Gay Iraq News & Reports 2003-06

" Being gay is not acceptable anywhere in the Arab world, not just Iraq. Arabs are still very conservative and that’ll take decades to change – if ever." " However," he continues, "there is little official reaction to homosexuality in Iraq so far as I know and I was unaware of any law pertaining to anything gay. If Saddam has indeed threatened death for homosexual behaviour, then I do not think it will be enforced."

" There are though surely no ‘gay human rights’ in the Arab World," he continues. "Gays are treated from good to bad depending on the situation and what country they are in at the time. Some Arab states are more lenient than others with less chance of social abuse, or punishment by law, if found out."

So what is it to be Arab? And how grounded is Arab homophobia in fundamentalist Islam?
" The ‘Arab World’ can be described in many different ways," explains Sahib. "Most Arabic speaking cultures – including the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia – consider themselves Arabs. But some purists would only count those from the Arabian Gulf." He continues: "The Arab World is not only the geographical and historical birthplace of Islam, but also of Christianity and Judaism. Indeed, just as most Christians and Jews now live outside the Arab World in the Americas and Europe, so do most Muslims – in Asia."

" And since the fall of the Ottoman Empire," Sahib expands, "we have seen more secularisation in what were once traditionally Muslim Arab countries. The rule in Iraq is now mostly secular with Islamic law being enforced when it is in agreement with the current regime."

" Many Arab countries have laws which prohibit homosexual behaviour," he continues. "Some of these are Islamic, others based on social or cultural morals. And I suspect Saddam’s recent death threat is secular and will probably be enforced as it suits the regime – whether the accused is gay or not."

" From an Islamic point of view," he says, "there are at least two traditional death sentences for homosexual behaviour: hurling the people involved from a high place or collapsing a heavy wall on them. I know of a recent incident where several men accused of homosexual acts were beheaded in Saudi Arabia and some individuals in Afghanistan had a wall pushed over on them."

" From a more secular point of view," Sahib continues, "look at Egypt. It has no specific laws against homosexual behaviour but arrested over fifty gays recently and charged them with crimes against morality and such. Some were eventually freed but others are still incarcerated. And of those found at the party in question, only Egyptian citizens were arrested: Non-Egyptian Arabs and people from other parts of the world were not. So you can see how discriminately these laws are applied in such cases."

So how can queer Arabs express their sexuality these days?
" I must say the internet has been a godsend to the gay Arab population worldwide," says online mogul Sahib. "Over the years, I have talked to many people on the verge of suicide who were simply overjoyed to find sites like ours. They had no idea there were any other gay Arabs out there at all."

" And yes" – he concurs with Zoo – "just like anywhere else in the world, there are many known places to cruise for other men. And in practice Arab publics and police often turn a blind eye: it would not be surprising to find these same authorities enjoying cruising grounds or known bath houses themselves."

" There is even a historic gay Arab tradition," says Sahib. "For instance Iraq was once known as Mesopotamia and Baghdad was a cultural hub where poet Abu Nuwas (760-815 AD) wrote odes to wine and boys. Today it is not unusual to hear of gay Arabs who are accepted, protected and even celebrated for their talents – a famous hairdresser in Beirut, a singer in Saudi Arabia or an actor in Egypt."

" And many gays in Arab countries have no desire to leave their homelands," he continues. "Indeed, seeking asylum explicitly on sexual grounds would carry a very high cost – never being able to return to your homeland or see your family again. And those who happen to be gay and want to leave their country often do so to avoid marriage rather than to escape abuse or live a more open lifestyle."

So is it, for instance, any easier being gay in London’s Iraqi community than it is back in Baghdad?
" From a community and family view I would say it is just as hard," says Sahib. "The morals are virtually the same. On the other hand, there are obviously more venues and outlets for gays in places like London than back home so that makes things a bit better, but they’d still feel the need to be discreet."

And that’s not the only pluses for a gay Arab these days. Admits Sahib with a glint: "At least a quarter of those visiting our site are non-Arabs. Some have this Arabian Nights fantasy: a few Americans actually think we still live in tents and ride camels! Others just know what they like – or are simply curious."

More Info : GayArab.org – a website for gay Arabs, their friend and admirers.

Amnesty International has published a report outlining Saddam Hussein’s edict making homosexuality an offence technically punishable by death.

by Ken Sain
A North Carolina National Guard soldier claims he shot an Iraqi soldier 11 times and killed him last spring after the two men had consensual sex while on duty near Tikrit, Iraq, according to a court martial report released by the military to media outlets.

Pvt. Federico Daniel Merida, 21, pled guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Falah Zaggam, a 17-year-old Iraqi national guardsman, military records claim. After officials began an investigation into the death, Merida, who is married and has a 2-year-old son, used a gay panic defense as one of his three excuses for the crime. Merida was sentenced to 25 years in prison in September. The Los Angeles Times first reported the case in October, but it has been mostly overlooked by mainstream America media. The only other newspaper to do a major story on the case was in Merida’s home state of North Carolina last month.

When Merida claimed he killed Zaggam in a fit of rage after the two had consensual sex, he received a cool reception from military investigators. “ That’s what is fascinating about this case,” said Aaron Belkin, director of the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military. “About 20 years ago when America was much more homophobic than it is today, the ‘gay panic’ defense would have had a much-higher chance of working, but it appears in this case that the officers or judges didn’t let him use that. That could indicate one small step the forward for the military.”

Zaggam’s friends and family told the Los Angeles Times they believe Merida tried to rape Zaggam, and then killed him to cover up what he had done. The Blade was unable to obtain a copy of the court martial report. The following is what the report claims happens, according to the L.A. Times and the (North Carolina) News & Observer.

Merida and Zaggam were alone on guard duty in tower at a military base in Ad Dawr, near Tikrit last spring. Before their shift was over, Merida had shot Zaggam 11 times and threw his body off the tower. Witnesses reported hearing shots fired at 10:30 p.m. and then watched as a body fell from the tower. “ From the news accounts I read, it appeared to be premeditated,” said Jim Klimaski, a member of the Military Law Task Force. “It looks like he waived his rights and there was no lawyer present. I don’t know, but just from reading those news accounts it appears the military just wanted this case to go away. They had him in premeditation, but let him off with second-degree murder in exchange for a guilty plea.” Merida first claimed that Zaggam had tried to rob him and he was forced to defend himself. When skeptical investigators continued to challenge that story, Merida then claimed that the Zaggam forced him to have sex.

The third excuse was the two men had consensual sex and then Zaggam tried to blackmail him, saying he would reveal the affair to Merida’s wife and officers. The Times quoted Zaggam’s family as doubting that claim because the teen could not speak English and therefore could not make any claims to U.S. officials. They also said Zaggam was not a big man, and it was unlikely he could force Merida to do anything. During the trial, according to the Times, Merida had witnesses testify that he was a victim of sexual abuse as a child and that might have led to his violent reaction.

Steve Ross, director of communications for the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, said Merida did not contact his organization for help during the trial.

SLDN began in 1993 as an organization dedicated to helping gay members of the military. No media reports indicated how Merida identifies his own sexual orientation. “ This is the first time that we have ever heard the ‘gay panic’ defense was attempted in a murder case,” Ross said. Klimaski, of the Military Law Task Force, said this case is unusual in many respects. He agreed with Ross that it appears to be the first time anyone has claimed ‘gay panic’ as an excuse, but pointed out it was not used in the defense since Merida pled guilty. But he said it was strange for another reason.

5
Gay Iraqi won’t vote in elections

by Mubarak Dahir
When Iraq holds its national election on Sunday, Jan. 30, Walid – a gay Iraqi who asked that he be given a pseudonym for this article – will not cast his ballot.

" The election is a joke," he writes from his cramped apartment located in what he describes as "downtown Baghdad." I first met Walid about two months ago on a gay Internet site.

Since we first began chatting in intermittent conversations – broken over time by power failures – he has painted a dire picture of fear and desperation in a city and country besieged both by foreign forces and by armed rebels who often end up killing average Iraqi citizens in their raids on the American military and their sympathizers. Walid doesn’t trust either side. And he doesn’t have any faith that the elections will produce much of anything other than more fighting. " The Americans will impose the results they want," he believes. "It doesn’t really matter who wins the election. The Americans will still be the rulers. Whoever wins the election will have to do what the Americans say." Little else will change with the election, too, Walid fears.

" The electricity will still go out, the water will still get shut off, and people will still get shot in the streets," he writes. The notion that an election, under the auspices of the United States or any other country, will change the harsh attitudes and conditions in Iraq for gays is unrealistic. " It is very difficult to be gay here," he says. "It can be very dangerous." But Walid doubts that social attitudes against homosexuality are not going to change with any newly elected government. " Those things are not something the government here will get involved in," he says. "It is about the way people think. It will not change for a long time. Maybe never."

If anything, Walid fears, a new government here might make the atmosphere worse for gays. There will be 111 political parties on the ballot. But most people know very little about any of the parties or candidates. Campaigning is minimal, with some parties even refusing to name their candidates out of fear they will become assassination targets. For security reasons, most voters do not even yet know where their polling stations will be, and when they find out, they might not be able to get to them to cast their ballots, if the insurgents have their way.

The result, Walid says, is that no one really knows anything about the parties or the candidates or what they stand for. Those who do vote, he says, will likely cast their ballots based on religious affiliation or some sort of family or tribal loyalty. One of the most favored parties is the United Iraqi Alliance, which is the merger of the two biggest Shiite Muslim political parties in the country. " If religious parties win, things will get worse for gays," because there will be a stricter interpretation of religious laws, Walid worries. But even the political parties that claim to be secular, he fears, will be heavily influenced by religious leaders. " This would not be good for gays." What there once was of gay life in Baghdad disappeared with the war, Walid says.

No, there were never gay bars like in Europe or America, he says, but there used to be coffee houses where men could covertly meet each other if they were extremely careful about it. And sometimes, he says, you could just catch a man’s eye in the markets, and you would know. But today, you try to avoid catching the eyes of strangers, Walid says. Today, a stare is more likely to mean you are being watched by a spy for the Americans or are considered suspicious by the rebels, he says.

" The best thing is to walk and not look at anybody," he writes. Walid, who is in his mid-30s, remains unmarried, despite strong pressure from his family to find a wife. Social custom dictates that most gay Iraqis will get married and have kids and live their lives in the closet, even as they continue to have sex with men on the side. " But I never will marry," he says. "I cannot."

Despite the hardships of today’s Baghdad, Walid, an unemployed engineer, admits he is lucky, as far as gay Iraqis there go. Coming from an educated, at one time affluent family, he has a little more personal freedom that many other gay men do. Furthermore, unlike many single, gay Iraqi men who follow the traditional customs, Walid does not live with his family, though they live nearby and are heavily involved in his life.

" There is not privacy the way you Americans think of it," he says. "Here, your family is in all your business." If his family found out he was gay, "I couldn’t say what might happen," he says. When asked if he would be in physical danger, he said he hopes his family would not actually hurt him. But they might totally ostracize him, literally leaving him no way to survive in war-torn Baghdad. Since the war began, Walid says he has not had any personal encounters with gay men of a romantic or sexual nature. " How do you do it now?" he asks. "It is too risky." He says he has never had a long-term boyfriend, and while he would prefer to fall in love with another Iraqi man, he is skeptical that can ever happen.

6 Occupied Iraq: Boys forced by gangs into sex work–U.S. silent

A growing number of Iraqi boys are being forced to join the commercial sex trade –many forced to do so by criminal gangs through threats and violence, intimidation, and blackmail in a country where "honor killings" of youths who engage in same-sex relations by their families is encouraged by Sharia law and religious fanaticism; and some out of poverty in a country where official government figures for youth unemployment at 48 %  (although the real figure is undoubtedly much higher). All this is confirmed by a new report from the UN Office of Humanitarian Affairs’ Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN).  And this goes on as the U.S. occupying force is silent and does nothing about it.

One boy whose story was told in the report was "Hassan Feiraz, a 16-year-old boy, [who] has started a desperate new life since being forced into the sex trade in Baghdad, joining a growing number of adolescents soliciting in Iraq under the threat of street gangs or the force of poverty.

" Every day I cry at night,” Feiraz said. “I’m a homosexual and was forced to work as a prostitute because one of the people I had sex with took pictures of me in bed and said that, if I didn’t work for him, he was going to send the pictures to my family. My life is a disaster today. I could be killed by my family to restore their honour,” he said, explaining that homosexuality was totally unacceptable in Iraq due to religious beliefs.

There has been a dramatic increase in the  number of youths engaged in the commercial sex trade since the fall of Saddam Hussein, according to this report, which attributes the Increase to "economic pressure faced by families countrywide and the presence of new prostitution rings that have sprung up since the invasion. With society in turmoil and a raft of other serious issues to address, child protection has not been uppermost in the priorities of the transitional government. The gangs use money or threats to get teenage boys to work for them, officials said."

" Many of us are working under threat, but others are there because they don’t know how to survive and found it as an easy way of getting money,” Feiraz said. “Someone should help free us from these criminals.” So-called "honor killings" of gay youth are endorsed by many Iraqi religious leaders. "Sheikh Hussein Salah, one of the heads of the Shi’ite Muslim community in Iraq, told IRIN in Baghdad that the families of those boys engaged in homosexual practices should ‘kill them’, whether the situation was forced on them or they entered into it freely.

During Saddam Hussein’s regime, Salah said, homosexuality was illegal and homosexual practices were punishable by death. ‘We hope that this will be applied under the new constitution,’ he added. "Some Baghdadi families said they have stopped their children from going to school or university for fear that they would be lured into the unacceptable trade. ‘If I found that my son was doing something like that, I would kill him straight away, because it is an offence to our God and a crime against our honour,’ Kudaifa Abdul Lateff, father of three teenagers said. ‘Homosexuals are nothing more than animals.’"

The IRIN report says there are only two small local NGOs trying to help the child sex workers. "On of them, Iraqi Peace and Better Future (IPBF), has collected the names of more than 50 teenage boys who say they cannot leave the trade because of threats. Few cases have been resolved, however. ‘We have been trying to do our best in taking those unlucky boys and girls from the streets of the capital,” said Abdallah Jassim, spokesman for IPBF. ‘But sometimes we are stopped by the gangs, who threaten us. And the government cannot offer us special security on a daily basis.’

The Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) is also waiting for approval and funding for a proposed rehabilitation project for teenagers, it said. So far it has had few donors."

" Meanwhile, with few positive prospects in sight, many boys in Baghdad are living in fear, urging that someone, somewhere come up with a solution to their plight. ‘I hope that one day I will live without the fear that I may find my father with a gun or a knife ready to kill me because he has discovered what I do for a living,’ said Youssef Hatab, a 15 year-old boy."

by Eartha Jane Melzer
As the drafters of the new Iraqi constitution debate the role of religious law, Salam Pax, the gay Iraqi blogger who became internationally known through his postings about life in Iraq during the war, told the Blade that conditions have worsened for gays in the country since the United States invaded.

Juan Cole, a University of Michigan history professor who has been following the development of the new Iraqi constitution on his blog “Informed Comment” confirmed Salam’s concerns. “ I very much doubt the constitution will give rights to gays,” Cole said via e-mail. “If it enshrines Islamic law, in fact, being gay could be a capital crime.” There are no political support groups for gays and no political party sees any benefit in mentioning gays in a positive or negative way, Salam said. Public discussion of gay issues is generally limited to discussion in the newspapers of how disgusting gays are and what type of punishment is appropriate for gay behavior.

The only group that has voiced an opinion about gay rights for Iraqis, Salam said, is the Organization for Women’s Freedom in Iraq, which is affiliated with the Iraqi Worker’s Socialist Party, “and they have never mentioned this inside Iraq because as progressive as they are in demanding women’s rights, they know that supporting same-sex relationships is a bit too progressive.” Many high-level members of the government are eager to have religious law enshrined in the new constitution, said Farida Deif, researcher for the women’s rights division of Human Rights Watch said. Everywhere that conservative religious law has been written into a constitution, Deif added, it has codified inequality and discrimination.

“ The question is, is Islamic law going to be a source of legislation or is it going to be the source of legislation,” Deif said.
Since the adoption of the Code of Personal Status in 1959, Iraq’s family law has been fairly secular, Deif said. Zaid A. Zaid, a gay American, worked in Iraq as a liaison between the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Iraqi Governing Counsel between February and April of last year. Zaid said that his experience as an openly gay man in Iraq was a positive one. Zaid said inside the Green Zone, the three square mile area guarded by American troops, he encountered other openly gay government workers, closeted U.S. service members and National Guard troops, and closeted gay civilians who had previously worked for Republicans in Washington.

Working in the Green Zone is stressful, Zaid said, with most people working 13 or 14-hour days and nothing to do but sleep during down time. “ It’s not like there were many opportunities for dating or anything else.”Gay group for Baghdad Embassy Those who deal with issues relating to being gay or lesbian while working with the embassy in Baghdad now have a new resource to help them.

8
Sistani fatwa provokes terror against queers—Shia Badr Corps execute sodomites, Sunnis and others
UK fetes Sistani and hosts Badr, despite anti-gay murders; the Badr Corps is a terrorist organisation and uses terrorist methods against political, religious, sexual and ethnic dissidents.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani of Iraq has issued a death fatwa against lesbian and gay people. On his website, he calls for the killing of homosexuals in the "worst, most severe way" (see his text below). “ Sistani’s murderous homophobic incitement has given a green light to Shia Muslims to hunt and kill lesbians and gay men,” says exiled gay Iraqi, Ali Hili, of the London-based gay human rights group OutRage.

Mr Hili also heads up the new Iraqi LGBT – UK Abu Nawas group, which has close links with clandestine gay activists inside Iraq.
“ We hold Sistani personally responsible for the murder of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Iraqis. He gives the killers theological sanction and encouragement,” said Mr Hili. “ Grand Ayatollah Sistani is the spiritual leader of all Shia Muslims in Iraq and around the world. He is also the spiritual leader of the main Islamic fundamentalist movement in Iraq, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). “ The government in Iraq consults regularly with Sistani on political, social and moral issues. He wields huge influence over Iraqi government policy and the over Iraqi Shia public opinion. Sistani is not even Iraqi. He is an Iranian national who has set himself up as a religious leader in Iraq. He wants to impose an Iranian-style theocracy on the Iraqi people.

“ The British government paid for Sistani to have medical treatment in the UK in 2004, and fetes him as a revered Muslim leader.
Despite Badr’s murderous record, the UK allows its political arm, SCIRI, to have offices and fundraise in the UK. Badr is the terrorist wing of SCIRI. Badr should be proscribed as a terrorist organisation. Evidence we have received from our underground gay contacts inside Iraq suggests intensified homophobic abuse, threats, intimidation and violence by fundamentalist supporters of Sistani.

“ In particular, the Badr Corps, which is the armed wing of SCIRI, has instituted a witch-hunt of lesbian and gay Iraqis – including violent beatings, kidnappings and assassinations. Badr agents have a network of informers who, among other things, target alleged ‘immoral behaviour’. They kill gays, unveiled women, prostitutes, people who sell or drink alcohol, and those who listen to western music and wear western fashions.

“ Badr militants are entrapping gay men via internet chat rooms. They arrange a date, and then beat and kill the victim. Males who are unmarried by the age of 30 or 35 are placed under surveillance on suspicion of being gay, as are effeminate men. They will be investigated and warned to get married. Badr will typically give them a month to change their ways. If they don’t change their behaviour, or if they fail to show evidence that they plan to get married, they will be arrested, disappear and eventually be found dead. The bodies are usually discovered with their hands bound behind their back, blindfolds over their eyes, and bullet wounds to the back of the head.

“ The Badr Corps is a terrorist organisation and uses terrorist methods against political, religious, sexual and ethnic dissidents. It is behind much of the sectarian violence in Iraq today, including suicide bombings, kidnappings and the assassination of Sunnis, moderate Shia, trade unionists, women’s rights activists, gay people and secularists. Our sources inside Iraq report the murders of the following gay and bisexual men. All the killings bear the hallmarks of the execution-style murders for which the Badr organisation is notorious.

“ These killings are just the ones we have been able to get details about. They are the tip of an iceberg of religious-motivated summary executions. Gay Iraqis are living in fear of discovery and murder,” said Mr Hili.

Karim, aged 38, survived a hand grenade attack on his house in the Al-Jameha district of Baghdad in 2004. The attack by members of the Badr Corps, left him with severe facial disfigurement and shrapnel in his body. Simultaneously, the Badr Corps murdered his partner, Ali, at his house, also in the Al-Jameha district. They shot Ali as he tried to escape.

Haydar Faiek, aged 40, a transsexual Iraqi, was beaten and burned to death by Badr militias in the main street in the Al-Karada district of Baghdad in September 2005.

Sarmad and Khalid were partners who lived in the Al-Jameha area of Baghdad. Persons unknown revealed their same-sex relationship. They were abducted by the Badr organisation in April 2005. Their bodies were found two months later, in June, bound, blindfolded and shot in the back of the head.

Naffeh, aged 45, disappeared in August 2005. His family were informed that he was kidnapped by the Badr organisation. His body was found in January 2006. He, too, had been subjected to an execution-style killing.

Ammar, aged 27, was abducted and shot in back of the head in Baghdad by suspected Badr militias in January 2006.

Bashar, an actor aged 34, who resides in Baghdad, has been forced to go into hiding, after receiving death threats against him and his family. Before he went underground, his house was raided several times by the Badr Corps. Fortunately, he was not at home, otherwise he fears he would have been kidnapped and killed.

A copy of Sistani’s fatwa, with translation, follows below.
The text of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani’s fatwa for the killing of sodomites.
Go to the Sistani website
www.sistani.org
Under the section Istiftaaat, go to letter L in Arabic, look up to Lewat which means (sodomy). See question 5.

Direct link:
http://www.sistani.org/html/ara/main/index-istifta.php?page=4&lang=ara&part=4

March 22, 2006

9
Shia Death Squads Target Iraqi Gays–U.S. Indifferent

I wrote the following article for the new issue of Gay City News — New York’s largest gay weekly newspaper — which hits the newsstands tomorrow: Following a death-to-gays fatwa issued last October by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani , death squads of the Badr Corps have been systematically targeting gay Iraqis for persecution and execution, gay Iraqis say. But when they ask for help and protection from U.S. occupying authorities in the “Green Zone,” gay Iraqis are met with indifference and derision.

“ The Badr Corps is committed to the ‘sexual cleansing’ of Iraq,“ says Ali Hili, a 33-year-old gay Iraqi exile in London who, with some 30 other gay Iraqis who have fled to the United Kingdom, five months ago founded the Abu Nawas Group there to support persecuted gay Iraqis (Abu Nawas was a great 8th century classical poet of Arab and Persian descent who is known throughout Middle East cultures, and is famous for his poems in praise of same-sex love.)

Said Hili, “We believe that the Badr Corps is receiving advice from Iran on how to target gay people.” In the Islamic Republic of Iran, the regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been carrying out a lethal anti-gay pogrom against Iranian gays, notably through entrapment by Internet — and this tactic has recently begun to be used by the Badr Corps in Iraq to identify and hunt down Iraqi gays.

The well-armed Badr Corps is the military arm of the Iranian-backed Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the powerful Shia group that is the largest political formation in Iraq’s Shia community, which was headquartered in Tehran until Saddam Hussein‘s fall. The SCIRI’s Badr Corps is trained and commanded by former Iraqi army officers. The Ayatollah Sistani, the 77-year-old Iranian-born cleric who is the supreme Shia authority in Iraq, is revered by SCIRI as its spiritual leader. His anti-gay fatwa (available on Sistani’s official website) says that “people involved” in homosexuality “should be killed in the worst, most severe way of killing.”

Speaking by telephone from London, the Abu Nawas Group’s Hili said that “there is a very, very serious threat to life for gay people in Iraq today. We are receiving regular reports from our extensive network of contacts with underground gay activists and gay people in Iraq — intimidation, beatings, kidnappings and murders of gays have become an almost daily occurrence. The Badr Corps was killing gay people even before the Ayatollah’s fatwah, but Sistani’s murderous homophobic incitement has given a green light to all Shia Muslims to hunt and kill lesbians and gay men.”

Hili says,”Badr Corps agents have a network of informers who, among other things, target alleged ‘immoral behavior’. They kill gays, unveiled women, prostitutes, people who sell or drink alcohol, and those who listen to western music and wear western fashions.

" Badr militants are entrapping gay men via internet chat rooms. They arrange a date, and then beat and kill the victim. Males who are unmarried by the age of 30 or 35 are placed under surveillance on suspicion of being gay, as are effeminate men. They will be investigated and warned to get married. Badr will typically give them a month to change their ways. If they don’t change their behavior, or if they fail to show evidence that they plan to get married, they will be arrested, disappear and eventually be found dead. The bodies are usually discovered with their hands bound behind their back, blindfolds over their eyes, and bullet wounds to the back of the head.”

Tahseen is an underground gay activist in Iraq, and a correspondent there for the British Abu Nawas Group. A 31-year-old photography lab technician, Tahseen told GCN by telephone from Baghdad this weekend that, “Just last week, four gay people we know of were found dead. I am afraid to leave my room and go out in the street because I will be killed. We all live in fear.“ Tahseen said that men who seem obviously gay “cannot walk in the street. My best friend was recently killed for being gay.” Tahseen confirmed the murderous efficiency of the Badr Corps’ Internet entrapment program. “Within one hour after they meet a gay person in an Internet chat room, that person will disappear and be found dead,” he said, adding that “since Sistani’s fatwa, the life of a gay person is worth nothing here, and the violence and killings have gotten much, much worse.”

Tahseen lives in a Baghdad apartment with his two brothers. “Right now, I have five gay men hiding in my room in fear of their lives, because they cannot go outside without risking being killed,” he said, with anguish audible in his voice. “They are all listening to me as I speak with you.” All those hiding with Tahseen are in their late twenties or early thirties, and by their mannerisms would be easily identified as gay by most Iraqis. I spoke briefly with one of them, who expressed his fear in a soft, shy voice.

One of those being given refuge by Tahseen is Bashar, a 34-year-old stage actor, who was forced to go into hiding after receiving death threats against him and his family. Before he went underground, his house was raided several times by the Badr Corps. Fortunately, he was not at home, otherwise he fears he would have been kidnapped and killed.

“ We desperately need protection!” pleaded Tahseen. “But, when we go to the Americans, they laugh at us and don’t do anything. The Americans are the problem!” The Abu Nawas Group’s Hili confirmed from London that representations to officials of the U.S. occupation in Baghdad’s famous “Green Zone” had been made by underground gay activists, only to be met with disdain and indifference.

Hili, who has a bachelor’s degree in English literature, and who used to work for Iraqi radio and television, fled to the U.K. in 2002 after having been persecuted for being gay under Saddam Hussein. “In the late ‘80s and early 90s there were a couple of gay clubs in Baghdad, but they were all shut down in 1993 after sanctions were imposed against Saddam’s regime and Iraq. We had a weekly gay nightclub in the Palestine Hotel that became the gathering place for gay people, especially for actors and others in the entertainment world, but it, too, was shut down. I was arrested three times for being gay, and tortured. After several attempts, I finally was able to escape the country, going first to Dubai, then Jordan, then Syria, and finally reaching England.” Now, Hili says, he is heartbroken to see that, three years after Saddam’s fall, life for gay people in Iraq is even more unbearable than before.

“ Just last night I spoke via Internet with a young gay man in his mid-20s who was caught by SCIRI agents. He had no identification with him — gay people are afraid to carry their I.D.s when they go in the street in case they are caught,” because both the police and the Badr Corps agents would inform their families and add them to a list of known homosexuals, which would be used later to target them for killing.. “This young man had his left arm broken by the SCIRI thugs — I saw this with my own eyes via Internet camera,” Hili said.

Hili said the Abu Nawas Group is accumulating evidence that Iranian agents are advising SCIRI and the Iranian police on how to implement anti-gay persecution. Not only has Iran’s Internet entrapment campaign targeting gays been adopted in Iraq, he says, but there are reports that Iranian agents have been involved in interrogations, questioning those arrested in Persian through translators. “This is particularly true in Basra in the south,” Hili says.

The al-Arabiya TV network reported this weekend that a backroom deal had been reached to nominate Abdel Mahdi (left), a leading SCIRI figure and currently Iraq’s vice president, to be the new Iraqi prime minister (the accord is said to have been reached by representatives of SCIRI, the Kurdish list, and the Sunni Iraqi Concord Front.)

March 23, 2006

10
Iraqi Exile Speaks Out Against the Targeting of Gay Iraqis by Shia Death Squads

Amy Goodman (announcer): We speak with a gay Iraqi exile about the systematic targeting of gay Iraqis by Shiite death squads in Iraq. The attacks follow a death-to-gays fatwa issued by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani last October. We also speak with independent journalist Doug Ireland who broke the story. [includes rush transcript]

As violence continues on a daily basis on Iraq, President Bush is continuing his media offensive this week. A town-style meeting in West Virginia Wednesday was his latest in five straight days of appearances. The president has repeatedly lauded what he calls the birth of freedom and democracy in Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s oppressive regime. But yet another story out of the country paints a very different picture.

Shiite death squads in Iraq have been systematically targeting gay Iraqis for persecution and execution. The attacks follow a death-to-gays fatwa issued by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani last October. In a question and answer section of his website, Sistani says homosexuality is "forbidden" and calls for the killing of gays in the "worst, most severe way." The story comes in this week’s issue of Gay City News. It reports that the Badr Corps have heeded Sistani’s call and have been targeting gay Iraqis. The Badr Corps is the military arm of the Iranian-backed Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a powerful Shia group that is the largest political formation in Iraq’s Shia community.

For more on the story we are joined by Ali Hili, a gay Muslim Iraqi living in exile in Britain. He fled Iraq two years ago. Five months ago he founded the Abu Nawas Group to support persecuted gay Iraqis. He joins us on the line from London. He does not want to expose his face as he has received several death threats. We are also joined by independent journalist Doug Ireland, who broke the story in Gay City News. Doug Ireland is a longtime radical political journalist and media critic. He has been a columnist for The Nation magazine, Village Voice, the New York Observer and the Paris daily Liberation. He is also a contributing editor of POZ, the monthly for the HIV-positive community. He maintains a blog at direland.typepad.com.

Broadcast:

AMY GOODMAN: For more on the story, we are joined by Ali Hili, a gay Muslim Iraqi living in exile in Britain. He fled Iraq two years ago. Five months ago, he founded the Abu Nawas Group to support persecuted gay Iraqis. He joins us on the line from London. He doesn’t want to expose his face, as he’s received several death threats. We’re also joined on the telephone here in New York by Doug Ireland who broke the story in the Gay City News, a columnist for The Nation magazine, Village Voice and New York Observer for years, also a contributing editor of POZ, the monthly for the HIV-positive community. Ali Hili, let’s begin with you in London. What exactly do you know? What was your experience in Iraq, and why have you gone into exile?

ALI HILI: Iraq, at the time of Saddam, was — I mean, I’m talking about as a gay Iraqi — it was not as bad as we can see now. In fact, it was a little bit — we have a little bit acceptance. We have little bit of — not too many intimidation. People are really accepting gays, especially in theater, in entertainment and media. We had several actors, singers, which was very popular before. There was no homophobic attitudes toward gay and lesbians. Most of them are welcomed in the community and the society. And people just — we indulgence with the rest of Iraq.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And what has happened in the period since the U.S. occupation?

ALI HILI: Well, we started to receive information, in particular, the last two years, when we made contact with our friends, in particular, my old friends in Baghdad. And horrific, horrific details about, I mean killing, intimidation, harassing, arresting. It’s a very dark age for gays and lesbians and transsexuals and bisexuals in Iraq right now. And the fact that Iraq has been shifted from a secular state into a religious state was completely, completely horrific. We were very modern. We were very, very Western culturalized — Iraq — comparing to the rest of the Middle East. Why it’s been shifted to this Islamic dark ages country?

AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us about the fatwa issued by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani? The section on his website that talks about homosexuality is forbidden and calls for the killing of gays in the worst, most severe way.

ALI HILI: Okay. After the killing of one of our colleagues — and his partner has been injured — it alerted us to start to search for orders of killing, and attract our attention al-Sistini’s highest spiritual leader for the Shia in the Middle East. And on his website, we found an order for killing for gay and lesbians. In fact, I’m looking at it right now. ‘Til this moment, nothing has been changed since we approached them. We asked them to change it and do something about it. Our sources inside Iraq told us that they used this print and give it, send it to people from this website. So we found it, and we started to do a little campaign here in London with our little group to approach the Iraqi government and the media right now to do something about this killing.

JUAN GONZALEZ: We’re also joined by journalist, Doug Ireland, who broke the story in the Gay City News. Doug, welcome to Democracy Now!

DOUG IRELAND: Good morning, Juan.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Now, this is a human rights issue that has gotten no attention, absolutely no attention here in the United States. Could you talk about it and what you went over in your article?

DOUG IRELAND: Yes. The organized and systematic kidnapping and assassination of gay people in Iraq has gotten absolutely zero coverage in the United States media. The killings are ongoing. They are almost a daily occurrence. I spoke this past weekend with an underground gay activist in Baghdad, who told me that just in the previous week four gay Iraqis had been found murdered in the usual style, employed by the Badr Corps, which is to say the bodies are discovered with their hands bound behind their backs and bullets in the back of the head.

The Badr Corps, which is the military arm of the of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq is compiling lists of homosexuals. Many gay Iraqis are — they are warned that if they do not get married, they will be subject to assassination. They usually give them about a month to change their ways, as they put it. And if they don’t, they are targeted for murder. There have been assaults by the Badr Corps in the streets of Iraq. And since the Ayatollah al-Sistani’s death fatwa against gays, this has given a green light for manifestations of public homophobia in the most violent way by Shia Muslims in Iraq. So you have situations where Badr Corps thugs will drag someone into the street and begin beating them, and they are then surrounded by crowds of Shia passers-by who cheer them on. It’s a very desperate situation.

The gay activist I spoke to in Baghdad, with practically tears in his voice, was begging the West to, “Please, we need protection!” When gay activists have gone to the U.S. authorities in the Green Zone, I was told, “We are laughed at, and they don’t care.” They treat the gay Iraqis who are begging them for protection with contempt and derision, which is rather scandalous.

AMY GOODMAN: Ali Hili, you left Iraq two years ago, living in exile, now afraid to even show your face. Were you a supporter of Saddam Hussein?

ALI HILI: No, no, no, no. Actually, I’m personally, I have big hate for this person. He is the worst thing that ever happened to Iraq, maybe, until we saw these religious mullahs who were brought to the government to lead this country. We were much better off in the Saddam time, although he’s a tyrant.

But the Middle East is not that little, simple a-b-c. The politics shouldn’t approach Iraq in that way. Again, it’s a huge, huge mistake, taking off a secular state, with a neighbor Islamic state. Iran has a great, huge, huge influence now on Iraqi government. And they want to adapt the Islamic — Iran version inside Iraq and in the south. We have sources that’s been telling us that several, several Iranian officers and people are really working with the government, and especially the last report we got today from Mr. Muhammed al-Shahwani, the Iraqi intelligence director of the Ha’aretz newspaper, it says names and addresses belonging to Badr organization, closely associated to the Iranian regime, were discovered during a raid by the Iraqi Intelligence Agency against police central last month, and Iranians were arrested during the raid. In Iraq. One was charged of a television station; with no authorization, he’s working. And another one is an officer intelligence from Iranian regime. These horrific — and in fact, it’s proved that Iraq has been penetrated by the Iranian regime, through these mullahs and religious parties.

AMY GOODMAN: Ali Hili, we want to thank you very much for being with us and for speaking out where you are now in Britain, having gone into exile from Iraq, and Doug Ireland of Gay City News, for breaking this story.

April 13, 2006

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U.N. Agency Confirms Gay Iraqis Targeted for Kidnapping and Murder

A report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) has confirmed that gay Iraqis have been targeted for kidnapping and murder because of their sexual orientation. The U.N. report, released April 10 by the UNOCHA‘s IRIN news and information service, described the widespread increase in kidnappings for ransom and the subsequent killings of university professors and teachers—350 in the past five months alone—and quoted Iraqi Interior Ministry official Ra’ad Hassan as saying that “roughly 50 kidnappings take place countrywide every day.”

Hassan also told the U.N. office, “Since January, the number of kidnappings has increased unabated, along with attacks and threats against certain communities.” The U.N. report said that Iraq’s gay community is one of those targeted “for reasons other than ransom money,” and said that one local non-governmental organization reported that “members of Iraq’s small gay community had received more than 70 threats from kidnappers in the past two months, while 12 have been killed.”

The U.N. report quoted Mustafa Salim, spokesman for a local Iraqi gay organization called Rainbow for Life, as saying, “We’re trying to help these people, but it’s getting very difficult, and our organisation has been targeted twice since last month. We know for certain that those killed were targeted because of their sexual preferences.”

April 17, 2006

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Gays in Iraq fear for their lives (with commentary by Doug Ireland)

The BBC asked Mr Sistani’s representative, Seyed Kashmiri, to explain the ruling. "Homosexuals and lesbians are not killed for practising their inclinations for the first time," Mr Kashmiri said in a response sent via email. "There are certain conditions drawn out by jurists before this punishment can be implemented, which is perhaps similar to the punishment meted out by other heavenly religions." Mr Kashmiri added: "Some rulings that are drawn out by jurists are done so on a theoretical basis. Not everything that is said is implemented."

Gym terror
Ahmed is a 31-year-old interior decorator who used to live in Baghdad with his boyfriend, Mazin. Ahmed fled to Jordan nine months ago after Mazin was murdered outside a gym. After his partner was shot dead, Ahmed hid in the gym toilets then slipped away and later flew to Amman, the Jordanian capital. He says it was well known that they were a couple and Mazin was targeted because of his sexuality. "I fled from Iraq because of the threat to my life, because I was a gay man," he told the BBC. Ahmed also said that, before the gym shooting, he and a gay friend had survived a grenade attack and he still had fragments of shrapnel in his face. The friend was killed a week later by gunmen who raided his house, he added.

Powerful militia
Iraq’s deputy interior minister Maj Gen Hussein Kamal told the BBC that he was unaware of any minority groups being specifically targeted for kidnappings and killings. He also said he was unaware of the statement on Ayatollah Sistani’s website calling for gays to be killed. But he added: "We do not condone vigilante action. We encourage the victims to inform the authorities if they are subjected to any attacks." However, Hussein says gay people are afraid of the police.

The Interior Ministry is run by members of Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) which is one of Iraq’s country’s leading Shia parties. SCIRI has its own militia, the Badr Brigades, and there are widespread concerns that large parts of Iraq’s police force are under the control of such groups. Hussein blames the Badr Brigades and other Shia militia for many of the attacks on gays.

Human rights group Amnesty International has focused most of its work in Iraq on the high levels of violence linked to the insurgency. The organisation said it had no information on reports of anti-gay activities in the country. "It is not an area that we have been actively looking at, but that is not to say that we will not look into the issue at some point," said a spokesman at the group’s London headquarters.

The organization is comprised of a clandestine network of lesbian and gay activists inside Iraq’s major cities, including Baghdad, Najaf, Karbala, Hilla, Duhok and Basra. Initial reports by Pink News indicated Sistani called for the removal of his name and criticisms against him from the Iraqi LGBT-UK Web site, with an apology to the Grand Ayatollah for questioning his religious authority. Iraqi LGBT-UK refused, issuing a counter-demand that Sistani remove his “death to gays” fatwa from his website. The resulting compromise was met with mixed response from members of the organization.

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Iraq: Sistani’s Feint on his Death-to-Gays Fatwa

Initially, Sistani’s office had demanded that Iraqi LGBT-U.K. delete its criticisms of Sistani from that group’s Web site and apologize to the grand ayatollah for questioning his religious authority. The gay Iraqi group refused, and instead issued a counter-demand that Sistani remove his death to gays fatwa from his Web site. Sistani’s representatives in London and Najaf finally agreed to drop the homophobic fatwa from his site—except for the section calling for the punishment of lesbians.

While welcome, the removal of the murderous fatwa from Sistani’s Web site is unlikely to affect the situation on the ground in Iraq, where death squads of the Badr Corps—now operating in police uniforms with the authorization of the Iraqi Interior Ministry—continue their lethal campaign of terror against gay people. Absent any public repudiation by Sistani of his fatwa and its formal withdrawal, the wave of organized intimidation, violence, and murder directed at Iraqi gays is likely to persist unabated.

“ We welcome the decision to remove the most murderously homophobic part of Sistani’s fatwa from his Web site,” gay Iraqi refugee Ali Hili, coordinator of Iraqi LGBT – UK, said from London. Ali is also Middle East Affairs spokesman for the British LGBT rights movement, OutRage!, which works closely with the Iraqi gay group.

But, Hili, said, “This decision does not go far enough. The fatwa has been removed from Sistani’s Web site only. It has not been revoked. We want the entire fatwa withdrawn, including the hateful denunciation calling for the punishment of lesbians. We urge Sistani to apologize and revoke, in public, his fatwa calling for the murder of homosexuals, and to issue a new fatwa condemning all vigilante violence, including vigilante attacks on gay and lesbian people. We believe that Sistani’s fatwa has encouraged and sanctioned the current wave of execution-style assassinations of lesbians and gay men. He owes gay Iraqis an apology. He owes all Iraqis an apology for setting straight Iraqis against gay Iraqis.”

According to the Iraqi LGBT group, “Endorsing the murder of other human beings is un-Islamic. Our Muslim faith is one of love, compassion, tolerance, and mercy. Hatred and prejudice have no legitimate place in our religion. Sistani’s encouragement of homophobic violence provokes negative views toward the Islamic faith and towards Muslim people.” Hili added, “Iraqi LGBT-UK still holds Sistani personally responsible for the murder of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered Iraqis. He gives the killers theological sanction and encouragement.”

HOW TO HELP GAY IRAQIS
The all-volunteer London-based Iraqi LGBT-U.K. Group desperately needs money to buy the LGBT activists in Iraq a computer, Webcam, and scanner, plus Internet and phone access, in order to assist their efforts to document the wave of homophobic murders in Iraq and communicate them to the outside world.