ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Paris-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) said late Friday that a previous report claiming the murder of a trans woman in western Iran was incorrect, citing “serious difficulties” in obtaining and verifying information on members of the LGBTIQ+ community in Iran.
“A previous report on the killing of Mahshid Fallahi, a Kurdish trans woman from Sanandaj, Kurdistan Province, was inaccurate and is hereby corrected and retracted,” the watchdog said in a statement.
The killing of Fallahi, a 30-year-old transgender woman in Iran’s western Kurdistan province, went viral last week after human rights monitors, including the KHRN, reported that her body had remained unclaimed in a morgue for nearly two weeks following her death.
“The report was published on the basis of conversations with two trusted sources,” KHRN noted, adding that the sources were “mistaken” and passed on “inaccurate” information “in good faith.”
“However, over the past two days, after several videos of Fallahi were published, further inquiries were carried out and additional information was received, confirming that the report about her killing was, fortunately, incorrect,” it added.
Members of the LGBTIQ+ community remain among Iran’s “most marginalized groups,” according to a 2025 report submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council by 6Rang - a network whose name means “six colors” in Persian, a reference to the six-color LGBTIQ+ rainbow flag.
The network stated in its report that the individuals of the community are stigmatized as having mental illness and are accordingly subjected to electroconvulsive therapy and, in some cases, forced gender reassignment procedures.
The Iran’s Penal Code, adopted in 2013, criminalizes same-sex conduct and imposes penalties ranging from lashing to the death penalty. Punishments vary by gender, marital status and frequency of the offense, with men facing a higher immediate risk of capital punishment.
In its statement, the KHRN further attributed the misreporting to “structural discrimination” and social pressure against the LGBTIQ+ community, saying that restricted access to credible sources often lead to the “formation or transmission of inaccurate information.”
“Once again, we apologize for the publication of this inaccurate report,” it added.
Advocacy for LGBTIQ+ rights in Iran may be punishable by death under the broadly defined charge of efsade fel-arz - spreading corruption on earth.
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