Two women have been condemned to death in Iran because of their links to the LGBTQ+ community on social media, human rights groups have reported.
Zahra Seddiqi Hamedani, 31, and Elham Choubdar, 24, were found guilty of a number of charges by a court in Urmia, in the Iranian province of West Azerbaijan.
In an interview with the Guardian Arsham Parsi, Founder and Executive Director of The International Railroad for Queer Refugees (IRQR), said: “In most cases of executions of Iranian LGBT+ people in the past, the government tried to link the people to violent crimes like rape or violation of national security.”
“They always exaggerate the charges to make them seem like dangerous individuals who have to be executed,” he said.
Parsi said: “This execution [sentence] is, I think, mostly politics.” He added that he had been in touch with Seddiqi Hamedani on social media over the years.
“She asked me what I thought about her doing the BBC interview,” he said. “I told her it was dangerous, that she should wait until she is safe in Turkey, or do it anonymously. But she was determined. I haven’t heard from her since.
