Iranian Gay Men To Be Hanged For Sodomy: Report

Four Iranian gay men are due to be executed for sodomy under their nation's Shari'a laws, Pink News is reporting.

The four men -- identified by the Human Rights Activist News Agency in Iran as Saadat Arefi, Vahid Akbari, Javid Akbari and Houshmand Akbari -- are set to be hanged after their guilty verdict was approved recently by high court judges.

"I am horrified and saddened to have heard the news about these four men," London-based Iranian human rights lawyer Mehri Jafari is quoted by Pink News and LGBTQ Nation as saying. "Not only with regards to the execution which is about to take place, but the fact that is beyond our control."

The news comes just two days ahead of the release of a new report on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Iran, which will highlight the problems they face in their own country and when they flee into exile, according to Gay Star News.

"If I said I saw myself as being part of this society, I'd be telling the biggest lie of my life," one contributor is quoted in the report as saying. "That's because of my homosexuality and the Iranian people's mentality about homosexuality. I usually refer to Iran as 'your country' instead of 'my country' or 'our country.'"

The contributor, identified only as a 26-year-old gay man from Bandar Anzali, a harbor city on the Caspian sea, added, "Words can't describe how important the Internet is for me...Because I live in a really small city, where the homosexual community is very secretive. The only way for me is the Internet."

The new survey, "LGBT Republic of Iran: An Online Reality?," can be viewed here.

In April, The Guardian reported that Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi-Amoli, an influential cleric and an Islamic scholar based in Iran's holy city of Qom, referred to homosexuals as inferior to dogs and pigs in a speech.

"If a society commits a new sin, it will face a new punishment," Javadi-Amoli said, according to The Guardian's translation of a report by the Iranian news website Khabaronline. "Problems like AIDS did not exist before."

Check out nations with more progressive views on same-sex marriage and gay rights below:

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• Netherlands

  The Netherlands was the first country to recognize gay marriage in <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4081999.stm" target="_hplink">2001</a>. <em>Pictured: Jan van Breda and Thijs Timmermans.</em>

• Belgium

  Belgium legalized same-sex marriages in <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4081999.stm" target="_hplink">2003. </a> <em>Pictured: Marion Huibrecht and Christel Verswyvelen.</em>

• Spain

  Spain legalized gay marriage in <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4081999.stm" target="_hplink">2005</a>.

• Canada

  Canada followed Spain and approved gay marriage in <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-10650267" target="_hplink">2005. </a>

• South Africa

  South Africa legalized same sex marriage in <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-10650267" target="_hplink">2006.</a> <em>Pictured: Vernon Gibbs and Tony Hall. </em>

• Norway

  Norway followed suit in <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-10650267" target="_hplink">2009.</a> <em>Norwegian finance minister and chairwoman of the Socialist Left party Kristin Halvorsen (L) stands next to wedding figurines outside the House of Parliament in Oslo on June 11, 2008, where she celebrated the passing of a new law awarding equal rights to same sex partnerships as those enjoyed by heterosexual marriages. (Getty)</em>

• Sweden

  Sweden recognized same sex marriage in <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-10650267" target="_hplink">2009.</a> <em>Pictured: Johan Lundqvist (L) and Alf Karlsson. </em>

• Portugal

  Portugal recognized gay marriage in <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-10650267" target="_hplink">2010.</a> <em>Pictured: Teresa Pires and Helena Paixao. </em>

• Iceland

  Iceland legalized gay marriage in <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-10650267" target="_hplink">2010.</a>

• Argentina

  Argentina legalized same sex-marriage in <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4081999.stm" target="_hplink">2010.</a> It was the only Latin American country to do so. <em>Pictured: Giorgio Nocentino (L) and Jaime Zapata.</em>

• New Zealand

  New Zealand<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/17/maurice-williamson-new-zealand-gay-marriage-_n_3100714.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices" target="_blank"> became the first</a> Asia-Pacific nation (and the 13th in the world) to legalize same-sex marriage. <em>Pictured: Jills Angus Burney (L) and Deborah Hambly.</em>

• Denmark

  Denmark became the first country to allow the registration of gay partnerships in 1989. In 2012, Denmark's <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/07/denmark-approves-gay-wedd_0_n_1577288.html" target="_blank">Parliament approved </a>a law allowing same-sex couples to get married in formal church weddings instead of the short blessing ceremonies that the state's Lutheran Church offered.

• Uruguay

  The Uruguay Parliament lawmakers passed the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/10/uruguay-legalizes-gay-marriage_n_3057458.html" target="_blank">"marriage equality project"</a> in Montevideo, Uruguay,Wednesday, April 10, 2013.

• The United States Of America

  Same-sex marriage is allowed in nine <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/07/maryland-question-6-results-2012_n_2050830.html" target="_blank">U.S. states</a>, and Washington DC.

• Brazil

  Some <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/26/brazils-top-appeals-court-upholds-gay-marriage_n_1032481.html" target="_blank">parts of Brazil</a> allow same-sex marriage (AL, BA, CE, DF, ES, MS, PR, PI, SE, and SP).

• Mexico

  Some areas of Mexico allow gay marriage, such <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/06/mexico-gay-marriage-law-unconstitutional-_n_2249701.html" target="_blank">as Mexico City</a>.

• France

  France legalized same sex marriage in <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/23/france-gay-marriage-law-_n_3139470.html?utm_hp_ref=world&ir=World&utm_hp_ref=world" target="_hplink">2013</a>. Pictures: an illustration made with plastic figurines of men is seen in front of the Palais Bourbon, the seat of the French National Assembly. (JOEL SAGET/Getty Images)

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