April 21, 2008 at 8:58 pm · Filed under Uncategorized and tagged: News
As a gay man in IranAmir, 27, was cast out of society for perceived wrongs against his religion. He was arrested by Hizbollah, thrown into jail and sentenced to 90 lashes. But when he narrowly escaped execution he fled from Tehran to seek refuge in a foreign country. He has been in London for four years but refuses to apply for asylum out of fear of being sent back to Iran
I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority , because I believe the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it .I am a soldier , convinced that i am acting on behalf of soldiers , i believe that this war , upon which i entered as a war of defiance and liberation , has now become a war of aggression and conquest . i believe that the purposes for which i and my fellow soldier entered the upon this way should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change, and that had this been done , the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation . i have seen and endured the suffering of the troops , and i can no longer be a party to prolong these suffering for ends which i believe to be evil and unjust . i am not protesting against the conduct of the war , but against the political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed . One behalf of those who are suffering now i make this protest against the deception which is being practised on them , also i believe that i may help to destroy the callous complacence with which the majority of those at home regard the continuance of agonies which they do not share , and which they have not sufficient imagination to realize.