May 17 Statement: Criminalization and Pathologization of Queer Life in Iran as Manifestations of Gender Apartheid
Hengaw: Saturday, May 18, 2024
May 17, as the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia, is an appropriate opportunity to draw global attention to the rights and freedoms of the queer community. This day serves as a reminder and emphasizes the importance of respecting human diversity and combating discrimination and oppression based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
In Iran, the queer community faces numerous challenges and repressions. Members of this community not only grapple with social discrimination and violence but also encounter serious restrictions on their fundamental freedoms and rights due to laws and regulations. These restrictions include severe penalties, imprisonment, and even execution due to unauthorized sexual orientation or gender identity.
According to the Islamic Penal Code, the Islamic Republic of Iran criminalizes and penalizes sexual acts between same-sex individuals through Articles 235, 136, and 236, as well as Articles 237 and 238, ranging from flogging to execution. Based on their homophobic understanding, the government pressures the gay and bisexual community by pathologizing these sexual orientations. From adolescence, individuals are pressured through the education, health, and repression systems to undergo "corrective" counseling, which, according to global standards, are anti-human rights practices.
Moreover, the Islamic Republic of Iran, based on its binary and rigid understanding of gender, criminalizes the free expression of gender, particularly targeting the transgender community through compulsory hijab laws. The government pressures this community through the same anti-human rights and inhumane "corrective counseling." Although gender transition and reaffirmation processes legally exist under the Islamic Republic of Iran's rule, these processes are extremely difficult and burdensome due to pathologizing counseling and the government's rigid and binary understanding of gender, carrying multiple instances of criminalization.
In recent years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has repeatedly mobilized societal homophobia against sexual and gender minorities through arrests, imprisonment, torture, and the dissemination of state-sponsored hate speech against this community. Additionally, the arrests of activists from this community have increased, and in specific cases such as those of Sareh Sedighi and Elham Choubdar, charges like "promoting homosexuality" have been defined against them.
In the context of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, for the first time, the sexual and gender minority community in Iran was able to declare their political and social presence through street protests. Hengaw, observing human rights violations against this community within this movement, expresses concern about increased governmental pressures and repressions. This is while the pervasive homophobic environment in patriarchal society generally leads families and the general public to refrain from supporting members of this community, practically pushing them towards further isolation.
Since 2005, May 17 has been internationally recognized to combat homophobia, later extending to include biphobia, transphobia, and interphobia. Hengaw commemorates May 17, the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia, and calls on Iran's civil and human rights communities to pay special attention to the issue of social exclusion and the systematic violation of human rights of Iran's queer community under the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran within the Woman, Life, Freedom movement.
Hengaw considers the social and political exclusion of Iran's queer community through criminalization, pathologization, and social isolation as clear manifestations of gender apartheid under the Islamic Republic of Iran's rule. Hengaw urges Iran's human rights and civil society to not remain indifferent to this systematic exclusion. Let us believe that every individual has the right to live and be themselves without being threatened by society or the government. Only by respecting human rights and combating discrimination can we create a better and more equal world for all.
