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October 04, 2005
SHOCKING NEW PHOTO RELEASED IN HANGING OF IRAN GAY TEENS
The Iran Student News Association has just released a new photo of the two gay teens -- one 18, one 17 -- hanged in the Iranian city of Mashad on July 19 as part of the Islamic Republic of Iran's lethal crackdown on gay people. This new photo, below, is even more gruesome and shocking than the previous photos of the two boys on the scaffold, and here it is:
You can see a larger version of the photo above by clicking on it. The two boys were charged by the Islamic Republic of Iran with "rape" -- but multiple testimonies from inside the city of Mashad and from gay Iranian activists and journalists inside Iran received and reported by me make it clear that the "rape" charge against these two hanged boys was trumped up by the government as part of its lethal anti-gay pogrom against gay people. Iran's hanging of these two youths was illegal under international law, because the alleged "rape" with which they were charged is supposed to have occurred when both boys were under 18 -- and Iran is signatory to two international treaties by which it is committed not to execute minor children. Moreover, the two boys were held in prison for over a year, tortured, and probably raped by prison guards and police before their execution.
This anti-gay crackdown is part of the crusade against "moral corruption" promised by Iran's newly-elected President Ahmadinejad in his election campaign. This wave of anti-gay repression includes torture, forced confessions, beatings, lashings -- and a wide-ranging campaign of Internet entrapment of gay Iranians, extensively described in my September 20 interview with Amir -- a 22-year-old gay Iranian torture victim who escaped to Turkey in August. In it, Amir recounts his arrest in a far-flung government Internet entrapment campaign targeting gays, his beating and torture at the hands of the police and the 100 lashes he was sentenced to just for being gay (this interview also includes stomach-turning photos of Amir's injuries). You can read this interview, which has now been republished world-wide, by clicking here.
For background on the new wave of anti-gay repression in Iran, see my previous articles: July 21 -- Iran Executes Two Gay Teenagers (Updated); August 11 -- Iran Sources Question Rape Charges in Teen Executions; August 12 -- Two New Gay Executions Scheduled in Iran, Says Iranian Exile Group; August 17 -- Iran's Deadly Anti-Gay Crackdown: With Two More Executions Scheduled, the Pace of Repression Steps Up.August 25 -- Iran's Anti-Gay Purge Grows: Reports of New Executions. September 8 -Iran and the Death of Gay Activism. September 20 -- "They'll Kill Me" -- A Gay Iranian Torture Victim Speaks of His Ordeal
The posters used in this post were created by Mike Tidmus, a gay artist living in Amsterdam, who has offered them as his contribution to the global protests against Iran's anti-gay pogrom. You can download them from Mike's website by clicking here.
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You can check it out at http://xcavator.net/
Posted by: colourful photos | Jun 18, 2008 12:59:22 AM
I think if I had an opportunity I'd be glad to help all people, forced by the Iranian government, to escape to some more liberal and tolerant country
Posted by: Mikhail | May 14, 2008 7:06:35 AM
Although I don't think homosexuality is something normal, I really feel sorry for about 6 - 7 per cent of the world population, for how, and in what conditions they are doomed to live. These 2 boys were murdured for something they couldn't changed, they were hanged for just BEING. The regime in their country couldn't accept them, and I'm endlessly sorry and sorrowful for these 2 boys, esp. regarding the fact they were so young.
Malinin Mikhail
Russia
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Posted by: yeast infection cure | Apr 20, 2008 4:23:15 AM
Now if only they'd institute the same punishment for homosexuals and pederasts in the UK.
Posted by: jimmy | Apr 4, 2008 9:47:52 AM
I am so proud of Iran. Kill all fags now
Posted by: Zye | Mar 31, 2008 5:04:41 AM
Once again, Islam brings peace.
May the Mullahs of Iran come to find peace in exactly the same manner.
Posted by: Ozymandias888 | Mar 14, 2008 2:29:13 PM
if these gaylords commit a crime, they pay the penalty. it's not our job to interfere in their laws. they know the risk before becoming a gaylord
Posted by: Steven Hipkiss | Mar 12, 2008 4:32:09 PM
You people who keep posting all of these derogatory things about gay people need to learn that this life is filled with individual struggles,and things that don't make since but Homosexuality should'nt be one of those things.Love is love and we should cherish it in all forms not only straight love or uni-racial love but same sex love and inter-racial love anyone who dos'nt understand that is simply ignorant and is afraid of things that they don't understand.
As a gay teen I am proud and I would'nt change for anything being gay has tought me so many things in such a short amount of time it's simply a shame that everyone cant get the same thing out of life.
Later Days,
Derek Trevathan
Posted by: Derek Trevathan | Jan 22, 2008 3:25:51 PM
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Posted by: michael jones | Jan 16, 2008 6:10:38 PM
"Swing FAGS at least Iran has one thing right.
Posted by: Lee | Jul 24, 2007 10:10:52 PM"
I wish I knew where Lee lived. I would make sure all his neighbors, family, co-workers, friends, and pastor knew what he wrote here. Webmaster, please email me his IP address.
Posted by: Beth | Dec 31, 2007 11:45:59 PM
What is wrong with you liberals.
This kind of nonsense was ramant in Iraq prior to the US intervention in Sadaam's regime.
and yet liberals can't take a single breath on any given day without lambasting what our troops are trying to do there.
Now you want intervention in Iran?
It's amazing... liberals fighting against the only force that could possibly change the picture above.
Yes, I know you think the Mullas will sit down and work out a deal on human rights issues like this... Well, Iran is dangling two kids in front of you that prove otherwise.
Literally dangling them.
Would you liberals support our troops if we went in to change this kind of senseless killing?
Absolutely not. You'd only use our efforts to further your own political agenda.
You'd forget about boys hanging from ropes and applaud Rosie O'donnel and other celebs every time they ran our country into the ground.
The whole point is this.
The liberal movement has nothing to do with human rights and everything to do with just furthering your own self centered ambitions.
Two boys hanging from a rope might be shocking to you... You might even beg the world to step in and do something...
But not a minute will pass before you begin to criticise and insult the people who are trying to do just that right next door to Iran.
Liberals are truly insane...destroying their own causes and protecting those who butcher them.
Just amazing....
Posted by: DanCnKC | Nov 17, 2007 12:18:12 PM
For the idiots posting crap against homosexuals on this site..
GET A FRIGGIN LIFE!
I am gay, I am proud.
There is only one god, and he is the only one that can pass judgement on me.
Keep your damn noses out of a subject you know nothing about
May these beutiful souls rest in peace. May god be with them and may they live happily ever after.
Posted by: Stu | Nov 7, 2007 4:35:38 PM
wow the only thing as disturbing as these photos are some of these homophobic and racist comments -- what a bunch of idiots!
Posted by: nana | Oct 5, 2007 5:41:37 PM
U r complelty wrong.Iranian givt is taking steps to finish up this kind of people, who r just using the name of mulims for this kind of acts.
Posted by: Arif | Sep 26, 2007 9:09:36 PM
I skipped the picture. I couldn't look. Hard to believe what we're coming back to.
Posted by: Ms Baroque | Sep 24, 2007 4:21:43 PM
I think Rosie O'Donald should haul her Bull Dyke ass to Iran, storm their Parliment demanding the right of those lezzies to suck puss. Third degree yeast infection can't be all that that bad.Sicum you fat pig.
Posted by: roy | Sep 21, 2007 3:27:21 PM
I believe all hetrosexuals should be executed. Their perverted lifestyle brings shame, disgust and children. Burn them all.
Posted by: Queer | Sep 4, 2007 8:58:18 PM
This is truly barbaric and stomach turning! This picture reminds me of how the Nazis strangled many of their victims to death (and how some Nazis were later executed by the same means in the Russian controlled East). What a horrible, horrible way to die - and to be guilty of nothing but loving another human being. How sick is this world?! May God bless these 2 boys and may the Sharia-mad crazies who put them on these makeshift gallows burn in eternal hell!
Posted by: Chris | Aug 1, 2007 8:33:27 PM
This is truly barbaric and stomach turning! This picture reminds me of how the Nazis strangled many of their victims to death (and how some Nazis were later executed by the same means in the Russian controlled East). What a horrible, horrible way to die - and to be guilty of nothing but loving another human being. How sick is this world?! May God bless these 2 boys and may the Sharia-mad crazies who put them on these makeshift gallows burn in eternal hell!
Posted by: Chris | Aug 1, 2007 8:27:16 PM
Swing FAGS at least Iran has one thing right.
Posted by: Lee | Jul 24, 2007 10:10:52 PM
Well this is just evil. the Sharia needs a critical revue. Who ever wrote it was not sane.
It's all backwards. You can be who you like, obviously not there you get a crime pinned on you, so they can execute you.
I hope they rest in peace, and one day they will get justice.
its seems similar to the nazi regime, apart from killing ohter races.. they have turned agaisnt their own people. What ever happened to "loving everyone like a brother"?
Yes T, my thoughts. Drink alcohol too :P
Posted by: R & T | Jul 19, 2007 10:26:09 PM
I think gays deserve to be executed because there is no freedom for people who are trying to spread the wrong by the name of the personal rights!! I hope people would understand my point... if we let gays to continue in their right, more people may become interested about the idea of gay .Therefore, it may cause many problems in the society, and spread diseases. "you wont let you kid to play with fire because you know that the fire may burn him and burn everyone"
Posted by: ali | Jul 11, 2007 9:43:49 AM
i think this was for a good reason. gay men a disguisting! really! besides, they were rapists or is it okay to be a rapist if you are gay??!!!
Posted by: abu-lebanon | May 17, 2007 5:18:16 AM
I sure that this tragedy was George Bush's fault because everything to world liberals is George Bush's fault. The next time you homosexuals start slamming the U.S. for our war against al-Qaida, bear in mind which society is tolerant and which hangs members of your group. Wake up and smarten up.
Posted by: Elaine Jones Bonham | May 17, 2007 12:32:32 AM
I ready to cry and pray for gays-brothers from Iran . Unfortunately Iran as a country is far far from democracy and civil relationships.
Baku. Azerbaijan
Posted by: Fuad | Apr 23, 2007 6:45:33 AM
We shall never forget..
Posted by: Anders, Sweden | Apr 18, 2007 6:54:49 AM
the letter which has been written by osborn holmstrand from sweden is exactly from my heart too.for what guilt and sin they have been killed.I cried alot for them.I couldn't have good sleep for many nights.I can't look at their photos any more.I wish I could do something for them befor and now.but ther is nothing I can do about it.But I am sure the are raised and living with god in a better place where is heaven.you raised my beloved boys.
Posted by: naimeh | Mar 15, 2007 10:14:06 AM
the letter which has been written by osborn holmstrand from sweden is exactly from my heart too.for what guilt and sin they have been killed.I cried alot for them.I couldn't have good sleep for many nights.I can't look at their photos any more.I wish I could do something for them befor and now.but ther is nothing I can do about it.But I am sure the are raised and living with god in a better place where is heaven.you raised my beloved boys.
Posted by: naimeh | Mar 15, 2007 10:13:29 AM
the letter which has been written by osborn holmstrand from sweden is exactly from my heart too.for what guilt and sin they have been killed.I cried alot for them.I couldn't have good sleep for many nights.I can't look at their photos any more.I wish I could do something for them befor and now.but ther is nothing I can do about it.But I am sure the are raised and living with god in a better place where is heaven.you raised my beloved boys.
Posted by: naimeh | Mar 15, 2007 10:06:51 AM
I've got this new for an article in the sunday newspaper and once i got more details i got shocked. This atrocity it's a discredit of all humankind
Posted by: Sebastián | Jan 8, 2007 3:40:38 PM
Probably this demonstrates the brutality and non-human sense of Islam. Please remember that before this bullshit appeared, the middle east and Persia had been previously dominated by Alexander, yes, big gay guy, and they took him as he came. Also, look at the philosophy that was so well appreciated in different cultures, yes, that of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, weren't they also gay? Please animals from the middle east (except my beloved gay guys) it's 2006. Mohammed is already been crapped out of the crows, or whatever the hell ate him upon his death. Jesus however lives in all of us, and no matter how churches might pull us away; thy is the lord, and out father who will always accept us as he created us.
De parte de este colombiano enfurecido por tan asqueroso crimen cometido!
Moi.
Posted by: moi | Dec 31, 2006 3:05:15 PM
There is no god. This proves it.
Posted by: Andreas Hils | Nov 15, 2006 10:07:13 PM
Face it. This is Iran. This is the work of the Mullahs. They work the strings over much of the middle east and beyond. Its not going away and they will do more damage to the world unless something stops them.
There are good Iranians. I wish them the best. Its worse for them than anyone else.
Posted by: Urban Infidel | Nov 14, 2006 9:04:48 PM
This is horrific. I don't know what to say or how to stop it and that's the worst thing.
Posted by: Andrea | Oct 17, 2006 5:26:52 PM
really i m speach less. but Islam forbiden about gays. so what can we do? we cant do any thing. because i m also....... but i get deeply for these two boys. other wise here is a lots of Gay in Islam. so why they not kill them. just they killed two little flower. because they poor. they cant do any thing. They are powerless. i will proud of you. that you can also kill others gays. but i know you cant do it. so when not cant stop other. so you have no need kill this two kids. i hat those people whos kill these two little boy. i am very sad.
Posted by: speacless | Aug 7, 2006 4:57:27 PM
man this is senseless and cruel, the president of Iran and his terrorist regime are probably the devil re-incarnate. For a moment there I thought the world/US was being the world police like it likes to be but no, this terrorist deserves to die in the worst possible way...probably by being poisoned by his nuclear weapons!
Posted by: junior | Jul 9, 2006 6:37:53 PM
hang all poofs dirty barsteds.if you dont want to be fucked up the arse vote for execution of poofs.ill string them up if they need a executioner
Posted by: poofter basher | Mar 5, 2006 9:18:02 AM
TO MAHMOUD ASGARI, 16 YEARS OLD, AND AYAZ MARHONI, 18 YEARS OLD, MASHHAD, IRAN
My dearest boys, when I first read a very small note in a paper about what happened to you on the “Square of Justice” in Mashhad, I got a shock. The following weeks I trembling tried to find out more about you. Then I got a small photo in black and white. The nooses are around your necks. Then the heart-breaking words: “Crying and terrified they were …”. At that very moment, because of those words I was stuck. The terrible grief and pain struck my heart and forced me to walk with you to and through your death to the very end. There was no way back - although I got advices: - Now it’s passed! Forget! Don’t get stuck in the sorrow!
And I tried to forget, to think of other things, to do some work for Human Rights in Iran. But totally in vain. I couldn’t fall asleep because I saw you on the scaffold in front of me. Also when I woke up in the morning: your faces, your young figures. The tears and the awful, splitting, unbearable pain in my heart could burst out at any time any time of the day, when I never expected it. Like a flash from the sky. It was like universe itself was shaking in its foundations at this evil deed. Now I have seven different big colour photos of you: six when you are still alive and one large, when you are hanging dead. Also one photo of your brother, Ayaz, where he is crying, totally in despair. My boys, these photos have made me come so very CLOSE to you. They have changed my life - everything. I have never in my life felt such a pain, such a grief. Every day since I got the photos I have cried so bitterly, so inconsolably.
The photos threw me like an enormous water wall into a lot of emotions, thoughts and activities. They awoke those eternal questions about life and death, malignity and good, about God, the underserved suffering and the meaning of life. I was forced to contact priests, bishops, books and the bible in order to find out what would happen to your souls after death, and organizations, ministers and embassies in sorrow-filled anger, in a desperate effort to try to prevent further evil deeds. As if I could - the evil I fought is gigantic. I was in feverish
activity - but also struck with paralyzing sorrow.
The pain forced me to pray, pray, pray, in the utmost agony, like drowning. My loud everlasting prayer was: - Oh Jesus! Raise my boys! Raise them please! Dry their tears! Delete their horrible memories! Let them be with you forever! Love them! Still I pray so, and I always will. My heart is bleeding for you.
Sometimes I can’t even look at the photos of you. They are like a black abyss, like the pit of hell. But when I look my head is filled with utterly painful questions: What happened in the prison during those fourteen, long months? Fourteen months. A terribly long time waiting for death. Did you receive all the 228 lashes at one time, or where they spread out? Were you tortured in other ways? Raped? The bottle? Could you sleep the last night? How was the morning, when the butchers came and said: - Get dressed! You will be hanged!
The original name of the square where you were murdered is called “Square of Martyrs”. Yes. You are.
In the small lorry on the way your execution I can see both of you behind bars, chained together, helplessly crying and in total agony of death. But when you are lead out from the car to the scaffold you are already blindfolded. Why, why did they blindfold you? Because the butchers can’t stand meeting your eyes? Oh, Ayaz, look so young, so small, so helpless, in the hands of the man with the black ski-hood and all the other big, rough man. Why is the man in the ski-hood looking at you like that? Is it a glimpse of compassion or love? - Oh no, say my Iranian friends, impossible ... But your face now has a sort of peaceful, absent-minded expression. I am surprised. What did you think of? What did you feel now? Blindfolded, utterly humiliated.
Then there is that inconceivably horrifying series of four pictures. The sky is so blue, like totally unaware of what is going on beneath. The two executioners, dressed in ugly, frightening hoods, covering everything except their eyes, are gripping the big, coarse nooses, bringing them around your necks, and then carefully drawing them tight. On the first and third picture I can see the man with the black ski-hood again. He’s lifting his arms like he wants to embrace you, Ayaz. Is he just putting you in the right position to be hanged, like my Iranian friends say, or is it a gesture of love, compassion or despair? A final good-bye? Even a third hand, trying to touch you, is visible. Oh, how I want to know why! What strikes me so much is the absence of tears and horror in your faces. My God, what did you think of? What did you feel now? So close to death. Incomprehensible.
In the very last picture where you are still alive, you are standing with your heads bent down, humble, quiet, like giving in. So utterly helpless. You look like two sacrificed lambs being slaughtered. I can’t tell you the grief, the endurable pain I feel when looking at you. You look so painfully, so overwhelmingly beautiful - so young, so ALIVE. Your bare arms are so smooth and your mouth, Mahmoud, so red. STILL. But your hands are tied, your feet are chained, you are blindfolded. This is the ultimate humiliation, the worst violation possible.
Then came the most horrifying moment of all. The butchers must have jumped of the lorry. But before that they removed the cloth from your eyes. Why did they do so? Why?
- So there you stood, suddenly being able to see everything: all the thousands of staring people, the disgusting scornful banners, all the policemen. This must been the very moment of HELL. Now you were totally abandoned. Totally deserted and alone, only with that horrible agony of death. For a short moment everything must have been totally quiet and still, for you to grasp the utmost, ultimate horror.
Then came the terrifying sign: the sound of the lorry’s engine. The vehicle moved, forcing you to stumble in order to stay upright. Impossible. In vain. You dropped. Inexorably, with the nooses around your necks.
In the very last picture of you, you are hanging so quietly. Everything is over. Serenity of death. Mahmoud, you have dropped a shoe. When I first saw it, it was like my heart burst. Ayaz, you are barefeet. Didn’t they give you time to put on your shoes even? Your mouth is open and you look so pained, so PLAGUED. Oh God, my beloved boys, what have they done to you? What horror is this??? You were slowly strangled to death. Cruelty unlimited.
Then come my mad, vain, paining questions: Ayaz, did you hear your brother shouting for you? What did you feel when you were suddenly falling? Did the nooses give that strong pain I heard of? Did you struggle against death? How many minutes were you still conscious and aware of what happened? Did you still feel that agony of death or were your minds now stunned from the insufferable situation? How were your corpses brought back to the ground? Violently or gently? Who took care your corpses? How were you buried? Your families? These questions never, never leave me but pain me to death.
My beloved boys, you have suffered incomprehensively. I have no words for your pain. Before I could grasp suffering a bit with my intellect. Now the photos have made me clearly FEEL what you felt. Now I know that both suffering and malignity could be totally bottomless, beyond normal comprehension. I am shaken in the depth of my soul. Sometimes my agony has been so strong that I wanted to die. Not because I liked to escape from life but because I wanted to follow you into death, to comfort you and to love you.
Mahmoud and Ayaz - you have revealed death, suffering, malignity, violence and oppression very clearly, like I had experienced it all myself. You have made me so sensitive to others’ suffering. You have become a visible symbol, an icon, for all those thousands and thousands of people, who have been, and still are, ill-treated, tortured and slaughtered by the brutal, bloodthirsty government of Iran - hodmen of Satan. Iran - regime of terror. Every day that nightmare is going on. But the world is quiet. Eyes are carved out. Hands are cut off. Shahla Jahed, a 32 years old lady in Teheran, will be executed by stoning. There are no words for such cruelties. A petition for pardon for you, Mahmoud, was given, but the Supreme Court inexorably and contemptuously turned it down. What a dreadful shame! No mercy. No compassion. No humanity. Frightening is a weak word. But this Kingdom of Evil and Barbarism will destroy itself - sooner or later. History tells.
You were crucified - like Jesus. You were abandoned - like Jesus. And you suffered tremendously - like Jesus. But like Jesus you will still live. In our hearts and thoughts and minds. Forever. And you will live in our intensified work for life, against torture and death penalty, for the Human Rights and for democracy and freedom. Mahmoud and Ayaz, my dear boys, you made me join an Amnesty International group to work hard for that. I wish everybody would join Amnesty International! Recently you were seen on HUGE photos in front of the European Union parliament in Brussels. With a text, condemning the barbaric use of death penalty, and also asking us never to forget you. Many people saw you.
You have made me come closer to God. And now I know FOR SURE that there is a life after death. The bible clearly tells so. And the book “Recollections of Death. A medical investigation”, written by heart doctor Michael B. Sabom, USA, says so. Also books by psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross can very convincingly tell about a life after death. Thanks God!
Before I was scared to die. Not now. Because you are already there, Ayaz and Mahmoud.
My mother died twice. But in between she got time to tell me, that her late good, kind-hearted and beloved cousin met her after her first “death”, so healthy, so happy. So, my beloved boys, maybe my dear mother met you with inconceivable joy on the other side - you - RAISED!
Amen!!!
I love you
Yours ever
Osborn Holmstrand, Sweden
Posted by: Osborn Holmstrand | Dec 7, 2005 10:53:06 AM
You are correct to a point, however you might want to use Muslim as an adjective for the word EXTREMIST. Mind you, an extremist can take the shape of any creed.........JEWISH as well, as is so well represented by JEWISH oppression and atraucities in PALESTINE. Note that I am using JEWISH as an adjective and not as a generalisation of the JEWISH people.......whom I believe, like the rest of humanity, are generally good at heart and just want to go about their lives........just like your everyday MUSLIM, CHRISTIAN, HINDU, BUDDHIST.
Best Regards
Whitfield Palmer
Posted by: Whit | Nov 29, 2005 12:06:10 AM
I'm not surprised...
Can't expcect nothing less than that - these "people" are not worthy to be called humans.
We know arab muslims. Murders. How can you call "freedom fighters" who shoot young children between their eyes? Who bomb themselves in a bus or a resturant full of civilients, old people, women and children? Who kill their own daughter or sister in the name of "family honor"? Who mutilate young girls' sex organs? The list of the islamic atrocoties is endless...
One may claim that the problem we have with those beasts is political, concernig Israel and the Palestinians. IS IT????
Just look around... almost each and every bloody conflict on the globe involves muslims. Even in the pro-arabic state, France, they are rioting.
Soon, very soon, the free world will be forced to fight for it's survival.
As soon as we all understand that, the better!!!
Posted by: jewish woman from ISRAEL | Nov 25, 2005 7:13:24 PM
Hello Mr. Ireland,
I am moved by this story, however I don't immediately see any links on your website as to how to help Mr. Amir in Turkey. Please let me know if there's a way to help, thanks.
Kevin
Posted by: kevin | Oct 10, 2005 9:56:01 PM
I support publishing the photos. Yes they are difficult to look at. This is what we in our various contries in the West could help prevent by granting asylum to homosexual men and women from Iran. Unfortunately, people need to see it to believe it.
Posted by: Jeff | Oct 8, 2005 4:13:28 PM
FOr those who are not able to view the small picture referred to above (qudsdaily), here is a direct link to the photo:
http://www.qudsdaily.net/archive/1384/html/4/1384-04-29/picture\17-4-29.jpg
Posted by: JW | Oct 7, 2005 1:49:26 PM
Doug
I think that it is going to be necessary to submit these photographs to an expert for a proper analysis regarding the shadows and angles and time of day and year. Remember the Lee Harvey Oswald photos with the rifle in the backyard? Only then will they be rendered credible.
Posted by: NMDEM | Oct 6, 2005 8:36:11 PM
I was told the banner read "executing justice = providing security." Much the same balls as you suggest of course.
This picture has in fact been on the ISNA web site since the day of the execution. It was on the local Khurasan web pages. I found it last week and I'm surprised it wasn't spotted in the West before.
http://branch.isna.ir/mainkhorasan/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-4165
Article also has pics of gawping crowd. It has more detail about the case than the one on the main site, which is why I sent it to 'Outrage!' NOT because of the pictures.
A mercifully much smaller picture of them being strangled to death (presumably just after the truck they were standing on was pulled away) is on the Quds web site earlier - see brief piece near the bottom of the page. The picture is taken from the other side and the banner is the right way round.
http://www.qudsdaily.net/archive/1384/html/4/1384-04-29/page7.html#1
Unpleasant in the extreme but I think those politicos or 'experts' within our "community" who seek to explain away and excuse these executions - in some case refuse even to criticise them - must be confronted with their brutal reality.
The drop was minimal (none in Mahmoud's case) and the knot was placed to the side to ensure death was as slow and painful as possible. Typically they would be conscious for several minutes.
In the Quds picture they are both clearly alive and thrashing about and seem to collide into each other. In the picture you post the one on the left (Mahmoud?) is still alive (just) and the other one (Ayaz?) seems to have just died (at least brain death - the heart continues to beat for much longer).
Those who have the temerity to criticise you for posting such a picture or me for drawing them to peoples attention on grounds of 'good taste' should bear in mind this. Who was it that has used this disgusting spectacle as some piece of lurid entertainment? It's not you, me or other activists in our community, but the regime and its publications.
They have been in the public domain for anyone to gawp at on pro-regime web sites for months. It won't surprise me to find others that are similar.
Posted by: Simon Forbes | Oct 5, 2005 4:03:44 PM
REPLY ON TRANSLATION OF THE SIGN IN THE PHOTO:
I asked the Persian translator who's been helping me in my reporting on Iran, Dr. Houman Sarshar, to translate the sign in the photo above. Here is Houman's response:
"The banner reads: 'Implementing Justice = Creating Safety.' You can also translate it as: 'Carrying out Justice = Insuring Security.' The Persian word for securty (‘amniyyat) also means ‘peace,’ ‘safety,’ or ‘protection.’ The picture was taken from behind. So you’re in fact seeing a miror image of the text. Perhaps there was some intent for poetic irony by the photographer. But that may be streachting it. In any event, I’m sure anyone seeing this would agree that the banner is riddled with the same bitter irony as the Nazi slogan 'Work makes you free.'"
I trust this answers your questions.
DOUG IRELAND
Posted by: Doug Ireland | Oct 5, 2005 11:37:49 AM
OK
I have been deeply moved about this story. I have been overrun eith a whole gamut of emotions about these two tragic boys. I have felt disgust, anger, fear, deep sadness, and most of all helplessness. As I reflect of all of the emotions, the feeling of being helpless about the situation in Iran for gays rings loudest. Why? Probably because there is nothing we can do. Iran will not listen to us. In fact, the louder we protest, the more danger gays may face in Iran. The leaders have long ago invoked Sharia law. The only thing that will free them from that tyrany is a revolution.
Having said that, it is time we all as gay people turn inward.......both within ourselves and to our own gay rights movement and struggles here. We all have more fingures on one hand than there exist countries where we can unite with our partners. We are still fighting a deadly virus. We still need to overcome bigotry and hate here, lest we become like Iran. Mahmoud and Ayaz should be a motivating force for activism at home. I am not saying to abandon international causes. They should be embraced as well. Let's however keep up the good fight here so that we can continue to be inspiring for those overseas
Also, we have seen the pictures of the boys on the gallows. We know the end result. Lets not degrade their memory by showing their lifeless bodies. Now that they are gone, lets show them the respect they did not get at the time of their execution. Would any of us want the world to see that should we have suffered the same fate?
Posted by: Whitfield | Oct 5, 2005 11:22:39 AM
Has anyone found a translation for the sign that is on the top of the scaffolding ?
Posted by: Brian Smith | Oct 5, 2005 10:27:17 AM
This is so sick, that a government, in the name of religion, can execute people for being gay. If there is a hell - and I'm an atheist - I hope those people running Iran go to it for ever.
Posted by: John Duqesa | Oct 5, 2005 8:06:09 AM
I've seen a lot of very disturbing things in my time, but none can compare to the horror of these two boys hanging there like that. Our nation sits quietly by while trying to curry favor with the government of Iran. Our government's silence makes us complicitous in this heinous act.
Posted by: Richard in SF | Oct 5, 2005 12:22:09 AM
