There are reports that new study commissioned by the Iranian government has revealed that young Iranian’s have active sex lives and report a high level of homosexuality.
An 82 page document released by Iran’s Parliamentary Research Department reportedly shows that 80% of unmarried females had boyfriends and that 17% of the 142,000 students surveyed declared that they were homosexual.
The report however has gone largely unreported by the countries tightly controlled media, and the nation’s conservative politicians are not expected to publicly discuss it’s findings soon either.
Despite the reports of wide spread sexual activity and a high level of homosexuality Iran remains one of several countries where LGBTIQ people can face the death penalty.
In 2007 Iran’s then President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was greeted with a chorus of laughter when he told students at Columbia University in the USA that there were no homosexuals in Iran.
In it’s 2012 report Amnesty International reported that LGBTIQ people face harassment, persecution, and the judicial sentences of flogging and execution.
On 4 September 2012, three men identified only by their initials were reported to have been executed in Karoun Prison, Ahvaz, Khuzestan province, after they were convicted of “sodomy”.
Siyamak Ghaderi, a former journalist for the state news agency held since August 2010, was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, flogging and a fine in January after he was convicted of “publishing lies”, committing “religiously unlawful acts” and other charges for, among other things, posting interviews with people from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community on his blog.
Ghaderi began his series of interviews with the local LGBTIQ community after the President made his declaration that there were no homosexuals in Iran. Ghaderi was released just last month after completing his sentence.
OIP Staff
Source: The Economist, image: Stock image – YayMicro/Idambies
