Update on Iranian Teens

Last month, I posted about two Iranian teens who were allegedly hung for being gay. Later, I posted an update that it was being reported the two teens were hung because they had raped a child, but noted that I didn’t buy it; it just wasn’t sitting quite right with me. Now it looks as though I might have been correct to be dubious about the rape charge:

NEW INFORMATION FROM INSIDE IRAN ON THE HANGED BOYS CASTS DOUBT ON 'RAPE' CHARGE: Meanwhile, new information is continuing to come in from Iran casting doubt on the validity of the rape charge against the two hanged boys. Afdhere Jama, editor of the e-zine for Queer Muslims, Huriyah, says contacts of his in Iran affirm that the two boys hung in Mashad were lovers. "The first day I found out, I called my Iranian contacts from Huriyah," says Jama. "All agreed on the fact that these boys were murdered for being queer. One of my contacts who has been to gay parties in Mashad (the city where the boys were executed) swears the boys were long-term lovers, and another source told me one of he boys' family members outed the couple.

Jama told me that, "The level of surveillance in Iran has reached maximum since the reports of the hanged boys 'got out.' You would be surprised how far I had to go to find out what happened. Can you believe one of my contacts had to dress up as a woman -- with full facial nikkhab -- also wearing gloves.... and go into an Internet cafe... only to use Yahoo messenger he created right there for only -- yes -- just a ONE minute message to me? He had to travel a day to this Internet cafe to make sure nothing would get back to him. it is that scary. People are rightfully scared for their lives."

I have also had e-mail correspondence over the last ten days with the editors in Tehran of an Iranian underground publication for Iranian gays -- who have asked that neither their names nor the name of their publication be cited, as they are fearful of the heightened repressive atmosphere for same-sexers there. They, too, assert the 'rape' charge was trumped up and that the two boys who were hanged were lovers.

Clearly, all the sources referenced above have reason to affirm the boys were hanged just for being gay. But the Iranian government has just as much reason, if not more, to say the boys were hanged for being rapists. And the thing that still bothers me is that, isn’t a rape accusation a convenient red herring to cause the gay community and its supporters to retreat? (Convenient, and effective; few are still following the story since the rape angle was released.) The anti-gay crowd has always heavily relied on misclassifying gay men as pedophiles and child rapists; that these young men were deemed child rapists after an international outcry over their execution (originally reported as punishment singularly for their being gay, which is hardly unprecedented in Iran) should have been totally expected, as it handily plays into a nasty stereotype—a nasty stereotype from which gay men have had to repeatedly distance themselves, making it that much more likely they’d deflect interest in this cause. Mighty convenient indeed.

I just don’t believe these boys ever raped anyone, in spite of the fact that people being executed simply for being gay is a decidedly unpleasant thought and rapists swinging from ropes isn’t a particularly unpleasant one. Turning our heads away after what seems like a suspiciously contrived charge emerges is surely not the best we can do for Iranian queers, who face the same fate as these boys every day.