available statistics on the number of executions for same-sex relations.51 However, NGO reports have shown that it occurs and suggest the incidence rate is high.52 53 54 55 56 A number of other legal provisions directly impact the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) individuals, in particularly Iranian laws related to public decency. Governmental-mandated organisations set up to preserve “public morality”, notably the Basij militia, reportedly harassed, arrested, detained and abused LGBTI individuals on the basis of these regulations.57 58 59 The Iranian states’ behaviour towards lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals has been hostile and Iranian authorities publicly criticise the country’s lesbian, gay and bisexual community. In 2013, Mohammad Javad Larijani, secretary of Iran’s high council for human rights said that homosexuality was regarded as ���an illness and malady” in the Islamic Republic of Iran.60 Hateful 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.61 Such openly hateful behavior 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 stigmatisation. There is no readily available information that might indicate the existence of state measures to address discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and non-legally recognised transgender individuals. The Iranian discriminatory legal framework and the Government’s openly hateful behaviour towards the lesbian, gay, bisexual and intersex community from government officials facilitate the violations of LGBTI persons’ rights, including the right to education, as it creates a permissive environment for exclusion and societal stigmatisation. In 2017, the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei criticised 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 51 Small Media, 2018, https://smallmedia.org.uk/media/projects/files/BreakingTheSilence_2018.pdf Amnesty International, 2017, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/08/iran-hanging-of-teenager-shows-brazendisregard-for-international-law/ 53 Amnesty International, 2018, https://www.amnesty.org.uk/urgent-alireza-arrested-15-tortured-confession-be-executedtomorrow 54 Iran Human Rights, 2019, https://iranhr.net/en/articles/3611/ 55 Human Dignity Trust, https://www.humandignitytrust.org/country-profile/iran/ 56 International Lesbian Gay Bisexual Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), 2019, https://ilga.org/downloads/ILGA_State_Sponsored_Homophobia_2019.pdf 57 Iranian Lesbian & Transgender Network (6Rang), 2014, http://6rang.org/english/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/PathologizingIdentities-Paralyzing-Bodies.pdf 58 Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees (IRQR), 2018, https://irqr.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/IQW-Report.pdf 59 OutRight International, 2016, https://outrightinternational.org/sites/default/files/OutRightLesbianReport.pdf?_ga=2.78516692.1992181521.1595330838780871412.1595330838 60 The Guardian, 2013, https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2013/mar/14/iran-official-homosexuality-illness 61 Iranian Lesbian & Transgender Network (6Rang), 2017, http://6rang.org/english/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Official-HateSpeech-against-LGBT-People-in-Iran.pdf 52 7