Parsa
Age 1731 Jan 2024
Tabriz, East Azerbaijan (Iran)
Stabbed
Parsa was murdered by their father for "not conforming to traditional gender norms". Their killing followed 3 years of abuse for just being who they were.
Note that they/them pronouns are used here as we do not know how Parsa identified.
ARTICLE 19 is shocked and saddened by the tragic murder of a 17-year old child in Iran for not conforming to traditional gender norms. We condemn the Islamic Republic’s propagation of hate towards members of the LGBTQ+ community, as well as the enabling framework of impunity for perpetrators of such reprehensible acts of crime, all of which result in gender apartheid in Iran.
On 30 January 2024, local news outlet Rokna reported that the 17-year-old Iranian, which it identified as ‘Parsa’, had been murdered by their father over not conforming to rigid gender norms. For the purpose of this statement, since no reliable information is available about Parsa’s gender identity or sexual orientation, the they/them pronouns will be used.
In Iran, same-sex sexual acts are punishable by death and people not conforming to cisgender and heteronormative rules are persecuted by both state and non-state actors. Due to the lack of transparency in the Islamic Republic’s judicial system, there are no reliable statistics on the number of people charged for alleged ‘crimes’ related to their sexual orientation or gender identity. However, rights groups have extensively documented instances of queerphobic violence, including the gruesome murder of Alireza Fazeli Monfared by their family in 2021 and transmisogyny leading to the murder of trans youth Henar in 2022 and Siavash in 2018.
According to an interview Parsa’s father gave to Rokna while in custody after he committed murder, the child had endured abuse from their family as punishment for their gender non-conformist behaviour since the age of 14. The father referred to a list of behaviours that included using makeup, changing hair colour, and shaving body hair.
The father confessed that he had imprisoned Parsa at least once and had also forced them to go through ‘psychotherapy to be cured’. In face of the abuse, the child had previously escaped from home multiple times.
The child’s father eventually reached the point of murder after his alleged ‘shame’ before his community and after being informed of his child’s ‘heinous immoral acts’ with friends. Under the guise of taking his child to a psychiatric ward, he took Parsa to a place outside the city and murdered them. The 17-year-old child’s murder has once again laid bare the extent of harm caused by extreme and violent anti-LGBTQ discrimination.
The case is a harrowing example of the Islamic Republic’s gender apartheid system, which permeates through every facet of Iranian society and its institutions. Parsa’s case follows similar crimes of child homicide.
https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-father-murders-son-lgbt-feminine-behavior/32799963.html
https://www.iranintl.com/202401313445
https://www.radiofarda.com/a/32799543.html
https://twitter.com/ICHRI/status/1753075605388615912
https://twitter.com/ARAMalliance/status/1752468339819974663
https://twitter.com/Phlegmbuoy/status/1752747635562414090
