What is like to be a gay man livg Iraq? –

Contents:

• WHAT IS LIKE TO BE A GAY MAN LIVG IRAQ?
• 2 GAY IRAQI SOLDIERS FOUND LOVE AMID WAR. THEN THE ATH THREATS STARTED
• THIS NEW MOVIE TELLS THE TORTURED LOVE STORY OF TWO GAY IRAQI SOLDIERS
• HOW ISLAMIST GANGS E TER TO TRACK, TORTURE AND KILL IRAQI GAYS
• GROUP RCU GAY MEN TARGETED IN IRAQ
• DON'T ASK, DO KILL: GAYS PERSECUTED IRAQ

WHAT IS LIKE TO BE A GAY MAN LIVG IRAQ?

Followg on om our report March, OutNews Global spoke exclively wh two gay men om Sulaymaniyah about what life is really like for LGBT+ people Iraq.

Forced to flee Kamaran* scrib life for a gay man Iraq as a relentls stggle: “It’s like beg between four walls and hidg who you are om the muny, and even yourself. “There are still homophobic people that are also refuge om other untri, and once they know you are gay they make fun of you and verbally abe you. In a untry wh such strong relig and culture beliefs that ntue to fuel a fire of homophobia society, mt be challengg to meet other LGBT+ the first place?

2 GAY IRAQI SOLDIERS FOUND LOVE AMID WAR. THEN THE ATH THREATS STARTED

ISIS, which held large swaths of Iraqi terrory until recently, has also targeted gay men, tossg many to their aths om tall buildgs.

Even durg the days of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, when the US did not officially allow gay people to serve the ary, Hrebid says a base officer allowed them to spend time together at the Amerin base. In the plac, beg gay is still seen as a s or disease to be routed out, which has taken the form of gay men beg hurled om the top of buildgs or stoned to ath.

TIME spoke to the uple featured a film that spans a and four untri about what was like to grow up that part of the world, why they ma this film and how feels to watch gay refuge flee persecutn the Middle East now that they’re safe Washgton state.

THIS NEW MOVIE TELLS THE TORTURED LOVE STORY OF TWO GAY IRAQI SOLDIERS

And if they fd about [ beg gay], of urse we will get killed or be tortured to be exampl for others … It ma me feel like they’re tyg my hands and my legs and I nnot move. "So often women will lie and protect the perpetrators, pecially if they are known to them, as they are sred to trigger a crimal vtigatn which might put them at risk of retributn, " she ptn, Sami's life improved after he moved to BaghdadHuman Rights Watch is also aware of stanc of sexual vlence perpetrated agast gay men and trans women Iraq - though seems that the too are often not reported to the police. "The crim ntue to be unr-reported bee social norms do not allow for men to talk about the thgs, and the fact that reportg might also reveal that the victims are gay, which uld lead to more vlence and discrimatn.

HOW ISLAMIST GANGS E TER TO TRACK, TORTURE AND KILL IRAQI GAYS

"If I were to pla about beg raped, the police are likely to see me not as a victim but might even put me jail bee I would be seen as a party to the cint, which would be seen as act of homosexualy - which is illegal, " he says. Extremist religsy of primarily the fundamentialist varieti of both Islam and Christiany drive enough legislators, relig lears, and laypeople the societi to keep their "kill the gays" laws and cultural practic alive. Executn methods and motivatns the 12 untri clu beheadgs and so-lled honor killgs, the latter mted agast LGBT people by none other than their own fay data llectn is difficult bee of the opaquens of prosecutns the untri, 's clear that Iran and Sdi Arabia are the two ernments most guilty of killg people for beg gay.

However, the self-proclaimed Islamic State Iraq and Syria has likely executed more people for beg gay or for beg acced of beg gay than any regnized state has done recent years. Internatnal LGBT rights advote and blogger Col Stewart has been monorg the plight of lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr people around the world for several years. "As he further not, Uganda's 2014 "jail the gays" law, once billed as a promise away om an earlier-proposed "kill the gays" law, lasted only a few months before was followg list of untri around the world where you n be sentenced to ath jt for beg LGBT was piled wh rmatn om the U.

Department of State, Erasg 76 Crim, and the jt-released 2016 edn of the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn's annual survey, tled State Sponsored Homophobia 2016: A Wrld Survey of Sexual Orientatn Laws: Crimalizatn, Protectn and 's beg wh the most egreg. Stg on the floor, wearg tradnal Islamic cloth and holdg an old notebook, Abu Hamizi, 22, spends at least six hours a day searchg ter chatrooms lked to gay webs.

GROUP RCU GAY MEN TARGETED IN IRAQ

When he fds them, Hamizi arrang for them to be attacked and sometim, a puter science graduate, is at the cuttg edge of a new wave of vlence agast gay men Iraq.

Ma up of hardle extremists, Hamizi's group and others like are believed to be rponsible for the aths of more than 130 gay Iraqi men sce the begng of the year puty lear of the group, which is based Baghdad, explaed s mpaign g a stream of homophobic vective. "The vlence agast Iraqi gays is a key tt of the ernment's abily to protect vulnerable mory groups after the Amerins have Toby Dodge, of London Universy's Queen Mary College, believ that the vlence may be a nsequence of the succs of the ernment of Nouri al-Maliki. Homosexualy was not crimalised unr Saddam Hse – ed Iraq the 1960s and 1970s was known for s relatively liberated gay scene.

Sce 2004, acrdg to Ali Hali, chairman of the Iraqi LGBT (Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr) group, a London-based human-rights group, a total of 680 have died Iraq, wh at least 70 of those the past five months. "Police officers terviewed by the Observer said the killgs were not aimed at gays but were isolated remnants of the sectarian vlence that racked the untry between 2005 and 2006. In a sense, the shift 2003 was substantive that the source of fear for gay people Iraq shifted om the state to the ias and to some gree the mosque… CONAN: Mm-hmm.

DON'T ASK, DO KILL: GAYS PERSECUTED IRAQ

CONAN: As the ndns improved Iraq, general secury, the ias had time to start feelg that gay people were a real threat and punishg them. And there was no more hated and is no more hated group across jt about every ethnic barrier that you n thk of and social group Iraq than gay people. McALLESTER: Well, 's a dishonor the ey of many Iraqi men to have a member of the extend fay or tribe - which are not the same thg, but related - who is gay or appears to be gay.

This figure is primarily based on the rearch of Human Rights Watch led by Stt Long, who heads up their lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenred program. And, you know, and was they who got me on to this story the first place, and based on nversatns wh mue workers, doctors, NGO workers, diplomats, Iraqis and also numero gay Iraqis themselv. CONAN: And you also tell stori of gay men who were taken to ctody, eher by murky ia groups of one sort or another who never que intify themselv, or, some s, by ernment thori and basilly held for ransom.

I mean, one of the most shockg stori is a young man who we ll Nuri the story - that's not his real name, unfortunately, aga, as you say, we n't give - who was taken to the Interr Mistry buildg Baghdad, held there, tortured there for many days, says that he wnsed the bodi of five gay men that he had been a cell wh when they were alive, ially, when he'd been taken .