A crackdown on repression in Iran, as if it weren't suffocating enough already.
Just the day after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's trip to the UN yesterday, Nemat Safavi, arrested in 2006 at the age of 16, was sentenced to death by the court in Ardebil, the capital of Iranian Azerbaijan..
The death sentence was imposed on charges of having relations with other boys of the same sex. The trial documents never mention homosexuality, which, according to Ahmadinejad's statements, "does not exist in Iran."“. Only “sexual intercourse not permitted” is mentioned.
The Islamic Republic thus confirms its policy of total repression of homosexual relations. And the iron fist doesn't just affect them. Ayatollah Seyyed Ahmad Elm al-Hoda, of Mashad, a destination for millions of pilgrims visiting the mausoleum of Imam Reza, returned yesterday to the topic of women and the hijab (Islamic headscarf), calling those who don't wear the veil "foot soldiers of the enemy" and a disease "worse than AIDS.".
“"The West has tested its 'soft revolution' in Georgia and Ukraine because it wants to implement it in our country as well," said Elm al-Hoda. "By spreading prostitution and encouraging women to disobey the hijab requirement," he added, "the enemy wants to distance us from Allah." Even the possibility of converting to a religion other than Islam is denied. Tehran recently recognized apostasy as a capital offense. A Christian, Ramtin Soudman, son of evangelical pastor Hossein Soudmanti, hanged 20 years ago for converting to Christianity, risks suffering the same fate as his father. Married with two children, Ramtin was arrested a month ago and could face the death penalty on charges of 'ertedad,' abandoning Islam.
