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Two girls have been condemned to loss of life in Iran due to their hyperlinks to the LGBTQ+ group on social media, human rights teams have reported.
Zahra Seddiqi Hamedani, 31, and Elham Choubdar, 24, have been discovered responsible of quite a few expenses by a courtroom in Urmia, within the Iranian province of West Azerbaijan, on 1 September however the particulars of their sentences solely emerged this week.
In line with Hangaw, a Kurdish human rights group, Seddiqi Hamedani and Choubdar have been discovered responsible of “corruption on Earth” for “selling homosexuality”, “selling Christianity” and “speaking with the media opposing the Islamic Republic”. They have been additionally discovered responsible of intercourse trafficking, a cost that human proper activists say is fabricated.
Homosexuality is prohibited in Iran and punishable by loss of life underneath the sharia penal code.
Seddiqi Hamedani was arrested in Iran in October 2021 as she was making an attempt to cross the border to Turkey, the place she hoped to say asylum. In Could that yr she appeared in a documentary for the BBC Persian service, talking in regards to the abuse confronted by the LGBTQ+ group within the semi-autonomous Kurdistan area of Iraq, the place she was residing on the time.
After the documentary was aired in Could, Seddiqi Hamedani was detained for 21 days by Asayish, the intelligence and safety company of the Kurdistan regional authorities. She was subjected to torture, together with beatings, electrical shocks and extended solitary confinement, Amnesty Worldwide reported.
Earlier than she tried to cross the border between Iran and Turkey, Seddiqi Hamedani despatched a video message to 6Rang, an Iranian lesbian community based mostly in Germany, to be revealed in case of her arrest.
“I could also be arrested at any second as a result of they’ve all of the details about me … my life is in actual hazard,” stated a visibly distressed Seddiqi Hamedani. “If I don’t arrive [in Turkey], it’s clear what occurred.
“I wish to inform you ways a lot we’re struggling because the LGBTQ group and we resist … whether or not in loss of life or freedom, we stay true to ourselves.”
Shadi Amin, from 6Rang, stated: “They [Seddiqi Hamedan and Choubdar] heard the sentence final week. Since then Zahra has not slept. She is offended.”
“With out worldwide assist, we’ve no hope,” Amin added.
Soma Rostami, from Hengaw, stated that Seddiqi Hamedani and Choubdar had been denied entry to a lawyer. Rostami added that Seddiqi Hamedani’s Kurdish ethnicity might need contributed to the cruel sentence she obtained.
In July, a state information company revealed a video of two individuals who alleged that Seddiqi Hamedani trafficked Iranian girls overseas. 6Rang say that the people within the video have been detainees who gave testimony underneath duress.
Amin dismissed the trafficking accusations as “propaganda” and a part of a authorities technique to discredit Seddiqi Hamedani.
Arsham Parsi, an Iranian LGBTQ+ rights activist based mostly in Canada, stated: “Typically of executions of Iranian LGBT+ individuals previously, the federal government tried to hyperlink the individuals to violent crimes like rape or violation of nationwide safety.
“They at all times exaggerate the fees to make them look like harmful people who need to be executed,” he stated.
The information of the sentencing got here after Iran’s hardline president, Ebrahim Raisi, made a speech in parliament condemning homosexuality on 1 September. Raisi, who was elected a yr in the past, had beforehand referred to homosexuality as “nothing however savagery”. His authorities has additionally launched a crackdown in opposition to girls’s rights activists in current months.
Amnesty Worldwide has warned of a “horrific wave of executions” within the nation after the easing of Covid restrictions. In line with the group, at the least 281 individuals have been executed within the first half of 2022. Most have been convicted of homicide, with Amnesty describing “well-documented patterns of executions being systematically carried out following grossly unfair trials”.
Parsi stated: “This execution [sentence] is, I feel, principally politics.” He added that he had been in contact with Seddiqi Hamedani on social media over time.
“She requested me what I thought of her doing the BBC interview,” he stated. “I advised her it was harmful, that she ought to wait till she is protected in Turkey, or do it anonymously. However she was decided. I haven’t heard from her since.
“I don’t wish to get up and discover out that it’s too late – that she has been executed,” Parsi stated. “We want worldwide strain.”
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