LGBTQ rights activist
Iran’s World Cup match against Egypt has become a test not only of FIFA’s approach to inclusion but also of whether LGBTQ+ Iranians can claim visibility on one of the world’s biggest sporting stages.
The game has been designated as the tournament’s “Pride Match” by local organizers to acknowledge and celebrate the LGBTQ+ community.
The designation has no official standing with FIFA and was determined by Seattle’s local organizing committee. Still, the Iran Football Federation objected, as did Egypt’s. Iran’s football chief labeled the match’s designation an “irrational move that supports a certain group.”
That opposition is unsurprising. It represents a continuation of the Islamic Republic’s efforts to erase our community and deny our existence.
In Iran under the Islamic Republic, being LGBTQ+ can quite literally be a death sentence. Under Articles 234–239 of Iran’s Islamic Penal Code, same-sex acts between men can be punished by death.
I never came out publicly in Iran, but I didn’t have to. People could “sense” it, they’d say. The harassment, the threats and the fear were constant. I could have been arrested—or worse.
After fleeing to the United States, I began speaking out—mostly for those who still can’t. In June 2019, when New York City hosted WorldPride to mark the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, I had the privilege of marching through the streets of Manhattan alongside my fellow Iranian queers and my family.
It was the first time WorldPride had ever been held in the United States, but for me it meant even more. After 23 years of living under an oppressive state, I was finally able to publicly and proudly be myself—both as a proud Iranian and a gay man.
From that day forward, I committed myself to using the privileges I have as an American citizen to amplify the voices of the Iranian LGBTQ+ community to the world. Our community faces severe legal and social discrimination, state-sanctioned violence and persecution, and unyielding efforts to erase our existence.
I quickly came to understand that it would be reductive to speak about the Iranian LGBTQ+ community outside the context of Iranian identity and Iranian politics. The two cannot be separated.
This is exactly why the 2026 FIFA World Cup has become such a charged and meaningful moment for our community. The news felt like a moment in which we could bring visibility to our plight on one of the world’s largest stages.
But the Pride Match represents only one controversy surrounding Iran in this year’s World Cup. Ahead of the tournament, FIFA made the decision to ban the historic Lion and Sun flag from all venues because it reportedly viewed the flag as “political” in nature.
That flag served as Iran’s official flag until the regime seized power in 1979 and replaced the Lion and Sun image with its current emblem. For millions of Iranians, including myself, the Lion and Sun is not a political symbol but one of cultural identity and resistance to a government that has never represented us.
Despite FIFA’s decision, dozens of brave Iranian fans defied the ban at the national team’s opening match, waving the flags proudly across SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. While some fans displayed the flags without issue, others were stopped by security while trying to enter the stadium.
One young boy who was stopped said the flag “means freedom,” while another asked: “What do they expect us to do? Support a regime that we do not believe in?”
That question deserves an answer from FIFA. By banning the Lion and Sun, FIFA risked reinforcing the regime’s preferred narrative by treating a symbol many Iranians see as cultural identity as merely political.
The broader conduct of the Iranian Football Federation at this tournament should also give FIFA pause. The Iranian team’s send-off ceremony in Tehran was held at an IRGC-affiliated rally hosted by a sanctioned official who described the World Cup as a “war battlefield” and urged players to compete in memory of those who “stood by Iran’s missile defense systems and ballistic missile launchers.”
This is the organization whose preferences FIFA appears to have reflected when it banned the Lion and Sun flag.
Iran has now threatened to walk off the field entirely if it faces Pride symbols or dissenting slogans at the match, and FIFA has left local organizers to hold the line alone. Iran’s sports minister says they have been “assured that no disruptive incidents will occur in the stadium,” but it remains to be seen how FIFA will handle the situation during the match.
FIFA should avoid repeating that mistake. The Pride Match was intended to affirm visibility and inclusion, not to make a statement about Iranian politics.
For LGBTQ+ Iranians, that visibility is not symbolic. It is something they are denied at home under threat of imprisonment, violence and even death. Allowing that visibility to be erased on US soil would leave them wondering whether their existence remains negotiable when confronted by political pressure.
Muharram is the holiest month in the Shiite Muslim calendar. Its ninth and tenth days, Tasu'a and Ashura, commemorate the seventh-century killing of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, whose death at the Battle of Karbala symbolizes resistance against oppression and is marked each year with public mourning processions.
Messages received by Iran International suggest this year's ceremonies have drawn smaller crowds than in previous years, with many Iranians saying the nights of January 8 and 9 massacres have become their own Tasu'a and Ashura, when they mourn tens of thousands of those killed.
Social media posts also show many users replacing traditional Muharram images with photographs and names of people killed during recent protest crackdowns.
Many shared similar sentiments, writing: "We have had our own Ashura. We have seen the real oppressed."
Quieter ceremonies, different mourning
Videos sent to Iran International show some mourning processions incorporating tributes to those killed in the protests.
One resident said a banner bearing the names and photographs of protest victims was raised during Ashura ceremonies in Homayounshahr, near Isfahan, on June 25. According to the account, it was displayed openly during the religious gathering.
The mother of 25-year-old Mohammad Jafarpour, who was killed by security forces in Khomeinishahr, Isfahan province, on January 9, posted a video from his graveside on Wednesday.
"My mourning procession this year, my Ashura and Tasu'a, is your grave, my son," she wrote.
Several residents described this year's Muharram ceremonies as noticeably subdued.
A Tehran resident said that while passing Enghelab Square in central Tehran on June 24, coinciding with Tasu'a, they saw only a single woman waving the Islamic Republic's flag.
Another said chest-beating processions in their town, once dominated by young people, were this year attended mainly by older participants.
"The young people of our city were buried in January with all their dreams," the resident said.
For decades, Muharram rituals have been strongly promoted by the Islamic Republic and, in many state-supported ceremonies, religious observances have also served as platforms for political messaging and expressions of support for the government's ideological positions.
Karbala remembered through recent protests
Many said they now wear black during Muharram to mourn those killed in the January protests.
Some residents also said that mourning ceremonies in places including Kangavar in Kermanshah province included elegies for those killed during the protests.
Video received by Iran International showed the mother of a victim called Mohammad Radmannia addressing mourners during a Tasu'a ceremony in Tehran, urging them: "Do not let my son's path be extinguished."
Radmannia, 29, was killed by security forces during protests in Tehran's Nezamabad neighborhood on January 9.
Another video shared by the sister of 25-year-old Amirhossein Javadzadeh showed their mother searching through Muharram mourners while calling her son's name aloud.
Elsewhere, mourners in Lafmejan village in Gilan province gathered at the grave of 18-year-old Mani Safarpour during a Muharram procession. His photograph was mounted on ceremonial drums used in the procession. Safarpour was killed during protests in Tehran on January 8.
The use of Muharram commemorations to remember those killed in anti-government protests has continued since the Woman, Life, Freedom movement.
During Muharram in 2023, mourners in several cities sang protest songs, held symbolic performances honoring those killed, distributed memorial food offerings in their names and gathered at gravesides.
The investigation draws in part on a list of people recorded at Gharazi Hospital during the crackdown. Documents reviewed by Iran International have so far confirmed the identities of 24 people who died after being taken there.
Iran International has previously reported on several deaths connected to the hospital, including those of Iraj Kiani, Mohammadreza Saberi, Ahmadreza Mehrab Beik, Mehdi Masoumi and Mona Hosseini.
Those reports described a pattern of direct gunfire at protesters, denial of medical treatment, bodies removed without family consent, delayed release of remains, pressure on relatives and demands for large payments before bodies were handed over.
Hospital under security control
Witnesses, relatives and medical sources described the hospital as operating under tight security control during the three-day period.
They said security personnel controlled the hospital, many bodies were removed without informing families and records relating to some of the dead and wounded disappeared from the hospital's admission system.
More than 100 injured people were brought to the hospital on the evening of January 9, according to information received by Iran International. A hospital source said the names of a number of injured and killed were removed from the electronic registration system shortly after being entered.
One medical staff member estimated that 140 bodies linked to the hospital were identified or seen during the unrest, though other sources suggested the real figure may have been considerably higher.
Morgue accounts
Medical sources and eyewitnesses said the hospital morgue reached capacity on the nights of January 8 and 9, with bodies stacked on top of one another. Several sources also said that some wounded people were transferred there alongside those already dead.
One member of the medical staff told Iran International that groaning could be heard from inside one of the body bags after it reached the morgue, suggesting that at least one person was still alive. Security personnel, the source said, prevented staff from approaching the individual.
Witnesses also described bodies being moved to external storage facilities after the morgue became full.
Families told Iran International that some bodies were withheld for several days before being released under heavy security restrictions, with payments of between five billion and 10 billion rials, roughly $3,500 to $7,000 at the time, reportedly demanded before remains were returned.
The reports contrast with an announcement by Iran's Legal Medicine Organization on January 12 that examinations of those injured during the protests and the release of victims' bodies would be free of charge.
Protester's final hours
Among the cases documented is that of Farid Seifi, who was shot during the protests on January 8.
Witnesses said a security officer fired from a rooftop, striking him in the heart. His family took him to Gharazi Hospital while he was still breathing, but he later died there.
People close to the family said security personnel subsequently removed his body. After several days and the payment of a substantial sum, his body were returned and buried under heavy security on January 15.
He had been married for only one year and eight months, and his wife was pregnant with triplets when he was killed.
Information from the streets of Isfahan also indicates that Gharazi Hospital became the destination for many people wounded by direct fire from security forces during the protests.
A witness said thousands of people had gathered when security forces advanced from the nearby streets on January 9. Officers first used tear gas and long-range fire before moving closer and opening direct fire on the crowd, according to the witness.
Several people fell after a burst of gunfire, forcing protesters to flee through side streets, the witness said.
One protester was struck by three bullets. "People tried to call emergency services, but the lines were busy," the witness said. "Eventually, several people stopped a car and asked the driver to take the protester's body to the hospital."
Wounded teenager says hospital opened judicial case
In a separate account, an 18-year-old identified as Mehdi said he was shot with live ammunition from about 10 meters away during protests in Isfahan on January 8, with the bullet striking above his knee.
He said protesters first took him to a nearby house, where they stemmed the bleeding. "As the number of wounded increased and space ran out, some protesters were treated in residential parking garages," he said.
Because of heavy blood loss, Mehdi later sought treatment at Gharazi Hospital, where he said staff opened a judicial case for him. Security agents visited his home several times after his hospital visit, he added.
Accounts received by Iran International show that fear of arrest, torture or being killed at hospitals led many wounded protesters to avoid medical centers altogether or leave shortly after arriving. Some instead received treatment in homes and parking garages with the help of local residents and medical staff.
The pattern has also meant that the true number of people wounded and killed was never fully recorded in official systems or, in some cases, disappeared after initial registration.
Iran International's campaign into the small town of Mamasani killings in Fars province has previously documented similar accounts of wounded protesters receiving treatment at home because they feared arrest at hospitals.
The campaign to establish the facts surrounding the January protest crackdown continues by collecting, examining and verifying accounts from witnesses, victims' families, medical staff and local sources.
Testimony reviewed by Iran International has made Gharazi Hospital one of the central locations in the investigation. Multiple sources described it not only as a hospital where wounded protesters were denied treatment, but also as a site where bodies were used to intimidate families, extract payments, conceal evidence and erase traces of the killings.
The index, produced for Iran in collaboration with Impact Iran, said torture remained deeply embedded in the country’s law, policy and practice, and warned that US and Israeli strikes on Iran during the June 2025 military escalation had further increased the risk of torture, ill-treatment and arbitrary detention.
The report said Iran scored at the most severe level on six of the index’s seven pillars: political commitment, police and institutional violence, impunity, victims’ rights, the right to defend human rights, and protection for all. It rated Iran as high-risk on conditions in detention.
It said Iran had not ratified the UN Convention against Torture, did not criminalize torture as a distinct offense, and continued to allow punishments such as flogging and amputation.
The report also cited the use of confessions in convictions, saying this created incentives for torture and ill-treatment to extract statements, including confessions later broadcast by state media.
It said at least 1,639 executions were recorded in Iran in 2025, including executions of people who were under 18 at the time of their alleged offenses.
The index also pointed to what it called near-total impunity, saying no independent body investigates torture allegations or deaths in custody, while overcrowded detention facilities operate with little or no outside oversight.
Women and girls, ethnic minorities, LGBTQIA+ people, human rights defenders, journalists and lawyers face heightened risks of torture, arbitrary detention and other abuse, the report said.
“In Iran, torture is not a failure of the system – it is the system: written into law, rewarded by the courts, and concealed behind prison walls,” said Rose Richter, Impact Iran’s executive director.
Richter said security forces fired on civilians even inside hospitals during the crackdown of December 2025 and January 2026, when more than 50,000 people were arrested and more than 7,000 killed.
Other rights groups and monitoring organizations have previously reported higher figures for the crackdown, pointing out the difficulty of verifying casualties and arrests amid restrictions on access, intimidation of families and limited independent reporting inside Iran.
“Behind each of those numbers is a person whose suffering was deliberate, and a family still waiting for the truth,” Richter said.
Gerald Staberock, secretary general of OMCT, said the index was intended to turn “scattered warnings into evidence that cannot be ignored.”
“The Global Torture Index should be read by development agencies, but also by security actors and businesses seeking to engage or invest in the countries covered,” Staberock said.
OMCT urged Iran to halt executions and judicial corporal punishment, ratify the UN Convention against Torture, criminalize torture, end the use of coerced confessions and give the UN Fact-Finding Mission unhindered access.
