Iranian lesbian faces deportation from Britain

Morticia, you missed  this one:

An Italian gay rights group has joined fellow activists in Britain in calling on the British government not to deport a homosexual woman to Iran where she faces flogging and even capital punishment on account of her sexual orientation.

http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Security/?id=1.0.1222574343

The woman actually managed to have her forced repatriation delayed till tomorrow, August 27.

The Guardian observes:

The British government was today under mounting pressure from Italy not to expel an Iranian lesbian who, campaigners say, faces death by stoning if forced to return to her own country.The case of Pegah Emambakhsh, 40, has become front-page news in Italy while going almost unreported in Britain.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2155893,00.html

It seems to be true: I run a yahoo research in English language, and, aside from the Guardian, no on-line articles from English speaking countries main news sites -- zip on BBC, for instance.

articles I found are from Agency France Press ( http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070825/wl_uk_afp/britainirangaysdeport_070825212409),
Middle East time (http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070826-034309-8567r ), and a Gay related website (http://www.gaywired.com/article.cfm?section=123&id=16043), other than the a/m article on the English language pages of ADNKronos, one of Italian press agencies.

Is it possible that even in democracies, governments can ask and obtain that press plays down some unwanted subjects?

[edited to fix links]



Edited by Serge L - 26-Aug-2007 at 14:52

Originally posted by Omar al Hashim Is it possible that even in democracies, governments can ask and obtain that press plays down some unwanted subjects? Absolutely! They do it all the time. Question here is, why would they want to? Its unknown for the Anglo-American press & governments to miss a chance for Iran bashing.

omg! Is she going to find asylum in Eressos, Lesvos island?

News update: British government, under pressures, postponed sine die her forced repatriation.

Homosexual acts are not a crime where I come from, neither should they be. And many people have been murdered in Iran due only to sexual orientation, and not for any act they commited..Its a disgrace.

http://direland.typepad.com/direland/2005/07/iran_executes_2.html

I have seen the figure of 4000 cited by newsagencies, and it appears again in Dolphin's first link. That's the quantitative side of it.

http://direland.typepad.com/direland/2005/08/irans_deadly_an.html

Thank you, Serge, for bringing awareness obout this topic (you're right, I missed this one !. Somehow, it doesn't surprise me that a country who still considers women as second class citizens would also be unfair and brutal as far as sex orientation is concerned. It's just another form of discrimination!

The problem is if Western governments directly criticise these actions by an OIL-rich country, three things happen: