Iranian President cuts reference to gays from website’s transcipt
David on Sep 29th 2007
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke earlier in the week at Columbia University amid a huge swirl of controversy. On his website, the Iranian President published and scrubbed a portion of the transcript, according to PageOneQ.com.
Which section was scrubbed? It was the part of the question and answer session wherein Ahmadinejad claimed there were no homosexuals in Iran. Interestingly, the section was removed only from the Persian language translation of the speech, and left in-tact in the English version.
Ahmadinejad stated: “In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country. In Iran we do not have this phenomenon, I don’t know who has told you that we have it.” The audience responded with boos.
PageOneQ contacted the Iranian Embassy regarding the transcript inconsistencies, at which point the entire question and answer portion was removed from the site.
Ahmadinejad’s comments are truly outrageous, and the fact the he removed them from the Persian translation speaks to their deceit; his own people would certainly have recognized the absurdity of the statement.
According to PageOneQ, Paula Ettlebrick, executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Rights Commision had this to say:
The first reaction of many of us was to join in the astonished response to President Ahmadinejad’s clearly outrageous view that no lesbian or gay people live in Iran. But, the whitewashing of his comments from the eyes and ears of most Iranian citizens speaks to something more troubling. His denial attempts to simply erase from public view the lives of men and women who face regular abuse in his country. Perhaps he knows he could not credibly get away with such a denial among his own people.
To date, not a single Persian-language media outlet in Iran - including Iran’s official news agency, IRNA, and the semi-independent news agencies, ISNA, Mehrrnews and Farsnews, and the Wednesday morning newspapers - has reported on the President’s comments.
Filed in general |
In Iran, people are executed for consensual sex. Amnesty International also reports that women are frequently jailed, flogged, and stoned simply for speaking out about women’s rights.
The human rights watchdog group also reports that Iran continues to have one of the highest rates of executions in the world, including the stonings and executions of child “offenders”…those under the age of 18 accused of alleged crimes.
Yet, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to America earlier this week, sounding like a women’s rights activist and overall compassionate nice guy. His apparent new-found love and respect for women is matched only by his joy at reporting to the world that his country does not have any homosexuals.
Sadly, like the flaming alcoholic that proclaims he only has a few drinks every now and then, Ahmadinejad denies that his regime habitually abuses women. Oh, and one other thing, his denial of homosexuals in his country is a weak attempt at covering up the fact that he executes them at quite a clip. Reports are that as many as 400 people have been killed for false charges of rape and abuse, when indeed the sex was consensual.
Ahmadininejad’s comments about America are outrages. He has openly said he wants to destroy the US. I thinks it’s outrageous he was ever allowed in this country, let alone speak. You don’t invite a convicted pedophile to teach at a pre-school. The man’s as dangerous Hitler!!