IRAN: 3 MEN HANGED FOR ALLEGED RAPE OF MALE TEEN
Three men have been hanged in Iran for allegedly raping a teen boy – although Iranian law does not clearly differentiate between consensual gay sex and rape.
The Iranian judiciary website reported that Ghavaam Ataakeshzadeh, Mustafaa Karimi Khanghaah and Reza Dehghaan were hanged on Monday.
According to Gay Middle East, few details are known about the case, such as the age of the teenager or if the sexual encounter was consensual or truly rape.
“There is a lack of transparency in the Iranian courts, which has always been a problem during the past 30 years. This has worsened following the 2009 elections, and includes all cases tried in courts and not only related to sodomy,” commented Saghi Ghahraman, chair of the Iranian Queer Organization (IRQO).
Last week, it was reported that two other Iranian men accused of non-consensual gay sex had been sentenced to execution by stoning.
Ayub (20) and Mosleh (21) filmed themselves having sex with a 17 year old, but it is believed that in order to save his life the boy may have claimed to have been raped.
Iran is one of seven countries with laws allowing executions for consensual same-sex conduct.
In December, Human Rights Watch said that “it cannot be ruled out that Iran is sentencing sexual minorities who engage in consensual same-sex relations to death under the guise that they have committed forcible sodomy or rape”.
hanging. i dont know to much about all the facts – how ever to hang these persons is disgusting – whats more disgusting is that the whole world has said or done nothing to stop this form of punishment ?
I am in two minds about this. Rape is a terrible crime to perpetrate against anyone, even more so someone who is underage.
I was 19 when I was raped. In the long term it altered my life’s course to such an extent that it never really recovered, in the short term the self-hate coloured, distorted and polluted everything. This all happened many years ago and I’ve long since made peace with it.
At the same time I am opposed to the death penalty in all cases. I do not believe that it solves anything, ever. It would definitely not have given me my life back. Our penal system is ineffective at resolving or reducing crime or affecting behaviour, but could that be because the effectiveness and corruptibility of the police and the judiciary is in question?
The 17 year old victim should be the considered and given support and care. When it happened to me (1990) I didn’t tell anyone until 3 years later, until my life had taken several turns for the worse.
>>. I agree with you, I also think Rape is a terrible thing.
But I am not 100% sure in this case it was rape. I think they only said it was rape to protect the 17 Year old from also being prosecuted.
So I feel sorry for the 2 men. But Like the report said, its very unclear what happened and they are covering it up. So we will never realy know.
I am just cratefull we live in a free country like South Africa, where our freedome has been fought fore and there are people protecting us.