Aide: Iran president misquoted over gays

Source: MSNBC

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran’s president was misrepresented by Western media when he was quoted saying there were no gays in Iran, and actually meant there were not so many as in the United States, a presidential aide said on Wednesday.

Addressing New York’s Columbia University last month, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad replied to a question about gays in the Islamic Republic saying: “In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country.”

Speaking through a translator, he also said: “In Iran we don’t have this phenomenon.

Homosexuality is punishable by death in the Islamic Republic.“What Ahmadinejad said was not a political answer. He said that, compared to American society, we don’t have many homosexuals,” presidential media adviser Mohammad Kalhor said.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21222302/

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Here we go with the BS again, backtracking by his aides on what he said. I speak farsi he was not misquoted or mistranslated, now if he wants to backtrack and apologize that is a different story.

towards gays. Both things are true.

"mah toyeh eron mesleh enja ... naderem" mean?

In Iran, we do not have homosexuals like in your country.

I sure don't.

You have no idea how many Ahmadinejad apologists lurk around here, going--"it's all the interpreters' fault! And even though I don't speak Farsi, I can safely say that the man actually LOVES Jews, gays, and feminists, and it's ALL just a big misunderstanding!" ENOUGH. From now on, I'll go straight to you for the real lowdown....

Oh yes, and here's my obligatory I-don't-support-war-of-any-kind-with-Iran disclaimer. MAN! I can't really I say I love or hate this guy at this point--so much as I'm just damn sick of TALKING about him!

Author of the books




The Middle East: Taking Stock and Looking Ahead
Source: FPA Event
Author: Remarks by William R. Polk, Senior Director of the W.P. Carey Foundation


http://www.fpa.org/topics_info2414/topics_info_show.htm?doc_id=404719


The famous quotation from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was mistranslated. He never said he intended to “wipe Israel off the map.” He certainly does not like Israel and has said a number of harsh words about it, and, as we all know, he did come out with a foolish denial of the holocaust. But what he said was that Israel as now conceived is an anomaly and will either transform itself or will fade away. Many outside observers, although fearful of being changed with anti-Semitism if they say so publicly, privately agree. A few weeks ago, reacting to the events of the Middle East, Alan Hart of the BBC openly told an audience at the International Institute for Strategic Affairs in London that “what we might now be witnessing is the long beginning of the end of the Zionist state of Israel.”

was not a great translation, although, it is not much different than the correct one. He was using a quote by Khomeini what he said was "must vanish (or be wiped out) from the page of time". The word map or "nagsheh" is never used.

Idioms usually can't be translated exactly; they're phrases that have a colloquial use.

We say "wiped off the map." I guess they say "vanish from the page of time."

Both, imho, equal annihilation.

However, I do wish there were a few more fluent speakers of arabic languages in the state department and the military. They keep ditching the ones they have for blowing the whistle...or being gay.

One would think they don't want anyone to understand what's really going on over there or something. :sarcasm:

Quite tidy, actually...

Could you elaborate please?

It appears that he was saying that Iran does not have homosexuals "like in your country".

This could mean several things. One possible meaning could be that he is saying that homosexuality does not exists in Iran.

Alternately, he may have been trying to say that while homosexuality exists in Iran, it is not like what you have in the U.S (e.g. it isn't accepted, it isn't legal, it isn't out in the open.)

Personally, given the phrase he used, and based on the discussion here, I find the second explanation more plausible.

- B

There was a gay Muslim director on a program. The director had done a film about homosexuality in the Middle East. Sometimes the director had to be covert because of the different governments and they would not like what he was doing. They took calls. Someone called in saying he was tired of the media misquoting what had been said and I leaned in for a good listen since I knew this called was going to be full of bullshit. I could not wait for this freeper to show how rabid he was and expose his true colors.

The callers gets on and says that Ahmadinejad did not say there was NO homosexuality in his country. Yeah, that is a good laugh I thought. The caller continued on to say what Ahmadinejad had really said is basically that he did not deny, at any time, that there is homosexuality in Iran but rather that homosexuality is not the same as it is in this country. And, I guess, whatever way look at it, it is not. For the most part we do NOT going around killing our homosexuals. There is no death penalty for that here. (YET)

Anyway, the film maker/director agreed with the caller. I told my husband about it when I got home and he was in disbelief until I played the NPR segment.

Just wanted to share since I was skeptical of all of it at first.

In Metta,

Demgurl

The pro-Homophobic Iranian government has had a consistent policy of hanging them.

Disgusting that ALL Iranian's regardless of their sexuality aren't permitted to live their lives as they want to.

Senator Larry Craig never visited Iran huh?

because we do this to them when we find 'em (graphic warning!) -

:(

Venezuela May Lower Voting Age, Add Gay Rights in Constitution

By Matthew Walter

Oct. 11 (Bloomberg) -- A Venezuelan legislative committee voted to lower the voting age and protect gay rights in a expansion of President Hugo Chavez's plan to rewrite the country's constitution.

Venezuelans would gain the right to vote at age 16 under the proposed changes, down from the current age of 18, and discrimination based on sexual orientation would be formally outlawed in the constitution, according to a statement on the National Assembly's Web site.

More:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aqg5jOxmM.Vg&refer=latin_america

btw
that doesn't mean his approval rating is 49 either...
% ;)
http://kamangir.net/2007/10/11/4244/

:kick: :kick: :kick: