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Mahmoud Asgari ( fa, محمود عسگری), and Ayaz Marhoni ( fa, عیاض مرهونی), were Iranian teenagers from the province of
Khorasan Khorasan may refer to: * Greater Khorasan, a historical region which lies mostly in modern-day northern/northwestern Afghanistan, northeastern Iran, southern Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan * Khorasan Province, a pre-2004 province of Ira ...
who were publicly
hanged Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging in ...
on July 19, 2005. They were executed after being convicted of having raped a 13-year-old boy. The case attracted international media attention and the facts of the case are heavily debated.


Execution

Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni were executed on July 19, 2005 in Edalat (Justice) Square in
Mashhad Mashhad ( fa, مشهد, Mašhad ), also spelled Mashad, is the List of Iranian cities by population, second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. It serves as the capital of R ...
, northeast
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, after being convicted by the court of having raped a 13-year-old boy. The case attracted international media attention and the facts of the case are heavily debated.
Shari'a Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...
(Islamic Law) in Shiite Iran prescribes the
death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
for homosexual acts but it requires four eye witnesses to the event, but the Convention on the Rights of the Child, of which Iran is a signatory, forbids the execution of
juvenile Juvenile may refer to: *Juvenile status, or minor (law), prior to adulthood *Juvenile (organism) *Juvenile (rapper) (born 1975), American rapper * ''Juvenile'' (2000 film), Japanese film * ''Juvenile'' (2017 film) *Juvenile (greyhounds), a greyho ...
s. According to Asgari's lawyer, Rohollah Razaz Zadeh, "death sentences handed to children by Iranian courts are supposed to be commuted to five years in jail", but the
Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
in
Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...
upheld the death sentence. The ages of the two remain unclear, with some sources claiming they were fourteen and sixteen at the time of their arrests and sixteen and eighteen when executed, and others claiming that the older boy, Marhoni, was already nineteen, when the alleged crime(s) took place.


Media reports and international reactions

On July 19, 2005, the
Iranian Students' News Agency The Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) is a news agency run by Iranian university students. Position It covers a variety of national and international topics.Engber, Daniel. What's With the Iranian Students News Agency?, ''Slate'', 2 Februa ...
(ISNA) posted an article in Persian describing the execution of the two youths. Its headline stated that they had been executed for "''lavat beh onf''", which means "sodomy/homosexual sex by force" and is a legal term used for rape of men by men. Earlier on the morning of the executions, ''Quds'', the local daily newspaper in
Mashhad Mashhad ( fa, مشهد, Mašhad ), also spelled Mashad, is the List of Iranian cities by population, second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. It serves as the capital of R ...
, published a report on the executions. It gave a detailed account of how the two had raped a 13-year-old boy, and included statements by the father of the rape victim. The ISNA article became the center of the dispute. The gay-rights group, OutRage!, led by Peter Tatchell, published its own free translation of the article on July 21, suggesting that the two had been executed for engaging in consensual homosexual sex.Cited in Ireland, D. (2005
"Iran Executes 2 Gay Teenagers"
retrieved August 1, 2005.
Two news sources heavily involved in Iranian exile politics had meanwhile contributed to the spread of the story in English. On July 20, 2005, an Iranian opposition group, the
National Council of Resistance The National Council of the Resistance (also, National Resistance Council; in French: ''Conseil National de la Résistance'' (CNR), was the body that directed and coordinated the different movements of the French Resistance: the press, trade unio ...
, the political wing of the People's Mojahedin, released a press release about the executions. It stated that: "The victims were charged with disrupting public order among other things." It did not mention the charges of rape.
Iran Focus Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, a news website that is widely regarded as an affiliate of the People's Mojahedin, also published an article about the hangings, mentioning no charges at all. On July 22, 2005,
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
issued a news release saying:
"According to reports, they were convicted of sexual assault on a 13-year-old boy and had been detained 14 months ago. Prior to their execution, the two were also given 228 lashes each for drinking, disturbing the peace and theft."
On July 27, 2005, after researching reports on the hangings,
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
released letters to Iran's president and the head of the judiciary. In writing to the Iranian leadership, Human Rights Watch condemned the use of the death penalty in Iran. It stated that the two "were put to death on July 19 after they were found guilty of sexually assaulting a thirteen-year-old boy some fourteen months earlier," but did not address whether those charges were accurate. Its public statement noted:
"Death is an inhumane punishment, particularly for someone under eighteen at the time of his crimes," said Hadi Ghaemi, Iran researcher for Human Rights Watch. "All but a handful of countries forbid such executions. Iran should as well."
In Tehran, Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi decried the imposition of the death penalty on minors but did not comment on the nature of the charges in this case. The first reports in the Iranian media had all identified the hangings as the result of a rape conviction. However, these reports only came to light after later English-language accounts had suggested the two might have been killed for being gay. This made it appear plausible to some that the rape charges might have been simply a "cover story" put out later by the Iranian government—even though the story of rape had actually been the first one told. Several bloggers promoted the story heavily and gave wide coverage to the pictures of the hanging. U.S. blogger
Doug Ireland William Douglas Ireland (March 31, 1946 – October 26, 2013) was an American journalist and blogger who wrote about politics, power, media, and LGBT issues. He was the U.S. correspondent for the French political-investigative weekly Bakchi ...
referred to the charges of rape as "the Iranian government's story." The hangings quickly became a political issue in disputes over U.S. and European policy toward Iran. The conservative U.S. commentator
Andrew Sullivan Andrew Michael Sullivan (born 10 August 1963) is a British-American author, editor, and blogger. Sullivan is a political commentator, a former editor of ''The New Republic'', and the author or editor of six books. He started a political blog, ' ...
posted the photographs in an entry on his blog called "Islamists versus Gays." Seeing the hangings as a reason gay people should support U.S. military action, he quoted a gay U.S. soldier who wrote him that:
"Your post on the Islamo-fascist hanging/murder of the two gay men confirmed for me that my recent decision to join the U.S. military was correct. I have to stuff myself back in the closet – something I thought I left a decade ago – but our war on terror trumps my personal comfort at this point. Whenever my friends and family criticize – I'll show 'em that link."
The Log Cabin Republicans, a conservative U.S. gay group, issued a statement reading, "In the wake of news stories and photographs documenting the hanging of two gay Iranian teenagers, Log Cabin Republicans re-affirm their commitment to the global war on terror."


Reason for prosecution

The British group OutRage! alleged that the two had been executed for engaging in consensual homosexual sex. However, some human rights organizations, including
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, have urged observers to refrain from casting the incident as a "gay" issue, and cast doubt on the claim that Marhoni and Asgari were hanged as a result of consensual acts. They have emphasized instead that the executions are a violation of the
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (commonly abbreviated as the CRC or UNCRC) is an international human rights treaty which sets out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. The Con ...
and the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is a multilateral treaty that commits nations to respect the civil and political rights of individuals, including the right to life, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedo ...
(Iran is a signatory to both), which prohibit the execution of minors.Kim, Richard. (2005.
"Witness to an Execution"
''The Nation''. Retrieved December 31, 2006.
OutRage! stated that "the allegation of sexual assault may either be a trumped up charge to undermine public sympathy for the youths, a frequent tactic by the Islamist regime in Iran" or that "it may be that the 13 year old was a willing participant, but that Iranian law (like UK law) deems that no person of that age is capable of sexual consent and that therefore any sexual contact is automatically deemed in law to be a sex assault." OutRage! also questioned why the 13-year-old was not identified and also put on trial if he had been sexually assaulted. The two were believed to have been
juvenile Juvenile may refer to: *Juvenile status, or minor (law), prior to adulthood *Juvenile (organism) *Juvenile (rapper) (born 1975), American rapper * ''Juvenile'' (2000 film), Japanese film * ''Juvenile'' (2017 film) *Juvenile (greyhounds), a greyho ...
s at the time of the offense, and one is believed to have been a juvenile at the time of his execution. Iran frequently executes people for offenses committed as children, a practice condemned by international human rights treaties.Human Rights Watch (2005.
"Iran: End Juvenile Executions"
. Retrieved December 31, 2006.
The facts of the case are still subject to heated debate. The British activist Peter Tatchell has accused activists who have suggested the two were charged with rape of being "Western left-wing and Islamist apologists" of the "Iranian regime." Some of the reports that were first used to discredit the rape charges originated with an Iranian dissident group accused of serious human-rights violations, one that is classified as a terrorist organization by the United States and Iran (the
National Council of Resistance of Iran The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI; fa, شورای ملی مقاومت ایران, Šurā-ye melli-e moqāvemat-e Īrān) is an Iranian political organization based in France and Albania. The organization is a political coalition ...
).


Controversy

Within weeks of the hangings, both reporters and human rights organizations—while continuing to condemn the brutality of the hangings—began to produce more nuanced accounts. The U.S. periodical ''
The Nation ''The Nation'' is an American liberal biweekly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper tha ...
'' published a lengthy investigation of the story. It criticized the role of Peter Tatchell and OutRage! in spreading the belief the executed youths were gay before it had examined the evidence. The article concluded that, given Tatchell's "recent statements, it seems likely that his ideological disposition caused him to look past or dismiss information that cast doubt on the 'gay teenagers' story."
Faisal Alam Faisal Alam is a gay Pakistani American man who founded the Al-Fatiha Foundation, an organization dedicated to advancing the cause of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Muslims. Alam arrived in the United States from Pakistan in 1987, at th ...
, founder of the lesbian and gay Muslim group
Al-Fatiha Foundation The Al-Fatiha Foundation was an organization which advanced the civil, political, and legal rights of LGBTQ+ Muslims. It was founded in 1997 by Faisal Alam, a Pakistani American LGBTQ+ rights activist, and was registered as a nonprofit organizat ...
, published an opinion piece claiming that: "Very few people took the time to research the details of the case or even consult with experts who deal with such news on a daily basis. In fact it was almost a week later that we began to read more accurate accounts of why the teens were executed from international human rights groups including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission – all of whom have contacts in Iran and ways to confirm news of such incidents from independent sources. While no one will ever know why these two young men were executed in Iran, what remains clear is that the hysteria surrounding the executions was enormous and only fed to the growing Islamaphobia and hatred towards Muslims and the Islamic world." OutRage! and Peter Tatchell continued to defend their claim that the two victims were hanged because they were lovers. It accused them of being "apologists" and of giving the "Iranian government the benefit of the doubt." Other gay and human rights groups that had researched the case had condemned the killings as gross rights violations. Nonetheless, Brett Lock of OutRage! wrote that those groups "showed little concern" about human rights violations in Iran:
"OutRage! is appalled that large sections of liberal and left opinion in the West shows little concern regarding the murderous brutality of the clerical fascist regime in Tehran. We deplore the gullibility of many gay, left and human rights groups concerning the abuse of LGBT human rights in Iran.... They have long swallowed Iran's homophobic propaganda."
Tatchell accused those who disagreed with him over the case of "racism." OutRage! cited the case to "urge the international community to treat Iran as a pariah state." Tatchell stated, "There can be no normal relations with an abnormal regime". OutRage! and blogger Doug Ireland cited sources inside Iran to support their continuing assertion that Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni were hanged solely for being gay. Their source is
Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...
-born activist
Afdhere Jama Afdhere Jama (born 1980) is an American writer and filmmaker of Somali origin. Jama was born and raised in Somalia. He moved to America when he was a teenager. Between the years 2000 and 2010, he was the editor of Huriyah. Jama identifies as que ...
, who lives in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
in the U.S. According to OutRage!, Jama has told them that he has spoken to three people from Mashhad who maintain that Mahmoud Asgari, Ayaz Marhoni, and five other friends were originally accused of committing consensual homosexual acts on each other. Scott Long of Human Rights Watch noted in 2006 that Afdhere Jama's sources "have refused to speak to anyone else, including human rights investigators," and that allegations of a huge crackdown against gay people in Iran based on their evidence are third-hand at best. Long also criticised Doug Ireland for "deeply irresponsible" reporting by accepting second-hand claims from Iranian exile groups without confirmation. Long wrote:
A few Iranian exile groups saw a new audience in Western gays. They began reporting multiple executions in Iran as gay-related... After four men were hanged for unspecified "sexual offenses" in Iran, Ireland found verbal similarity in the reporting enough to "strongly suggest" that they were hanged for homosexuality. The men were hanged for heterosexual rape – two for the rape of girls aged 8 and 10. When I made this clear to Ireland, he never qualified his earlier claim.
In addition to Human Rights Watch, Paula Ettelbrick, executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, has also said "It was not a gay case." Ettelbrick has also said she was also disturbed by the charged language used by some gay rights groups to condemn the execution, pointing to Peter Tatchell's statement, "This is just the latest barbarity by the Islamo-fascists in Iran."


Aftermath

Both Sweden and The Netherlands responded to the stories around the Mashhad executions by announcing that they would immediately halt extraditions of LGBT asylum claimants to Iran. The Dutch government also announced that its
Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The entit ...
would investigate the treatment of gays and lesbians in the country. Civil rights groups in the U.S., United Kingdom and Russia have also called for similar policies. In March 2006 Dutch Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk proposed an end to a moratorium on deporting gay asylum-seekers to Iran, stating that it was now clear "that there is no question of executions or death sentences based solely on the fact that a defendant is gay", adding that homosexuality was never the primary charge against people. Under parliamentary pressure, and based on evidence from groups including Human Rights Watch that torture of gays in Iran remained endemic, she was forced to extend the moratorium on deportation for a further six months. In late 2006, also due to lobbying from groups including Human Rights Watch, the Netherlands instituted a new policy of removing the burden of proof from Iranian LGBT refugee claimants. Scott Long of Human Rights Watch has written that "lesbian and gay Iranians are not abstractions, sheltered from politics—or missiles. Their lives should not be reduced to the agendas of well-meaning strangers in the West." He added, criticizing allegations he considered unsupported, that "If we want to challenge Iran's government, we need facts. There is enough proof of torture and repression that we can do without claims of 'pogroms.'" In 2006, the one-year anniversary of the hangings in Mashhad was designated an International Day of Action Against Homophobic Persecution in Iran by OutRage!, with vigils planned for Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Frankfurt, London, Marseille, Mexico City, Moscow, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Stockholm, Toronto, Vancouver, Vienna, Warsaw, Washington, D.C., and other cities and with hearings planned in the British House of Commons. These demonstrations saw a renewal of controversy over whether the claims made about the case by OutRage! had any basis in fact. ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' reported that ISNA, the student news agency, carried photographs of the execution. ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' reported that photographs of the hangings were carried by protestors at rallies and demonstrations at over two dozen events worldwide.


Cultural references

* The album ''
Fundamental Fundamental may refer to: * Foundation of reality * Fundamental frequency, as in music or phonetics, often referred to as simply a "fundamental" * Fundamentalism, the belief in, and usually the strict adherence to, the simple or "fundamental" idea ...
'' by the British musical group
Pet Shop Boys The Pet Shop Boys are an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1981. Consisting of primary vocalist Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe, they have sold more than 50 million records worldwide, and were listed as the most successful duo i ...
is "Dedicated to Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni". * R. Timothy Brady composed an opera, ''Edalat Square'', based on this act. The opera won the 2008 Opera Vista Festival, and was performed at the 2009 Opera Vista Festival in Houston, TX, and was conducted by Viswa Subbaraman. * Jay Paul Deratany wrote the play ''Haram Iran'' about the trial and executions of Ayaz Marhoni and Mahmoud Asgari; it was first performed by the Athenaeum Theatre in Chicago.


Use of the execution photograph

A photograph of the teens' execution has been used for various purposes: Dutch right-wing political figure Geert Wilders used it in his short film '' Fitna'' as a warning of what would happen to gays in a dystopian future in which Muslims rule the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, and it has been misrepresented in social media as Palestinians rather than Iranians hanging homosexuals. Former Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ( fa, محمود احمدی‌نژاد, Mahmūd Ahmadīnežād ), born Mahmoud Sabbaghian ( fa, محمود صباغیان, Mahmoud Sabbāghyān, 28 October 1956),
was shown the photograph during a 2008 interview and was asked if he thought "gay men and lesbians should die in Iran?" Ahmadinejad answered: "No, there is no law for their execution in Iran. Either they were drug traffickers or they had killed someone else. Those who kill someone else or engage in acts of rape could be punished by execution. Otherwise, homosexuals are not even known who they are to be hung. So, we don't have executions of homosexuals." In the United States, black-and-white reproductions of the photographs were brought by protesters to a rally in Dupont Circle, and the images were also used in at least 26 other protests in countries around the world, according to those who organized them. Before they closed, the pictures had also been put on display in the windows of
Lambda Rising Lambda Rising was an LGBT bookstore that operated from 1974 to 2010 in Washington, D.C. Founded by Deacon Maccubbin in 1974 with 250 titles, it was known for its wide selection of books, ranging from queer theory and religion to erotica, as well ...
, a
LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...
bookstore in
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...
winner Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian known for her human rights work, and the founder of
Defenders of Human Rights Center The Defenders of Human Rights Center is an Iranian human rights organization. Organization Based in Tehran, the organization was founded in 2001 and has been active in defending rights of women, political prisoners and minorities in Iran. Several ...
protested against the execution of minors.
Philip Kennicott Philip Kennicott is the chief Art and Architecture Critic of ''The Washington Post.'' Education Kennicott was raised in Schenectady, New York, where he studied piano with composer and pianist Joseph Fennimore. In 1983, he attended Deep Spring ...
, winner of the
Pulitzer Prize for Criticism The Pulitzer Prize for Criticism has been presented since 1970 to a newspaper writer in the United States who has demonstrated 'distinguished criticism'. Recipients of the award are chosen by an independent board and officially administered by C ...
, wrote in ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' that "perhaps the saddest thing about these pictures is that no major news organization outside Iran has tracked down what really happened. The final indignity of these boys' short lives was that they didn't matter enough to spark a serious investigation."


See also

*
Judicial system of Iran A nationwide judicial system in Iran was first implemented and established by Abdolhossein Teymourtash under Reza Shah, with further changes during the second Pahlavi era. After the 1979 overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty by the Islamic Revolut ...
* LGBT in Islam *
LGBT rights in Iran Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Iran face severe legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Sexual activity between members of the same sex is illegal and can be punishable by up to death, and people can l ...


References


Footnotes


Further reading


Iran Human Rights

Scott Long, "Debating Iran

Iran Executes Two – What Was Their Crime?


* "

'" – Direland
Full account of case with detailed information on both Asgari and Marhoni


* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20121220024614/http://www.ilgrandecolibri.com/2012/10/sin-movie-iran.html Interview to Wajahat Ali Abbasi, director of "SIN", a movie inspired by this story {{DEFAULTSORT:Asgari, Mahmoud And Marhoni, Ayaz 1980s births 2000s missing person cases 2005 deaths 21st-century executions by Iran Criminal duos Executed Iranian people Incidents of violence against boys Kidnappings in Iran Missing person cases in Iran People executed by Iran by hanging People executed for rape Rape in Iran Violence against men in Asia