Iranian Official Fired After Alleged Gay Sex Tape Leaked
Official in charge of “promoting Islamic values” could face prosecution under sharia law after a video of him allegedly having sex with a man went viral.
An Iranian government official in charge of “promoting Islamic values” was suspended after an alleged sex tape appearing to show him having sex with a younger man surfaced.
Reza Tsaghati most recently served as director-general of the culture and Islamic guidance in Iran’s northern Gilan province, near the Caspian Sea. But on July 19, he was removed from his position after a leaked video, which appears to show Tsaghati having sex with a younger man inside the office of the General Directorate of Culture and Islamic Guidance, went viral.
On July 22, the cultural and Islamic guidance department of Gilan called the incident a “suspected misstep of the director of Islamic guidance in Gilan” and said that the case had been “referred for careful consideration to the judicial authorities.” However, authorities warned members of the public against using the alleged sex tape to “weaken the honorable cultural front of the Islamic Revolution.”
The video was first published by Radio Gilan, a media outlet that claims to be dedicated to “exposing corruption among regime officials,” on its Telegram channel. (The independence of Radio Gilan could not be established by Metro Weekly.)
The video’s authenticity has not been verified, according to the BBC.
Despite its unverified origins, the grainy, low-quality video — which depicts two men, one alleged to be Tsaghati, engaging in sex in a darkened room — has been shared widely online.
Some speculate the alleged sex tape was released as part of a power struggle in the region. Accusations of same-sex relations, and the social stigma that follows, have been used in the past to eliminate political opponents, according to the Iranian news website IranWire.
Radio Gilan has previously revealed the identities of other government officials alleged to have engaged in same-sex acts, handing over “evidence” to the authorities for prosecution.
Prior to the sex tape’s release, Radio Gilan had repeatedly criticized Tsaghati, depicting him as an opponent to provincial Governor Asadollah Abbasi, according to IranWire.
According to France 24’s The Observers, despite his removal from his position of power, the regime does not appear to be prosecuting Tsaghati for his actions at this time. However, for the time being, the regime is seeking information about the person who recorded, leaked, and shared the video online.
Tsaghati has not commented publicly on the matter.
Radio Gilan has reported that Tsaghati’s sister and nieces had been arrested and detained for questioning by authorities after the allegations broke, and that Tsaghati has received death threats.
Under Iranian law, which is based on sharia, or the concept of a divinely ordained path of conduct by which Muslims are expected to abide, same-sex relations are criminalized.
Punishments for same-sex intimacy can range from fines to whippings to life in prison to execution. Typically, men are more severely punished for same-sex relations, with death being the most severe. Women engaging in same-sex conduct are typically punished with 100 lashes, with death being prescribed for repeat offenders.
Trials for those accused of engaging in same-sex relations can be as short as 20 minutes and people can be “found guilty without corroborating evidence,” Peter Tatchell, a British LGBTQ-rights activist, told LGBTQ Nation.
This sex tape controversy likely marks the end of Tsaghati’s career in a system where queerness is demonized and used as a weapon to gain support from conservative citizens.
Tsaghati has by no means supported the LGBTQ community in Iran. He has been a part of the local government for over ten years and founded the Hosseinieh Honar Rasht religious center. Most recently, he was elected director-general in November 2021 and established a community center focused on “chastity and women wearing hijab,” reports LGBTQ Nation.
The demonization of queerness on religious grounds for political profit is not unique to Iran. The same tactics used by clerics and politicians in Iran have been similarly utilized in other Muslim-majority and Christian-majority nations.
For instance, Zakir Naik, an Indian Muslim preacher, used the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, which appears in the Quran and Bible, to incite his followers to reject queerness as a sin.
Like Naik, Mike Huckabee, a former presidential candidate and Republican governor of Arkansas, attempted to appeal to religious conservatives by declaring that the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision legalizing same-sex marriage had turned the United States into Sodom and Gomorrah.
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