Iran condemns two women to death for 'corruption' over LGBTQ+ media links

Source: The Guardian

Iran condemns two women to death for ‘corruption’ over LGBTQ+ media links

Outcry over show trial, which follows Zahra Seddiqi Hamedani talking to BBC about abuse of gay people in Iran’s Kurdish region

Weronika Strzyżyńska
Thu 8 Sep 2022 07.00 BST

Two women have been condemned to death in Iran because of their links to the LGBTQ+ community on social media, human rights groups have reported.

Zahra Seddiqi Hamedani, 31, and Elham Choubdar, 24, were found guilty of a number of charges by a court in Urmia, in the Iranian province of West Azerbaijan, on 1 September but the details of their sentences only emerged this week.

According to Hangaw, a Kurdish human rights group, Seddiqi Hamedani and Choubdar were found guilty of “corruption on Earth” for “promoting homosexuality”, “promoting Christianity” and “communicating with the media opposing the Islamic Republic”. They were also found guilty of sex trafficking, a charge that human right activists say is fabricated.

Homosexuality is illegal in Iran and punishable by death under the sharia penal code.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/sep/08/iran-condemns-two-women-to-death-for-corruption-over-lgbtq-media-links