«In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like you do in your country. In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon. I don’t know who has told you that we have». Said Iranian former President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at the Columbia University, in 2007. The audience was bewildered, but also amused. Ahmadinejad’s statement caused feeble laughter. Then, it became apparent that his statement wasn’t a quip and the attendants started expressing their outrage.
During his career, Ahmadinejad made other remarkable statements. That one, in particular, gives a sense of how delicate the question of LGBT people is, in the Islamic Republic.
From a legal point of view, same-sex relations are criminalised. Several articles in the Iranian Penal Code (reviewed in 2013) establish the punishment for consensual same-sax acts. Women are punishable by 100 lashes. If the crime is reiterated, the fourth time it is punishable by death. As far as men are concerned, punishment depends on religion, marital status and role (active or passive). The active partner is punishable by 100 lashes, provided he is a Muslim and an unmarried man. Non-Muslim and married men are punishable by death whatever their role.
In theory, the Code of Criminal Procedure provides for extensive legal protection. For example, it recognises the presumption of innocence, the protection of privacy, the right of access to an attorney, the right to remain silent, the invalidity and unreliability of forced confessions, etc. However, these principles are often disregarded.
Charges of ‘sodomy’ can only be proven in two ways: either the defendant confesses his sin and crime, or four male witnesses must testify they witnessed the penetrative act, simultaneously. In the first instance, confessions rendered under physical or psychological duress and coercion are not, by law, admissible. In the second case, it’s self-evident that such an intimate act would hardly enjoy a four-men public. However, the judge has some latitude and can find the defendant guilty on merely circumstantial evidence.
Beyond the procedural rules established by the Iranian code, international conventions grant every individual of his or her fundamental rights, such as the freedom of expression, the press freedom, the freedom of association and assembly, the right to privacy, etc.
Iran ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The committees charged with overseeing the compliance of signatories have repeatedly called on Iran to de-criminalise same-sex relations. With no tangible results, it seems.
Statistical data about the execution of men and women under charges of same-sex intercourse are not available. Indeed, numbers might be deceptive as some homosexuals might be sentenced to death under different charges.
