Queer in Iraq: persecuted ‘for being themselves’

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday called on Iraqi and Kurdish authorities to take measures to end violations against members of the country’s LGBT+ community, adding to numerous other calls from rights groups over the years which have gone unanswered as 21-year-old Dima, a trans woman in Sulaimani, and hundreds like her continue to face discrimination, abuse, and even death, from society, armed groups and vigilantes, in many cases, starting with their own families. 

A crackdown on LGBT+ people in Iraq in 2009 saw deaths that probably number "in the hundreds," a well-informed official at the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) told HRW. The murders were widely believed to have been conducted by Iran-backed militias.

Around four months before the HRW report was released, Dima* was about to live the unimaginable as her older sister searched through her belongings, revealing Dima’s gender identity to her parents. 

“My father then brought a gun and an electric taser and started hitting me with the taser,” Dima told Rudaw English on Tuesday. “My father then abused me physically, emotionally, mentally, and sexually by touching my genitals to see if I had done any sex reassignment surgeries.”

The misery she endured was not brought about only by her father as her sister also blamed her for not being able to get married. To escape the pressure, Dima sought refuge at a shelter, however two weeks later, she returned home to an unaccepting family where she has been living for the past four months until she finishes her studies and expands her small business.

Dima’s story of abuse and discrimination is just one of the many stories that unfold day to day and often go unreported across the Kurdistan Region and Iraq. The victims continue to suffer silently. 

The crimes committed against the community range from gang rape, extra judicial killing, sexual violence, abduction and online harassment by individuals and groups according to a HRW report released on Wednesday morning which is based on 54 interviews with members of the Iraqi LGBT+ community.

HRW highlighted the failure of the authorities in protecting these citizens of the country and urged Kurdish and Iraqi authorities to “investigate all reports of armed-group or other violence against people targeted due to their actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity and expression; prosecute, fairly try, and appropriately punish those found responsible; and publicly and expressly condemn all such violence.”

“The government should take all appropriate measures to end torture, disappearances, summary killings, and other abuses, including based on sexual orientation and gender expression and identity, and compensate survivors of serious abuse and the families of all victims of killings by armed groups,” the watchdog added in their press release however, despite similar calls being made on several occasions, the LGBT+ community in Iraq continue to suffer from continuous societal persecution and discrimination.

Local human rights activists have commended the report by HRW and have also called on authorities to take action.

“I think visibility on a national and international level is very important, we need to put a spotlight on the challenges that are occurring on a daily basis and on multiple levels,” Erbil based human rights activist Bakhan Qadir told Rudaw English on Wednesday, adding that “authorities should be responsible for everyone’s lives and rights regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation.”

Family and honor are two of the main pillars of many Middle Eastern societies. Any perceived damage to a family’s reputation can see a member being disowned, or even killed, in the name of honor. To many, a failure to marry and have children disrupts the social order. To be of any sexual orientation other than straight or to identify as a different gender than assigned at birth not only puts that person’s life in danger, but is interpreted as causing damage to a family’s reputation.

For many like Dima, the nightmare continues even outside the walls of their home, extending into their different daily activities.

“When I take public transport to go to one of the cafes I spend the day at to avoid home, sometimes the driver takes a wrong turn to take longer, they take their pants off, they touch my thighs,” Dima said.

The LGBT+ community in the Kurdistan Region often face threats even in places they consider safe, such as LGBT+ exclusive dating applications.

“I was once blackmailed on Grindr by a man saying that he has my location and father’s number, and asked for money in return,” Dima said. 

The threats towards transgender people in the Kurdistan Region in contrast to the rest of the LGBT+ could be worse. 

To say that Dima is one of the lucky ones almost sounds inconsiderate, but at least she is still alive. 

The body of Doski Azad, a transgender woman from Duhok was found in late January when Duhok police received a call informing them of the location of her body, murdered by her brother three days before.

At the time, an informed source told Rudaw English that the perpetrator had left the country, and to avoid being tracked, he had not traveled through the Kurdistan Region’s airports and instead drove north to Turkey. 

This was not the first time a transgender person was killed in the name of honor in the Kurdistan Region, and as Dima described it, it was like she and all the other transgender people in the Region died that day.

The mother of a transgender person told Rudaw in July that she was afraid that her husband and son had killed her child.

Members of the LGBT+ community in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region are often persecuted by security forces and conservatives. They are subject to arrest, verbal abuse, sexual assault, and even murder.

HRW annexed a response from the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) coordinator for international advocacy to the rights watchdog in the report.

“With regards to the alleged police abuse of the LGBTQ community, any law-enforcement officer who abuses his or her authority in maintaining order will be punished by law,” Dindar Zebari said in the letter, adding “no such incidents have been reported.”

Zebari added that the Kurdistan Region “remains a safe haven for the exercise of individual and group freedoms,” while adding that the government and civil society “should coordinate their efforts to consolidate and protect essential values and the rule of law.”

However despite Zebari’s claims of the Region being a safe haven, anti-LGBT sentiments are prevalent all over Kurdistan, and shared by some of its most educated and powerful. Omar Gulpi, a Kurdistan Justice Group (Komal) MP, filed a lawsuit in February 2021 against Rasan Organization, a non-profit advocating for LGBT+ rights in the Kurdistan Region. He called it a “sickness”.

Bekhal Abubakir, a lecturer from the English Department at the University of Sulaimani, called homosexuality “a sociopolitical movement.” "As far as I have researched, no one is born a homosexual,” Abubakir told Rudaw on April 9.

“It is not related to the genes, but rather picked up from the surrounding of that person, and they need a lot of therapy, treatment, and counseling."

On April 1, Sulaimani security forces (Asayish) rounded up a group of people in Sarchinar neighborhood of Sulaimani. The night of the arrests, the supervisor, Pshtiwan Bahadin, told local media that the security forces had started a joint operation to arrest people they suspected of being LGBT+, and went on to use derogatory terms to describe the community.

A few kilometers away from Sarchinar, murals aimed at encouraging coexistence and acceptance of the LGBT+ community have repeatedly been vandalized during at night.

On top of it all, while acknowledging the threat against her life as a transgender woman, Dima and many others like her continue to push through with their lives, refusing to give up.

“They were killed because they chose to be themselves,” she said. “Life is not about giving up, it is hard, but we cannot just stop because it is.”

*Names have been changed to protect their identity

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