Iranian court orders deaths of two LGBT+ activists, prompting outrage and worry

Two Iranian LGBT+ activists who vocally challenged gender norms are facing possible execution, alarming advocacy organisations across the world and prompting outcry from their supporters.

Zahra Sedighi-Hamadani, 31, and Elham Choobdar, 24, are widely known as advocates of LGBT+ rights who were living in northwestern Iran.

On Sunday, a notorious hardline revolutionary court in the northwestern city of Urmia reportedly sentenced the two to death on religiously motivated charges of “corruption on Earth”, for “spreading” homosexuality, propagating Christianity, and making contact with hostile foreign media.

A news agency associated with Iran’s judiciary confirmed that the two had been placed on death row, but said they had been charged with “deceiving women and young girls and trafficking them to one of the countries of the region”.

No evidence has been publicly released, and the inner workings of the case, as with most of those handled by the secretive Revolutionary Guard, have remained obscure.

“This is what Iran has always done to the LGBT community,” said Soma Rostami of the advocacy group Hengaw. “Both Zahra and Elham are LGBT activists. Until they can, [Iran] will repress LGBT individuals and make sure they also have no voice abroad.”

Death penalty cases in Iran must be reviewed by higher courts, and advocates around the country and the world demanded that the authorities revoke the verdicts. Three Iranian men who had been sentenced to death for their alleged roles in protests in 2019 had their sentences reduced, under international pressure, to five years’ imprisonment, their lawyer disclosed on Tuesday.

Choobdar, a clothing retailer, and Sedighi-Hamadani, apparently knew each other.

While little is known about Choobdar’s case, Sedighi-Hamadani has for months been the focus of efforts by activists and advocacy groups, including Amnesty International, which has described her as an “Iranian gender-nonconforming human rights defender”.

The activist, a mother of two who is also known as Sareh, was reportedly arrested last October by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard while allegedly trying to cross into Turkey, according to the Iranian Lesbian and Transgender Network.

Legal experts are baffled at how a border-crossing charge that normally carries a fine of less than $200 (£174) somehow expanded into a death penalty case. But advocates suspect that Sedighi-Hamadani’s LGBT+ status, as well as an interview she gave to the BBC’s Persian-language service, may have contributed to the escalation.

“Sareh was really motivated in defending LGBTI rights,” said Shadi Amin, executive director of 6 Rang, an Iranian rights advocacy group. “She talked openly about her forced marriage, her lifestyle, and her feeling about her lesbian identity; she was really active in social media. All of this made her different. She was acting as a role model for a lot of young LGBT people.”

Following her arrest, Sedighi-Hamadani was held in solitary confinement for nearly two months, before being transferred to a prison where she was reportedly denied access to a lawyer, according to an advocacy group.

Rostami said that both of the activists were pressured to make confessions and were punished further when they refused. The authorities threatened to take Sareh’s children from her, and stripped privileges from fellow prisoners who were friendly to her, she said.

Citing no evidence, pro-regime social media channels have accused Sedighi-Hamadani of trafficking hundreds of Iranian women and girls and forcing them into sex work abroad.

In April, the Revolutionary Guard-affiliated news outlet Tasnim published a propaganda video about the activist, accusing her of gambling and financial crimes, and mocking the campaign to have her released.

Homosexuality is officially banned in Iran under harsh interpretations of Islamic law, and is theoretically punishable by death, though executions of lesbians or gay people charged with no other crime are rare. The authorities often charge those accused of homosexuality with more conventional crimes, too, such as rape or murder.

Iran’s dominant religious hardliners have been whipping up hatred against gender and ethnic minorities in recent months. This week, Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi described homosexuality as a “very petty and ugly” phenomenon embraced by the West.

Thousands of Iranian gay, lesbian and transgender people have fled Iran in recent years and sought asylum abroad.