Two LGBTQ+ activists have been sentenced to death in Iran for “promoting homosexuality".
According to the Kurdish human rights organisation Hengaw, Zahra Sediqi Hamedani, also known as “Sara”, 31, and Elham Chubdar, 24, were both sentenced to death for “corruption on Earth."
The two women were convicted of “promoting homosexuality”, as well as “promoting Christianity” and “communicating with the media opposing the Islamic Republic”, in January this year.
The two are currently being held in the women's ward of Urmia Central Prison, reported the human rights organisation.
Zahra, from Naqadeh, West Azerbaijan Province in Iran, was reportedly first arrested while trying to cross into Turkey to claim asylum in October last year.
She was then held in solitary confinement for 53 days, it has been reported.
During this period, she was insulted for her identity and appearance, threatened with death, and told her children would be taken away from her by security agents from the Revolutionary Guard, it is alleged.
Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, British LGBTQ+ rights activist Peter Tatchell said Hamedani reportedly had no access to a lawyer during her 10 months of detention.
"They will probably be hanged using the barbaric long, slow strangulation method; much favoured by the Iranian regime in order to maximise the victim’s suffering," Mr Tatchell added.
Amnesty International has said the Iranian authorities are embarking on "an execution spree", with at least 251 people killed between 1 January and 30 June 2022.
The organisations warned that if executions continue at this horrifying pace, they will soon surpass the total of 314 executions recorded for the whole of last year.
Professor Jessica Emami, an Iran expert and research fellow for The Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, said LGBT+ Iranians are desperate to escape Iran, which is what Sara was doing when she was captured.
“The state machinery is carrying out killings on a mass scale across the country in an abhorrent assault on the right to life. Iran’s staggering execution toll for the first half of this year has chilling echoes of 2015 when there was another shocking spike,” said Diana Eltahawy, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.
Iran criminalises same-sex sexual activity between men and between women, but LGBTQ+ people can also be arrested for affectionate behaviour “such as kissing or lustful touching”.
