Iraqi Civil war now official and under way

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

You are just plain nuts, aren't you?

Well if it is nuts to not want to see other peoples' nuts then yes I am nuts.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

I didn't really sense a definitive answer. We can agree that Iran doesn't accept homosexuality in the same way we do here, but:

Do you think Iran is severely repressive towards gay people?

I don't think Iran accepts homosexuality in the same way they do here, however I do believe that the media has an agenda in portraying Iran as being "severely repressive" and while there may be some truth in it, I don't believe it is anywhere near as bad as the media makes out.

Read

[speling bee]

Well if it is nuts to not want to see other peoples' nuts then yes I am nuts.

So perhaps Iran have got it about right, so you think?

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

So perhaps Iran have got it about right, so you think?

So perhaps UK have got it about right, so you think?

[speling bee]

Read

Yes, I understand that you think the media has an agenda and that you think that things are not as bad as the media make out, but:

Do you think Iran is severely repressive towards gay people?

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

Yes, I understand that you think the media has an agenda and that you think that things are not as bad as the media make out, but:

Do you think Iran is severely repressive towards gay people?

No

[speling bee]

No

So how would you characterise this extract from wiki? For me, it evidences a severe repression. What do you think?

LGBT rights in Iran - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Application of laws[edit]
At the discretion of the Iranian court, fines, prison sentences, and corporal punishment are usually carried out rather than the death penalty (unless the crime was a rape).
The charges of homosexuality and Lavat (sodomy) have in a few occasions been used in political crimes. Other charges are had been paired with the Lavat crime, such as rape or acts against the state, and convictions are obtained in grossly flawed trials. On March 14, 1994, famous dissident writer Ali Akbar Saidi Sirjani was charged with offenses ranging from drug dealing to espionage to homosexuality. He died in prison under mysterious circumstances.[15]
Capital punishment[edit]
Main article: Capital punishment in Iran
Some human rights activists and opponents of the Iranian regime claim between 4,000 and 6,000 gay men and lesbians have been executed in Iran for crimes related to their sexual orientation since 1979.[16] According to The Boroumand Foundation,[17] there are records of at least 107 executions with charges related to homosexuality between 1979 and 1990.[18] According to Amnesty International, at least 5 people convicted of "homosexual tendencies", three men and two women, were executed in January 1990, as a result of the Iranian government's policy of calling for the execution of those who practice homosexuality.[19] In April 1992, Dr. Ali Mozafarian, a Sunni Muslim leader in the Fars province (Southern Iran), was executed in Shiraz after being convicted on charges of espionage, adultery, and sodomy. His videotaped confession was broadcast on television in Shiraz and in the streets of Kazerun and Lar.
On November 12, 1995, by the verdict of the eighth judicial branch of Hamadan and the confirmation of the Supreme Court of Iran, Mehdi Barazandeh, otherwise known as Safa Ali Shah Hamadani, was condemned to death. The judicial authorities announced that Barazandeh's crimes were repeated acts of adultery and "the obscene act of sodomy." The court's decree was carried out by stoning Barazandeh. Barazandeh belonged to the Khaksarieh Dervish sect (Islamic Republic Newspaper – November 14, 1995 + reported in Homan's magazine June 10, 1996).
In a November 2007 meeting with his British counterpart, Iranian member of parliament Mohsen Yahyavi admitted that Iran believes in the death penalty for homosexuality. According to Yahyavi, gays deserve to be tortured, executed, or both.[20]
One controversial execution was the execution of Makwan Moloudzadeh (sometimes spelled "Mouloudzadeh") on December 6, 2007. He was convicted of lavat-be-onf (sodomy rape) and executed for raping three teenage boys when he was 13, even though all witnesses had retracted their accusations and Moloudzadeh withdrew a confession. He was also aged 13, and ineligibe for a death penalty under Iranian law.[21][22] Despite international outcry and a nullification of the death sentence by Iranian Chief Justice Ayatollah Seyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrud, Moloudzadeh was hanged without his family or his attorney being informed until after the fact.[23][24] The execution provoked international outcry since it violated two international treaties signed by Iran that outlaw capital punishment for crimes committed by minors, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.[25] On March 15, 2005, the daily newspaper Etemaad reported that the Tehran Criminal Court sentenced two men to death following the discovery of a video showing them engaged in homosexual acts. Another two men were allegedly hanged publicly in the northern town of Gorgan for sodomy in November 2005.[26] In July 2006 two youths were hanged for "sex crimes" in north-eastern Iran, probably consensual homosexual acts.[2] On November 16, 2006, the State-run news agency reported the public execution of man convicted of sodomy in the western city of Kermanshah.[27]
Arrests[edit]
On January 23, 2008, Hamzeh Chavi, 18, and Loghman Hamzehpour, 19, were arrested in Sardasht, in Iranian Azerbaijan for homosexuality. An on-line petition for their release began to circulate around the internet.[28] They apparently confessed to the authorities that they were in a relationship and in love, prompting a court to charge them with Moharebeh ("waging war against God") and Lavat (sodomy).
There were two reported crackdowns in Esfahān (also spelled "Isfahan"), Iran's third-largest city. On May 10, 2007, Esfahān police arrested 87 people at a birthday party, including 80 suspected gay men, beating and detaining them through the weekend.[29] All but 17 of the men were released; those who remained in custody were believed to have been wearing women's clothing.[30] Photos of the beaten men were released by the Toronto-based Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees.[31] According to Human Rights Watch, in February 2008 police in Esfhan raided a party in a private home and arrested 30 men, who were held indefinitely without a lawyer on suspicion of homosexuality.[32]

[CloudWalker]

[speling bee]

So perhaps UK have got it about right, so you think?

In terms of allowing individual freedoms? Broadly, yes.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

So how would you characterise this extract from wiki? For me, it evidences a severe repression. What do you think?

LGBT rights in Iran - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wouldn't call that severe repression....