homosexuality was regarded as “an illness and malady” in the Islamic Republic of Iran.27
Negative comments from Iranian officials have been regularly and recently reported, where they
used terms such as “immoral”, “corrupt”, “animals”, “sick” or “Western” to qualify homosexual
individuals.28 Such openly hostile behaviour towards the lesbian, gay and bisexual community
from government officials may impair LGBT persons’ access to employment, social services,
health care and education as it creates a permissive environment for exclusion and societal
stigmatization. There is no readily available information that might indicate the existence of state
measures to address discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and non-legally recognized
transgender individuals.
In 2017, the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, criticized the UNESCO Education 2030’s initiative
as a vehicle of Western influence in Iran and other prominent official figures accused it of
promoting homosexuality or ‘perversion’, as it advocates against the use of violence against
students and therefore may discourage teachers from confronting students of diverse sexual
orientation or gender identity.29 Students are reportedly physically and mentally abused by
teachers and school administrators because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity,
pushing them, in some cases, to drop out from school.30 In 2016, the Committee on the Rights of
the Child specifically raised concerns about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex
children in the Islamic Republic of Iran facing discrimination because of their real or perceived
sexual orientation or identity.31
Access to information about STDs/STIs and their appropriate targeted treatment, as well as
general safe-sex advice, is very limited in Iran, significantly restricting the access to sexual
health for the heterosexual cisgender population, and almost entirely for the LGBT community.32
As Iranian authorities consider minority sexual orientations and gender identities as disorders
that can be corrected through medical treatment, it is particularly difficult for LGBT individuals
to seek proper healthcare, including mental healthcare, as they are actively pushed to “treat” their
homosexuality, through counselling or reassignment surgery. 33 34 In a number of reported cases,
such medical interventions have been performed without prior informed consent, or individuals
27
The Guardian, 2013, https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2013/mar/14/iran-official-homosexuality-illness
Iranian Lesbian & Transgender Network (6Rang), 2017, http://6rang.org/english/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Official-HateSpeech-against-LGBT-People-in-Iran.pdf
29
Quote from Assembly of Experts member Ahmad Alamolhoda, among other examples, cited in Small Media, 2018,
https://smallmedia.org.uk/media/projects/files/BreakingTheSilence_2018.pdf
30
Iranian Lesbian & Transgender Network (6Rang), 2015,
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CRC_NGO_IRN_19808_E.pdf
31
Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2016,
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CRC/C/IRN/CO/3-4&Lang=En
32
Small Media, 2018, https://smallmedia.org.uk/media/projects/files/BreakingTheSilence_2018.pdf
33
Small Media, 2018, https://smallmedia.org.uk/media/projects/files/BreakingTheSilence_2018.pdf
34
OutRight International, 2016,
https://outrightinternational.org/sites/default/files/OutRightLesbianReport.pdf?_ga=2.78516692.1992181521.1595330838780871412.1595330838
28
4