The card, and the exemption for homosexuality as a disease, put Fazeli Monfared in danger, she said.
The organization reported the relative had previously told Fazeli Monfared’s father that the young man had dishonored the family due to the way he dressed.īBC Persian reported Friday that it received audio recordings of Fazeli Monfared saying his family had threatened his life.Īfter finding the exemption card, a group of male relatives took Fazeli Monfared to a rural village near Ahvaz on May 4 and killed him, Shadi Amin, executive director of 6Rang, told NBC News. After all, it is the job of the investigative bodies and the court, not of the presidential administration," he said, according to state-owned news agency RIA Novosti.Fazeli Monfared received an exemption card in the mail from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps after disclosing his homosexuality, but one of his male relatives found it and discovered he was gay, according to 6Rang. "It is not the Kremlin's business to recognize the case absurd or to recognize a case noteworthy. His press secretary Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the case when asked by reporters last week. President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly defended the country's anti-gay legislation as necessary to protect Russia's "traditional values." Russia's gay rights problem 18 photos She said she knew what the show was going to be about and was there while it was recorded. "When I refused, they started intimidating me by saying that my child will be moved into foster care," the woman, who insisted on anonymity, told the website. One of the parents of the children in the video told news website MBK over the weekend that investigators had insisted on questioning her son. There was only positive feedback from the parents and the children involved in the video, she said. She said she didn't expect such a reaction from the authorities while producing the show as there are a lot of similar videos online and the channel wasn't a political project. Even though I am far away from Russia right now, I am very scared," she told CBS News in a telephone interview. The Russian show was launched last December and has featured children interviewing a woman with an eating disorder, an African man, a former porn actress and others.
The video was published by the "Real Talk" channel as part of a series modeled on the American YouTube show "Kids Meet," in which children talk to adults about their life experiences. Russian national Maksim Pankratov is seen in a video posted to YouTube answering questions from children about his life as a gay man in Russia. But several months after it was posted, the video caught the attention of conservative lawmakers in Russia's ruling party, and an investigation was launched. None of the questions or answers included any discussion of sex. In the video, several children between the ages of 7 and 13 ask Maksim Pankratov about his life as a gay man in Russia.
Both the man and the producers of the video have gone into hiding since the criminal investigation was announced last week. Moscow - Russian investigators have opened a sexual assault investigation over a YouTube video that simply shows a gay man answering questions from curious children about his life and homosexuality.