A card exempted a gay man from serving in Iran's military. It may have cost him his life
CNN
Alireza Fazeli-Monfared's future was brutally cut short last week when members of his family allegedly murdered him due to his sexual orientation, according to his partner and a LGBTQ rights group.
The 20-year-old Iranian had hoped to escape the country, where he felt stifled by the Iranian regime's restrictions on homosexuality, and had dreams of modeling or becoming a make-up artist, his partner Aghil Abiat told CNN. In long phone calls and video messages with Abiat -- who is a refugee in Turkey after being outed in Iran -- Fazeli-Monfared would describe the experiences he longed to have and the life he wanted to build. But on May 4, Fazeli-Monfared was killed, possibly after his extended family discovered that he was gay through a military service exemption card that arrived in the mail, according to Abiat and the Iranian LGBTQ organization 6Rang. Abiat said Fazeli-Monfared's mother confirmed his death to him, but she did not respond to CNN's calls or messages to a phone number provided by Abiat.
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