[lbo-talk] Iran executes another queer

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

On 11/15/06, tfast <tfast at yorku.ca> wrote:
> > > Iran Executed another person for same-sex relationship
> > > http://www.irna.com/fa/news/view/line-14/8508234483172234.htm
> > >
> > > Translated by: Hossein Alizadeh
> > >
> > > This just came in from Iran's state-run News Agency, IRNA:
> > >
> > > A Delinquent Person was Executed in Kermanshah
> > > IRNA: Tuesday, Nov 14, 2006
> > >
> > > Shahab Darvishsi, a delinquent person was executed in the Azadi
> > > Square of Kermanshah on Tuesday evening.
> > >
> > > According to the Communications Department of the Justice Department
> > > of the Kermanshah Province, the above-mentioned was found guilty [ by
> > > the court of law] of forming a coterie of corruption rings, physical
> > > assaults , and the despicable act of sodomy.
> >
> > I followed the link and looked at the original Farsi text.  Once
> > again, it is a case of understanding what "لواط" [lavat] means.  A
> > person who engages in lavat is not necessarily gay, much as a person
> > who engages in sodomy is not necessarily gay.  Neither lavat nor
> > sodomy is identical to consensual same-sex sex, let alone consensual
> > same-sex sex between two self-identified gay men.  Anyone who has read
> > Foucault, Jonathan Ned Katz, etc. knows the difference with regard to
> > sodomy.  It's time for us to learn the difference with regard to
> > lavat.
> > --
> > Yoshie
>
> Yoshie I appreciate the point you are making but then at best this only says
> that a man was executed for rape.  Now I understand that rapists are not
> very sympathetic characters but do you think the death penalty is warranted
> for such a crime?  I tends to think of the US as backward for its continued
> use of capital punishment for murderers.  So the use of capital punishment
> for lesser crimes would be even more abhorent.

According to the article (whether you look at the Farsi text or the
English translation by Hossein Alizadeh), lavat is not the only charge
against one Shahab Darvishi, so he wasn't executed for lavat alone.

I'm opposed to death penalty, period, and the only exception I would
even consider is the case where a country is in the middle of a civil
war and unable to construct a secure prison.

However, it's one thing to say that it is wrong for the Iranian
government to use death penalty, especially wrong in cases other than
aggravated murders, and it's another thing to say that "Iran executed
another person for same-sex relationship."  The former is true,
whereas the latter isn't.  Truth matters.
-- 
Yoshie
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