Vladimir Putin Quotes
I would like to draw your attention to the fact that in Russia, unlike in one third of the world's countries, being gay is not a crime.
Putin, Vladimir. "Interview to Russian and Foreign Media." President of Russia, 19 Jan. 2014.
Islam forbids homosexuality and Sharia (Islamic religious law) prescribes death as the penalty for homosexuality. At that time Iran was a Muslim theocracy and if there were overt homosexuality that was officially discovered, the heretics would be killed. The logic of the government was that since they had killed the homosexuals, there were none left. At the same time all the research showed that while Muslim homosexuality was slightly less than Christian, it was still quite significant in all Muslim cultures that had been studied. If the President was to be believed, Iran was the only exception.
This statement gave the audience quite a laugh. There has been a small percentage of homosexuals in every society known to man—especially the ones who condemn it the most. In order for those opposing societies and cultures to speak about homosexuality, write about it and pass laws against it, there must have of course been some homosexuality. In the case of Iran and its Persian tradition and the Arab tradition there has been historically not only open homosexuality in different periods as in Ancient Greece, but it is documented by some of the great Persian and Arab literature. See {624479}.
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who is serving as the current president of Russia since 2012, previously being in the office from 1999 until 2008. He was also prime minister from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012. As of 2021, Putin is the second-longest serving European president, after Alexander Lukashenko.
