by Rex Wockner
A spokesman for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Oct. 10 that Ahmadinejad was misquoted when he said at Columbia University in New York on Sept. 24 that there are no homosexuals in Iran.
"What Ahmadinejad said was … that, compared to American society, we don't have many homosexuals," presidential media adviser Mohammad Kalhor told Reuters.
But the Persian-speaking communications director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, Hossein Alizadeh, a gay Iranian who won asylum in the U.S. based on his sexual orientation, disagreed.
Asked for comment Oct. 10, Alizadeh played an audio file on his computer over the telephone and said: "Here is exactly what Ahmadinejad said at Columbia University: 'Absolutely not. We in Iran — we in Iran, firstly, we don't have hamjensbaz [a derogatory term for homosexuals meaning people with loose morals who chase people of the same gender for sexual pleasure] like you have in your country. In our country, there is no such thing. In Iran, such a thing does not — in Iran, in Iran, absolutely such a thing does not exist as a phenomenon. I don't know who told you otherwise.'"
Alizadeh said Ahmadinejad again denied the existence of Iranian gays a day later at a United Nations press conference.
According to Alizadeh, a reporter for the Voice of America's Persian service asked him: "You mentioned that there is no such phenomena in Iran as homosexuality. Could you please elaborate on that?"
Alizadeh said Ahmadinejad replied: "Seriously, I don't know of any. As for homosexuality, I don't know where it is. Give me an address, so that we are also aware of what happens in Iran."
