Hands Off The People Of Iran

Hands off the People of Iran (Hopi) fully supports Iranian gay asylum applicant Mehdi Kazemi and his struggle to remain within the UK.

Mehdi’s case highlights the homophobic record of the Iranian theocratic regime against lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender (LGBT) people. Mehdi must be granted immediate asylum in the UK. In Iran, homosexuality is treated as a crime and is punished by death. It is estimated that there have been around 4,000 executions of gays and lesbians since the victory of the islamist counterrevolution in 1979.

This case also highlights the hypocrisy of the British ruling class. Jacqui Smith might try to pass herself off as the voice of reason by granting Mehdi a review of his case, but the British state continues to back regimes like Jamaica, Saudi Arabia and Uganda that repress homosexuals and sends other asylum-seekers back to face poverty, imprisonment and worse. The government’s change of policy in this case is the result of a successful LGBT campaign.

But it is also true that sections of the establishment and the media have seized upon this case to win support for their threats against Iran. Only a year ago the British media couldn’t care less about cases such as that of the persecuted Iranian lesbian, Pegah Emambakhsh. This propaganda effort is as inexorably linked to the war drive as the sanctions that are currently strangling Iran.

And it is seeking to influence sections of the workers’ movement. For example, the March 6 ‘global day of action’ in support of arrested Iranian trade unionists Salehi and Ossanlou made no mention of the fact that Iranian workers are suffering under the burden of UN sanctions, let alone are faced with the prospect of being bombed! (click here for more info)

In contrast, Hopi calls for solidarity that is independent of both imperialism and the Iranian theocracy. We reject the hypocritical talk of democracy and freedom amongst our rulers, as they step up their war threats. Neither will we act as apologists for the reactionary Iranian regime and its brutal counterrevolutionary agenda. Principled opposition to war and sanctions against the people of Iran necessitates telling the truth.

That is why Hopi condemns those within the anti-war movement who are using Kazemi’s case to attack LGBT activists in Iran and Britain. Respect MP George Galloway said on The Wright stuff (Channel 5) on March 13 and 14: “All of the papers seem to imply that you get executed in Iran for being gay: that’s not true.” He then stated that Kazemi's boyfriend was hung “not for being gay, but for committing sex crimes against young men … What I can’t accept is the propaganda that says you get hanged for being gay in Iran: you don’t.”

This apologia led him to suggest that Hopi steering committee member Peter Tatchell represents the “the pink end of the khaki war machine - that’s what Peter Tatchell has become, by attacking Iran in the way that he does”. He repeated those charges at the March 15 anti-war demonstration in London.

Hopi utterly condemns this appalling homophobia and rejects the implication that if one supports the LGBT community in Iran, one also supports imperialism.

This is nonsense, as anybody who has taken the time to even glance at the social dynamics within Iranian society will soon realise. Many of the militant movements in Iran - such as those of the workers, women and students - fight against war and the theocratic regime. Their struggles demonstrate that there is another way forward for Iran and the Middle East: real democratic change comes from below - and can never be delivered from above through imperialist surgical strikes, sanctions, occupations or faux-democratic movements.

Hopi calls on members of the Stop the War Coalition and the Respect party to condemn Galloway’s homophobic and insulting remarks and fight to reverse the decision of the STWC officers’ group to ban Hopi from affiliating.

Report from the rally

On Saturday, around 15 members and supporters of Hands Off the People of Iran joined in the protest against the threat to deport to Iran Mehdi Kazemi, the 19-year-old gay man whose partner was executed by the regime for “sexual crimes” (ie, being gay).

Around 100 turned out, with the majority of them coming from the National Union of Students LGBT contingent. In fact, the overwhelming majority of the British left, most notably the Socialist Workers Party, were not present. This should not come as much of a surprise, considering that the SWP’s position on Iran is a (slightly less consistent) version of Galloway’s apologia (See ‘George Galloway alibis Iran’ Weekly Worker March 20).

The demo was called by the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty-sponsored Middle East Workers’ Solidarity and, despite fundamental disagreements with the AWL on Iraq and the nature of imperialism, Hopi was more than happy to support such an action and build support against Kazemi’s deportation, whilst at the same time not blunting our unequivocal opposition to imperialist wars and sanctions.

Moreover, Hopi’s leaflet warned that “… sections of the establishment and the media have seized upon this case to win support for their threats against Iran. Only a year ago the British media couldn’t care less about cases such as that of the persecuted Iranian lesbian, Pegah Emambakhsh. This propaganda effort is as inexorably linked to the war drive as the sanctions that are currently strangling Iran”.

Chris Strafford The leaflet prompted some interesting discussions with the demonstrators, including with an AWL member who was trying to argue the case for economic sanctions against Iran. Indeed, he was also of the opinion that an imperialist-promoted ‘velvet revolution’, were it to incite some activity amongst the masses, would also not necessarily be a bad thing! This is obviously not a majority position, but it says a lot about the AWL that such shameless social-imperialists are able to find a natural home in this outfit.

Speakers included Hopi steering committee member Peter Tatchell, Communist Students candidate for the NUS executive Chris Strafford, and Sofie Buckland and David Broder from the AWL.

This was first published in Weekly Worker March 27