FILE PHOTO: An LGBT activist attends a rally against Homophobia and Transphobia in Kiev, Ukraine, May 17, 2017. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
Paris, France — A court in Iran has sentenced to death two gay rights activists on charges of promoting homosexuality, campaigners said Monday, urging pressure from the international community to stop the implementation of the verdicts.
The two women, Zahra Sedighi Hamedani, 31, and Elham Chubdar, 24, were sentenced to death by the court in the northwestern town of Urmia, the Hengaw Kurdish rights organization said.
They were convicted of “spreading corruption on earth” — a charge frequently imposed on defendants deemed to have broken the country’s sharia laws, it added. They were informed of the sentence while in detention in the women’s wing of the Urmia jail.
In a short statement, the Iranian judiciary confirmed that the sentences had been issued.
There has for months been concern about the fate of Sedighi Hamedani, also known as Sareh, a prominent Iranian LGBTI activist.
She was arrested in October by Iranian security forces while trying to flee into neighboring Turkey after returning to Iran from Iraqi Kurdistan, where she had been based.
Sedighi Hamedani was subsequently held in solitary confinement for almost two months.
Shadi Amin, a coordinator for the Germany-based Iranian LGBTI rights group 6Rang, also confirmed the execution verdicts, which she said the group had been aware of since Thursday but could now disclose after receiving permission from the families.
“We now demand pressure from Germany and other foreign governments” on Iran for the release of the two women, she told AFP.
“This is the first time that a woman has been sentenced to death in Iran for her sexual orientation,” she added.
Amnesty International said in January that the charges stemmed from her public defense of gay rights on her social media platforms, as well as an appearance in a BBC documentary aired in May 2021 about the abuses that LGBTI people suffer in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq (KRG).
She had decided to leave Iraqi Kurdistan after being detained by the regional authorities. It appears she crossed into Iran again before trying to head for Turkey.
Activists frequently denounce Iran’s treatment of LGBTI individuals.
Homosexuality is banned in Iran with its penal code explicitly criminalizing same-sex sexual behavior for both men and women.
Before leaving Iraqi Kurdistan, Sedighi Hamedani had sent 6Rang videos to be made public in case she failed to make it to safety.
“We, the LGBTI community, are suffering. Whether through death or freedom, we will remain true to ourselves,” she said in one of the videos.
“I hope to achieve freedom,” she added, also alleging that she had been tortured with methods including electrocution while in Iraqi Kurdish custody.
Activists accuse Iran of being in the throes of a major crackdown that is affecting all areas of society, including a new push against the Bahai religious minority, a surge in executions and arrests of foreign nationals.