2005: Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, gay teens
July 19th, 2009 Headsman
On this date in 2005, two teenagers were hanged in Mashhad, Iran.
Affecting photos of these two youths, their faces etched in fright and grief, their 16- and 18-year-old bodies pitifully boyish next to their executioners, became an immediate worldwide sensation.
These shocking images were quickly followed by a storm of controversy. The crime for which Asgari and Marhoni swung was the rape of a 13-year-old while both the offenders were themselves minors; gay organizations and human rights groups subsequently became mired in contentious dispute over whether (as a factual, legal, or tactical matter) they could be said to have succumbed to a “lethal reign of terror targeting Iranian gays”. For instance, was the conviction reliable, or a pretext? Would these boys actually have self-identified as “gay”?
To that were added charges and countercharges among western campaigners of racism, imperial lickspittle-ism, objective-pro-Islamic-fascism, and the like. Like, awfully convenient that Iran’s longtime dim view of homosexuality has everyone exercised at just the moment bombing Tehran was being openly mooted.
But whatever the text: those pictures. Still, those pictures.
It is certain that both Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni were juvenile offenders, whose execution is anathema almost everywhere in the world but Iran — just one of that country’s unique characteristics.
Also on this date
- 2011: A day in the death penalty around the world
- 1776: Jamaican slave rebels
- 1824: Agustin de Iturbide, Emperor of Mexico
- 1824: Alexander Pearce, cannibal convict
Entry Filed under: 21st Century,Capital Punishment,Children,Common Criminals,Crime,Death Penalty,Disfavored Minorities,Execution,Hanged,Homosexuals,Iran,Mature Content,Rape,Ripped from the Headlines,Sex
Tags: 2000s, 2005, ayaz marhoni, july 19, mahmoud asgari, mashhad
August 27th, 2009 at 2:33 am
I am ashamed for this! I cant believe this but i know its true, Why the people in Iran choose this man again for president?Of cours we have gays there,whats the problem? This president is a shame for the country and for islam.How I tell my children?Never I let them go to Iran again.Bring REZA back! Viva our SHAH
December 17th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
[...] 6. Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, 2005 [...]
March 6th, 2010 at 9:02 pm
My heart is broken kteer … I recently found out about Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, even though this took place years ago … it’s as if it ‘just happened’. I do not agree with their life-style of sodomy, anymore than I agree with Mahmoud & Ayaz, being lashed kteer times and then executed by being hanged there in Mashhad, Iran.
The President of Iran Ahmadinejad & the Ayatollah Kharnenei, obviously think very little of the People of Iran … and are determined to kill many, by bringing in the 12th Immam, at the expence of innocent People …
So hanging People, ‘all the time’ has seared their conscience with an hot iron.
Jesus Said, “Father Forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
As a follower of Jesus, I must not hate, anyone, only to Love and to Forgive.
Love In The Truth, and you Shall know The Truth, and The Truth Shall Set you Free, Free Indeed,
Barbara http://www.leadingtheway.org
June 7th, 2010 at 4:03 am
So, It’s OK for two teenagers to rape a 13 year old!! That’s what they were executed for!! You make excuses for this type of behavious!! Grow up!! That is Iran and all thoughout the middle
Arab nations such actions carry the death penalty!!
I you want to stop Muslim Clerics stapping bombs on young men and sending them to kill innicent women and children, keep your
gay noses out of Muslim affairs!!
September 19th, 2010 at 5:48 am
Karonzon- Woo dude, you’re missing a couple screws. No one said what you are accusing. Nor did anyone make an excuse for the accused. Can you not comprehend what someone says/writes? Here you did not!
Besides- Gay noses certainly are not what have caused terrorism by extreme islamic religious fanatics who use religion like any extreme religious fanatic, for power over people and fantasy.
Yeesh, sometimes I really wonder about the human mind.
September 19th, 2010 at 6:19 am
Human Rights Watch has stated “There is no evidence that this was a consensual act,” and observed that “The bulk of evidence suggests that the youths were tried on allegations of raping a 13-year-old, with the suggestion that they were tried for consensual homosexual conduct seemingly based almost entirely on mistranslations and on cursory news reporting magnified by the Western press.”
It was a pro homosexual group who passed around translations of the charging information, manipulating the document by leaving out the part about forcible rape that led to this case ever being spoken about as a consensual incident. Because ignorant people took and ran with it instead of researching all the facts they could find before writing about it. These two kids were also charged with other things such as drinking and disturbing the peace. Ok so let me get this clear, you believe the death penalty for a child who rapes is right but an adult blowing up another adult for terrorist reasons is ok?
I just find it such BS that this guy goes on blaming westerners for Muslims blowing up people while complaining about people making excuses for rapists.
September 19th, 2010 at 6:22 am
Granted, had the author bothered to put the effort deserved into writing this article, thing’s would be much clearer for us all.
October 31st, 2010 at 10:34 am
[...] Cameron Todd Willingham – He’s the reason Texas Gov. Rick Perry will never be president. 22. July 19, 2005: Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni – Photographs of these two youths going fearfully to their deaths focused attention on the plight [...]
January 30th, 2011 at 6:39 pm
Death to rapists! Whatever they are gay or not!
February 17th, 2011 at 6:57 am
nour asghari mahouachi (coometn number 1) you are dispicable. You are no real muslim bring back the shah. If you re a muslim i am ahsamed to call myself onw beacuse you are just a disgrace to our religion
may god show you the right path
sorry for the poor englijh
July 2nd, 2011 at 10:56 pm
No wonder there are so much terorist there…they are all full of emotion human needs freedom and a chans to make theyer one decisions and they just dont get it… u may should care about u`re one business and let the people just live theyer lifes like they wont too …ther are enough other problems in countries like iran. (nit that im thinking gay people are a problem)
sorry for my english
August 4th, 2011 at 1:26 am
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September 12th, 2011 at 8:50 pm
Remember: many black men were lynched in the USA for “raping” women – when it did not occur or it was a love affair. It may be there was no rape or the father of the 13 year old found out and cried “rape” to protect family honor. In Iran, no one really knows what has really occurred. Eyewitness accounts DO tell that they arrest young teenage girls, sentence them to death, rape them so they will go to hell, and then execute them. They also rape young male prisoners (testimony of victims; suicide video of one of the victims on YouTube). If you really want to defend this non-Islamic, devil worshiping regime, you need to dedicate yourself to Satan first. And then join the fan clubs for Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Vlad Drakulya, Pol Pot, Mao Zedong, Idi Amin Dada, Slobodan Milosevic, etc. etc.
October 31st, 2011 at 11:08 am
[...] May 25, 1948: Witold Pilecki, Auschwitz infiltrator 13. June 19, 1953: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg 14. July 19, 2005: Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, gay teens 15. July 8, 1999: Allen Lee “Tiny” Davis, the last electrocuted in Florida 16. November [...]
January 9th, 2012 at 10:04 am
SAY NO TO GAY AND AVOID EXCUTION BY HANGING
January 9th, 2012 at 10:21 am
all in have to say if it is a rape crime they are not supose to be hang why cant they jail then 5years or send them to exile than hanging them to death i am against there hanging by death if it is rape case;, but if it is homusexuly they disave that even afater hanging then burn there body because gay is a sin and it destory the nation there are many woman around the word then why must a man marry man it is a sin the jurgement is good if the casy is homusexuly let them be kill by hanging but once again i beg the president of iran to relase iran girls; give them freedom so that rape and homosexualy we stop becaue i guess there girls are cage like libya girls so that is why there boys rape and comit gay so free the women let them live the way they want with men pls mr president of iran
January 13th, 2012 at 7:43 pm
This is wrong. The boys were whipped hundreds of time until they admitted touching the 13 year old. They were children themselves!! This is pure evil. God bless them both!! This makes me cry! Nobody deserves this.
January 13th, 2012 at 8:02 pm
I think hanging should be banned worldwide. I cannot begin to imagine what is like to be sentenced to death. It’s ok people on here saying they deserved it! That is rubbish! We don’t know the truth because they poor kids were gay i think they were victimised and paid with being whipped into admitting something they may not have even done! just victimised because they were gay. If they had touched the 13 year old t which is very questionable they could have been punished by being put in prison. Not paid with their lives. This is barbaric and pure EVIL. Nobody should pay with their live for being gay! They cannot help it!!!
January 13th, 2012 at 8:07 pm
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is delusional!!
January 16th, 2012 at 5:18 pm
The problem with this case is that no one on the outside will ever know the truth. Whether you are pro-death-penalty, or not, is beside the point in this case. As was pointed out previously and emphasized by the Iranian President’s statement that there are “no gays in Iran”, it is easy to imagine false allegations against these two young men. Certainly if this is a gay issue and the sex was consensual (but illegal), the simple solution would be a jail term, followed by expulsion from the country … but in Iran politics and law are too deeply intertwined with religion, and admissions of guilt are not based on proof, but unfounded accusation and torture … How can any of us, outside that kind of system, ever hope to know the truth. Therefor, our making a judgement against these young men is tantamount to approval of this country’s horribly flawed system. Of course, even my own opinion of their judicial system is based on an outsiders point of view, and one that I will admit, has almost no knowledge of the acceptability of that system, among the Iranian people. I can only judge on what I know and what I accept as right, therefor, gay, or no, these young men deserved to have a proper investigation of their “crime” and to have any admissions of guilt that occurred under torture, excluded from the record. And for the record, rape is not a gay, nor straight crime, it is a crime of physical violence. Why don’t we all use our energies demanding that all countries follow an internationally acceptable set of judicial procedures?? Most of us can accept the idea of universal human rights; why not an equal set of rules governing investigation of allegations, the treatment of prisoners, admissions gotten by torture, etc.? Surely we have evolved that far, even if we don’t agree on punishment … or, maybe not.
April 28th, 2012 at 12:51 am
iran can go to hell with your mullah!!!stupic muslim country ever!!you said you are truly muslim but allyou did are murdering people and being munafiq!! you and your president are munafiq!!!!
June 16th, 2012 at 7:44 am
Nobody outside of Iran really knows the truth… Maybe they were gay, maybe they weren’t. Maybe they raped that 13 year old, maybe they didn’t and were forced to confess. I don’t know. I think rape is a horrible, awful crime, but even if they were guilty of that….god, just give them a prison sentence or something, don’t EXECUTE them, they were bloody minors! *sigh* Stuff like this gives Muslims a bad name. I’m Muslim myself, and I have zero problems with gay people. One of the people I care most about in the world is gay, and I don’t give a damn. *shakes head* Iran is a bit of a scary place for anyone not a white, heterosexual man.
October 31st, 2012 at 4:04 am
[...] 11. Pulitzer Prize-winning firing squad photograph from the Iranian Revolution (August 27, 1979) 12. Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni (July 19, 2005) 13. Nguyen Van Lem (February 1, 1968) 14. Allen Lee “Tiny” Davis [...]
January 26th, 2013 at 3:26 am
Animal society, who hangs human being, be it Iran or my country India, where, I live, but we have freedom of speech in India.
February 7th, 2013 at 9:57 pm
CURSE ON THE HEADS OF THOSE WHO HAVE SENTENCED AND HANGED THESE LITTLE BOYS TO DEATH. ISLAMIC LAW IS FOOLISH AND ORTHODOX. THEY ARE A OLD STICK IN THE MUD. THEIR GOD IS FOOL AND THEY ARE FOOL…. SICK RELIGION AND SICK FOLLOWERS !!!
February 11th, 2013 at 3:05 pm
Religion Poisons Everything!
February 16th, 2013 at 9:14 pm
This makes me so sad that mere words can’t express. Nobody’s God permits this to happen. If this were really a rape case I believe they should be punished to the full extent of the law which I doubt includes hanging even in Iran. But if this is because these children were gay may their God curse them for the rest of their lives.
April 8th, 2013 at 9:15 am
[...] For more disturbing images and coverage of Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni’s hanging, click here. [...]