f i g h t i n g....f o r....t o m o r r o w An interview with Arsham Parsi By Afdhere Jama For some years, a group of queer Iranians have been making a progress in exchanging information and supporting each other. From inside and outside of their homeland, they have committed themselves to changing their country's conservative attitude to queer sexuality and the government's harsh laws against them. This group is called the Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization, or PGLO. In recent times, one of their members has become the face of the group, as he embodies much of their concern. His name is Arsham Parsi. He is a sweet, gentle man with a lot of heart and genuine concern for his people, the queer community and the world at large. Here is some of the conversation I'd had with him. ***************************** AFDHERE JAMA: Where were you born? Arsham Parsi: I was born in Shiraz, Iran. AJ: You are Muslim, right? AP: Yes, I'm Muslim. I like to tell everyone always that my beliefs are not the same as the the Mullahs. I accept all religions. AJ: When did you first realize you were gay? AP: When I was about eight or nine years old. AJ: How did you feel about it? AP: I felt that I was different from other boys because I loved boys. I started to think I had a problem because in Islamic culture homosexuality is not normal. You know, I have heard that God does not like someone that has sex with someone of their same sex. I started to believe that I was a sinner and began to become more religious. It was terrible but at least I understood my feelings. AJ: Growing up, do you remember hearing something negative about gay people? AP: Yes, when I was younger I had sex with my cousin. My mother found out about it, and she spoke to me too much about it and told me many painful stories. AJ: How did that affect you? AP: Although I did not stop my (sexual) relationship with my cousin, every time we did something I felt that I had to stop but I just could not. AJ: When did you realize that there were others like yourself out there? AP: Much later, I connected to the internet and I searched on Google. It was so good because I found many people on the net that were similar to me. I was very happy because I felt that I was not alone in the world anymore. AJ: Did you have a boyfriend in Iran? AP: No, I did not. I had not any time for my personal life since I had been in LGBT rights for many years. AJ: Why did you want to help other gays so much? AP: After I found out that I was not abnormal, I began to think about other gays and their hardships. I could understand because I was there myself and had bad experiences, and I wanted them to have a better life, and I told myself I have to do something. But I didn't know what to do. AJ: So how did PGLO come about? AP: First, I started a small e-mail group. It was named Rainbow. This was back in 2001. We would just send letters to each other, and sometimes some articles. A few years later, we made a wesbite called Gay Persian Boy. [Now offline.] Anyway, the group had gotten stronger and in 2004 we changed the group to PGLO [Persian Gay & Lesbian Organization.] One of our members registered this organization in Norway, and we started our official activities. And, today I'm going to re-register it in Canada. AJ: So, tell me who else is supporting you with this activism? AP: Well, we have a few people. Saba Rawi, in the Netherlands, who is our Human Rights Secretary and is also director of PGLO's branch in their country. Shahrokh Reisi, in Germany, who is our Cultural Secretary and also director in that country. Then there is Pooya, our Financial Secretary. Saghi is one of the editors of our Cheragh magazine. We have Mani, our Health Secretary. And Pirooz, our Social Secretary. We also have many LGBTs help. Unfortunately, homosexuality is taboo in Iran and therefore many organizations and groups can not support us because they support us they will lose their supporters. Shirin Ebadi, for example, told us she cannot support us in public. Why? Because she could not, as people don't have enough information about LGBT issues. So we have to inform them first, and then they can support us. AJ: A lot of queer activists in Iran says they have been targeted by the government. I have heard that there was a death warrant against you. Is this true? AP: Yes, but I really cannot get into the details. I have had many problems but I just can't talk about it right now. My family still lives in Iran. AJ: I understand that. Let me ask you this; the underground gay magazine MAHA has recently come out and said that they believe Ayaz and Mahmoud, who got executed last year, were killed for being gay. What do your own sources in Iran say? What does your group believe about this case? AP: First of all, I have to mention that MAHA is not a magazine inside of Iran. Some people said they are inside Iran but MAHA is actually from the United Kingdom. They have a few collaborators in Iran. I know them and appreciate their work, especially their two editors-in-chief in Iran. However, I don't know how they can announce the two boys were gay and executed for being gay because we didn't know those boys before their execution. Nobody heard of their names before. AJ: Did the PGLO research about them? AP: No, PGLO did not research about these teens. We have a representative in Mashhad. We did call him to research about this issue but he could not. His life was getting in danger and we preferred to stop this project as we don't want to make another tragedy. AJ: Do you think MAHA researched about them? AP: I'm sure MAHA received some mails from its members but it is not strong reason to announce for sure. We have received any e-mails from our members about this case but they did not have documents to prove. AJ: What do you want people to know generally about Iran? AP: Iranian society is so easy going. Sometimes I read news about Iran that show people as wild and criminal people. This is not true at all. Iranian people are so peaceful, and are cultured. AP: What problems do queer Iranians face? AP: Queer Iranians have two big problems: Islamic law of punishment and lack of information in society. The Iranian society doesn't support queers because they don't know who we are. They have to be informed. After that, they surely will support us. Law of punishment is well-founded fear for queer. There are many fears. If they arrest us, what will happen? What should we do? What about our family, what should we do if they found out about our sexual orientation? And other hundreds of dark questions. If we are arrested, our family won't support us. We then face the condemnation of the law and that of our family. AJ: Are there much differences in different cities, in terms of queer life? AP: Definitely, big cities are better than small towns. We have many reports from the east and west of Iran. They are in the worst situations because they are more religious and therefore more homophobic. AJ: How is the internet changing that? AP: Well, they have less internet access. But then most Iranians on the internet really just check e-mails only. They don't do research as most of the websites are blocked. AJ: I hear about a lot of queer Iranians seeking asylum in the West, especially in Europe. Are people always trying to leave the country? AP: Most Iranian queers would like to leave Iran to Europe or North America. But what they don't realize is that our problem will not be solved by immigration. I left Iran, for example, for my activities. I live in Toronto now but unfortunately even the Iranians here are not informed about the LGBT issues. However, it is hard to tell people to stay. We tell our members to stay and try to change the society as this is more important but unfortunately sometimes if they stay they get arrested. AJ: How has your life changed since you came to Canada? AP: Wow. A lot of changes. I can now do activism without fear. I taste freedom here. I thought I was free in Iran but now I don't think I was. I'm very happy that I can live in this country because I can now work to defend our LGBT community. Of course, homophobic people live all around the world. But if someone attacks me here I can call the police, and I'm sure the police will support me. I could not call the police when I was in Iran because the police will arrest me, not the homophobic person. AJ: What about your love life, are you meeting guys? AP: I don't meet guys here because I don't have any free time for dating. I'm working about twenty hours a day. AJ: Wow. Man, that is a long day? Why so much work? AP: Because we have seven and half hour difference between Toronto and Iran, and I have to work with our representatives inside Iran. So I can't go to bed sometimes before 5:00 A.M. Also, I work with the queer community in Toronto and I do this during the week. But on the weekends, it is not a weekend in Iran so I still work. I don't even have any day off. AJ: That must be physically draining. How do you do it? AP: Well, I love my job. This is voluntary work and I don't receive any money from PGLO because we really don't have money. But when I help LGBT people in Iran, I feel joyful. We answer about one hundred to one hundred and fifty e-mails a day. And these people look forward to our responses, as they don't have anyone else to ask or listen to their problems. So I feel like if we don't who will? AJ: What is the gay Iranian community like in Toronto? AP: Our queer community in Toronto unfortunately lives in the closet, just same as those who live in Iran, because they live in Iranian communities here and feel they cannot be out. We called the queer Iranians here to the July 19th protests but nobody joined us. They are afraid. AJ: Do you think you will ever go back to Iran? AP: Yes. On Friday March 4th, 2005, at 1:30 P.M., when I escaped from Iran to Turkey, I cried heavily as I passed the Iranian border for Iran and for our LGBT situation in our country. And I made the promise to myself and my homeland that I will come back one day. I don't know when or how, but I know I want to go back one day and live there freely. I don't want to die in any other country. I will go back to Iran when we have rights. I'm in exile now and I don't have too much personal life as I'm fighting to live freely in Iran tomorrow. AJ: How long have you been in Turkey? AP: From March, 2005 to May, 2006. So, thirteen months. AJ: Did you try to get into other countries before you came to Canada? AP: Well, not really. I applied for a UK visa on 2002. Some of my heterosexual friends and I decided to go there for business about fashion but we didn't get the visas. Also, the UNHCR [The UN Refugee Agency] chose Canada for me. I did not really choose because I didn't have much information about different countries, but I'm so happy with their decision. I'm grateful for Canada and all that it has done for me. AJ: How is your asylum process in Canada now? AP: I had an interview with a Canadian Immigration officer in Ankara [Turkey] on September 26th, 2005. On that day they approved my case. I came here in May, 2006, as an immigrant. I was afforded permanent residence and I can apply for citizenship in two years. AJ: Wow. I'm really glad it worked out for you. So, what should we expect from Arsham Parsi next? AP: Well, in October I'll be speaking in Geneva. I'm very happy because after many years of silence we can now speak at the United Nations. On December 9th, we are planning on releasing reports on Human Rights in Iran. As for myself, I'm also planning on publishing my life story in a book in Persian and English. We are registering PGLO in Canada. AJ: A lot of good work. In every interview that I do, I ask this last question; if you had the power to change something about you, what would it be and why? AP: I have not thought about this, because usually growing up I could do anything that I wanted. I had not been disappointed or unhappy in my childhood. I would certainly not change anything about my life now. However, I would have tried to do start my advocacy a lot earlier and to help try stop all the murders and suicides of LGBTs in my country. AP: I thank you very much, Arsham, for doing this with me. AP: Thank you so much.
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