Petrelis Files

Tragedy of Gay Teens Hanged by Iran is Now an Opera

Iran's barbaric hanging of two gay teenagers in July 2005 has generated much controversy in gay communities and political circles across the globe, and last July gays, human rights advocates and opponents of the death penalty gathered in dozens of cities and countries to commemorate the hanged teens. We also issued a demand an end to all capital punishment and increased respect for gays everywhere.

A story in the latest issue of Southern Voice reports on one young gay man's creative way of processing his grief and concern about the hangings -- with an opera. Read on:

SINCE THE 1979 ISLAMIC REVOLUTION in Iran, an estimated 4,000 people have been executed for the crime of lavaat, or sex between two men.

One particular execution captured the attention of R. Timothy Brady, a 21-year old music composition major at Emory University, while he was studying abroad in Italy during the summer of 2005. It was the case of Mahmoud Asgari, 17, and Ayaz Marhoni, 16, who were publicly hanged in Edalat Square on July 19, 2005, after they were accused of being lovers. [...]

A year later, when choosing a topic for his senior honors project, the boys’ story still haunted Brady, and became his inspiration for the project, “Edalat Square: Opera in One Act.” [...]

To prepare for the composition of the opera, Brady immersed himself in Persian culture. He listened to Persian music, read Suffi poetry, and spoke to many local Iranians. However, Brady was cautious not to simply appropriate what he learned.

“I didn’t want to take their music and put it in the opera and say, ‘Okay, this is mine,’” he explains. “What I wanted to do was incorporate their aesthetics.”

In January, Brady attended the Iranian Human Rights Symposium in Toronto, organized by IRQO, the Iranian Queer Organization, a grassroots effort to “defend the rights of Iranian LGBT people against social and civil injustice.” [...]

WHILE BRADY HAS FOUND some support in the Persian community, he has also received e-mails from some who feel the opera is anti-Islamic. He is quick to note that his work has no anti-Islamic sentiments, but is instead a political piece commenting more on the strict Iranian government who, according to Brady, has hijacked Islam. [...]

“I hope people will walk away being spiritually affected, not just emotionally, but I want something deeper,” he explains. Brady hopes that Asgari and Marhoni’s story will continue to live within the audience “long after the lights go down, long after the music is forgotten.”