2 Gay Rights Activists Sentenced to Death in Iran for ‘Corruption on Earth’

Two gay rights activists were sentenced to death by a court in Iran on charges of “corruption on earth,” a term used to refer to breaking Muslim Sharia law. The two women, Zahra Sedighi Hamedani, 31, and Elham Chubdar, 24, have been detained in prison in Urmia in northwestern Iran for several months. It is the first time that a woman has been sentenced to death in Iran for her sexual orientation, Shadi Amin, a coordinator for the Germany-based Iranian LGBTI rights group 6Rang, told AFP. Iran’s judiciary said the women are accused of “deceiving women and young girls and trafficking them to one of the countries of the region.” Hamedani, who is described as gender-nonconforming, may also have been charged due to her public defense of LGBT rights on social media and her appearance in a May 2021 BBC documentary about abuses that LGBT people suffer in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region, where she had been living. Under Iran’s legal system, homosexual acts can receive punishments ranging from flogging to the death penalty.