Gay Iranian Photographer Dies in Britain of COVID-19
Iranian-born London resident - and professional photographer - Shahin Shahablou pursued authenticity in his life and in his art. His willingness to stand for principles and truth made him a political prisoner in how homeland, and eventually took him to England.
Tragically, on April 15 Shahablou died of organ failure caused by COVID-19 - mere months after having met a British man and fallen in love, reports Buzzfeed news. He was 56.
Buzzfeed noted that Shahablou had turned his lens to the same community he belonged to:
After gaining refugee status, he became an award-winning photographer, known for capturing the hidden essence of his subjects, many of whom were from the LGBTQ community; often people who had been overlooked.
Shahablou had met Kevin Lismore only a couple of months before the pandemic took his life.
Lismore told Buzzfeed News:
"That's the cruelest thing, to lose him so soon," said Kevin. "It feels really unfair on him and me, and on his friends and family. It's tragic."
Even when he still lived in Tehran, Shahablou's talent as a photographer won him admiration, but, the article added, he was more focused on his art than on financial rewards. That meant he was often in difficult straits.
But in England, he was free to live out of the shadow of Iran's viciously ant-LGBTQ laws, which can mean death for gays who are found out.
It also meant he could fall in love, and share a life, with another man - rather than having to make do with secretive sexual encounters.
Lismore told Buzzfeed about what Shahablou had shared with him about being gay in Iran - not to mention being locked up for having been part of a banned group.
"He had a sort of prison boyfriend, for want of a better word — who he adored.
"I said, 'How did you manage that in an Iranian prison?' He said it was very difficult, very secret. He said, 'We would meet in the showers,' and that they'd worked out how to do it in between the guards being there."
Once established in Britain, Shahablou returned to his critically successful photography, being featured in exhibits as he had been before he fled Iran.
Tragic stories of gay life partners dying in the course of the pandemic have surfaced as COVID-19 continues to assail the globe. Recently, EDGE reported a story about married Texas couple Anthony Brooks and Phillip Tsai-Brooks, both of whom died.
Not long after, EDGE followed up with a story about the "compassionate conservatives" who offered nothing but hate and ugliness when commenting on the tragedy, in an outpouring of purported "Christian love." One common assumption - which surfaced in those comments - is that gay men who die from COVID-19 must have been living with HIV.
While it is true that immunocompromised people are more vulnerable to the COVID-19 virus, there are many different medical conditions that involve compromised immune systems. Moreover, a number of other chronic health problems can make people more susceptible to the ravages of the virus - including obesity, which is rampant in America, as well as diabetes.
In Shahablou's case, chronic medical conditions were present; Buzzfeed reported that he suffered from asthma and a leaky heart valve.
He spent 19 days in critical care before succumbing to organ failure.
Shahablou is survived by family who is still living in Tehran, including a brother and five sisters, Buzzfeed reported.