NOT ANTI-WAR, JUST ON THE OTHER SIDE: Trans rights better in Iran than Britain, say Green activists.
Transgender people have better rights in Iran than Britain, Green Party activists have claimed.
One member of the Greens for Palestine group, a Left-wing faction in the party, argued in a leaked WhatsApp message seen by The Telegraph that transphobia was “far worse” in Britain than in many Islamic countries.
The claim came ahead of the Green Party autumn conference in Brighton which began on Friday.
Animah Kosai, the membership officer of the Global Majority Greens pressure group, wrote: “You’d be quite surprised at how Iran, following Islamic teachings, is far more liberal when it comes to trans identity and abortions, compared to Texas, or, even culturally, the UK.”
The Iranian government recognised transgender individuals who had changed sex in the 1980s but trans people regularly face harassment and are regarded by officials as having a “disorder”.
In Britain, the Equality Act 2010 protects people from being fired from work, turned down for housing or harassed because they are gay, lesbian or transgender. Gender recognition certificates can be obtained by trans people who have changed their biological sex.
Homosexuality is a capital offence in Iran and gay and lesbian Iranians who are not put to death can face penalties including flogging and jail time. Many gay men in Iran have undergone forced sexual reassignment surgery.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have chosen a side in the midterms: ‘From Death to America’ to ‘Vote Democrat:’ Iran’s IRGC Issues Midterms Endorsement. “As George Washington School of Law scholar and Fox News analyst Jonathan Turley noted, ‘It’s not a good sign when the IRGC shifts from ‘Death to America’ to ‘Vote Democratic.’”
To be fair, it’s tough to fault the IRGC for supporting the side that gave them their big break back in the day. Flashback: RIP Jimmy Carter, the American Chamberlain whose naïve foreign policy led Iran to become the world’s biggest sponsor of terror.