Iran enjoy equal rights “whatever the ethnic group of tribe” and that “color, race, language and
the like, do not bestow any privilege”.37 Sexual orientation and gender identity are omitted as
protected characteristics. Additionally, Article 20 states that all citizens enjoy all “human,
political, economic, social and cultural rights, in conformity with Islamic criteria”. As same sex
relations are criminalized under the Iranian Islamic Penal Code,38 the “Islamic criteria” condition
restricts the enjoyment of human rights for the LGBT community, including the right to work, to
social security, to health and education.
The Iranian states’ behaviour towards lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals has been hostile and
Iranian authorities publicly criticize 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.39
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.40 Such openly hostile behaviour towards the lesbian, gay and bisexual community
from government officials may further impair LGBT persons’ access to employment, social
services, health care and education as it creates a permissive environment for the exclusion and
societal stigmatization against LGBT individuals in Iran. 41 42 43 44 45 46 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
37
The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, English translation, https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b56710.html
Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, https://iranhrdc.org/denied-identity-human-rights-abuses-against-irans-lgbtcommunity/#2
39
The Guardian, 2013, https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran-blog/2013/mar/14/iran-official-homosexuality-illness
40
Iranian Lesbian & Transgender Network (6Rang), 2017, http://6rang.org/english/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Official-HateSpeech-against-LGBT-People-in-Iran.pdf
41
Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, https://iranhrdc.org/denied-identity-human-rights-abuses-against-irans-lgbtcommunity/#2
42
Iranian Lesbian & Transgender Network (6Rang), 2015,
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CRC_NGO_IRN_19808_E.pdf
43
OutRight International, 2016,
https://outrightinternational.org/sites/default/files/OutRightLesbianReport.pdf?_ga=2.78516692.1992181521.1595330838780871412.1595330838
44
Iranian Lesbian & Transgender Network (6Rang), 2015,
https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CRC/Shared%20Documents/IRN/INT_CRC_NGO_IRN_19808_E.pdf
45
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
46
Small Media, 2018, https://smallmedia.org.uk/media/projects/files/BreakingTheSilence_2018.pdf
38
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