Iranian official in charge of “Islamic values” suspended over gay sex video

Reza Tsaghati, an Iranian government official in charge of “promoting Islamic values” by enforcing the country’s Muslim morality code, has been suspended after a video surfaced that allegedly showed him having gay sex with a young man. Gay sex is illegal in the country and punishable by life in prison, whipping, fines, and execution.

Tsaghati served as director-general of culture and Islamic guidance in Iran’s northern Gilan province until Peyman Behboudi, the editor of the Radio Gilan Telegram — a media outlet dedicated to exposing “corruption among regime officials” — uploaded the video onto its Telegram channel.

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“They would rather carry out mass surgeries than executions because they know the world is watching them.”

The video was purportedly recorded on the premises of the General Directorate of Culture and Islamic Guidance, IranWire reported. However, the identities of the men in the video and the authenticity of the video itself haven’t been verified, the BBC reported.

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Accusations of same-sex relations have been used in the past in Iran to eliminate political opponents, IranWire added. “Gilan Radio had repeatedly criticized Saghati, describing him as an opponent to provincial Governor Asadollah Abbasi,” the publication wrote. Gilan Radio’s Telegram channel also said that Tsaghati’s sister and nieces had been detained by authorities, but the claim hasn’t yet been verified.

The Culture and Islamic Guidance office wrote in July 22 statement that Tsaghati had been suspended over a “suspected misstep” and that the incident had been referred to judicial authorities for “careful consideration.”

Last Saturday, Iran’s culture minister Mohammad Mehdi Esmaili said he had no knowledge of Tsaghati’s alleged homosexuality. Tsaghati has served in his role since 2021 and opened a community center in June focused on chastity and women wearing hijab, a traditional Muslim head covering.

In 2022, Iran’s Revolutionary Court of Urmia sentenced two prominent LGBTQ+ activists to death for “promoting homosexuality.” Following their arrest, Amnesty Iran tweeted that “The criminalization of LGBTI people perpetuates violence & discrimination against them.” Activist Dr. Kazem Moussavi said that the Iranian regime “conceals executions of homosexuals to prevent international protests.”

Peter Tatchell, the British LGBTQ-rights activist said, “[In Iranian courts] defendants are routinely denied access to lawyers and defense witnesses. They can be sentenced after brief ‘trials’ lasting as little as 20 minutes, with lawyers provided only shortly before the court hearing starts. People can be found guilty without corroborating evidence.”

A 2014 report from 6Rang and Justice for Iran found that LGBTQ+ Iranians are “excluded from family homes, denied employment, prevented from going to school, forced to marry, sent to jails and detention centers, sentenced to flogging and execution, and subjected to ‘street’ violence and other physical and verbal attacks in public and private settings.”

In the modern era, powerful Muslim clerics and politicians throughout Iran and the Middle East have used anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment, laws, public floggings, and executions to generate support among conservative citizens who consider queer identity a “decadent” Western import. Despite their zealotry, the Quran contains no verses condemning homosexuality and classic Middle Eastern poetry even celebrated homosexual love.

Despite the country’s persecution of LGBTQ+ people, an activist coalition of Iranian queers, women, and allies have begun protesting the country’s oppressive regime under the slogan of solidarity, “Woman, Life, Freedom.”