Director from country that executes gays lectures Trump about ‘inhumane laws’

by WorldTribune Staff, February 28, 2017

An Iranian director whose film won the Oscar for best foreign language film on Feb. 26, lectured U.S. President Donald Trump on “inhumane laws” and “human dignity”.

Asghar Farhadi, who boycotted the awards ceremony over Trump’s temporary travel ban on people from seven Muslim-majority countries – including Iran – said in a statement that “my absence is out of respect for the people of my country and those of other six nations who have been disrespected by the inhumane law that bans entry of immigrants to the U.S.”

Asghar Farhadi

Farhadi’s film “Salesman” won in the best foreign language film category.

The director launched into “an explanation of the merits of inclusivity and human dignity, while praising his country, which is known for hanging gay people,” reporter Rachel Stoltzfoos wrote for The Daily Caller on Feb. 27.

Farhadi, in his statement, said “dividing the world into the ‘us’ and ‘our enemies’ categories creates fears. A deceitful justification for aggression and war. These wars prevent democracy and human rights in countries which have themselves been victims of aggression.”

The Daily Caller article highlighted Farhadi’s hypocrisy by pointing to Iran’s 2016 execution of a teenage boy who was arrested when he was a high-schooler on charges of forced gay sex. The boy admitted to the sex, but maintained the sex with two other boys was consensual. Amnesty International condemned the execution.

“He had no access to a lawyer and the judiciary rushed through the investigation and prosecution, convicting and sentencing him to death within two months of his arrest as though they could not execute him quickly enough,” Magdalena Mughrabi, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Program Director at Amnesty International said in a statement.

“It seems that while gay lobby groups, the media, politicians, and everyday citizens will speak out and protest with outrage at the slightest sign of discrimination against someone who is gay, there is hardly a peep when gays are arrested, tortured, and executed in Iran and elsewhere in the world,” Rabbi Shmuley Boteach wrote for the Observer in 2015.

“And while average citizens may claim ignorance as to the atrocities being perpetrated against gays in Iran, the lobbyist groups, the politicians, and the media have no such alibi.”

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