Tag: iraq gay rights

Iraq passes bill criminalizing same-sex relations with prison time

Baghdad — Iraq’s parliament passed a bill on Saturday criminalizing same-sex relations, making them punishable by up to 15 years in prison, a move rights groups condemned as an “attack on human rights.” Transgender people would be sentenced to three years in jail under the amendments to a 1988 anti-prostitution law, which were adopted during… Read more »

‘I had to sit on a Pepsi bottle’: Gay men in Iraq reveal shocking torture stories

This is exactly what it’s like to be LGBTI under ISIS Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul, fell to ISIS in June 2014. Everyone was affected, but so-called Islamic State targeted gay people in particular. It took nine months of intense military operations from Iraqi forces and their allies to recapture Mosul in July 2017. But… Read more »

Two LGBTI Iraqis were brutally killed this week

Hamoudi Al Mutairi’s last words were ‘I want to see my mother’, according to reports. Two LGBTI individuals in Iraq were murdered in the space of two days this week, according to a local human rights organization. Both murders appeared to be homophobic attacks on the LGBTI community, IraQueer said in a press release. Hamoudi… Read more »

2 gay Iraqi soldiers found love amid war. Then the death threats started

SeattleEach night, when the guns fell silent in Iraq, Btoo Allami would invite his friend Nayyef Hrebid over for dinner. The two first locked eyes on a dusty battlefield in Ramadi. After days of exchanging hasty glances amid gunfire, they snuck away one night to listen to Michael Jackson on shared earbuds. The music stopped,… Read more »

As a gay man born in Iraq, I know that western intervention is to blame for the murder of LGBT Iraqis

Disdain for the West is potent on Iraqi soil – what did we expect after destroying a civilisation for no actual reason? Yesterday in Baghdad, Iraqi actor Karar Nushi was murdered due to rumours of his homosexuality. He had been receiving death threats because of his “transgressive appearance” – particularly his long hair – and… Read more »

ISIS execute four men for being gay – including two of their own members

ISIS has executed four men on suspicion of being gay – including two of their own members. On Saturday (August 20) local sources said the terrorist group had murdered four men on charges of homosexuality and sodomy in the city centre of Mosul. The four men were thrown from the top of a former insurance… Read more »

What Does The Koran Say About Being Gay?

In the wake of the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that took the lives of 49 people, there has been much speculation around gunman Omar Mateen’s motives for the attack. The rationale for the crime, first considered to be a straight man’s act of homophobic violence, became self-loathing when it came to… Read more »

This New Movie Tells the Tortured Love Story of Two Gay Iraqi Soldiers

An upcoming documentary, Out of Iraq, tells their tale The last few decades have seen a transformation in Americans’ attitudes toward gay people. Today nearly two-thirds of Americans say homosexuality should be accepted, up from just over 30% in the early 2000s. Yet in some African and Middle Eastern countries, nearly 100% of people say… Read more »

‘Being Gay Isn’t As Sexy As ISIS’: One Young Man’s Fight For Rights For Iraq’s Queer Community

“Being gay isn’t as sexy as ISIS. So no-one pays us any attention.” These are the words of Amir Ashour, a 25-year-old Iraqi and the founder of the country’s only organisation for its queer community. Amir left behind his home and family a year ago and is currently living in Sweden. There, he hopes to… Read more »

Online activists spur change in Middle East, China, world

Online LGBT activism and community-building are the focus of this week’s video in the “Quorum” series of 11 discussions of international LGBTI issues. Moderator for the latest discussion is Andre Banks, executive director of AllOut.org, the U.S.-based advocacy organization that has enlisted 2 million people worldwide to take action online for LGBTI rights. Panelists /… Read more »

LGBT Iraqis face ‘imminent risk of death’ under Islamic State

A new report concludes LGBT Iraqis who live under the control of the Islamic State group are likely “at imminent risk of death.” The 18-page document the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission and MADRE, a global women’s advocacy organization, released on Wednesday notes the Sunni militant group has imposed a strict interpretation of… Read more »

Watch: ISIS fighter warns that ‘gays and paedophiles’ teach in ‘infidel’ schools

A video featuring a fighter allegedly with ISIS, the Islamic State, who warns against gays, drug dealers and paedophiles teaching in “infidel countries,” and says gays are “the worst of creatures” and “like animals”. The video, which was posted online at the beginning of April, recently went viral. The eight-minute clip features an armed man… Read more »