A/HRC/25/61 Kaveh Kermanshahi Kurdish and human rights defender Mr. Kermanshahi notes that in April 2013, 15 to 20 LGBT individuals at a party in Kermanshah were arrested. All were freed within one week to ten days of arrest. Some were released on bail and their court cases are constantly being delayed. Some of the individuals were physically harmed, but most were verbally insulted for being gay. Many of their families have also come under pressure due to their being gay. Revolutionary Guards also lectured them and told them to come to lectures so that they could be “put on the right path.” Those individuals, therefore, and others at the party, are still living in an atmosphere of fear. Gender-reassignment surgeries occur because the Islamic Republic views homosexuality as a sickness. Social and family norms do not help, as families often cooperate with the discourse by condemning their own. Ms. “Maryam” Khavaran activist in Iran Ms. “Maryam” would like to point out that the families of those individuals executed in the 1980s still suffer today. Many people in Iran and elsewhere feel that this issue is a “thing of the past,” but the pressure against the families continues to this day. For years the families have been questioned and harassed. They are sometimes threatened by authorities with prison time as well. Despite this, they continue to go to Khavaran, to pay respects to their dead. Of course they do not know the circumstances of the deaths of their loved ones, or even if they were buried at Khavaran, but it has become an important symbol and place of remembrance. Ms. Maryam herself was summoned by authorities in within the past four years. She was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison in connected to her Khavaran-related activities, She has also been banned from leaving Iran since then. Shaheen Navaee Women’s rights activist She was a teacher and women’s rights activist during the Revolution, and authorities arrested her students. They demanded that she teach Basijis, and she refused. She continued to work for a few years as an activist, but she had to leave the country in 1984. Mr. “Khaled” Kurdish rights activist Recently, in a school in Kurdistan, a stove caught fire. Two students died and 30 students were burned, and the Government reportedly prevented some donations of people in the community from reaching the victims’ families. Some prominent Iranians also wanted to visit the region (including artists) but were prevented from visiting. Shazram Nazeri, an Iranian singer, apparently organized a benefit concert which raised 52 million tuman, but 89