Iran's LGBTQ Community Vows To Fight Regime’s Sexual Apartheid

An Iranian protester holding a placard in support of the LGBTQ+ community and the Women, Life, Freedom movement
An Iranian protester holding a placard in support of the LGBTQ+ community and the Women, Life, Freedom movement

The Iranian Queer Liberation Front has vowed to continue the fight against sexual and gender apartheid in Iran.

“Feminist struggles must continue against all forms of core patriarchy upon which the regime is founded,” it announced on International Women’s Day.

The statement called the ‘Woman, Life, Freedom’ movement a turning point in the struggles of the LGBTQ community of Iran in the fight against sexual and gender apartheid and patriarchal structures.

“This year's International Women’s Day is an opportune moment to voice our common struggle louder and more expressively and renew our commitment to our joint struggle. It is a struggle that is symbolically and actually inclusive of all women,” it added.

Since the beginning of the uprising in September, Iranian LGBTQ activists have expressed their demands after the fall of the Islamic Republic by participating in popular struggles inside and outside the country.

Prominent opposition figures, including Prince Reza Pahlavi and Masih Alinejad, have repeatedly emphasized the need to support the rights and freedoms of the queer community in Iran should the Islamic Republic collapse.