Iraq’s LGBTQI+ community fear law criminalizing them ​

Dilan Sirwan

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Being born queer in Iraq’s Shiite epicenter was perhaps the start of Saif’s “hell” like life.

While the city of Najaf, considered a holy city for Shiite Muslims around the world, is home to millions of pilgrims on a yearly basis, the 24-year-old Saif is deprived from the freedom of walking his own city’s streets, only because he is queer.

Life as a queer person has never been easy for Saif, or any other member of the LGBTQI+ community across Iraq.

He often tries to take his mind off the misery he has to endure through his art, but even that has become a source of discomfort as it portrays the suffering endured by the LGBTQI+ community.

“Random people threaten me every single day,” Saif told Rudaw English via Whatsapp.

For Saif and many others like him, making a single phone call and discussing the LGBTQI+ community is something they would never dare do in fear of being found and persecuted.

"We will find you, rape you, and kill you slowly," he said, providing examples of some of the threats he receives on a daily basis both from militia members and random people.

"They send it from their personal account and I can see their profile and their affiliation to militias."

Recalling a visit to the famous Imam Ali shrine of Najaf, Saif said that during his visit, a man started a fight with him “just because my hair was long”.

Levels of discrimination that LGBTQI+ people in Iraq face can vary. For men perceived as effeminate because of their build, their facial features, the length of their hair, or the clothes they wear, abuse can come from the most everyday actions. It is common to walk through the alleys of Iraqi cities and hear middle-aged men shouting abuse, sometimes sexually explicit, at boys and men in their teens and twenties that look effeminate.

An Iraqi military officer who spoke to Human Rights Watch (HRW) of a 2009 crackdown on LGBTQI+ people linked what happened to men who look more feminine. “About a year ago, when the violence was a bit subdued and security was more or less under control, gay men, especially effeminate ones, started going out to cafes in groups and being obviously gay. I heard there was a lot of anger over it, and this is one of the things that sparked the recent campaign."

The crackdown 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 at the time.

With over 6,000 followers on Instagram, Saif uses his account to promote peace and acceptance of the LGBTQI+ community, but the numerous threats flooding his direct messages at one point led him to even close down his account.

Saif is now back on Instagram, posting artworks portraying the rights of the LGBTQI+ community, but he is only present on social media, and the streets of his own city have become hostile to him.

Afraid of what he is to face if he goes out, Saif spends the majority of his time at home, leaving the house only once or twice in the month.

But with news breaking that the Iraqi parliament plans to pass a law “banning homosexuality”, Saif might eventually not even be able to leave his house at all.

Iraqis are usually not very familiar with the different gender and sexual identities. The LGBTQI+ community is perceived by many as a homogeneous community. Often times, any member of the LGBTQI+ community is referred to as “homosexual” and a law criminalizing homosexuality, essentially criminalizes the entirety of the community.

News of a motion to pass such a law was first broken by Iraqi state media, quoting a member of the parliament’s legal committee. 

“It was agreed within the House of Representatives to collect signatures after returning to sessions in order to legislate a law prohibiting homosexuality in Iraq,” Aref al-Hamami told state media on July 8.

“Legislation of such a law will be reinforced by legal provisions that prevent homosexuality and the perversions associated with it,” he added.

Rudaw English reached out to a number of MPs for comment, including a member of the legal committee, but none were available for comment.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, an MP told Rudaw English on Sunday that a draft has not been given to the MPs and they are yet to sign the motion, but they expect the topic to be discussed once the parliament resumes its sessions.

The parliament went on a break ahead of Eid al-Adha earlier this month and was expected to resume sessions this week, but LGBTQI+ rights activists and human rights groups have already expressed major concern if Iraq proceeds with such a law.

“Violation of human rights”

Among the first people to speak up against such a move was Amir Ashour, founder and chair of the board at IraQueer.

“The Iraqi government itself recognizes the rights of LGBTQI+ people and their right to life in 2020 at the UN. Enacting this law would be a violation of human rights of LGBTQI+ people, including their right to life, especially if the comments made by certain MPs implying that it should be punished by death were true,” Ashour told Rudaw English.

He noted that such a law would “effectively allow armed groups, police forces, and other perpetrators to legally commit crimes against LGBTQI+ people,” adding that it would further justify crimes committed by the Islamic State (ISIS) against the LGBTQI+ community.

Members of the LGBTQI+ community across Iraq are often persecuted by security forces and conservatives. They are subject to arrest, verbal abuse, and even murder.

HRW also expressed concerns about the motion to pass such a law.

“The proposed legislation tramples the most fundamental human rights of LGBTQI+ people in Iraq,” Rasha Younes, LGBTQI+ rights researcher at HRW, told Rudaw English.

“A 2022 HRW and IraQueer report  documented egregious violence against LGBTQI+ Iraqis by armed groups and police, with impunity. The onerous proposed legislation would only further these abuses and allow perpetrators to continue to get away with targeting LGBTQI+ people, with even less opportunities for legal redress,” Younes added.

HRW in March called on Iraqi authorities to take measures to end violations against members of the country’s LGBTQI+ community, adding to numerous other calls from rights groups over the years which have gone unanswered.

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 the HRW report which is based on 54 interviews with members of the Iraqi LGBTQI+ community.

RELATED: Queer in Iraq: persecuted ‘for being themselves’ 

In an attempt to stop the Iraqi parliament from turning the motion to a law, IraQueer has called on the international community to take action against the state of Iraq in order to prevent such a law.

 

“IraQueer is working with local politicians and international allies, through UN agencies and embassies to make sure that the rights of LGBTQI+ people in Iraq are not further violated,” Ashour said. 

The motion towards such a law has already been criticized by a few politicians and legal experts as well.

“Our party affirms its total rejection of this extremist proposal,” Tallal al-Hariri, secretary general of the October 25 Movement said on his personal Twitter account, adding that the motion “gives terrorism legitimacy to suppress human rights and confiscate the freedoms stipulated in the Iraqi constitution.” 

However Hariri’s political party has no parliamentary presence, and if such a bill is ever put to a parliamentary vote, it being implemented as a law is constitutionally inevitable.

The final signature

Once a law is voted on by the Iraqi parliament, the president of the republic is required to sign it into law.

While the president has the constitutional right to send the bill back to the parliament for adjustments, they cannot completely dismiss the law.

Iraqi President Barham Salih is often known among people as a relatively more liberal politician.

In 2007, while he was serving as deputy prime minister of Iraq, Salih founded the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS).

AUIS describes itself as a non-profit university that offers liberal arts education, an unprecedented system for the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.

Fifteen years later, the university offers education to students with different religious, ethnic, sexual, and gender identities.

Signing such a bill into law, would be yet another dilemma for Salih, who is running for a second term as president.

Salih’s future as President is among the most unclear things in Iraqi political process at the moment.

The country held early elections in October in an attempt to respond to mass protest demands, but the country has failed to form a new government over nine months after elections were held due to party rivalries and inability to meet quorum to elect a new president of the republic on three occasions.

Salih’s approach to such a sensitive bill could be the game changer in his presidential run.

The President has been previously criticized for his approaches, but to activists, a presidential win does not preside over human rights.

“I might be idealistic, but to me, losing an election might be better than getting reelected to lead a government which continues to violate human rights of not only LGBTQI+ people, but journalists, protestors, women, and others! To me, that is a terrorist group leading by fear, not a government that wants to improve the lives of their citizens,” Ashour said.

However Salih’s precedent is a matter of worry for Ashour.

“I think he is more "liberal", but he doesn't really stand his ground, especially when the opposition to him is so strong,” Ashour said, noting that “when it came to the anti-normalization law which he originally didn't want to ratify, he quickly backtracked when Sadr attacked him.”

The Iraqi parliament on May 26 passed a bill criminalizing ties with Israel, marking the act as a crime punishable by death.

Just two days later, Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr harshly criticized Salih, saying it is “very, very shameful that the so-called President of the Republic of Iraq (Barham) … refuses to sign the law” criminalizing relations with Israel. 

A spokesperson for Salih said in a statement later in the day that the President had approved the law as it was sent by the parliament "without having any notes" and ordered its publication in the Official Gazette. 

However, regardless of what President Salih’s stance is on the matter, if the parliament moves forward to pass such a bill, the bill will inevitably be ratified with or without his signature.

Article 73.3 of the Iraqi constitution, indicates that bills enacted by the parliament will be considered ratified after fifteen days from the date of receipt by the President.

Therefore, the only option left for the LGBTQI+ community is to halt the proceedings before the parliament votes, and in failing to do so, many would be left with no option but to leave the country.

“Escape”

For many LGBTQI+ people in Iraq, escaping the suffocating repression and scrutiny they feel at home leaves them with no choice but to head abroad, but it is a difficult process.

Most refugees and asylum seekers seek temporary sanctuary in neighboring countries, where they take in a brief sigh of relief. But things are different for LGBTQI+ refugees, as many of these countries are also notoriously hostile to them.

“Intolerance towards LGBTI individuals is also pervasive in a number of countries of first asylum and LGBTI asylum‐seekers and refugees may be under a continuous threat of human rights abuses due to discriminatory laws and hostile societal attitudes,” according to a UN refugee agency resettlement assessment tool for LGBTQI+ refugees last updated in 2019. 

"In some contexts, LGBTI refugees struggle to access the services available to other refugees such as health care, education, self-reliance assistance as well as registration and refugee status determination. Local integration options in the first country of asylum thus may be limited or prove to be non-existent."

According to a UNHCR study from December 2015, almost 80 percent of the agency’s 106 offices indicated that they prioritize LGBTQI+ refugees for resettlement. 

Activists have defined the motion to pass such a law as a motion towards the “legitimization of violence”.

“This is legitimization of violence against a part of our society, as we know Iraq is still recovering from years of conflict and war, the nation, especially already-vulnerable communities such the queer individuals live in a continuous state of fear, witness violence on daily basis already,” Erbil based human rights activist Bakhan Qadir told Rudaw English. “This law will legitimatize and authorize the state, militias, families, any kind of authority, even people on the street to commit violence and discriminatory attacks on people perceived to be from the LGBTQI+ community.”

“It is a dangerous and alarming step that we have to speak up against. If ratified, it is an indication that Iraq’s future is going in the opposite direction of peace, development and coexistence,” she added.

According to Qadir, such desperate times call for serious measures from the civil society organizations, as they may be the LGBTQI+ community’s last hope in Iraq.

“It is situations like this where civil society organizations, activists and allies have to speak up against any discrimination based on the differences of human identity and nature, wether it is race, ethnicity, religion, gender and orientation,” she said.

To many like Saif, the law would only serve as an excuse to further hunt down the already persecuted community.

“No one cares about the law, the people, the community, the militia, the police, when they see us, they just want to kill us or rape us, anything to make us feel uncomfortable,” Saif said.

But Saif has endured all the hardship and stayed in his country despite everything, a law criminalizing him would be the last string before he chooses to “escape”.

"My dream is not having to choose between my culture, my community, my land, and my life."

Saif said, adding that if the law is passed, “I will leave Iraq immediately.”

“Already, without the law, we are in hell," he said.