“Now I Have Lost Hope” – Gay Iranian Who Faces Deportation from Norway in Hours

UK Gay News: “Now I Have Lost Hope” – Gay Iranian Who Faces Deportation from Norway in Hours (January 24, 10)

SANDNESSJØEN, January 24, 2010 – A forty-years-old gay Iranian is today facing deportation from Norway – and it could be in less than 48 hours.

Asghar Hedayat – and he insisted that his full name be used – first applied for asylum in Norway in August 2003 and is now in an asylum centre in the small town of Sandnessjøen, about 50 miles south of the Arctic Circle on the Norwegian west coast.

“I was waiting for good news, everyday for the last seven years,” he told UK Gay News last night. “I was optimistic that I could start a normal life here in Norway. Unfortunately, it did not happen for me.

“Now I have lost hope, energy, happiness, and future since I got negative answers from Norwegian authorities.

“It’s been a difficult life for eight years since I left Iran – I just want things to be sorted out.”

Asghar fled Iran in March 2002 for Denmark, where he applied for asylum on the grounds of his sexuality. But the application was turned down and he was told that he was to be deported.

Fearing for his life if he was returned to Iran, he fled again – this time to Norway.

Again, his asylum application was refused. But he had “five or six, I can’t remember” appeals against the original decision – all were turned down.

Now he has been told that he must leave Norway by January 25 – tomorrow (click HERE for the papers informing Asghar that he has to leave the country by January 25 - in Norwegian).

“There is no light for my future now but I never ever give up,” Asghar says in a letter to the Toronto-based Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees (IRQR), which has taken up his case.

In Iran, Asghar was in love with his boyfriend, Mr. J [for security reasons we can not publish his name as he is still in Iran].

Asghar said that he was so happy but that changed when his family forced him to get married.

It was really difficult time for Asghar and “J” as they could not ‘come out’ to their families and Asghar had no other reason to convince his family that he did not want to get married.

“She was a really pleasant woman, but, really, I did not want to spend my life with her – she deserved a better husband,” he told UK Gay News.

“We lived together, but really we had nothing to share. I could not stop thinking about [Mr. J] for a moment.”

During his time spent asylum centres, Asghar has been using his creative skills. Below is a YouTube video he created almost a year ago using his written words accompanied on wildlife photographs.

Take an action to support Asghar Hedayati HERE