Ex-Iran official sent to prison for sharing picture of gay couples

• Published date: 06 December 2020
• Date: 06 December 2020
• Author: BENJAMIN WEINTHAL
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Under the Iranian regime's Sharia law system, the death penalty is applied to Iranian gays and lesbians.

In July, according to the US government news outlet Radio Farda, the Rah-e Dana website wrote that Molaverdi was charged with "propaganda against the regime," "encouraging corruption and prostitution" and "providing classified information and documents to disrupt national security."

She told the Iranian regime-controlled Iranian Students News Agency on Saturday that she "received the sentence this morning, but it's a preliminary verdict," adding that "there is a 20-day window for reconsideration and I will certainly appeal."

Peter Tatchell, the LGBTQ+ and human rights campaigner, told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday that "it is totally absurd that sharing a happy families UN poster on social media is construed by Tehran as undermining national security and promoting prostitution. This is nonsense. Making it a crime to oppose the persecution of LGBT+ people is symptomatic of the extreme homophobia of the Iranian regime."

He said that "the sentence of two years jail for a social media post suggests that the ayatollahs feel very threatened by LGBT+ families. It is a sign of their insecurity and vulnerability."

In May, Molaverdi shared a UN poster to celebrate the International Day of Families which depicted familial units, including two same-sex couples with children.

She removed the controversial post later and issued an apology for "carelessly republishing a post."

The UN poster caption read: "The structure of family has changed in the past few decades but the United Nations still considers it as the main division of...