sign the petition and send an email to the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran:

 dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir

We hope that a peaceful shower of flowers will reach Iran, taking with it the most important message of our time.


Makwan Moloudzadeh, a 21 year old Iranian now faces the threat of execution. His crime is his sexuality, which is illegal under the Law of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Many have been executed for sexual crimes such as extramarital and homosexual sex acts. Due to the legal processes and procedures of the Judicial system of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its complete lack of transparency, it is extremely difficult to access the documents, witnesses, testimonies, and other facts pertinent to the files of those accused, as a result of which it is almost impossible to verify the confessions, complaints, evidence, and verdicts.
In recent years numerous individuals have been executed because of their sexual and private relations in Mashhad, Gorgan, Arak, Kermanshah, and Tehran, many of whom were under the legal age. Despite the current circumstances under which the Iranian Queer Organization, due to inaccessibility of evidence and testimonies regarding these cases, cannot prove homosexuality of those executed beyond a doubt, we believe that the true crime in these executions was sexual relationship (which is not confirmed by the Iranian government). The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran punishes those with different sexual orientation and sexual relations by death.
According to the Penal Code of the Islamic Republic, four witnesses are required in order to prove the perpetration of lavat (sodomy) which is punishable by death. Western states reject asylum claims of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Iranians due to their assumption that it is almost impossible to have four witnesses. The truth is that when private spaces of LGBT Iranians are raided by the police, there are four clerics and video cameras already present. Moreover, a judge can use his own knowledge to rule on a case regarding lavat; the alleged perpetrators may confess to lavat under torture; and medical examinations can prove whether an individual has had anal penetration. No civil rights legislation exists in Iran to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. Depictions of homosexuality are prohibited in society or in the press, unless it is negative. No organization or political party is permitted to exist that endorses LGBT human rights.
The concept of sexual orientation is not recognized in Iran, nor does the judiciary acknowledge the existence of LGBT people and instead believes that all people are normally heterosexual.Thus, homosexuality is a violation of the supreme will of their God.

As a result, no laws exist that protect LGBT Iranians from discrimination, harassment, or bias-motivated violence, and as a theocratic political system, no such laws are permitted to exist. Most Iranian LGBT people remain in the closet about their sexual orientation for fear of being the victims of discrimination, hate crimes, government sanctions, corporal punishment, and/or capital punishment.

The only legal recognition for couples is a legal marriage between one male and one female, both. The Islam-based legal system prohibits opposite sex couples from associating in public, and dating is taboo. Male homosexual couples might be able to pretend that their relationship is platonic, but any type of sexual activity outside of a heterosexual marriage is illegal.

Censorship of literature and history has been documented under the rule of both the Pahlavi Dynasty monarchy and the Islamic Republic in Iran. In 2002, a book entitled Witness Play by Cyrus Shamisa was banned from shelves (despite being initially approved) because it said that certain notable Persian writers were homosexuals or bisexuals (From Wikipedia).

In Makwan Moloudzadeh case, the judge has ruled based on his own knowledge that Makwan Moloudzadeh had committed lavat in accordance with article 120 of the Iranian Penal Code. This is despite the fact that even internal rulings of Iranian authorities, including the fatwa of Ayatollah Sane’i and other clerics who are source of emulation state that a judge’s knowledge cannot be used as a basis to prove crimes punishable by hadd usually capital punishment. Through carrying out such executions, the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran not only violates the most basic international human rights standards, it also undermines the rulings and fatwas of Islamic clerics and sources of emulation who are recognized by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

EveryOne Group and the Iranian Queer Organization demands the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran to abolish death penalty and punish the accused and perpetrators according to minimum international human rights standards.

For further informations:
www.everyonegroup.com
 info@everyonegroup.com

Tel: (+39) 334 8429527

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The young Iranian Makvan Moloudzadeh must live!

Sign the petition for Life in Iran:
 http://www.stopexecution.net
Send fresh flowers: one white, one red to say yes to a respect for human rights, no to the death sentence. Choose a company that guarantees deliveries to Teheran (Iran), Interflora, for example. Send the two flowers to: - President Mahmud Ahmadinejad - Pasteur Ave - 13168-43311 Tehran - Iran. We suggest you also sign the petition and send an email to the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran:
 dr-ahmadinejad@president.ir
- Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi - Ministry of Justice - Ministry of Justice Building, Panzdah-Khordad Square - Tehran - Iran. Email:
 info@dadgostary-tehran.ir

by Roberto Malini, Matteo Pegoraro - EveryOne Group

The Amnesty International researcher for Iran, Drewery Dyke and the Director of the Communications Office in Italy, Riccardo Noury have contacted Gruppo EveryOne about the case of the young gay man, Makvan Moloudzadeh.

Amnesty International asks us why we are so optimistic about the outcome of the case, when unfortunately we cannot consider Makvan’s situation concluded. Naturally our conviction is not only based on confidence and enthusiasm - which are essential qualities in those who fight for human rights - but these qualities are unable to achieve results if unsupported by a critical spirit and the analytical aptitude to read judicial situations that are complex and difficult to interpret from a distance,

First of all, we are very happy that Amnesty International is now taking greater interest in Makvan’s case, a case which is without doubt symbolic of the serious situation of discrimination against homosexuals that exists in Iran .
Gruppo EveryOne considers the opinion expressed by Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi (the highest religious and judicial authority in Iran) on the case of the young homosexual to be very important. The Ayatollah is the Head of the Judiciary System in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
To sum up the recent events, the boy was already destined for the scaffold when the international campaign induced Shahroudi to look at the verdict again and annul Makvan’s death sentence – his life was spared even if he is still in jail awaiting judgment. There is a good chance he will be found innocent at the end of the new legal proceedings, also because we do not see religious and political authorities in a position to overturn the interpretation of the Islamic Penal Code carried out (correctly) by Shahroudi - and which on the other hand has never happened before.
Gruppo EveryOne now wishes to seek dialogue with the Iranian Head of the Judiciary System and President, as well as to continue to monitor the proceedings. The contacts may not obtain any feedback, but it is a path worth trying. The campaign for Makvan’s life is extremely delicate and we believe it may be necessary to renew it very soon, perhaps using once again the symbolic language of flowers which the Islamic world has shown to respond well to.
We hope Amnesty supports the Flowers for Life in Iran Campaign, because it is a new instrument that will allow us to communicate with the Islamic world on the subject of human rights.
I have sent a letter to Riccardo Noury, reminding him – but Riccardo will already be well aware of this – that human rights are being trampled on as never before throughout the world, and it is necessary to retrieve the fundamental values civilization is based on: life, solidarity, equality. Because capital punishment is no longer, unfortunately, only the scaffold and lethal injection - it manifests itself when human beings are oppressed and crushed to the point that they are no longer able to preserve their most precious possession.
I wrote to Riccardo: “Just think of the gypsies in Italy: the death sentence for them (whose life expectancy is decreasing all the time) comes in the form of hunger, cold and poverty. Take a look at our website ( http://www.everyonegroup.com): maybe you will find it helpful and important to support some of our campaigns. Campaigns against a death sentence that has found obscure and devious ways of destroying human life.” Amnesty International and Gruppo EveryOne have come together. Has an affinity been discovered between these organizations which are so different from one another? I don’t know, but I hope this crossing of virtual paths can be the start of a parallel journey towards justice and life.

www.everyonegroup.og - www.irqo.net
 info@everyonegroup.com