Culture News & Media: Current TV gays in Iran Kouross Esmaeli Nazila Fathi transsexuals Yasmin Vossoughian
by Pars Arts
2 comments
Gays and Transsexuals in Iran
After Iran’s president last week uttered his ludicrous statement about Iran not having any gays, here’s a Washington Post essay penned by a 25-year-old gay Iranian man, Amir, that strikes back. And here’s a NY Times article by Nazila Fathi, which essentially says the same thing as Amir’s essay – that gay culture, like many things, exists in Iran – it’s just truly on the downlow. Above you’ll see the CBC’s February report about Iranian gays. What’s interesting to me is this quote in the NYT article:
“There is a thick wall between homosexuals and transsexuals,” Mr. Kariminia [a cleric who wrote his thesis on Islam and transsexuality] said. “Transsexuals are sick because they are not happy with their sexuality, and so they should be treated. But homosexuality is considered a deviant act.”
That same cleric is featured in this fascinating Current TV report on Iranian transsexuals by Yasmin Vossoughian and Kouross Esmaeli (via Iranian Truth). Watch the whole thing.
Update: Also see this NYT op-ed, which is comprised of translated reactions to the Ahmadinejad speech from Iranian bloggers. Very cool.
Are you really retarded? Dont you know better? Are you that naive? Ahmadinejad was saying that homosexuality is not sometime of widespread phenomenon in the way it exists here in US. thats a fact, despite the couple hundred/thousand that may exist in the entire country of 70 million. Moreover Iranian people are extremely homophobic and despise gays. Another fact. This has nothing to do with Ahmadinejad. Iran has more important problems to deal with than some miscommunication which you seek to exploit.