The Official Gays.com Blog

Next up in our series of interviews with the founders of three non-governmental organisations that work specifically with LGBT refugees is Arsham Paris, founder and executive director of the Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees. Support Arsham Parsi by joining the IRQR group!

1. Hi there! Thanks for taking your time off for this interview. First off, could you tell us a little something about yourself?

My name is Arsham Parsi and I am the founder and Executive Director of Iranian Railroad for Queer Refugees. IRQR is an international, non for profit, queer human rights organization based in Canada. We help Iranian gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered refugees all over the world. We help when Iranian queers are threatened with deportation back to Iran.

I was born on 20 September, 1980, in Shiraz, Iran. After completing my basic education, I wanted to continue studying veterinary medicine at university; however, financial pressures forced me to stop my studies. While living in Shiraz and after coming to terms with my sexual identity, I began to do what I could, in a careful, discrete way, to help other gay people. Part of this work consisted of helping a doctor and doing research for a study of HIV among local gay and bisexual men. My advocacy work earned me the attention of the Iranian authorities, and I was forced to flee Iran on 5 March, 2005 due to well-known fear of persecution for being gay. My train took me first to Turkey, where I was able to register as a refugee at the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Ankara. I was one of the fortunate few whose case was actually accepted by the Commissioner. Three months after arriving in Turkey my case was accepted, and two months later I was invited to Canadian Embassy in Ankara and eight months later I was arrived in Canada.

I would love to return to Iran someday but before I book my ticket, I will have to work for change.

2. What inspired you to set up IRQR? When was this?

I began secretly working for the advancement of civil rights for lesbians and gays in 2001. I established an online magazine and a Farsi radio station. In 2003, I helped organize a clandestine Yahoo chat group for gay Iranians. We called it Voice Celebration. In total there were 50 participants, making contact with each other and exchanging views on how best to achieve civil rights.

While I now live in a safe country, I still consider myself Iranian and never forget that I am in exile because of my sexual orientation. I consider this a big responsibility. I want to return to a democratic, open Iran, and am working actively to make that dream a reality. As I passed the border out of Iran in 2005, I promised myself and my country that I would one day return to a free, open country and until that time would work to achieve that goal. I consider the work I am doing today, as part of IRQR, to be an investment in a brighter tomorrow for all Iranians.

One of the major catalysts behind what I do today is the suicide of two of my friends. Later, in August 2008 I traveled to Turkey to meet with Iranian LGBT refugees and plead their case with the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights that is located there. As the result of that trip, I felt that a new organization dedicated exclusively to helping sexual dissidents flee persecution in Iran was necessary and this was how I came to set up the Iranian Queer Railroad (IRQR). We are working to create a simple structure and focus upon supporting Iranian queers to be safe on their journey and to arrive in a new country to live and be free.

3. What have you guys done so far? Any pet project that you’re most proud of that you’d like to share with us?

IRQR is now in contact with about 200 queer Iranian refugees currently in limbo and seeking permanent asylum. Many of them are in Turkey, which shares a lengthy border with Iran and where cultural and political homophobia is rampant, while the rest are scattered throughout Europe, including the Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, and Norway. Many of them are in the United Kingdom, which has been extremely reluctant to grant permanent asylum to queer Iranian refugees, and where in the last several years two Iranians, Hussein Nasseri and Israfil Shiri, have committed suicide (one by burning himself alive and another by shooting himself in the head) after receiving deportation orders back to certain torture and possible death in Iran.

I have been able to make several international trips to help queer refugees and have built a relationship with other international organizations. I’m also happy to have built a strong relationship with the UNHCR in the meanwhlie, and they are now aware of the Iranian queer situation, and of our organization. And on each of my trips I’ve been able to secure international refugee protection status for more and more Iranian queer asylum seekers.

Ten years ago, if you googled “Iranian LGBT”, you wouldn’t be able to find much information, but now you can find thousands of pages. I am proud that I stood in the front line and brought queer issues out of the closet and lay them out on the table. Today, Iranian families are beginning to accept their queer children and as they are. We, Iranian queers, are working hard for a change in Iran and we are taking step by step.

4. What are your immediate plans for the year 2010?

Apart from our work among LGBT refugees, we are going to launch an international campaign to abolish the death penalty in Iran. This campaign is 346 No Execution and you can find more information about it at www.noexecution.com

Also another of our projects is to approach all governments and update their documents on queer human rights violation in Iran which needs a lot of effort and we need volunteers all around the world to help us in this important issue because it is all about life and dead for our refugees and those who left Iran on basis of their sexual orientation.

5. A number of organisations dedicated to helping LGBT refugees have sprung up over the past year. What distinguishes you from the rest?

We do not have many Iranian organizations to work with queer refugees. But there are many organizations for refugees and helping LGBT and what distinguish IRQR from other organization is that we are the only active organization that works internationally and support all Iranian queers all around the world.

6. What can concerned individuals do to help?

You can help us financially because of IRQR support is providing financial aid to refugees who needs support for their basic needs. (Editor’s note: IRQR accepts Paypal donations on their website.) If you happen to be living in Toronto, you can also help us as volunteers and work with us in person. You don’t have to be able to speak Farsi to help. We’d also like to encourage everyone to join our mailing list here so you can receive regular updates on Iranian queer issues and to find out about our other campaigns.

7. How have you been raising funds?

We have received a small amount of donations through our PayPal account so far. Some of them were just $2 but it was great and for example in 2009 we could help our refugees with more that $4000 from these donations. (As you can see, we run on a shoestring budget, but one has to start somewhere!) Also we have refugee sponsorship plan and 2010 New Year resolution that you can find more information at www.irqr.net

8. Given that the nature of your work has to be mostly underground, what systems are in place to assure your donors/supporters of fiscal accountability?

IRQR is federally registered in Canada and I am proud that IRQR has a great board of directors who are well-known Canadian queer activists and they are aware about all IRQR activities and everything is being documented. When we provide financial support for Iranian queer refugees, we keep legal transfer documents. IRQR members will receive a copy of our annual report as well. I just like to make them sure that we are doing as much as we can and we try to use their donation for refugees well being.

Support Arsham Parsi by joining the IRQR group!

Also read: Our previous interview with Neil Grungras, founder of the Organization fro Refuge, Migration and Asylum (ORAM)