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The Case of Mohammad Khordadian, an Iranian Male Dancer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Firoozeh Papan-Matin
Firoozeh Papan-Matin*
Affiliation:
University of Washington in Seattle
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Abstract

In his speech at Columbia University, President Mahmud Ahmadinejad stated that there are no homosexuals in Iran. His attempt was to avoid the subject and any ensuing controversies that could hamper the nuclear talks at the United Nations General Assembly the following day. The present study will argue that the denial of homosexuality has been selectively applied to situations when the most prudent alternative was to overlook the issue or to keep quiet about it. A few years earlier, while the former president, Mohammad Khatami, was still in office, this attitude determined the course of action in dealing with Mohammad Khordadian, a famous Los Angeles based Iranian-American male cabaret dancer who was also rumored to be gay. In the spring of 2002, Khordadian visited Iran for the first time in more than twenty years. The authorities considered it an offense that he dared to challenge the morality codes of the Islamic Republic by crossing the border into Iran without any apprehension. The imprisonment and trial of Khordadian is a unique case in focus.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 42 , Issue 1: Special Issue On Gender and Sexuality , February 2009 , pp. 127 - 138
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Iranian Studies 2009

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Footnotes

The research for this article was made possible through a faculty research grant from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Mr. Mohammad Khordadian, his friends, the musicians, dancers, and the staff at the Coochini Club generously shared with me stories about their lives in Iran and in Dubai. Anthony Shay, Garay Menicucci and my graduate research assistant James Gustafson provided me with important resources for this article. I gratefully acknowledge their support.

References

1 Afsaneh Najmabadi, “Truth of Sex: While Trans-Sexuality in Iran is Made Legitimate, Homosexuality is Insistently Reiterated as Abnormal,” Iranian, 12 January 2005, http://www.iranian.com/Najmabadi/2005/January/Sex/index.html (accessed 3 May 2008). The author takes issue with the view that celebrates the legalization of sex-change operations without evaluating the impact of this practice on the homosexuals who see the operation as a refuge. Cf. Doug Ireland, “Change Sex or Die,” Gay City News, 10 May 2005, http://www.gaycitynews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18324930&BRD=2729&PAG=461&dept_id=569346&rfi=6 (accessed 3 May 2008).

2 Maryam Hatoon Molkara, a pioneering transsexual activist based in Iran, appealed to Ayatollah Khomeini as early as 1975 and began campaigning for transsexual rights. Nazila Fathi, “As Repression Lifts, More Iranians Change Their Sex,” New York Times, 2 August 2004, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DE0D91F3DF931A3575BC0A9629C8B63 (accessed 3 May 2008). Cf. Robert Tait, “A Fatwa for Freedom,” The Guardian, 27 July 2005, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/jul/27/gayrights.iran (accessed 3 May 2008), and Stack, Megan K., “Iran Bans Being Gay, but Allows Sex Change,” Nation and World, 30 January 2005, FACTIVA (accessed 3 May 2008)Google Scholar. “Khomeini reasoned that if men or women wished so intensely to change their sex, to the point that they believed they were trapped inside the wrong body, then they should be permitted to transform that body and relieve their misery. His opinion had more to do with what isn't in the Quran than what is. Sex change isn't mentioned, Khomeini's thinking went, and so there are no grounds to consider it banned.”

3 Nazila Fathi, “As Repression Lifts, More Iranians Change Their Sex,” New York Times, 2 August 2004, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DE0D91F3DF931A3575BC0A9629C8B63 (accessed 3 May 2008). Dr. Bahram Mir-Djalali, Iran's top sex-reassignment surgeon refers to the social challenges that his patients face. Fathi reports: “‘We have a problem even deciding at which hospital to do the surgery because society considers these people deviant,” he said. “Hospital officials have reacted negatively because they say other patients do not like the looks of my patients.”

4 Some authors have discussed the reception of homosexuality in classical Persian literature but only a few have called attention to its treatment in the premodern and modern history of Iran. In recent years, Afsaneh Najmabadi and Janet Afary have produced valuable scholarship on this subject. See: Najmabadi, Afsaneh, Women with Mustaches and Men without Beards: Gender and Sexual Anxieties of Iranian Modernity (Berkeley, CA, 2005)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Afary, Janet, Sexual Politics in Modern Iran (Cambridge, 2009, in press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Sofer, Jehoeda, “Sodomy in the Law of Muslim States,” in Sexuality and Eroticism Among Males in Moslem Societies, ed. by Schmitt, Arno and Sofer, Jehoeda (New York, 1991), 135–137Google Scholar.

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7 Davis, Alexa, “Expert Explores Homosexuality in Iran,” Columbia Spectator, Online Edition, 6 March 2008, http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/29803 (accessed 3 May 2008)Google Scholar. The article refers to Janet Afary, who argues that “Ahmadinejad's Iran has been ‘actively pursuing’ homosexuals and prosecuting them for crimes such as pedophilia and rape in order to provide additional reason for entrapment and persecution.”

8 “US-based Iranian Dancer Charged with ‘Encouraging Depravity among Youth,’” Agence France Presse, 4 July 2002, LexisNexis Academic (accessed 24 April 2008).Google Scholar

9 Certain traditional interpretations of Islam refute not only dance but also listening to music. The earliest classical sources on this subject explain that music and dancing corrupt the heart and distract it from devotion to God. Moreover, they increase desire and decrease shame and inhibition and destroy manliness. Some even see these activities as a sign for the coming of doomsday. In the case of Khordadian his feminine behavior was not only a consequence of dancing from an early age but also his sexual orientation.

10 “US-based Iranian Dancer Charged with ‘Encouraging Depravity among Youth’,” Agence France Presse, 4 July 2002. LexisNexis Academic (accessed 24 April 2008).

11 Seyyed Ebrahim Nabavi, “Khurdadian Muhakimi Shud”, Charandiati, 17 June 2002, http://www.charandiaat.com/archives/2002_06.html (accessed, 24 April 2008).

12 Dreyfuss, Robert, “Shiring Ebadi: Don't Attack Iran,” The Nation, 29 April 2008Google Scholar. Ebadi identified the current minister of intelligence, Ghorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi, as a key agent in the chain murders of dissidents and intellectuals during this period.

13 “EU Special Envoy Arrives, Meets Foreign Minister,” BBC, 11 January 2001, FACTIVA (accessed 24 April 2008).

14 “Commission Will Examine Prospects for a Strengthening of Relations with Tehran,” Agence Europe, 7 February 2001, FACTIVA (accessed 24 April 2008). Cf. “Commission Outlines Plan for Closer Relations,” European Report, 10 February 2001, FACTIVA (accessed 24 April 2008).

15 Jones, Gareth, “Iran Agrees to Build Closer Ties,” Reuters News, 10 September 2001, FACTIVA (accessed 24 April 2008)Google Scholar.

16 “EU, Iran Begin Talks on Closer Trade Links, Human Rights,” Dow Jones International News, 10 September 2001, FACTIVA (accessed 24 April 2008). Cf. “EU Delegation Visits Tehran to Discuss Iran's Stance on Terrorism,” EFE News Service, 25 September 2001, FACTIVA (accessed 24 April 2008).

17 “EU/Iran—Ministers Discuss Mandate for Trade and Co-operation Agreement with Iran,” European Report, 9 May 2002, FACTIVA (accessed 24 April 2008).

18 “Columbia Plans to Go Ahead with Ahmadinejad,” Associated Press Newswires, 20 September 2007, FACTIVA (accessed 24 April 2008).

19 Long, Colleen, “Columbia President Reviled, Praised for Allowing Ahmadinejad to Speak at Ivy League University,” Associated Press, 24 September 2007, FACTIVA (accessed 24 April 2008)Google Scholar.

20 Student reaction at Columbia University mirrored the sentiment of students and academics in Iran whose stance against the current regime was subsequently met with punishment, academic expulsion, and incarceration.

21 “A Tyrant Opens Mouth, Spews Nonsense,” St. Petersburg Times, 26 September 2007, FACTIVA (24 April 2008).

22 Fathi, Nazila, “Many Gays in Iran, but They're Forced to Keep Low Profile/Internet Makes Socializing Easier in a Nation Where President Denies That They Exist,” International Herald Tribune, 1 October 2007Google Scholar, FACTIVA (accessed 25 April 2008).

23 On 25 March 2006, Khordadian moved back to Los Angeles after four years in Dubai.