Dokument #1252469
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Autor)
No specific information on penalties in
Iranian law for possession of homosexual videos could be found
among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate. However,
the Research Directorate has found a news report that 28 teenagers
had been sentenced to punishments including fines, lashing, and
unspecified terms of imprisonment after they were arrested on 24
August 1996 at a party at 41 "vulgar" videotapes, and illegal audio
cassettes and compact discs were found (The Houston
Chronicle 25 Aug. 1996). For more information on illegal (but
not specifically homosexual) videos in Iran, please see Response to
Information Requests IRN24239.E of 29 July 1996 and IRN26679.E of
23 April 1997.
Regarding satellite dishes, Index on
Censorship carried a report from the French organization
"Reporters sans frontières" in its March/April 1998 issue
that stated:
A total of 197 Tehrani families had their satellite dishes confiscated and now face fines of up to a million rials (US$315) for violating a ban on such equipment. (91)
This Response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is
not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any
particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the
list of additional sources consulted in researching this
Information Request.
References
The Houston Chronicle. 25
August 1996. "World Briefs." (NEXIS)
Index on Censorship [London].
Vol. 27 No. 2. March/April 1998. "Index Index: Iran."
Additional Sources Consulted
IGLHRC Action Alert [San
Francisco]. July/August 1993-No. 6, 1997.
ILGA Bulletin [Brussels].
January-March 1996; July-September 1996; October-December 1996;
April-June 1997; October-December 1997; January-March 1998.
Electronic sources: IRB databases,
Global News Bank, Internet, REFWORLD, WNC.
Two oral sources consulted did not
provide information on the requested subject.
Information dating from 1990 on an
organization in Iran called the Arab People's Movement could not be
found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.
However, the Research Directorate was informed by a representative
of the Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies (CAIS) in London that
there is a very small and politically unimportant group of Iranian
exiles, most of whom live in the Netherlands and Germany, who call
themselves the Arab People's Movement ("Jonbesh-e Khalq-e Arab" in
Persian). This group was founded shortly after the Islamic
Revolution, and its aim was the separation from Iran of the
province of Khuzestan, where ethnic Arab Iranians are concentrated
(and where the city of Ahwaz ( or Ahvaz ( is located). With the
help of the Iraqi intelligence services, they carried out armed
attacks against Iranian targets in Khuzestan until about 1986 or
1987, when some members of the Arab People's Movement were
executed. Since that time they have carried out no activities
inside Iran that the representative is aware of (28 May 1998).
The CAIS representative added that this
group has sometimes been known by other names, among them the
"Movement for the Liberation of Arabistan" (ibid.). Moreover, the
Research Directorate was informed by a professor of political
science and specialist in Iran at Spring Hill College that although
the professor has not heard of an organization called the Arab
People's Movement,
There are some underground organizations of Iranians of Arab origin in the province of Khuzestan that have conducted low-level campaigns against the Iranian government for years. These groups come and go and change their names quite regularly. ... these organizations are very insignificant.
This Response was prepared after
researching publicly accessible information currently available to
the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is
not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any
particular claim to refugee status or asylum.
References
Centre for Arab and Iranian Studies
(CAIS), London. 28 May 1998. Telephone interview.
Professor of political science, Spring
Hill College, Mobile, Alabama. 26 May 1998. E-mail
communication.
Additional Sources Consulted
Hunter, Shireen. 1992. Iran After
Khomeini.
Iran: Political Culture in the
Islamic Republic. 1992. Edited by Samih Farsoun and Mehrdad
Mashayekhi.
Katzman, Kenneth. 1993. The Warriors
of Islam.
Moaddel, Mansoor. 1993. Class,
Politics and Ideology in the Iranian Revolution.
Electronic sources: IRB databases,
Global News Bank, Internet, Keesing's, LEXIS/NEXIS, REFWORLD,
WNC.
Three oral sources consulted did not
provide information on the requested subject.
Penalties for possession of videotapes containing explicitly homosexual images and dealing with homoerotic themes; current penalties for the use of satellite dishes [IRN29550.E] (Anfragebeantwortung, Französisch)