Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi paid a rare visit to Africa this week, with stops planned in Kenya, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. While in Uganda on Wednesday, Raisi praised President Yoweri Museveni for passing a law that increased punishment for homosexual activity, all the way up to capital punishment in some cases.
“The West today is trying to promote the idea of homosexuality, and by promoting homosexuality they are trying to end the generation of human beings,” Raisi declared after meeting with Museveni.
“The Western countries try to identify homosexuality as an index of civilization, while this is one of the dirtiest things which have been done in human history,” Raisi said.
“I believe that this issue, and these strong attacks by the West against the establishment of families and against the culture of the nations, is another area of cooperation for Iran and Uganda,” he suggested.
“Having the culture of establishing and forming a family and at the same time the culture of ‘genuineness’ is another common point between Iran and Uganda. We pay great attention to the issue of establishing families and we believe that it is a fundamental principle,” the Iranian president said.
The Muslim community in Uganda, headed by Mufti Sheikh Shaban Ramadhan Mubajje, praised Museveni – a radical leftist with longstanding ties to some of the world’s most repressive communist regimes – for hosting Raisi and giving Ugandans a “profound opportunity” to hear him speak.
Museveni signed the harsh anti-LGBTQ bill into law on May 29. The legislation was actually called the “Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2023.”
A few of its provisions, such as criminalizing the act of merely identifying as gay, were watered down, but the law still expanded the definition of criminal homosexual conduct and created a class of offenses called “aggravated homosexuality” that could be punished by death – including same-sex relations with a person “below the age of 18 years” or a person who has been “overpowered” by drugs. People who test positive for HIV can also be put to death for engaging in homosexual activity.
Uganda resisted intense international pressure to back down from the anti-homosexuality law, including heavy criticism from the U.S. government. When President Joe Biden said he might cut off humanitarian aid to Uganda if the law passed, Ugandan students held a demonstration in which they chanted, “We don’t want your pro-gay money!”
President Joe Biden speaks at a Pride Month celebration on the South Lawn of the White House, Saturday, June 10, 2023, in Washington (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta).
Human rights activist Frank Mugisha told Voice of America News (VOA) on Thursday that Raisi’s remarks were an example of the world’s tyrannies using gay rights as a weapon in an “unfortunate” worldwide cultural war against the West.
“They keep saying that the West is pushing their own ideologies on Uganda, yet we have other countries interfering and pushing their own values on Uganda. For example, Iran – we know they are supporting a lot of anti-gay groups here in the country, as well,” Mugisha said.
Raisi had more to offer Museveni than support for harsh laws against homosexuality. He also pledged Iran’s oil industry experience to help Uganda build a domestic oil refinery and pipeline, a project that has been fiercely opposed by environmental groups, including a lawsuit filed in French court in 2019, which was dismissed in March.
Raisi sneered that while Iran stood ready to help Uganda with its oil project, the Western world is “not generally interested to see countries who enjoy great resources and national reserves to be independent.”
The Iranian president also promised to share medical manufacturing and pharmaceutical technology with Uganda and to set up a technology center to assist with that endeavor.