Gay teenager faces deportation and certain death in Iran

you've got to be kidding me.

That is ridiculous.

Send him to Texas. Here we just jail young gays for many years if they indulge in sex and someone tells. In our town a teen couple got it when one reached the age of nineteen and the other was underage. That wouldn't have happened to a straight couple unless a parent complained. Life isn't anywhere near fair.

This is terrible. I' am going to write for sure...really depressing to read stuff like this..

I can't believe the world let's Iran get away with this, but worst yet how could Great Britain do something so horrible. Shame.

This is horrific.
What kind of world would let such injustice go on unstopped?
Homophobia is wrong, and for these young men, fatal.
When will the hate and killing stop?
God is love. How can people justify killing like this?

Wow, how horrific. I hope this gets more attention worldwide.

Great Britain and all countries should give asylum to save this man's life.

And aren't those kids under 18?? I think I heard something about at least one of those boys being hung in that picture.

the two boys in the picture were executed a couple of years ago.
this story in the link though is fresh and its the 3rd one of it's kind that i've read in the past couple years.
i know there are more of them.
and i hate it.
it just sound so unfathomable.
yeah i know there are zealots in the U.S.A. that would try and say they'd like something like this to happen,
but i'm so glad to know that I live in a country that wouldn't allow one of their own citizens to be put to death for being gay.
ALTHOUGH,
our assholes in "power" did deport a different young gay man back to Iran to an almost certain death.
asl;dfkjasdf;laskjdf;laskdjfas
so frustrating!

"The UK Home Office claims that a gay person can return to Iran and avoid persecution by being "discreet". All the advice is that in Iran, to be discreet means that you would have to deny your identity"

This is a quote from Simon Hughes the Liberal Democrat MP for South Central London where I live.

It's worth while telling UK readers who feel strongly about this to contact their local MP or indeed the home office. As for international readers, why not get in touch with your local British or Dutch embassy.

The chances of this man now being deported from the UK to Iran are in my oppinion small. He is clearly at great risk of persecution and any attempt to do this would almost certainly recieve a public backlash. But there are many other cases out there like him.

This also challenges certain elements of public oppinion. Certainly here in the UK. Asylum seeker has become a by word for spongers and thieves thanks to our tabloid press and opportunistic politicians. It's worth while remembering that many of these people came to the European Union or United States because they were pushed from their homeland by war, the threat of torture or death and the treatment they recieved in the country they fled to is often dispicable.

How horrible, this boggles the mind...

"...but i'm so glad to know that I live in a country that wouldn't allow one of their own citizens to be put to death for being gay."

Hate to burst your bubble, but people have died in this country just for being gay. Even though it's not mandated by the state, homosexuals are killed by individuals who have no tolerance for them in our society.

I'll be writing the british embassy to let them know how I feel about this.

i'm not sure why people are so surprised about this story..

with a couple of exceptions.. there has always been low tolerance for homosexual behavior on a social level.. it is only recently that such tolerance has been doctrinated into law.. in the scope of history, homosexuals have fought and continue to fight for their rights until this very day.. seeing such intolerance somewhere else should not come as that big of a surprise.. this holds true for both britain's (although more is expected from them) actions as well as iran's..

and to follow up on iran's stance.. just as citizens in a foreign society would have difficulty understanding the concept of placing elderly in a nursing home.. or the inability to understand america's decision to use a nuclear bomb.. one should not be so shocked to learn that not all things in a foreign society make sense and appear logical..

bear in mind that my pointing this out does not equate me with supporting such actions.. im sure some readers wont be able to delineate that nevertheless..

guess we'll see..

peace

Just curious how many people responding regarding the horror of this story are the same ones talking out the other side of their face against George Bush for saying that there IS a threat from the middle east and the we NEED to do something about it.

Anyone willing to step up and admit it? Still want to get out of Iraq? Still want to deny that there are no circumstances that would justify wiping Iran offf the map? Still think that the islamo-fascists wouldn't slit your liberal throats 1st if given the opportunity?

How would you like your crow served?

Oh yes because killing all Iranians is justified by the acts of right wing extremists, I don't blame a kid for the way he was raised, it is up to free people to change the way enslaved people think.

And also Liberal_Extinction, you sound allot like an islamo-fascist with your talk of justification of genocide, GENOCIDE! I cannot imagine you without a hitler mustache now after that statement, you kind of people make me sick and I pity you.

I'm sorry. Could somebody tell me the details of this story...like why they're so determined to send this kid back. On the surface, yes, it sounds totally unjust and downright cruel that they're sending this man back to such a horrible fate. But what if he's a pedophile or a murderer or something? Not saying he is. I'm just saying, I'm not getting the whole story. That would be nice.

um...liberal extinction you are kind of moronic (unless you're like...12). Iraq was nothing more than a personal vendetta of Bush and his administration. That's why they rushed America into it even though they knew there we're no WMD's and Saddam was contained, nor was there a link between iraq and terrorists. this is all well proven now (and no not by the media, by actual experts including the US Army). There is also evidence that bush knew about this and went ahead and illegally invaded another nation anyways. But hey, we still use 50's cal's even though they're illegal, and we use torture, why should we pay attention to ANY international rules of war??

youre one paranoid kid but it's funny how the actions of the Bush administration actually seems to have created more 'islamo-facists' around the world. Way to go champ.

Oh hey! We should get out of Iraq (except Kurdistan). We have basically handed over control to local warlords anyways in most of the nation.

lifestudent...
i'm not an idiot...
i am a gay man i have friends that have been killed because they were gay.
i simply meant that it is not mandated by our government and no one would allow it to be.
yeah bush doesnt want us getting married but he'd never mandate us to be killed.
don't talk to me like taht.

I strongly urge Liberal_Extinction to think in more rational, moderate terms and to conduct him/her self in a more affable manner on this site. We're here to discuss ideas and promote positive change in the world. This isn't a battleground, everyones ideas are on a level ground for discussion.

To address your response:

The issue at hand here is that a human rights violation is being carried out and the world has to respond as a body of peers. The issue is not liberals vs. conservatives, the issue is not Operation Iraqi Freedom, the issue is not our national defense, etc.

A genocide of all Iranians would be unthinkable in any circumstance, although it is the favorite suggestion offered by people of simple mind who can't conceive of an ethical path to resolution that may be very complex, but would allow room for both sides to maintain and refine their humanity (this may be a frequent complaint against the sitting president, but he's certainly not the only guilty world leader now or in history).

Think strategy. What do we rely on Iran for? What do they rely on us for? When we have a problem with them how do we shift our reliance away from them and withdraw our support of their infrastructure in order to underscore our message that we don't support their policy. This "put your money where your mouth is" approach, while in reality much more complex than I've laid out, is certainly the most civil and ethical. Combine our efforts with the efforts of our international friends and we can do a lot to clean up our global sand box.

It's stories like this I want to click the red don't like button not because I don't like the story but because I hate what's going on and want to express my disgust with what's happening in the story.

But being gay myself I see the dilemma the UK government may be in. If they allow asylum for this gay Iranian, trust me when I say so many more would be flooding to the UK.

HOWEVER, the UK is part of a larger entity, the EU. What I don't see is why they can't talk to their fellow countries and figure out a way they CAN kind of divvy out refugees who need asylum and safety for perfectly legit reasons.

Sending this boy back is absolutely heart breaking. I don't know what else to say :(

In response to the person who wants the whole story. This individual is not a paedophile or murderer. Please read the story and coverage. He was in the UK studying and applied for asylum when his ex partner was arrested for being gay in Iran. His ex partner was executed and under torture by the Iranian regime gave the names of men he had slept with - including this man. That means he is at risk of execution on his return.

Whilst I understand why you are asking this question, this is a fairly straight forward case. The UK government does not believe that being gay is a good enough reason not to be returned to Iran as you are able to keep your mouth shut and not tell them this.

I have spoken to the UK supporters of this man in my day to day work for Current TV and trust me this is a very difficult time for him. He is guilty of nothing more than finding himself attracted to other men. Thats all. I have this from people who speak to him each day - during his one phone call from the Dutch detention centre, or in the one visit per week to him in detention.

It does seem straightforward he shouldn't be sent to his death.

Thanks graemesmith. After I posted, I realized I could follow the link and get the info myself. I stated that I wasn't saying he was a criminal, but that I didn't know their reasoning for sending him back. I usually like to know the whole story before I start yelling.

spencer:
I'm not trying to insult you, I'm just telling it like it is. I think it's fucked up too, but it's the truth. It's not my personal opinion, I'm only playing the devil's advocate. A little over a decade ago, homosexuality was still considered socially unacceptable. Today there are still people who find it unacceptable.

Fortunately, that is changing for the better here.

On your point about Bush never mandating you be killed, I'm sure that it would never happen. But I seriously doubt he'd care if he had to or not. He is a whimsical idiot and doesn't seem to care much for the value of a human life. So if the people pulling his strings told him to do it, he would. Just like he would any of us.

The forceful sick-natured leaders of Iran claim it is somehow 'against Allah' but that's rediculous, I doubt thier god would even want this. It's for the 'super pure race' really. I don't understand, Nazis did this, but copying versions today, get nothing going against them. I attempted to link a story like this before, but when Googleing images of those about to, I mainly got horrific images of them being hung, people with mobile phones were grining while recording and taking photos, like an everyday entertainment rutine.

Actuall MURDERERS get the EXACT same death penalty. All the while, the pick pockets get stoned to death.

Even if this was deserved (it's obiously NOT, just to be clear), the public viewers, even from thier own windows, don't become any better by viewing the 'fun'.

wow...im in shock...not that this is happening but almost everyone in this thread agrees for the most part...
AND YOU'RE RIGHT!!!
This should be our reasoning for WAR...errrr sorry...global humanitarian relief operation....to free the oppressed gay Iranian population...I vote for a preemptive first strike on the civilian population of Iran first! Some cluster bombs should convince them people they should be more accepting of our liberal sexual ideology. I mean...how dare they....this is WAR!! or sorry....global humanitarian relief operation...

I will bet that if hillary/obama get into office...their spin doctors will use my...global humanitarian relief operation...spin...and if mcsame gets in he simply won't care enough about approval ratings to put a new spin on it.

on the subject...i feel that the people deporting this kid share an equal part of the blame/shame here if not more.

Gotta love homophobia! It saddens me to see the direction the world is going.

the home office's attitude in this case is appalling.

The possibility that the British Government could send this young man to his death is shocking, and by doing so they would be complicit in the Iranians hanging homosexuals. Hopefully the attention and opposition that this story has generated should not only stop Kazemi being sent to his death but also draw attention to the plight of other individuals facing deportation to places their lives are in danger because of questionable ‘asylum’ policies. Another Iranian, this time a lesbian has also now come forward with a similar story.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/now-iran...

A recent documentary called ‘Be Like Others’ looked at the related subject of transsexuals in Iran. While homosexuality is punishable by death, sex change operations are legal and apparently there are more in Iran than any other country in the world apart from Thailand. Has this got something to do with Iran’s persecution of homosexuals? Are men being indirectly forced to change gender because it’s the only way to survive in their country?

http://www.belikeothers.com/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7259057.st...

This is just completely stupid. I think that if the "gays"

are not hitting on you, or do stuff with you then you

should just stay out of their business. They are

people just like us, they sleep and eat and work and

most importantly they love. I mean straight people

love to but we dont make a huge deal about it. If two

people are in love we should just let them love.

Straight, Bi, or Gay it shouldn't matter who you love

but the fact that you love should be good enough!

Not everyone is perfect and we have to just accept

that!