Don't Ask, Do Kill: Gays Persecuted Iraq

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?

Btoo Allami and Nayyef Hrebid ped persecutn om relativ for beg gay. Nearly a and two ntents later, they rned. * gay in 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? 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.

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

* gay in iraq *

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. 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.

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

Iraqi ias filtrate ter gay chatrooms to hunt their quarry – and hundreds are feared to be victims * gay in iraq *

"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. "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.

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

Reports of ath squads and torture of gay men Iraq have been on the rise. In an article for New York Magaze, Matthew McAllter scrib the wave of attacks agast gays Iraq, and how a few New Yorkers have built an unrground railroad to rcue them. * gay in iraq *

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.

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.

GROUP RCU GAY MEN TARGETED IN IRAQ

Armed groups Iraq abduct, rape, torture, and kill lbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenr (LGBT) people, wh impuny, Human Rights Watch said a report released today wh IraQueer. The police arrt and also rry out vlence agast them. * gay in iraq *

"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.