Journalist Still In Jail after Disproving Ahmadinejad's Denial of Gay Iranians

Siamak Ghaderi

THE GUARDIAN – IRAN BLOG: Siamak Ghaderi published interviews with gay Iranians, but was imprisoned for insulting the president and spreading propaganda

In September 2007, when the then Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, denied, to the jeers of the audience at Columbia University in New York, that homosexuals existed in the Islamic republic, one journalist back home was determined to prove him wrong.

Siamak Ghaderi, who worked as a reporter with the state news agency, Irna, challenged Ahmadinejad's comments by conducting a series of interviews with Iranian homosexuals and publishing them online. But this came at a price. Read on and comment » | Posted by Saeed Kamali Dehghan | Tuesday, October 08, 2013