Ahmadinejad's Comments on Homosexuality Censored in Iran

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's official Web site and Iran's state news agency have cut out any reference to gays -- including his comment that there are none in Iran -- in their Farsi-language transcripts of his controversial appearance this week at Columbia University.

The decision not to include references to homosexuality in the Farsi transcripts reflects the sensitivity of the taboo issue in the conservative country.

In the question-and-answer portion of Ahmadinejad's appearance Monday at the New York university, the moderator asked the hard-line leader why Iran denies women human rights and executes people who are homosexual.

Ahmadinejad first responded by saying Iranian people are free and capital punishment is reserved for people who violate the rights of others, such as drug traffickers.

But then the moderator interrupted, ''Mr. President, the question isn't about criminals and drug smugglers. The question was about sexual preference and women.''

Ahmadinejad responded, ''In Iran, we don't have homosexuals like in your country. We don't have that in our country. In Iran, we do not have this phenomenon. I don't know who's told you that we have it.''

On the Farsi-language versions of the president's official Web site and that of the country's official news agency, IRNA, these comments are cut out or slightly revised to delete references to homosexuality.

But not all media deleted the homosexual comments. On Tuesday state-run television aired a videotaped recording of the speech and left in the homosexual comments. Monday's speech was not carried live on television in Iran.

The English-language version of IRNA's Web site also published the complete transcript. Some newspapers, including the independent Etemad Melli, or National Confidence, also ran the comments in Wednesday's editions.

Under Iranian law, homosexuality is prohibited and in some circumstances punishable by death.

International human rights groups condemned the 2005 hangings in northeastern Iran of a 16-year-old and an 18-year-old on charges of involvement in homosexual acts. On Tuesday, Amnesty International called Ahmadinejad's comments ''absurd'' and said Iranians have been arrested and harassed for allegedly committing homosexual acts.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission on Wednesday criticized the decision not to include all of Ahmadinejad's comments on the Farsi-language state-run Web sites.

The ''whitewashing of his comments from the eyes and ears of most Iranian citizens speaks to something more troubling.... Perhaps he knows he could not credibly get away with such a denial among his own people,'' said Paula Ettelbrick, executive director of the New York–based commission. (AP)

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