BREAKING: ISIS Terror Siege at Tehran Parliament Building Ends - 12 Dead, 35 Wounded

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A child is passed to safety from a window of Tehran's parliament building

This morning, terrorists launched coordinated attacks against Iran's parliament building and the Ayatollah Khomeini mausoleum in Tehran. It is being reported that at least 12 people died and 35 were injured.

From the Daily Mail:

ISIS carries out its first strike in Iran: Burka-clad gunmen are shot dead after taking hostages at parliament as suicide bomber blows himself up at Ayatollah Khomeini's mausoleum

• ISIS claimed its first attack in Iran after fighters stormed parliament and shrine
• At least 12 people died and 35 were wounded in the assault, state media said 
• Four parliament attackers filmed themselves in the building with a dead body
• 'Female suicide bomber' detonated at shrine while another was shot dead

ISIS has claimed its first attack in Iran as at least 12 people were killed and 35 wounded in joint raids on parliament and Ayatollah Kohmeini's shrine on Wednesday. 

The terror group says fighters armed with AK47s and pistols stormed parliament through the civilian entrance while disguising themselves as women by wearing burkas, shooting security guards before detonating a suicide bomb, killing at least five and wounding 25. 

Meanwhile two more suicide bombers attacked a shrine to Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of modern-day Iran, as it was reported a woman blew herself up, killing at least two and injuring another 10. 

Anti-terror police said they exchanged fire with militants in the northern part of parliament before a bomb detonated on the fourth floor. 

Video purporting to be from inside the building showed a fighter armed with an AK47 moving between rooms as a dead body lay on the floor. 

Security forces said a second attacker at the shrine had been shot dead after the first blew up, while another two people were arrested. 

Tourists at the mausoleum had been locked inside to keep them safe. 

State news channels sought to downplay the attacks, saying that parliament had resumed session shortly after the first reports of gunfire. 

Other TV channels either stopped reporting on the attacks shortly after they began, or failed to mention them altogether. 

The unusual attacks prompted the interior ministry to call for an urgent security meeting, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. 

Iranian state media said police helicopters were circling over the parliament building and that all mobile phone lines from inside were disconnected. 

The semi-official ISNA news agency said all entrance and exit gates at parliament were closed and that politicians and reporters had been ordered to stay inside the chamber, where a session had been in progress. 

It quoted politician Elias Hazrati as saying the attackers were armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles. 

It described the shrine attackers as 'terrorists' and said one carried out a suicide bombing, without providing further details. 

The raids, the first in some time in Tehran, come during the holy month of Ramadan and shortly after President Hassan Rouhani was reelected. 

Thomas Erdbrink, bureau chief for the New York Times, reports that the attacks will come as a personal embarrassment to Rouhani, who ran on his security record. 

He also reports that the shrine is largely used by foreign tourists, and that security was lax when he visited last month. 

The mausoleum is in southern Tehran, around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the parliament building. 

Shia Iran has been singled out as a target by Sunni jihadists, including the Islamic State group, but has largely escaped attacks within its urban centres.
Iran provides key ground forces against IS and other rebel groups in Syria and Iraq. 

The Kremlin said that an attack on two targets in Tehran by armed men underlined the need for countries to pool their efforts to fight against terrorism, something it said meant working closely with Muslim nations.

Here's Another Iranian Who Won't be Attending the Oscars

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Zeinab Sekaanvand

Asghar Farhadi, the Iranian director of "The Salesman" - nominated for an Oscar in the best foreign-language film category - won't be attending the Oscar ceremony. He decided not to come to the United States in order to protest President Donald Trump's executive order on travel. And along with the five other director nominees, he decried the growing "climate of fanaticism" in the United States. For this, he has won more international plaudits, adding to his fame and mystique as perhaps Iran's best known film director.

Here's another Iranian who won't be attending the Oscars:

Her name is Zeinab Sekaanvand and she is scheduled to be hanged.

A child bride, she was convicted of stabbing her husband to death.

She claimed he beat and abused her, that her complaints to the police were ignored, that her husband rejected her requests for divorce and that she was subsequently disowned by her conservative family.

After being arrested she was tortured by police officers. She confessed to the killing without benefit of a lawyer.

Later, she retracted her confession and claimed that her husband's brother had committed the crime, asking her to take the blame for it and promising to pardon her for it if she did - a practice permissible under Iranian law.

While on death row, Sekaanvand married a fellow prisoner and became pregnant. After her cellmate was taken away for execution, her baby was stillborn, apparently having died from shock.

Zeinab Sekaanvand's case has become somewhat of a cause celebre in the international human rights community. That might save her, although judging from recent history, it probably won't.

Iran now leads the world in executions per capita. One thousand people were executed last year. Since the 1979 Revolution tens of thousands have been executed, many thousands of them political opponents, religious minorities or people running afoul of sharia law penalties for adultery, homosexuality, blasphemy and so on.

It is estimated that 70 women have been stoned to death. They won't be attending the Oscars.

4,000 homosexuals have been killed, in many cases publicly hanged. They won't be attending the Oscars.

5,000 political prisoners - mainly leftists and communists - were executed in a five month period during 1988, a ferocious and massive purge which the government still denies ever existed. They won't be attending the Oscars.

200 Bahais have been killed. They won't be attending.

Many jews, scientists and government officials have been convicted of "espionage" and executed after dubious trials. They won't be attending either.

But I want to return to Asghar Farhadi. Here he is posing with the Oscar for best Foreign Film in 2012.

Farhadi is a sort of "hip" director. You can read long intellectual analyses of his work in cinema journals. Some of his films have been interpreted as veiled criticisms of Iranian government or society, but he also appears to have enough support within government circles to have furthered and protected his career and person.

He has become wealthy and famous, and he travels abroad regularly, hobnobbing with the likes of Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem.

Other Iranian directors have been jailed or been banned from filmmaking due to alleged dissident activities.

But Asghar Farhadi has always kept his nose clean. As far as I know, he has never explicitly condemned his country's human rights record nor lobbied for those imprisoned or on death row.

The name Zeinab Sekaanvand has never publicly passed his well-coiffed lips.

When Sekaanvand is hanged, what suit will he be wearing?

Former Tallest Building in Tehran Collapses in Horrific Fire - Perhaps 30+ Firefighters Killed

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The iconic Plasco Building, a fifteen-story concrete and steel-framed building in downtown Tehran, and the tallest building in the city from 1960 to 1963 collapsed earlier this morning in an horrific fire.

The collapse was witnessed by thousands on the ground and recorded live by hundreds of sources.

Though most news stories aren't mentioning it, it is of course impossible not to immediately think of the Trade Center collapse.

In some ways the cases are similar. They both happened on a sunny morning and were witnessed in awe and horror by commuters. In one of the videos, an unseen voice wails in Farsi as the Plasco Building starts to fall. Though I can't say precisely what he said, the conveyed emotion was eerily the same as that expressed in some of the most well-known videos from 9/11.

As with 9/11, I assume this was an unprecedented tragedy for Tehran's firefighters. Reports have varied as to casualties but it's clear that many died.

There's some debate on the internet as to whether or not Plastco had a steel frame. I assume it did as it would be hard to construct a 15-story building without one. It appears as if the fire melted the metal frame past the breaking point.

Of course a fifteen-story "skyscraper" doesn't seem high by modern American standards. And Tehran itself now has many taller buildings and towers. Some of the firefighters were actually able to spray water through the top windows of the building from cranes, and indeed one narrowly missed perishing as the wall collapsed next to his elevated platform.

Obviously, this tragedy was on a much smaller scale than that of 9/11, and today's fire was a "mere" disaster, not a terrorist attack. Many of those in the Middle-East now mourning the Plasco collapse were cheering the collapse of the Twin Towers.

But that makes no difference to the firefighters who died today or their family members.

The building was built by Jewish businessman, Habib Elghanian who named it after his plastics company.

That was in the days when Jews were allowed to build skyscrapers in the Muslim Middle-East.

Elghanian would later be executed for "espionage" in an anti-Jewish purge shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Here is dramatic footage of the collapse on live television:

And here is the latest from Reuters via the Daily Mail:

Troops, rescuers search for trapped firefighters after Iran building collapse 

By Parisa Hafezi 

ANKARA, Jan 19 (Reuters) - Soldiers, sniffer dogs and rescue workers searched for trapped firefighters and medics treated dozens of casualties after a blazing high-rise building collapsed in downtown Tehran on Thursday. 

One witness described the 17-storey commercial building's collapse as like a "scene from a horror movie." 

State TV reported that at least 75 people, including 45 firefighters, had been hurt when the building came crashing down in a giant cloud of dust early on Thursday morning. 

Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said there were about 25 firefighters trapped under rubble and the semi-official Tasnim news agency said troops had been sent to help dig through the ruins. 

One of the first firefighters to be reached shouted "leave me alone, let me go back inside and save my trapped colleagues" as he was brought out, Tasnim reported. 

Most of the hurt had been taken to hospital and many were quickly discharged, state TV said. 

An electrical short circuit caused the fire, Tasnim said, citing an official in the Tehran governor's office. Reuters could not immediately verify the cause. 

Earlier, President Hassan Rouhani had ordered an "immediate investigation" and compensation for those affected. 

The building's occupants were evacuated but firefighters had still been trying to control the fire when the building came down. 

State TV said the occupants included garment manufacturers and broadcast footage of business owners trying to re-enter the wreckage. 

Sniffer dogs searched for signs of survivors buried under giant slabs of concrete and heaps of twisted metal. The rescue operation could last more than two days, state TV said. 

The Plasco building in southern Tehran was more than 50 years old. Tasnim said it "had caught fire in the past". 

A fire department spokesman told state TV that the building's tenants "had been warned repeatedly in the past months by the municipality to evacuate the building because of safety concerns." 

The owner of a nearby grocery store, forced by police to leave the area, told Reuters by telephone that "it was like a horror movie. The building collapsed in front of me." 

The semi-official Fars news agency said police had cordoned off the British and Turkish Embassies that are located near the Plasco building. 

"The flames could be seen kilometers away from the old building," the Fars news agency reported. (Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Richard Lough)

Donald Trump Brings Down the House at Pro-Israel AIPAC Conference: Video and Full Transcript

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Earlier today, Donald Trump spoke at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) 2016 Policy Conference at the Verizon Center in Washington.

Outside the largely Jewish, pro-Israel event, often violent leftist mobs grotesquely compared Trump to Hitler and hurled antisemitic slurs.

And in the oddly named Google+ group, The Conservative Union, which only on Saturday tut-tutted about "bigotry" towards Mormons, members took the opportunity of Trump's speech to rail against "pandering" to Israel, Zionism and the Jewish vote and then equated the policies of the Jewish State with the violent land-grabs of Mao's China.

Who are the fascists?

It was a great speech. It was also the first pre-written speech of Donald Trump's campaign.

For a man who is often accused (with some justice) of sounding crass and petty, his remarks at the Conference were wise, righteous and presidential.

It is obviously not unreasonable for Republicans and conservatives to support other candidates. But those Republican and conservative Never Trumpers who used the speech simply to take more potshots at the man are the ones who ended up looking small.

Unless one believes that every word Trump utters, including "and," "but" and "if" is just a cynical lie to sell more self-help books or whatever, then if one is pro-Israel, it is impossible to believe that Trump would not be much better for the Jewish State than Obama/Clinton.

Is he perfect on the issue of Israel or Islamic Terrorism? No. Among other things, we're still waiting for him to apologize to Pamella Geller for his unjust remarks about the Draw Muhammad attack in Garland, Texas.

But he's looking better all the time.

Here is the video followed by a transcription from Time Magazine:

       

Good evening. Thank you very much. 

I speak to you today as a lifelong supporter and true friend of Israel. (CHEERS, APPLAUSE) 

I am a newcomer to politics, but not to backing the Jewish state. 

(APPLAUSE) 

In 2001, weeks after the attacks on New York City and on Washington and, frankly, the attacks on all of us, attacks that perpetrated and they were perpetrated by the Islamic fundamentalists, Mayor Rudy Giuliani visited Israel to show solidarity with terror victims. 

I sent my plane because I backed the mission for Israel 100 percent. 

(CHEERS, APPLAUSE) 

In spring of 2004 at the height of the violence in the Gaza Strip, I was the grand marshal of the 40th Salute to Israel Parade, the largest-single gathering in support of the Jewish state. 

(APPLAUSE) 

It was a very dangerous time for Israel and frankly for anyone supporting Israel. Many people turned down this honor. I did not. I took the risk and I’m glad I did. 

(APPLAUSE) 

But I didn’t come here tonight to pander to you about Israel. That’s what politicians do: all talk, no action. Believe me. 

(APPLAUSE) 

I came here to speak to you about where I stand on the future of American relations with our strategic ally, our unbreakable friendship and our cultural brother, the only democracy in the Middle East, the state of Israel. 

(CHEERS, APPLAUSE) 

Thank you. 

My number-one priority is to dismantle the disastrous deal with Iran. 

(CHEERS, APPLAUSE) 

Thank you. Thank you. 

I have been in business a long time. I know deal-making. And let me tell you, this deal is catastrophic for America, for Israel and for the whole of the Middle East. 

(APPLAUSE) The problem here is fundamental. We’ve rewarded the world’s leading state sponsor of terror with $150 billion, and we received absolutely nothing in return. 

(APPLAUSE) 

I’ve studied this issue in great detail, I would say actually greater by far than anybody else. 

(LAUGHTER) 

Believe me. Oh, believe me. And it’s a bad deal. 

The biggest concern with the deal is not necessarily that Iran is going to violate it because already, you know, as you know, it has, the bigger problem is that they can keep the terms and still get the bomb by simply running out the clock. And of course, they’ll keep the billions and billions of dollars that we so stupidly and foolishly gave them. 

(APPLAUSE) 

The deal doesn’t even require Iran to dismantle its military nuclear capability. Yes, it places limits on its military nuclear program for only a certain number of years, but when those restrictions expire, Iran will have an industrial-sized, military nuclear capability ready to go and with zero provision for delay, no matter how bad Iran’s behavior is. Terrible, terrible situation that we are all placed in and especially Israel. 

(APPLAUSE) 

When I’m president, I will adopt a strategy that focuses on three things when it comes to Iran. First, we will stand up to Iran’s aggressive push to destabilize and dominate the region. 

(APPLAUSE) 

Iran is a very big problem and will continue to be. But if I’m not elected president, I know how to deal with trouble. And believe me, that’s why I’m going to be elected president, folks. 

(CHEERS, APPLAUSE) 

And we are leading in every poll. Remember that, please. 

(CHEERS) 

Iran is a problem in Iraq, a problem in Syria, a problem in Lebanon, a problem in Yemen and will be a very, very major problem for Saudi Arabia. Literally every day, Iran provides more and better weapons to support their puppet states. Hezbollah, Lebanon received — and I’ll tell you what, it has received sophisticated anti-ship weapons, anti-aircraft weapons and GPS systems and rockets like very few people anywhere in the world and certainly very few countries have. Now they’re in Syria trying to establish another front against Israel from the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. 

In Gaza, Iran is supporting Hamas and Islamic jihad. 

And in the West Bank, they’re openly offering Palestinians $7,000 per terror attack and $30,000 for every Palestinian terrorist’s home that’s been destroyed. A deplorable, deplorable situation. 

(APPLAUSE) 

Iran is financing military forces throughout the Middle East and it’s absolutely incredible that we handed them over $150 billion to do even more toward the many horrible acts of terror. 

(APPLAUSE) 

Secondly, we will totally dismantle Iran’s global terror network which is big and powerful, but not powerful like us. 

(APPLAUSE) 

Iran has seeded terror groups all over the world. During the last five years, Iran has perpetuated terror attacks in 25 different countries on five continents. They’ve got terror cells everywhere, including in the Western Hemisphere, very close to home. 

Iran is the biggest sponsor of terrorism around the world. And we will work to dismantle that reach, believe me, believe me. 

(APPLAUSE) 

Third, at the very least, we must enforce the terms of the previous deal to hold Iran totally accountable. And we will enforce it like you’ve never seen a contract enforced before, folks, believe me. 

(APPLAUSE) 

Iran has already, since the deal is in place, test-fired ballistic missiles three times. Those ballistic missiles, with a range of 1,250 miles, were designed to intimidate not only Israel, which is only 600 miles away, but also intended to frighten Europe and someday maybe hit even the United States. And we’re not going to let that happen. We’re not letting it happen. And we’re not letting it happen to Israel, believe me. 

(CHEERS, APPLAUSE) 

Thank you. Thank you. 

Do you want to hear something really shocking? As many of the great people in this room know, painted on those missiles in both Hebrew and Farsi were the words “Israel must be wiped off the face of the earth.” You can forget that. 

(APPLAUSE) 

What kind of demented minds write that in Hebrew? 

And here’s another. You talk about twisted. Here’s another twisted part. Testing these missiles does not even violate the horrible deal that we’ve made. The deal is silent on test missiles. But those tests do violate the United Nations Security Council resolutions. 

The problem is no one has done anything about it. We will, we will. I promise, we will. 

(CHEERS, APPLAUSE) 

Thank you. 

Which brings me to my next point, the utter weakness and incompetence of the United Nations. 

(CHEERS, APPLAUSE) 

The United Nations is not a friend of democracy, it’s not a friend to freedom, it’s not a friend even to the United States of America where, as you know, it has its home. And it surely is not a friend to Israel. 

(APPLAUSE) 

With President Obama in his final year — yea! 

(LAUGHTER) 

(CHEERS, APPLAUSE) 

(LAUGHTER) 

He may be the worst thing to ever happen to Israel, believe me, believe me. And you know it and you know it better than anybody. 

So with the president in his final year, discussions have been swirling about an attempt to bring a Security Council resolution on terms of an eventual agreement between Israel and Palestine. 

Let me be clear: An agreement imposed by the United Nations would be a total and complete disaster. 

(APPLAUSE) 

The United States must oppose this resolution and use the power of our veto, which I will use as president 100 percent. 

(APPLAUSE) 

When people ask why, it’s because that’s not how you make a deal. Deals are made when parties come together, they come to a table and they negotiate. Each side must give up something. It’s values. I mean, we have to do something where there’s value in exchange for something that it requires. That’s what a deal is. A deal is really something that when we impose it on Israel and Palestine, we bring together a group of people that come up with something. 

That’s not going to happen with the United Nations. It will only further, very importantly, it will only further delegitimize Israel. It will be a catastrophe and a disaster for Israel. It’s not going to happen, folks. 

(CHEERS, APPLAUSE) 

And further, it would reward Palestinian terrorism because every day they’re stabbing Israelis and even Americans. Just last week, American Taylor Allen Force, a West Point grad, phenomenal young person who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was murdered in the street by a knife-wielding Palestinian. You don’t reward behavior like that. You cannot do it. 

(APPLAUSE) 

There’s only one way you treat that kind of behavior. You have to confront it. 

(APPLAUSE) 

So it’s not up to the United Nations to really go with a solution. It’s really the parties that must negotiate a resolution themselves. They have no choice. They have to do it themselves or it will never hold up anyway. The United States can be useful as a facilitator of negotiations, but no one should be telling Israel that it must be and really that it must abide by some agreement made by others thousands of miles away that don’t even really know what’s happening to Israel, to anything in the area. It’s so preposterous, we’re not going to let that happen. 

(CHEERS, APPLAUSE) 

When I’m president, believe me, I will veto any attempt by the U.N. to impose its will on the Jewish state. It will be vetoed 100 percent. 

(APPLAUSE) 

You see, I know about deal-making. That’s what I do. I wrote “The Art of the Deal.” 

(LAUGHTER) 

One of the best-selling, all-time — and I mean, seriously, I’m saying one of because I’ll be criticized when I say “the” so I’m going to be very diplomatic — one of… 

(LAUGHTER) 

I’ll be criticized. I think it is number one, but why take a chance? (LAUGHTER) 

(APPLAUSE) 

One of the all-time best-selling books about deals and deal- making. To make a great deal, you need two willing participants. We know Israel is willing to deal. Israel has been trying. 

(APPLAUSE) 

That’s right. Israel has been trying to sit down at the negotiating table without preconditions for years. You had Camp David in 2000 where Prime Minister Barak made an incredible offer, maybe even too generous; Arafat rejected it. 

In 2008, Prime Minister Olmert made an equally generous offer. The Palestinian Authority rejected it also. 

Then John Kerry tried to come up with a framework and Abbas didn’t even respond, not even to the secretary of state of the United States of America. They didn’t even respond. 

When I become president, the days of treating Israel like a second-class citizen will end on day one. 

(CHEERS, APPLAUSE) 

Thank you. 

And when I say something, I mean it, I mean it. 

I will meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu immediately. I have known him for many years and we’ll be able to work closely together to help bring stability and peace to Israel and to the entire region. 

Meanwhile, every single day you have rampant incitement and children being taught to hate Israel and to hate the Jews. It has to stop. 

(APPLAUSE) 

When you live in a society where the firefighters are the heroes, little kids want to be firefighters. When you live in a society where athletes and movie stars are the heroes, little kids want to be athletes and movie stars. 

In Palestinian society, the heroes are those who murder Jews. We can’t let this continue. We can’t let this happen any longer. 

(CHEERS, APPLAUSE) 

You cannot achieve peace if terrorists are treated as martyrs. Glorifying terrorists is a tremendous barrier to peace. It is a horrible, horrible way to think. It’s a barrier that can’t be broken. That will end and it’ll end soon, believe me. 

(APPLAUSE) 

In Palestinian textbooks and mosques, you’ve got a culture of hatred that has been fomenting there for years. And if we want to achieve peace, they’ve got to go out and they’ve got to start this educational process. They have to end education of hatred. They have to end it and now. 

(APPLAUSE) 

There is no moral equivalency. Israel does not name public squares after terrorists. Israel does not pay its children to stab random Palestinians.
You see, what President Obama gets wrong about deal-making is that he constantly applies pressure to our friends and rewards our enemies. 

(CHEERS, APPLAUSE) 

And you see that happening all the time, that pattern practiced by the president and his administration, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is a total disaster, by the way. 

(LAUGHTER) 

(CHEERS, APPLAUSE) 

She and President Obama have treated Israel very, very badly. 

(APPLAUSE) 

But it’s repeated itself over and over again and has done nothing (to) embolden those who hate America. We saw that with releasing the $150 billion to Iran in the hope that they would magically join the world community. It didn’t happen. 

(APPLAUSE) 

President Obama thinks that applying pressure to Israel will force the issue. But it’s precisely the opposite that happens. Already half of the population of Palestine has been taken over by the Palestinian ISIS and Hamas, and the other half refuses to confront the first half, so it’s a very difficult situation that’s never going to get solved unless you have great leadership right here in the United States. 

We’ll get it solved. One way or the other, we will get it solved. 

(APPLAUSE) 

But when the United States stands with Israel, the chances of peace really rise and rises exponentially. That’s what will happen when Donald Trump is president of the United States. 

(CHEERS, APPLAUSE) We will move the American embassy to the eternal capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem. 

(CHEERS, APPLAUSE) 

And we will send a clear signal that there is no daylight between America and our most reliable ally, the state of Israel. 

(CHEERS, APPLAUSE) 

The Palestinians must come to the table knowing that the bond between the United States and Israel is absolutely, totally unbreakable. 

(APPLAUSE) 

They must come to the table willing and able to stop the terror being committed on a daily basis against Israel. They must do that. 

And they must come to the table willing to accept that Israel is a Jewish state and it will forever exist as a Jewish state. 

(CHEERS, APPLAUSE) 

I love the people in this room. I love Israel. I love Israel. I’ve been with Israel so long in terms of I’ve received some of my greatest honors from Israel, my father before me, incredible. My daughter, Ivanka, is about to have a beautiful Jewish baby. 

(CHEERS, APPLAUSE) 

In fact, it could be happening right now, which would be very nice as far as I’m concerned. 

(LAUGHTER) 

So I want to thank you very much. This has been a truly great honor. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. 

Thank you very much. 

(CHEERS, APPLAUSE)

Iran Coerces Gays Into Having Sex-Change Operations, U.S. State Department Thinks That's Very Liberal Of Them

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Everything will soon be all right* 

One of the semi-well-known quirks of official social philosophy and policy in modern Islamic Iran is that homosexuals and lesbians are thought of as people "trapped" in the wrong physical genders. Thus, the solution for gay people (and society) is for them to have sex-change surgery.

If you think about it, the philosophy might indicate a somewhat more "compassionate" or "liberal" stance on homosexuality than the Muslim norm. Homosexuality is not evil. It's simply a consequence of some kind of biological misidentification or mistake. And sure enough, in some measures, things are arguably less repressive for homosexuals in Iran than in some other Islamic countries. Perhaps that doesn't say much. But still.

On the other hand, there have long been reports that homosexuals in Iran have been pressured, coerced or forced into having sex-change treatments often including surgery. This is well-known among human-rights organizations, although a minority of activists appear to be sympathetic to the government's "supportive" measures.

Among other things, the government will give you loans and grants worth up to $3,690 to go through with it.

Well, it beats getting thrown off a building.

So, now I'm a homosexual man in a "woman's" body--the discount model ($3,690), I should add. Or maybe I wasn't even technically homosexual, just a bit feminine. It happens.

Why are they still laughing at me? Why am I still not accepted?

I think there's been some mistake. It's not exactly what I wanted. Can I get another $3,690 to go back, please?

Shut up and wear your burka. No one will be able to see you anyway.   

A 2014 BBC report summarizes the situation, making it clear, among other things that the pressure is both societal and governmental. 

It's not official government policy to force gay men or women to undergo gender reassignment but the pressure can be intense. In the 1980's the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa allowing gender reassignment surgery - apparently after being moved by a meeting with a woman who said she was trapped in a man's body. 

Shabnam - not her real name - who is a psychologist at a state-run clinic in Iran says some gay people now end up being pushed towards surgery. Doctors are told to tell gay men and women that they are "sick" and need treatment, she says. They usually refer them to clerics who tell them to strengthen their faith by saying their daily prayers properly. 

But medical treatments are also offered. And because the authorities "do not know the difference between identity and sexuality", as Shabnam puts it, doctors tell the patients they need to undergo gender reassignment. 

In many countries this procedure involves psychotherapy, hormone treatment and sometimes major life-changing operations - a complex process that takes many years. 

That's not always the case in Iran. 

"They show how easy it can be," Shabnam says. "They promise to give you legal documents and, even before the surgery, permission to walk in the street wearing whatever you like. They promise to give you a loan to pay for the surgery." 

Supporters of the government's policy argue that transgender Iranians are given help to lead fulfilling lives, and have more freedom than in many other countries. But the concern is that gender reassignment surgery is being offered to people who are not transgender, but homosexual, and may lack the information to know the difference. 

"I think a human rights violation is taking place," says Shabnam. "What makes me sad is that organisations that are supposed to have a humanitarian and therapeutic purpose can take the side of the government, instead of taking care of people." 

Psychologists suggested gender reassignment to Soheil, a gay Iranian 21-year-old. 

Then his family put him under immense pressure to go through with it. 

"My father came to visit me in Tehran with two relatives," he says. "They'd had a meeting to decide what to do about me... They told me: 'You need to either have your gender changed or we will kill you and will not let you live in this family.'" 

His family kept him at home in the port city of Bandar Abbas and watched him. The day before he was due to have the operation, he managed to escape with the help of some friends. They bought him a plane ticket and he flew to Turkey... 

Marie, aged 37, is now staying in Kayseri after leaving Iran five months ago. She grew up as a boy, Iman, but was confused about her sexuality and was declared by an Iranian doctor to be 98% female. 

"The doctor told me that with the surgery he could change the 2% male features in me to female features, but he could not change the 98% female features to be male," she says. 

After that, she thought she needed to change her gender. 

Hormone therapy seemed to bring positive changes. She grew breasts, and her body hair thinned. "It made me feel good," she says. "I felt beautiful. I felt more attractive to the kinds of partners I used to have." 

But then she had the operation - and came away feeling "physically damaged". 

She had a brief marriage to a man but it broke down, and any hope she had that life would be better as a woman was short-lived. 

"Before the surgery people who saw me would say, 'He's so girly, he's so feminine,'" Marie says. 

"After the operation whenever I wanted to feel like a woman, or behave like a woman, everybody would say, 'She looks like a man, she's manly.' It did not help reduce my problems. On the contrary, it increased my problems...

How widespread the practice is is difficult to know. Presumably, if you're homosexual but are discreet and have a bit of luck, you will be able to avoid the whole thing. The recent Daily Caller news item on the issue, states:

Since homosexuality can be punishable by death in Iran, known homosexual men tend to accept the government-subsidized surgery to become women, and vice versa.

The implication is that the practice is almost the norm (or the norm for "known" homosexuals). This seems incredible to me, but I really have no idea.

On to the United States response.

The U.S. State Department recently released it's Annual Human Rights survey, containing 16,000 words on Iran. As one would expect, there's a section on "Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity." The first part references the assorted horribles that one would expect to find in any authoritarian Muslim country:

The law (of the Islamic State of Iran) criminalizes consensual same-sex sexual activity, which is punishable by death, flogging, or a lesser punishment.... Security forces harassed, arrested, and detained individuals they suspected of being gay....Thirteen interviewees claimed that security officers subjected them to torture or physical abuse in detention, including punches, kicks, baton strikes, sexual assault, or rape. Many reported that family members beat them at home but feared reporting those assaults to authorities because they might themselves be charged with a criminal act.

But the concluding paragraph of the section references sex-change surgery:

The law defines transgender persons as mentally ill, and the government provided transgender persons financial assistance in the form of grants of up to 4.5 million tomans ($1,660) and loans up to 5.5 million tomans ($2,030) to undergo gender-confirmation surgery. In addition, the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare requires health insurers to cover the cost of gender-confirmation surgery. Individuals who underwent gender-confirmation surgery may petition a court for new identity documents with corrected gender data, which the government reportedly provided efficiently and transparently. Human rights activists and NGOs reported that some LGBT persons were advised to undergo gender-confirmation surgery to avoid legal and social consequences due to their gender-identity ambiguity.

Now, on the surface, the above is not completely inconsistent with, say, that BBC report, and indeed it repeats some of the basic facts. But note the overall positive, or at least neutral tone, especially when contrasted with those punches, kicks and baton strikes of the first part. Notice the use of "advised to undergo" as opposed to "pressured", "coerced" or "forced". Also note the use of the phrase "gender-confirmation surgery" as opposed to the now generally accepted term, "gender-reassignment surgery."

Ask Marie about gender-confirmation.

Is face reassignment surgery available for John Kerry?

I'm sure there are a number of Iranians who would like to give it to him for free.

Obviously, the sex-change surgery for gays mania is not the worst thing about living in Iran (unless you're a known homosexual overly attached to your gender). Other minorities have their own problems. If you're a Muslim who converts to Christianity, you'll be strongly pressured to have your own "re-assignment" treatment. The State Department report alludes to this, or at least to cases of it, but it's contained within a long list of other instances of "Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life." And as expected there's no mention of the underlying Islamic view that apostasy from Islam should always be prevented or punished--with death, according to the usual sources.

But one gets the impression that if you're not a member of any kind of minority (counting women in that category), life can be almost normal.

Ignore the fact that your neighbor just underwent genital mutilation.

Who knows, it might have even been a man. 




*In the blog title photo (from Getty Images by way of the Daily Caller), the nurse on the left is actually a pre-treatment, man.

Founder of the the Islamic State of Iran: There is No Fun in Islam

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Don't laugh

The following quotation from the late Ayatollah Khomeini is well-known to Islamophobes, but it bears repeating (the link contains the source).

We are told that just 1% (or whatever) of all Muslims are "extremists". Most Muslims are peaceful, freedom loving, baby-tickeling folks just like us. If they have extreme opinions it's in the same proportion as those Christians who believe God hates Fags, etc.

This, of course, is utter bollocks.

Do a poll and find out how many, say, Pakistanis think that apostates from Islam (or people who slander the Prophet or commit homosexual acts or frolic with Jews or whatever) should be executed. Hint: It's closer to 99% than 1%.

So here's a quote from the founder of the Islamic State of Iran--sort of the Iranian equivalent of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King and Ronald Reagan all rolled together...with a pointy beard:

Allah did not create man so that he could have fun. The aim of creation was for mankind to be put to the test through hardship and prayer. An Islamic regime must be serious in every field. There are no jokes in Islam. There is no humor in Islam. There is no fun in Islam. There can be no fun and joy in whatever is serious. Islam does not allow swimming in the sea and is opposed to radio and television serials. Islam, however, allows marksmanship, horseback riding and competition ...

Well, thank Allah that marksmanship is still permitted.

Now, Khomeini was a cagey one. He wrote poems about wine. No doubt that was during his Rumspringa.

But did you ever wonder why so many Muslims want to engage in suicide attacks?

What do they have to lose?