[lbo-talk] Yoshie: "dialogue" takes listening on your part, too

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 7/11/06, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> And here's some material from Yoshie's response:
>
> > About this and other cases, too, questions have been raised, reported
> > in Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a staunch defender of the Iranian
> > government:
> >>
> > "In practice, if someone is not known for being homosexual and is not
> > openly homosexual, I don't think that person would face a problem in
> > Iran," Lahidji said.
> >
> > An editor of "MAHA," an Iranian gay and lesbian electronic
> > publication, told a Russian gay web site last summer that there are
> > parks and cinemas in Iran known as being meeting places for gays.
> >
> > Several Iranian gay and lesbian websites are available on the
> > Internet. Iranian homosexuals also communicate and write freely about
> > their sexual orientation in their web logs.
> >
> > However, Lahidji says that if a person is suspected of a homosexual
> > orientation, he or she could face harassment.
> >
> > "Unfortunately, if someone is branded as homosexual and it is reported
> > to the police or Revolutionary Guards, and then if that person is seen
> > repeatedly with another man or woman then it is possible that there
> > will be a case against him and that the case will be sent to the
> > court," Lahidji said.
>
> [...]
>
> > The editor of "MAHA," the Iranian gay journal, says life for
> > homosexuals in Iran is mixed with fear, uncertainty, and
> > self-oppression.
>
> Isn't that reassuring?
>
> And this is a defense of Iranian practice?

It, as well as other sources, makes me think twice about buying the
story of Iran's execution of gay men.  But if you believe that Iran's
executing gay men, shouldn't you do something that is in keeping with
your belief?

On 7/11/06, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> [I can't read everything that goes by, but I've read enough of
> Yoshie's writings on Iran to know that I disagree with them. And I
> find it distressing to see a branch of MR, a publication with a long
> history of secularism and Marxism, be used as a transmission belt for
> apologetics for a reactionary theocratic regime.

I'm in favor of ending a theocratic regime in Iran, as I said here
before unsubscribing, on PEN-l, on Lou's list, and elsewhere.  What I
would like to see is to have the clerics, formally or informally,
deprived of veto power over the legislative and executive branches
(their electoral processes as well as their day-to-day conduct).  Such
democratization may still not bring about an American-style government
based upon the separation of church and state or a Euro-Turkish style
government based on the concept of "laïcité," if a majority in Iran
remain religious and wish to exercise democracy to put their religion
into public life in some ways.  And yet, democratization would be
still a step in the right direction.

But I don't believe that I would haste the end of theocracy if I
bought all claims and allegations about Iran without fact-checking
them or supported reformists in Iran or the Iranian diaspora
uncritically.  Truth be told, there is nothing you or I can do to
hasten it or retard it or do anything about it.  (If things were up to
us, Bush and Koizumi wouldn't be in power.)  Theocracy in Iran will
end when masses of Iranians (not just a minority of intellectuals)
mobilize against it, just as the reign of the Shah ended when masses
of Iranians rose up against it.

Now, I'm signing off again.  You are welcome to "dialogue" with me if
you like on PEN-l or Lou's list, to which I've posted much the same
things.

-- 
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
<http://mrzine.org>
<http://monthlyreview.org/>