Hoaxed
The Iran-imposing-dress-code-on-religious-minorities story was a hoax. Still, Iran is no paradise for religious minorities:
The persecution of Bahá’ís has been common throughout Iranian history. In the 1950s, under the regime of the Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi, Bahá’ís and their holy places were attacked with tacit state approval. Since the Iranian revolution, more than 200 Bahá’ís have been executed or killed, hundreds more have been imprisoned, and tens of thousands have been deprived of jobs, pensions, businesses, and educational opportunities. All national Bahá’í administrative structures have been banned by the government, and holy places, shrines and cemeteries have been confiscated, vandalized, or destroyed. The Islamic government of Iran even destroys their graves [2].
Oh, yeah: Iran is also a pretty shitty place for gay people:
Iran: Two More Executions for Homosexual ConductIran’s execution of two men last week for homosexual conduct highlights a pattern of persecution of gay men that stands in stark violation of the rights to life and privacy, Human Rights Watch said today.
On Sunday, November 13, the semi-official Tehran daily Kayhan reported that the Iranian government publicly hung two men, Mokhtar N. (24 years old) and Ali A. (25 years old), in the Shahid Bahonar Square of the northern town of Gorgan.
The government reportedly executed the two men for the crime of “lavat.” Iran’s shari`a-based penal code defines lavat as penetrative and non-penetrative sexual acts between men. Iranian law punishes all penetrative sexual acts between adult men with the death penalty. Non-penetrative sexual acts between men are punished with lashes until the fourth offense, when they are punished with death. Sexual acts between women, which are defined differently, are punished with lashes until the fourth offense, when they are also punished with death.
But Iran’s anti-gay policies are, it seems, okey-dokey with the Bush administration:
U.S. Aligned With Iran in Anti-Gay VoteIn a reversal of policy, the United States on Monday backed an Iranian initiative to deny United Nations consultative status to organizations working to protect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people….
“This vote is an aggressive assault by the U.S. government on the right of sexual minorities to be heard,” said Scott Long, director of the LGBT rights program at Human Rights Watch. “It is astonishing that the Bush administration would align itself with Sudan, China, Iran and Zimbabwe in a coalition of the homophobic.”
I want to remind everyone that in Israel even the Orthodox Jews are pro gay and pro gay marriage. There was even a gay rights parade in Jerusalem that went off without a hitch.
If the U.S. would invade Iran we could force them to be pro gay too.