In 2013, Iran's secretary of High Council for Human Rights Mohammad-Javad Larijani in an interview on the state television called homosexuality an "illness" while denying the persecution of gay people in Iran, stating that "Promoting homosexuality is illegal and we have strong laws against it. (...) We consider homosexuality an illness that should be cured. We don't consider it acceptable to beat or mistreat homosexuals, either. (...) It is considered as a norm in the west and they are forcing us to accept it. We are strongly against this."