In an open letter, LGBTQ+ activists and organizations have strongly condemned the expressions of condolence by Western governments in memory of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash along with other government officials over the weekend.
Activists denounced the move as “an insult to those who stood up crying 'Women, Life and Freedom' to overthrow the Islamic Republic.”
They stress that such gestures of sympathy are a betrayal of the Iranian people, especially the women and LGBTQ+ communities who have fought against the Islamic Republic's brutal policies.
“Mr. Raisi's role in the execution and murder of gays and queer people unjustly murdered by the Islamic Republic's justice system cannot be hidden,” the letter said.
Activists are calling on governments to take a firm stance against the Islamic Republic, end appeasement and designate the IRGC as a terrorist organisation.
The letter also includes support from organisations such as Azad Queer, a network of Iranian queer people in the Netherlands, the Iranian Rainbow Society, 6rang, and numerous individual activists around the world.
Died President Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir AbdollahianWestern leaders issued messages of condolences, which immediately sparked harsh criticism from Iranians and others.
Critics say offering condolences to such a regime implicitly justifies its suppression of dissent, support for terrorism and ongoing human rights violations.
Ebrahim Raisi was part of the “death committees” responsible for the execution of at least 2,000 Iranian political prisoners in the 1980s.
As president, he was in office during the 2022 women’s liberation protests in Iran, which were sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini.
A UN fact-finding mission in March found that the Iranian regime committed crimes against humanity in its crackdown on protests, including murder, imprisonment, torture and sexual violence.
On Thursday, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi They called on the UN General Assembly to cancel the memorial service for Raisi.
She called on UN leaders to refer to Mr Raisi by the same name that Iranians call him – “the butcher of Tehran”.
A minute's silence was held for Raisi and his delegation at Monday's UN Security Council meeting, and flags were flown at half-mast at UN headquarters in New York.
Israel's UN ambassador Gilad Erdan condemned the memorial, asking the Security Council: “What will happen next? Will there be a memorial for Hitler? We would not be surprised.”
On Thursday, Kylie Moore GilbertA former Australian hostage held in Iran for more than two years also criticised Western governments' expressions of condolence for the Iranian president's death, saying there was a lack of leadership to condemn “a man widely seen as complicit in mass murder”.
