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Trent Arthur: Arthur Speaks With the Founder of Iranian Queer Railroad (February 22, 09) Written by Christopher Phillips http://www.trentarthur.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1279&Itemid=1
Organization advocates for refugee claimants citing persecution for sexuality and gender identity Arsham Parsi is welcoming to a fault. Speaking with Arthur at his home office in Toronto, he introduced two men named Ali and Mohammad who have been staying at his apartment since being granted asylum in Canada in mid-February. Parsi is the executive director of an organization called Iranian Queer Railroad (IRQR) that advocates on behalf of queer Iranian people’s rights around the world. From his desk in Toronto, he has helped more than 200 people fleeing the country apply for refugee status since 2005. This month, Pegah Emambakhsh, one of the most high profile cases he’s been involved with, was granted refugee status in the UK. “I’m so happy,” Parsi told Arthur. Emambakhsh arrived seeking protection there almost four years ago when religious authorities in Iran learned that she and her partner were lesbian. Her partner was later tortured and sentenced to death. The UK government dragged its heels in reviewing her application, doubting that Emambakhsh faced any credible danger at home, and eventually in 2007 put her on a plane to be deported back to Iran. While she was at the airport, Parsi was tipped off about the situation, and sent out a press release to the IRQR network asking people to help on her behalf. Within about two hours, he says, the British Home Office’s fax machines were so inundated with messages that they’ve changed their number, and with five minutes to go before the plane took off, she was taken off the flight. “Sometimes,” said Parsi, “we should lobby and push the government to say, ‘You have to do this, because we as a people know what’s going on, but you as a government, you don’t care about us.’” What pushed their hand in her case and that of another gay Iranian, Mehdi Kazemi, said Parsi, was not good will but the risk of embarrassment. The situation faced by many queer people in Iran is dire. Religious persecution by the state under the Sharia-based penal code is severe. Human Rights Watch reports that punishment for homosexual conduct in the country can range from lashings and prison sentences to public execution. IRQR describes its work on behalf of people persecuted under these laws as acting in the spirit of the underground railroad movement in the 1800s, and works together with other human rights organizations, consulates and offices of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in transit countries like Turkey, Pakistan and India. Parsi was granted permanent asylum in Canada a few years ago, a target for the death penalty in Iran for his work as a queer activist. He seems reluctant to criticize the Canadian government for its own apparent ambivalence in the past few years towards people applying for refugee status on the basis of persecution for their sexuality or gender identity. Alvaro Orozco’s case was the most prominent among several where Citizenship and Immigration Canada raised questions about offering proof of sexuality and of persecution in claimants’ home countries. This, even as message boards in Nicaragua, where Orozco was from, were reportedly filled with comments threatening to beat or kill him if he returned home. This January, Parsi met with the new minister in charge of Citizenship and Immigration, Jason Kenney. It remains unclear whether the government has changed its stance, but Parsi said Kenney was supportive of IRQR’s work. Their discussion, Parsi explained, was mostly about informing Kenney about the situation facing queer people in Iran and allowing a greater flow of refugees into the country, particularly in light of European governments’ continued hesitancy to accept asylum seekers from Iran. “Change every time is possible,” Parsi said, explaining his optimism about IRQR’s work. “Without change we cannot live. And I’m sure we’ll have big change in the future. When you’re talking about women’s rights, comparing a hundred years ago to now, it’s unbelievable. We are a new movement, and I’m sure that we will be successful – not just in Canada, but in Iran. It’s a kind of fighting for tomorrow, and we know tomorrow isn’t just 24 hours [away]. It takes a long time.”
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