Ahmadinejad and the Homosexuality He Seeks to Deny

Mahmoud Ahmadi Nejad, the "humble" former mayor of Tehran, has now been thrust on the international stage and if most of the media in the West is to be believed, he is positively Hitlerian.

Not particularly blessed with the dashing good looks I associate with so many Iranian men, the president's refusal to wear the illegal tie (that great symbol of Western imperialism) with his suits gives him at least that "air of debonair," as an Iranian homosexual friend of mine pointed out (Being particularly randy, my friend admits to having a secret crush on the president. I look at him speechlessly, and blame it on the Iranian national condition of taarof).

I am not surprised at Mr. Ahmadi Nejad's denial of homosexuality in the country he tries hard to rule. I expect nothing less of him or any other leader, really, in the so-called Middle East.

Unfortunately, this former mayor falls easily into the post-September 11 trap and satisfies the hunger that Americans have for "Evil." There seems to be no better caricature of the other side of the Good vs. Evil world now as persistent in the American mind as post-1979 Iran. New York's right-wing tabloids feed this hunger and proclaim "the evil has landed" barely minutes after his plane touches down.

Clearly George Bush's ridiculous simplification of the world into the good guys and the bad guys, into black and white, seems to have worked considerably in many parts of the nation formerly known as "the land of the free." And Mr. Ahmadi Nejad lands headfirst on top of the pile. Here the torch that the lady on the Hudson holds has never burnt more feebly. And here indeed, in the heart of Manhattan, thrives the "evil Zionism" responsible (in the former mayor's opinion) for the state-he-dare-not-name.

The former mayor loves denial and knows his time might just be running out, not least because elements within his bosses in the Guardian Council back home and, indeed, even in the corridors in Qom, have recently not been very pleased.

However Columbia President Bollinger, that sad manifestation of dubious academic authority, is clearly as much a victim of the Good-vs.-Evil caricature as a certain other and not-so-likable president is. Mr. Bollinger, who saw it fit to invite the hysteria-whipping and ill-informed Minutemen to his campus in August, also saw it fit to invite this ultimate Bad Guy and then viciously denigrate a man who is after all the elected leader of a feeble democracy in a region where such things have not been known to survive. Clearly the laws of civil discourse or indeed basic common sense are not being followed in either case.

I am writing from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, the largest nation in a continent where certain leaders would appreciate Mr. Ahmadi Nejad's qualities much more than Manhattan academia's hyper-privileged Upper West Side. Here the favelas and their poor inhabitants sit atop hills, littered throughout the city in a climate of constant chaos and unease. If I were not in Brazil at the moment, speaking to packed audiences who have been applauding and crying with the four Iranian homosexual men I filmed fleeing Mr. Ahmadi Nejad's nation, I would have made sure I was at Columbia to hand-deliver to the former mayor an autographed copy of the DVD (conforming to all Iranian copyright laws) of A Jihad for Love, my recently finished, six-year documentary project on Islam and homosexuality (currently playing to the aforementioned packed houses at the Rio International Film Festival). (www.ajihadforlove.blogspot.com is my other blogging home with real-time updates everyday).

Clearly the homosexuality he seeks to deny is alive and (sometimes) thriving from Shiraz to Tehran to Isfahan and wherever else he may choose to look. Homosexuality, a "condition" as natural as heterosexuality, has thrived as long as Islam has, and has often spread rapidly through Islamic lands with the blessings of rulers, artists, poets, musicians, Sufi mystics and many others. Mr. Ahmadi Nejad, so occupied with trying to make sure that America's overextended Marines do not enter fairest Persia, clearly has had little recourse to his own nation's remarkable history, from around 559 BCE onward, in making his claim that Iran is homosexual-free. He would need to travel outside Tehran for just a few hours and pay homage at Hafez's grave in Shiraz -- to realize that this man, the poet known as the "soul of Iran" to this day had a more nuanced understanding of the persistence of same sex love in Persia. He would also need to re-visit the portions of his constitution that make homosexuality 'punishable by death' and that are frequently used to torture those whose existence he denies.

What Mr. Bollinger has done successfully is to give much fodder for the "Evil Satan" mills, running on borrowed time in recent years; what Mr. Ahmadi Nejad does so well is keep the well-oiled machine of Iran-phobia and Islamophobia running rapidly in this nation, America, that I have chosen to call home. It is clear that the sometimes tragic and sometimes comical events at Columbia were peopled with many who have never visited Mr. Ahmadi Nejad's Iran, and that their knowledge of the country is mediated largely by the hysterics of the mainstream Western media. The friendly folk at Fox and friends of course have continued to supply their ignorance in frenzied fashion during this short 'visit'.

A copy of A Jihad for Love should be made available now to both these Presidents -- one elected, the other not -- as its very Muslim, very homosexual and very real subjects will teach them both a great deal about love, about civility and, indeed, Islam. Clearly both Ahmadi Nejad and Bollinger are strangely similar and in need of lessons on my religion and my fellow homosexuals, as we attempt to tell the story of Islam, knowing full well that we are its unlikeliest storytellers.

I will be writing more on this subject and much more at www.ajihadforlove.blogspot.com\

Follow Parvez Sharma on Twitter: www.twitter.com/parvezsharma

Comments

[truthseeker123]

Ahmadinejad did not say that there are no homosexuals in Iran. He said that it is not a social phenomena as it is here.He would have disceredited himself if he would had said that. He is an intelligent man and plays good PR. Why would he says something like that?
I listened to his speech at least five times.
When he said that "we don't have homosexuals in Iran like here" The word "like" can also be translated in Farsi as "as much as".
I am not a supporter of him but I like to know the truth...

[hoopoe]

thanks for a brilliant post. i will be sure to check out the film and mention it to others. i am not gay, so i can only imagine how difficult life must be for homosexuals to live under such a repressive regime (or anywhere else fo that matter), and i commend you for making this story known to the world.

that said, i just want to make a small statement to my fellow commenters who genuinely believe nejad is do delusional that he simply doesn not realize or refuses to see that there are homosexuals in iran. let's remember, he is a politician representing the islamic republic, whose mission it is to promote an 'ideal' (ha!) islamic society. that vision of the ideal does not include homosexuality, and any admission on his part that it is an existent community within the republic would mean that the revolution had failed in its mission. that is something he can't admit and keep his job, at the moment...

i do not excuse him.

it is a subtle point to make, but we need to diffuse some of this propaganda surrounding his alleged tenuous grip on reality and his 'insanity' and realize that he may have unfavorable views, but is nowhere near the maniacal, unstable threat we have been made to believe he is.

please do not continue to perpetuate this false image, as it is one of the flashpoints for the next conflict. say you disagree with him if you do, but don't equate him with an unstable madman. it only serves the war-making effort.

also remember that christian and jewish leaders in this country have equally anti-gay rhetoric, and the anti-homosexual crusade is one of the tenets of republican conservatives, half of whom, apparently are gay but won't admit it and risk losing their conservative religious base.... let's not cast too many stones until we have some social justice at home.

[Danny O'Rourke]

Brilliant observations, Parvez. Keep them coming!

[Spookcatcher]

Now you know why there is such a flaming lust burning within the "Bush" administration. "Dick" is busting away at the seams to poke America's business into Iran and especially with thought of all that hot oil just waiting over there to help lubricate the public's aversion away from the violent nature of the unwanted invasion into the country.

[thoughttheater]

See a tongue-in-cheek graphic titled, "Mahmoud Dearest", which pokes fun at the Iranian President's apparent inability to distinguish reality...and his obsession with "cleansing" Iran of gays...here

http://www.thoughttheater.com/2007/09/mahmoud_dearest_scrubbing_the_gay_out_of_iran.php

[darker]

So, the president of Iran has nothing better to do than bitch about homosexuals? What a perverted ass!!

[marko77]

Excellent article, Mr. Sharma. I'm sure everyone with half a brain knows that there are as many homosexuals per capita in Iran and the rest of the Middle East as in America, France, Germany, Guatamala.....and on. But, some people's minds, like Ahmadinejad, for instance, are quite ignorant and the synapses fire in a strange and bizarre manner. This goes for the Orthodox of most religions, who are terrified by the thought of homosexuality, and feel they must oppress and kill homosexuals to please God - truly a sick form of ignorance.

Thank you again for your post, Mr. Sharma.

[Qbear]

Stay safe brothers and Sisters, and as I said when the Berlin Wall fell for Soviet queers and Jews....run DON'T walk for the nearest EXIT.
You don't need to live in terror or a closet.

[mommamia526]

I am very impressed with this blogger's credentials and accomplishments. However, as I am not gay, the only thing I am interested in is the *denial* issues of Mr. Amadinejad. He denies that Iran is processing uranium to build nukes. He denies that there are homosexuals in Iran, and perhaps there are few, above ground that is, as the regime Mr. Ahmadinejad serves kills them off. He also states, or denies, that UN resolutions have any meaning, and he, Ahmadinejad, will say what goes. He wishes to speak before the UN, and at the same time *denies* that the UN has any influence and importance. He denies the Holocaust - *we have to research if that happened, and if so, why* - and he denies that Israel has a right to exist, or is even legitimate. Clearly Mahmoud Amadi Nejad, as the blogger spells his name, lives in an alternate universe, and that, with his declarations that he has attained his goals in nuclear research, that Israel and the U.S. must be wiped off the map - not the people, perhaps????, but the nations - and his financial and other support of terrorist organizations, such as Hamas and Hizbullah, as well as Iran's direct involvement in insurgency in Iraq, does not appear to help matters much. Of course, that depends on what Mr. Mahmoud Amadi Nejad thinks he wants to achieve, or, what he was sent to the UN to achieve. Since it was not an usable message of concilliation to the West, to the UN, to the US, or to Israel, the audience he aimed at, one assumes, was the Middle East. Now I would like to know whether or not the Middle East likes this direct challenge to the West, and the disruptions it may well cause, and for a longer time than anticipated.

[andygaus]

The medieval Persian poet Rumi, currently the best-selling poet in North America, described his lover Shams of Tabriz as a light in the sky co-equal with the stars.

[outnow]

Parvez,

You're safe in Rio. Over here, the drums are beating for war - more wars.

Mr. Bush's laid out the Universe in good vs. evil - he has made it so simple. At UCLA I was taught that there were nuances but ererything has become so clear ever since 9-11. "You are either with us or against us." Kinda of bipolar, but so is he.

Mr. Ahmadinajad also makes clear that there are no homosexuals in Persia. We have those in the Republican party that believe that their party is the party of Family Values. The GOP even gives billions of dollars to faith-based initiatives to get more votes for the right wingers.

Doing God's work is "hard work." Someone must do it. That's why the Supreme Court appointed Mr. Bush. He is consolidating all three branches of Government and given Dick Cheney his own fourth branch.

There is no more free speech in America. The religious people of all kinds have come out of the woodwork to proclaim their righteousness. There are various Crusaders, Jihadi, and Zionist conflicts. We atheists are pushed aside as being "ungodly." We are considered immoral.

Have fun in Rio!