An important measure to preserve Iraq’s cultural and Islamic values, is what militia leader Qais Khazali called the law recently passed by the Iraqi parliament that criminalizes homosexuality. Those who openly come out can get ten years in prison. Those who undergo a gender reassignment surgery also go to jail, as does the doctor who performs it.
The parliament had been so nice as to wait with adopting the law until the Iraqi Prime Minister Sudani was back from Washington, because they understood very well it could have thwarted his discussions with the Americans. Moreover, the proposers have let themselves be persuaded by a barrage of Western criticism to drop the death penalty they wanted to impose on being gay.
But despite those concessions, the law is a threat to anyone who is different, or conveys a different sexual morality – as suddenly, swapping partners is also punishable, as is wearing clothing of the opposite sex.
It is a clear sign of the power of radical Iraqi Shiites who are under the influence of Iran and are distancing themselves from the West.
For me, it’s also a sign that too much pressure can backfire. Some countries have included in their foreign policy that they actively defend LGBTI rights. The dire situation of the LGBTI community was addressed in every contact with the Iraqi government. That was taken the wrong way in Baghdad.
Exploited
And, more importantly: this have given radical politicians the opportunity to exploit the issue for their own political agendas. Thus, the same militia leader Khazali has called LGTBI rights a ‘malicious American project that targets the values and traditions of our society’.
He taps into a strong sentiment in Iraq. ‘We don’t want your culture, don’t try to impose it on us’; I’ve heard that so often, also when I was in Iraq recently. But what is that, our culture? The cola, Marlboro cigarettes, Nikes, jeans, the (beef) burgers and fries? They are really found everywhere in Iraq now. No, it’s mostly about promoting sexual freedom and other sexual norms than what Iraqis are used to. That’s what they even call decadence.
To resist this, the own culture and especially the Islamic values are brought into play. It’s a reaction we know. I’ve experienced the same ‘that’s not correct’-thinking in my youth, but then from the Christian culture. If developments don’t have time to settle in, they lead to resistance.
The problem is that because of the law, the already bleak living conditions of the Iraqi LGBTI community will turn into living in a jungle. In recent years, there have been several attacks on brave members who refused to hide. In 2009 a violent hate campaign even led to presumably hundreds of deaths.
Now there is a legal basis for all that. So you literally don’t know anymore from which side the violence can come.
Sneaky
What I do wonder about with this law, is who is actually trying to fool who in Baghdad. Because everything the law describes, happens – only in a sneaky way. And everybody knows that.
Starting with the prostitution on which the rest of the prohibitions are stacked. In Kurdistan, there are hotels where everyone knows that prostitutes operate there, but because the government shares in the profits, it does nothing against it. Sometimes some place is rolled up for the sake of form. After that, business just goes on as usual. With girls from Syria, Lebanon, Russia, but also from the poorest Iraqi classes.
Many of the apartments built in the Kurdish capital Erbil over the past ten years are owned by Arab Iraqis. Often they have put their black money in it. Often men also use it for parties with women they can’t keep at home. Rich men from Baghdad and the south station their girlfriend in such an apartment, give her an expensive car, and come over every weekend.
Will they tackle that now? Definitely not. Moreover, it is questionable whether the Kurds will adopt the law, given that they abstained from voting in Baghdad.
Kissing
Then the homosexuality. A ban on it seems strange just looking at how men interact with each other here. Kissing each other, holding hands, walking arm in arm – it’s very normal. No, they are not gay, although due to repression, there are of course many married men who hide their orientation. Or do meet male partners secretly.
Quite a few Iraqi men have had homosexual experiences in their youth. Because in many communities the separation of the sexes is still almost complete. Because the virginity of the woman is so important, that teenagers and young men only have their own sex as an outlet. They will certainly not stop doing that. Only now even sneakier than before.
The law is not only an expression of anti-Western sentiments but also of the contrast between the groups in Iraq. Conceived and implemented by the pro-Iranian, Shiite majority. Led by radicals like Qais Khazali of Asaib al-Haq, who with Kataib Hezbollah and Badr belong to the most radical and Iran-loyal militias and have great influence on policy in Baghdad.
How liberal Shiites view it, is hard to say. But clearly, the Sunni former parliamentary speaker Mohamed Halbousi tried to dismiss the bill. After he was ousted shortly thereafter, it was reintroduced and rushed through. Where the Sunnis, like the Kurds, abstained from voting.
ISIS
Both these groups still remember too well how the terrorist group ISIS in their caliphate, between 2014 and 2017, threw gays from high buildings. We don’t want radicalism anymore, I kept hearing when I visited Sunni Iraqi cities. The buildings ISIS used have been demolished; the memory of those gruesome punishments is too painful to keep looking at time and again.
While the Kurds and Sunnis remained silent, from the outside immediate condemnations of the law were heard. Such as from the EU representative – ‘discriminatory’ – and from the American ambassador – ‘concerned’. Nobody has as yet threatened with sanctions like those imposed against Uganda after a similar law was passed there.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have called the law a violation of human rights. Several Iraqis express the fear that it can also be used to silence people, because the burden of proof is not described. Such a law can only lead to uncertainty, and be misused.
Conventions
The High Commissioner for Human Rights of the UN points out in an email that the law is in conflict with numerous international conventions and treaties that Iraq has signed, and for that reason alone should be shelved.
‘There is extensive evidence that such laws also legitimize prejudice, expose people to hate crime, police abuse, harassment, intimidation, blackmail and torture. Furthermore, they perpetuate discrimination and denial of access to basic services, including in healthcare, education and housing.’
There seems to be only one solution if you are gay in Iraq, or lesbian, or queer, or trans, or non-binary – or if people think you might be because you are different. If you enjoy dressing up. If you want to change your sex.
Leave. Leave your country, your family, and your friends. If your life is dear to you. I wonder if this is really what the lawmakers wished for: to render their country unlivable for part of the Iraqis.
