An estimated 100 transgender inmates are missing and presumed dead after an Israeli airstrike flattened part of Iran’s Evin Prison late last month.
Israeli officials described the June 23 strike as “symbolic,” according to The New York Times. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar called it retaliation for Iranian missile attacks on civilian targets and framed it as a form of liberation for Iran’s political prisoners.
Critics say Israel showed total disregard for the lives and safety of prisoners, launching the strike at noon on a workday when the prison was full of visitors, lawyers, and medical staff.
Iranian officials said at least 71 people were killed in the strike, including 43 prison staff and two conscripted soldiers. Four civilians not employed by the prison also died, including two children accompanying their parents. The death toll is believed to be an undercount, with numbers expected to rise.
Iranian media reported that two areas of the prison were directly hit: the visitor center near the main entrance and the 47-bed hospital clinic inside the compound.
Satellite imagery reviewed by The Washington Post and the research group Forensic Architecture showed multiple direct hits on the prison. These included cell blocks, medical areas, administrative buildings, and the notorious 209 ward, known for housing political prisoners and foreign nationals under harsh conditions.
Siamak Namazi, an Iranian-American businessman imprisoned at Evin for eight years on espionage charges condemned by the U.S. and human rights groups, said prisoners feel caught between two ruthless regimes.
“What I hear from prisoners and my friends there is that they feel stuck between the two blades of a scissors, the evil regime that imprisons and tortures them, and a foreign force dropping bombs on their heads in the name of freedom,” he told the newspaper.
An Israeli military spokesman told The Washington Post that Evin Prison was being used for “intelligence operations against the State of Israel, including counterespionage,” and claimed the strike was “carried out in a precise manner to mitigate harm to civilians imprisoned within the prison to the greatest extent possible.”
Hours after the strike, security forces shackled prisoners in pairs and marched them out of Evin at gunpoint, amid continuing Israeli airstrikes, to transfer them to other facilities. Iranian officials say the prison is now empty.
As noted by the transgender news site Erin in the Morning, Israel has sought to portray itself as LGBTQ-friendly to legitimize its military actions in Gaza and Palestine, positioning itself as a rare safe haven for LGBTQ people in a region where homosexuality is often criminalized.
Accusations of “pinkwashing” — using LGBTQ-friendly messaging to distract from human rights abuses — have been leveled at Israel by critics who point out that many anti-LGBTQ laws in the Middle East were imposed by European colonial powers. As The Conversation notes, class often determines who ends up prosecuted under those laws.
Evin’s housing of transgender prisoners reflects the complex reality for trans people in Iran. While transgender identity is legally recognized, that recognition stems from the country’s — and Islamic law’s — rejection of homosexuality. Some gay and lesbian Iranians have reportedly been coerced into transition-related surgery to conform to a system that only accepts heterosexual relationships.
Life for transgender people in Iran remains difficult, even for those who have legally transitioned. Those who fail to conform to gender norms can face discrimination, arrest, or prosecution under laws banning public cross-dressing.
According to a 2021 IranWire report by Daniel Keyvanfer, Evin housed many LGBTQ prisoners jailed for alleged offenses ranging from “nudity” and “feminine behavior” to theft and fraud. They were reportedly held in deplorable conditions, subjected to solitary confinement, and faced regular threats of violence from guards and fellow inmates. Some were confined to basement units with no amenities, outdoor access, or prison store, and complaints were routinely ignored.
“We are imprisoned in these harsh conditions for a long time,” one prisoner told IranWire about their time in the basement complex. “We were cursed with long periods of solitary confinement and now a life underground. When we raise these issues with our families, they say this is what we deserve — and maybe even that this will correct us.”
The fate of the missing transgender prisoners remains unknown, a grim consequence of a conflict where human rights are often collateral damage.
Authorities have charged the women with “distributing obscene material” for writing danmei, gay male romance fiction popular among young female readers.
At least 30 women in their 20s have been arrested in China since February for publishing gay-themed erotica. They have been charged with "producing and distributing obscene material."
Many of the women published their work on Haitang Literature City, a Taiwan-hosted platform known for "danmei," a genre of gay male romance and erotica. According to The New York Times, the site is only accessible through software that bypasses China's Internet firewall. Danmei has attracted a largely young, female audience.
Inspired by Japanese manga, danmei emerged online in the 1990s and quickly grew in popularity. Dozens of titles have topped bestseller lists, and in 2021, sixty were optioned for film or TV. Several major Chinese stars launched their careers in danmei-based dramas.
Brent Askari's Andy Warhol in Iran could shift some theatergoers' perspectives on a variety of complicated topics, from the junction of art and commerce, to Western interference in the affairs of modern Iran.
Making its D.C. premiere at Mosaic in a crisply-mounted production directed by Serge Seiden, the tidy two-hander takes on a world of troublesome issues without ever leaving a luxury hotel room in Tehran.
That's where the artist Andy Warhol (Alex Mills) is holed up, having been invited by the wife of the Shah, Empress Farah, to create pop-art portraits of her and the royal family.
The Israeli city of Tel Aviv canceled its Pride festivities -- including the Pride parade -- that had been scheduled for the past weekend, citing concerns over potential retaliation against Israel for air strikes on Iranian nuclear and military targets that began on June 13.
The air strikes, part of Operation Rising Lion, involved 200 Israeli fighter jets targeting nearly 100 locations across Iran, including nuclear enrichment facilities and the presumed hiding places of Iranian military leaders.
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