ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The United States is expressing concern over the arrests of LGBT+ individuals in the city of Sulaimani. “We are watching with concern the events in #Sulaymaniya that seem to be targeting members of the #LGBTI community for arrest,” reads a tweet from the US consulate in Erbil on Saturday. Members of the community have told Rudaw they are scared to leave their homes after security forces in the Kurdistan Region city launched an operation on Thursday night, targeting people for their sexual orientation. In a statement issued on Friday afternoon, Sulaimani Asayish said the arrests were part of a crackdown on prostitution in the city and not directed against any group of people, despite security officials having earlier told media that the purpose of the operation was to "prevent those who are homosexuals." Members of the LGBT+ community face intimidation, threats, violence, and discrimination in the Kurdistan Region, according to a 2020 human rights report released by the US State Department on Tuesday. “LGBTI individuals reported they could not live openly in the IKR without fear of violence at the hands of family members, acquaintances, or strangers,” it added. Youth in Sulaimani and across the wider Kurdistan Region have taken to social media to express their outrage and concern at the targeting of a community already incredibly vulnerable in the Region, and Iraq as a whole. “This campaign will put LGBT+ residents of Slemani city and Iraq in an even more vulnerable position,” said Iraqi LGBT+ rights organization IraQueer. “The claims of planning to ‘examine these individuals’ will directly violate these individuals human rights and dignity.” “The real threat to society is the oppression, the spreading of misinformation, and arbitrary arrests that were led by the Asayish,” IraQueer founder Amir Ashour told Rudaw English on Friday. “They are supposed to uphold the law, but in this case, they were the ones who broke the law and they must be held accountable. No one is above the law.” Human Rights Watch has said the operation, although disturbing, is not surprising given the persecution LGBT+ individuals face. “Human Rights Watch is deeply disturbed by reports of an operation last night to arrest individuals purely because of their perceived sexual orientation,” senior researcher at HRW, Belkis Wille told Rudaw English on Friday. “Unfortunately though, this does not come as a surprise- for years armed forces across Iraq have targeted, harassed, tortured and killed people perceived to be part of the LGBT community with total impunity.”
