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The New York Post’s report went much further, saying two intelligence officials and one person close to the White House described an assessment that Mojtaba Khamenei had engaged in a long-term sexual relationship with a male tutor or former family associate, and that he had also allegedly made sexual advances toward male carers while recovering from injuries. The paper said the U.S. agencies involved regarded the underlying source as highly protected, though it also acknowledged there was no photographic evidence. No U.S. agency has commented publicly on those specifics, and the White House did not offer comment to the Post.
In ordinary circumstances, such claims would be explosive for any leader. In Iran, they carry an additional and potentially extreme significance because same-sex conduct is criminalised and can carry the death penalty under the country’s legal system. Human Dignity Trust, which tracks laws affecting LGBT people worldwide, says Iran criminalises same-sex sexual activity between both men and women and that the maximum sentence is death. That legal and cultural reality explains why any allegation about the sexual orientation of a figure at the apex of Iran’s theocratic state would have consequences far beyond private scandal, reaching directly into questions of religious legitimacy, factional power and personal vulnerability.
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