Citizenship: 19 July Day of Action against homophobic persecution in Iran

An appeal has been issued to organise worldwide demonstrations and vigils on July 19, the first anniversary of the public hanging in Iran of two gay teens, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni. The initiative comes from the militant British gay rights group OutRage! and the Paris-based International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) and is supported by the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA), the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) and the Swedish group Tupilak.

The execution of the two teenagers, who were hanged in the public square of the city of Mashad last year, created international outrage when the photos of the execution were widely circulated on the Internet, and focused the world’s attention on Iran’s ongoing, lethal reign of terror targeting Iranian gays.

Protests have already been scheduled for the anniversary of the teens’ execution in a number of large European cities, including London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Brussels as well as many north American cities.

The organisation OutRage! has proposed five demands for the 19 July protests. These demands, which have been endorsed by the PGLO (Iranian underground organisation for LGBT rights), are:
1. End all executions in Iran, especially the execution of minors.
2. Stop the arrest, torture and imprisonment of Iranian lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and repeal the Iranian penal code's criminalisation of same-sex relationships.
3. Halt the deportation to Iran of LGBT asylum seekers and other victims of Tehran's persecution.
4. Support Iranians struggling for democracy, social justice and human rights.
5. Oppose foreign military intervention in Iran; regime change must come from within - by and for the Iranian people themselves.

A year-long investigation conducted by the organisation OutRage into this case has revealed that the regime’s allegations against the two hanged youths, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, were full of contradictions, implausibilities and outright lies. The evidence showed that both youths were aged 17 when they were executed and therefore minors, and were aged 15 or 16 at the time of the alleged crimes. This execution of minors is in flagrant breach of international agreements the Tehran regime has signed. The Iranian authorities first claimed that they committed several rape and were child molesters. According to the investigation, local sources in Mashad informed that Mahmoud and Ayaz were lovers, not rapists or child abusers – contrary to the homophobic propaganda of the Iranian regime. Apparently the boys were charged with the capital crime of homosexuality after a disapproving family member reported their relationship to the police. Acording to Outrage, the execution of Mahmoud and Ayaz conforms to a pattern of state torture and murder of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people by the Iranian clerical regime.