In Iran, two cousins and a stepbrother beheaded the young Ali Fazel Monfare, 20, in 2021, upon discovering his sexual orientation through the military file.
In 2021, the news of Ali Fazel Monfared, a young Iranian who was tortured and beheaded by members of his own family after they discovered his sexual orientation in the file that exempted him from military service, shook social networks.
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The young man, 20 years old, had planned to flee his country to Turkey, where his partner, Aghil Abyat, was waiting for him, and later take refuge in Europe. After suspicions of his relatives’ plan, Ali planned to sell his cell phone to, with that money, leave Iran, travel to Turkey, request asylum in that country and reunite with his partner.
For years, Alireza, as he was known, had suffered homophobic and transphobic harassment and death threats from several male relatives because he did not conform to the sociocultural binary gender stereotypes and “norms” in Iran.
So he preferred to remain silent and not report these incidents to the Police because he feared suffering violence and persecution at the hands of the same authorities.
Just days before making the trip, his half-brother and two cousins discovered the military file that indicated Alireza’s sexual orientation, which is why he was exempt from military service in the ultra-conservative Islamic republic. In Iran, military service is not mandatory for homosexuals or transsexuals.
In the Islamic Republic of Iran, homosexuality is a crime with penalties ranging from prison to corporal punishment such as whipping. and even death, as dictated by the country’s religious laws.
Ashamed by the “dishonor” that Alireza’s sexual orientation brought to his family, his stepbrother and cousins decided to set him up and then kill him near Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan province, on May 4, 2021.
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The young man was deceived, his stepbrother and cousins put him in a car using the lie that his father wanted to see him, however they kidnapped him and brutally murdered him.
A day later, the stepbrother himself called Alireza’s mother to tell her the precise place where she could find her son’s body, which was abandoned under a palm tree in the nearby town of Borumi.
The reprehensible practice was called “honor killing.” The three men were arrested but it is unknown if they were convicted of this heinous crime.
