Pegah Emambakhsh, the gay Iranian woman who in 2007 was within hours of being deported from UK as a failed refugee seeker, can now stay in the UK, it was revealed last night.
She fled Iran for the UK almost four years ago when her sexuality became known to the religious authorities – her same-sex partner was arrested and subsequently tortured and sentenced to death.
But her application for refuge fell on deaf ears at the Home Office and in the summer of 2007 she was told she would be returned to Iran.
Hundreds of people around the world lobbied the British Government who postponed the deportation while "the case was reviewed" in August 2007.
"We have just been informed that Pegah Emambakhsh … has finally been granted refugee status in the UK after almost four years," Arsham Parsi, the executive director of IRanian Queer Railroad (IRQR) said last night in Toronto.
It has been a long wait for Pegah. Last year, Mehdi Kazemi faced the same endless bullshit from the Home Office.
