Martin Luther King, in one of his historic speeches in 1963, said “I have a dream”. Today, on the 17th of May, the International Day against Homophobia, in Chicago, I, Arsham Parsi, a queer activist who must live in exile say “I have a dream, Too”. My dream is that one day the rights of all queers will be recognized and respected. That one day no one will be executed, tortured, arrested, imprisoned, isolated by society or disowned by their family and community for being queer. A day when our sexual orientation will not deprive us of our rights. That is my wish and that of all those who can not speak for themselves. Although they have not chosen me as their voice, I declare this dream of mine, and I will repeat it and I’ll hope to one day achieve this dream of mine.
Today I want to share something that a few people know about. A few months ago in Toronto, I was in the subway, tired, and on my way back from college. Someone called out for me in Persian and said “Are you Arsham Parsi?”. Upon hearing my affirmative response, he slapped me hard in the face and said “I hate you and the organization for which you work and all the lies you say about the situation of queers being bad in Iran”. I understood the rest of what he wanted to say. Firmly, I told him “I can call the police, and I hope you know that to slap someone for their sexual orientation can result in imprisonment here, so I hope you have a good reason for doing it”. He asked “have you ever heard of the tribe of Lut who were stoned by God for committing sodomy?” That question resulted in us standing and talking in the subway for about two hours. It might surprise you that after that he hugged me, kissed my face, apologized and said, “If queers are the people you are talking about, I have no problem with them”. We are now friends, and speak over the phone every few weeks, and sometimes treat each other to coffee.
A homophobic person changed. Someone who, due to lack of access to information about queers, had been brought up as a homophobic person. It is interesting that his attitude changed when I gave him a keychain as a small gift. I asked him “How old are you?” He said “in two days I will be 20”. From my bag I took out a gift that I had bought for one of my friends and gave it to him. With curiosity he asked, “What is this?” and I said “Is it not your birthday? Happy birthday, take it.” His next sentence was “I do not have a problem with real queers. My problem is with those who sell their bodies”. Friends who work in support of sex workers now had to give him a gift.
This experience had another meaning for me besides being interesting and somewhat funny. That is that in order to fight homophobia, we can not just write articles, have news items, write books, or have campaigns. Parallel to all these things, we have to roll up our sleeves, we have to stand on the streets, and fight against it even if we get slapped, because there is no guarantee that homophobic people will read these materials.
Even getting slapped requires special conditions. Today, queer people are standing on the streets of Jerusalem, Moscow and Istanbul and getting slapped. But what is important is that they are standing, and protesting against their lack of rights.
They will not be arrested and persecuted just because of their sexual orientation but because they are part of a larger civil rights struggle for cultural and social change. Those of us in Canada and in a few other western countries stand on streets without getting slapped, not that in these countries homophobia does not exist, but homophobic people at least fear arrest and persecution. Homophobia is not bound by geographic borders. Right here by this street corner a queer might suffer discrimination because of his/her sexual orientation. We must fight such discrimination as well. But our people in Iran do not even have the conditions in which to resist, stand up, and be slapped. They are not permitted to stand and proclaim “I exist, I have rights, and you have no right to insult me”. They are arrested, persecuted, and their court verdicts might contain no mention of their sexual orientation at all. Their crime might be the disruption of social security or insulting an officer or consumption of alcohol. The judge might deny them the right to have a lawyer. In Iran homosexuality is punishable by law. Such conditions are not only reserved for queers. Women also face barriers. Being a woman in Iran is not a crime but the activists in the One Million Signatures Campaign who want equality between the sexes, when they organize peaceful demonstrations in the streets, they are arrested and persecuted for supposedly breaking the peace not for being a woman.
When we look at conditions in different countries we realize that the fight against homophobia does not have a singular legal, social, or cultural solution and involves a number of different factors.
People are not born homophobic. Just like how people have to learn about democracy and bring it to practice, we need to provide accurate education about different sexual orientations. We all know that violence does not bring freedom and democracy. People don’t become democrat with military attacks and bloodshed and the same applies to being homophobic and respecting human rights. With patients and perseverance we have to change society.
The question that is always asked is how we can in the West support queers in Iran. The answer to that question is not easy because sometimes the differences in language, culture and practices results in us causing problems rather than solving issues. One has to decide very carefully and cautiously. In addition to struggling against an oppressive regime we must support victims of homophobia. Many leave Iran regularly because of the difficult situation, become homeless refugees and need help. One can help so that books are published, articles are translated and campaigns are organized and strengthened. This is big and valuable help.
Unfortunately these days we are witnessing millions of dollars being spent on election campaigns of two candidates of the same Party who should in principle share in their main positions and have differences only in the details of their points of views. A negligible percent of these campaign amounts and budgets can provide for the physical security and wellbeing of many human beings. One of these human beings is Mehdi Nadami, a trancesexual in Tehran, who, is in a solitary cell in prison because of defending himself in an aggressive attack for rape. He is condemned to remain in jail or pay 18 million tomans to get out, the sum which he never had during his young life.
In conclusion, I thank organizations in defense of queer rights who provided this opportunity and we hope one day we can invite you to join us not in an event against homophobia, but rather an event in celebration of queer rights in Iran. That day will come; we only need to continue our struggle.
Arsham Parsi, the well-known Iranian gay activist, has
announced the launch of the Iranian Queer Railroad (IRQR), a new organization
designed specifically to help the growing number of LGBT Iranians forced to
leave their country by the violently homophobic policies of the ayatollahs'
theocracy. Homosexuality is a capital crime in Iran.
Parsi, 28, founded the first Iranian gay group, the Persian Gay and Lesbian
Organization (PGLO), in 2004 while still living in Iran. With the police on his
tail for his gay activism, Parsi fled to Turkey in 2005, where he continued his
work to publicize the plight of LGBT Iranians, and eventually was granted
asylum as a sexual refugee by Canada, where he moved two years ago and changed
the name of the PGLO to the Iranian Queer Organization (IRQO).
Earlier this year, Parsi and the IRQO were honored by the International Gay and
Lesbian Human Rights Commission with its Felipa Award for pioneering gay
activism.
Parsi traveled to Turkey in August to meet with Iranian LGBT refugees and plead
their case with the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights that is located there. The UNHCR must grant these queer exiles official
refugee status before they can be accepted for asylum in gay-friendly
countries. As the result of that trip, Parsi concluded that a new organization
dedicated exclusively to helping sexual dissidents flee persecution in Iran was
necessary.
"I decided to call our new group the Iranian Queer
Railroad after the Underground Railroad in the 19th century, which was an
informal network of routes and safe houses helping black slaves in America to
escape to freedom in Canada," Parsi told Gay City News by telephone from
Toronto, where he now lives. He said a board of directors and an advisory committee
for the new organization would be announced soon.
Parsi said he and his organization are now in contact with 145 LGBT Iranian
refugees currently in limbo and seeking permanent asylum - 85 of them are in
Turkey, which shares a lengthy border with Iran and where cultural and
political homophobia is rampant, while the rest are scattered throughout
Europe, including in the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, and Norway.
Some 22 are in the United Kingdom, which has been extremely reluctant to grant
permanent asylum to gay Iranian refugees, and where in the last several years
two Iranians have committed suicide after receiving deportation orders back to
certain torture and possible death in Iran.
But, said Parsi, "there are many, many more queer refugees from Iran who
haven't yet been in contact with us and who also desperately need help.
"One of our goals with the Iranian Queer Organization was to increase the
level of awareness about the Iranian queer situation and the horrible
persecution that goes on daily in Iran, and to provide a steady stream of
information about homosexuality and the transgendered via Internet into Iran,
and I think we've had great success in doing that.
"But after several years of working with PGLO and IRQO, I have a lot more
experience now, and it was clear to me we needed a new organization with fresh
blood and a structure dedicated solely to helping queer refugees, to help them
flee Iran, to support them while they are still in transit countries like
Turkey, to assist them in finding their way through the harrowing bureaucratic
maze that faces them in order to gain asylum, and to help them get settled and
cope with setting up a new life in gay-friendly countries."
Since being granted asylum in Canada, Parsi has been able to make a number of
trips to Turkey to help gay refugees and has built a relationship with the
UNHCR office there.
"I'm so happy I've been able to build a strong relationship with the
UNHCR, who are now aware of the Iranian queer situation, and of our organization,
and on each of my trips I've been able to secure international refugee
protection status for more and more Iranian LGBT refugees in Turkey, which is
the necessary first step to being granted asylum," Parsi said. "After
my last trip there in August, we now have 20 more refugees who've been newly
granted this status and are now awaiting flights to gay-friendly countries like
Canada and Australia."
Parsi told this reporter of a 29-year-old Iranian lesbian refugee he was able
to help get an early legal interview with the UNHCR
"She had a terrible life in an abusive situation," he explained.
"Her family forced her to marry with one of their relatives, and her legal
husband raped her every night, and she could do nothing about it because one of
the first duties of women in the Islamic Republic of Iran is sexual delivery to
their husbands.
"This poor girl went to a doctor after all the rapes, and the doctor told
her, 'You appear to have been raped by an animal, and you need urgent health
care now.' But her family ordered her to be patient and stay at her husband's
home. She was severely beaten repeatedly by her husband and eventually escaped
and went to a friend's house.
"But while she was there, her brothers came while she was out and told her
friend they were going to kill her to save the family's honor because she left
her husband and has suspicious connections with other women. That's when she
fled Iran to Turkey, where she was put in touch with us by one of our members
in Iran. When she told me her story, she cried, and I lost control, too. I told
her, 'Don't go back to Iran, we don't want to lose any more members of our
queer family.'"
Parsi's dedication to these refugees is fueled by his own experience as an
exile in Turkey.
"It was the hardest experience in my life," he said. "To
suddenly find myself in an unexpected situation in a hostile country without
money, with no personal safety or security for 13 months wasn't easy."
Parsi added, "I cannot forget the day in Turkey when I was walking with
Amir, another gay refugee who had been tortured and flogged in Iran. We were
chased in the street by a homophobic crowd, who beat us hard and tried to kill
us. Nobody helped. There were no police who came to our assistance and people
were just standing around watching as we were beaten, simply for being gay
refugees in their country. I'll never forget my refugee life in Turkey, and
that's why I've decided to dedicate myself exclusively to making queer
refugees' stay in Turkey as short as possible and to help them get to freedom
in gay-friendly countries."
Parsi told this reporter, "I just received a phone call from Turkey. Two
of our refugees - one who is 28 and one who is 29 - who had rented a room
together, were visited by the mother of the landlord who told them, 'We just
found out you are gay, and you have to leave because you are gay.'
"Our two refugees, who didn't speak much Turkish, called the police, who
instead of admonishing the landlord arrested our refugees. While in custody,
one of them, who is diabetic, went into diabetic shock, but was not allowed by
the police to take his insulin. The police insulted them and told them, 'If
you're not happy here, go back to Iran.' Turkish police are very hostile to gay
people in general and to gay Iranian refugees in particular. Beatings are very
common. That's just another illustration of why it is so urgent to get these
refugees out of Turkey to a safe country."
Parsi provided Gay City News with translations from Persian of several short
statements left on the IRQO and IRQR websites from Iranian queers giving their
personal histories. The stories were posted as part of their applications for
assistance in finding asylum.
Ali, who is 30, escaped from Iran to Turkey in December 2007, where he is now
awaiting resettlement.
"I was caught when I was having sex with a guy by his father, who was a
member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard," Ali wrote. "As a result,
I lost my job and I and my family were threatened with death. I was arrested
several times in Iran, the last time was in the summer of 2007 while I was on
vacation in the north of Iran, and the Islamic Guard arrested me simply because
I was wearing a T-shirt and jeans and had spiky hair. I don't feel safe even
here in Turkey because the father of the guy I had sex with is in the
Revolutionary Guard and has the ability to find me here and have me killed so
he can cover up the scandal of his queer son.
"I didn't do anything, I'm just a gay man who was born in a country in
which my existence was forbidden, just for being gay, just for having a special
feeling which is not that of a majority of society. I love guys. It is my right
to be free, but I have to live in exile for it. I need help."
Hossein, 22, escaped from Iran to Turkey in September 2006, where he has been
languishing while awaiting official refugee status and the granting of asylum
in a gay-friendly country.
"I am a musician," Hossein wrote, "and I used to perform at
various celebrations, including weddings and parties. These gatherings were
often raided, but usually the host would pay the authorities a bribe and that
would end the matter. I am homosexual. I had my first relationship at age 12
with the son of a neighbor, it lasted two years. In September 2006 I was
playing along with other musicians at a private gay party in a home. The party
was raided and the police attacked us viciously. One person was beaten so badly
that later I learned he had died from it. I was beaten for ten minutes and lost
consciousness for about ten hours. I was later arrested while I was in
hospital.
"Eventually my mother and a friend of mine came to the hospital, my friend
was dressed in the uniform of a sergeant in the disciplinary forces, and
pretended to relieve the soldier who was guarding my room. I put on a hospital
worker's uniform and was able to escape. After I was smuggled into Turkey, my
family's home was raided and my mother and father arrested for three days on
charges of helping me escape for being gay. My father was detained and tortured
for a year and later died. I'm waiting to be granted refugee status by UNHCR
and I need your help."
Parsi told Gay City News that he financed his August trip to Turkey out of his
own pocket from money he'd saved while working in a Toronto restaurant. Now,
Parsi said, he's planning another urgent trip to Turkey in November to try to
get UNHCR refugee status for still more Iranian queer refugees, but has no
personal resources left and is raising money for the trip.
"I know you gay Americans are preoccupied with your elections," Parsi
said, "but I beg you to spare a thought for these poor queer refugees in
Turkey, who are living in terribly squalid conditions, unable to work because
they don't speak Turkish and because of queerophobia, and who are stateless and
without hope until they can be granted legal, international recognition of
their status as refugees by UNHCR.
"We also need money to begin English language and computer courses for
them to prepare them for new lives in freedom and to help them pass the time
and escape those feelings of hopelessness. Please, spare us a few dollars for
your queer brothers and sisters who are victims of religious persecution."
Donations for Parsi's urgent November trip and to support LGBT Iranian refugees
may be made in two ways - via credit card on the secure PayPal
"donate" button on the Iranian Queer Railroad's web site at http://www.irqr.net/, or by
check to Iranian Queer Railroad c/o Arsham Parsi.
Picture: Arsham Parsi, a gay sexual refugee living in
Toronto, (seen here at right accepting this year's Felipa Award from IGLHRC,
alongside Chilean trans activist Andrès Ignacio Rivera Duarte) is pressing the
fight to help queer Iranian refugees find suitable resettlement.
Doug Ireland can be reached through his blog, DIRELAND.
Arsham Parsi’s Statementt About PGLO-IRQO
Saghi Ghahraman, Niaz Salimi and I were the original board members of Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization (PGLO). PGLO was registered as an Ontario corporation in May 2007. PGLO was also known by the name IRanian Queer Organization (IRQO). It is regrettable that the issues amongst the PGLO board members gave rise to public statements concerning the dissolution of the board and PGLO’s finances.
I believed that a constructive resolution of the issues amongst the board members could best be achieved through private discussions between our respective lawyers. It was for that reason that I retained counsel to act on my behalf and declined to provide immediate public comment on the matters raised by Ms. Ghahraman and Ms. Salimi.
The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) awarded $5,000 to IRQO in connection with IRQO’s work on behalf of Iranian refugees during the time I was executive director. I confirm that I returned the $5,000 cheque to IGLHRC at IGLHRC’s request. I understand that IGLHRC has since delivered a $5,000 cheque to IRQO and this matter is now closed.
With respect to the PGLO bank account, I confirm that Ms. Ghahraman, Ms. Salimi and I were members of the PGLO board of directors and the only persons with signing authority on PGLO’s bank account. Two signatures were required on each cheque drawn on the account. All cheques drawn on the PGLO bank account by me were co-signed by either Ms. Gaharaman or Ms. Salimi. Funds were not withdrawn from that account without the knowledge of Ms. Gaharaman and/or Ms. Salimi. I confirm I provided Ms. Gaharaman and Ms. Salimi with copies of the PGLO bank statements through our respective counsel.
I consider these matters to be closed. I remain committed to my work on behalf of Iranian refugees in my capacity as executive director of Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees - IRQR.
IRanian
Queer RR Launched 
