A gay 19-year-old is fighting for survival as he fears being executed in his home country of Iran.
Mehdi Shokr Khoda, who also identifies as Christian, is hoping he will be granted asylum in Sweden in his final appeal. The final decision will be made in two weeks.
Terrified of being deported to Iran, he declared: "I cannot live open as a gay in Iran. They won’t understand something about you. They will just kill you first."
In his corner is his partner, 23-year-old Carlo Rapisarda, originally from Italy. The two of them have been together close to a year.
Mehdi followed his transgender sister, who fled to Stockholm from Iran a few years ago. Because she was granted asylum, he traveled to Sweden in 2017 in the hopes he would be given the same protection.
Their parents are unaware of their two children’s true sexual or gender identity.
At the end of last year, the Migration Board rejected Mehdi’s application as they thought he was lying. They appealed the decision and went to court at the end of January 2019. Carlo testified for their relationship.
"They want evidence," Carlo said. "We live together, we love each other, we’ve known each other a long time. Isn’t that evidence enough?"
The couple also got a letter from the Swedish Federation for LGBT rights. It said: "There’s no doubt. Medhi is gay and in need of protection."
If the asylum appeal fails, Mehdi will have two weeks to leave the country. If he is deported, his life is in immediate danger.
It is good that blogs are paying attention to the horrendous condition of LGBT people living in Iran. For the most part, the situation of gay men -- who are either forced to either have trans surgery whether they like it or not -- or face death -- remains unreported in Western and LGBT media. PinksNews UK is one of the few sources which reports on the horrendous situation of gay men in Iran regularly. Part of the lack of coverage is the international left's embracing of Iran as an outpost of opposition to perceived American hegemony in the Middle East. Jeremy Corbyn took official and open donations from the Iranian government for years. At least 4,000 gay men (or those who are accused of being gay) have hung from ropes in Iran since the revolution, including underage teens. It is good this blog is providing coverage to their terrible plight, even though other Progressive and LGBT publications refuse to do so.
ReplyDeleteBy Pierrick's Theme: Crimes against Humanity!
ReplyDeleteSave Mehedi's life . He need sympathy and solidarity of world LGBT community as well as all Humanr ights activists. As a gay community member i request all to come foroward.
ReplyDelete