The Iraqi Parliament is discussing new legislation that could impose the death penalty on homosexuals, a proposal considered “dangerous” by non-governmental organizations.
Iraq, which currently has no laws on homosexuality, uses the 1969 Criminal Code to sentence people from the LGBTQI+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community, based on an article that provides for “life imprisonment or several years in prison for acts of sodomy”. .
In 2022, the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch warned that the Iraqi LGBTQI+ community is a frequent target of “kidnapping, rape, torture and murder” by armed groups that enjoy total “impunity”.
The text examined in the first parliamentary session held last week provides for “the death penalty or life imprisonment” for those who “establish a homosexual relationship.”
According to the same proposal, the “promotion of homosexuality” is punishable by “at least seven years in prison”, according to the document consulted by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
This is the “first version of the text that is still under discussion and that is being the subject of exchanges of opinion,” said Saoud al-Saadi, a deputy from the Shiite Islamic party Houqouq, linked to the Hezbollah Brigades (Party of God). . , the influential armed group close to Iran.
Parliament intends to “fill a legal vacuum,” explained the same deputy to AFP.
There seems to be a political consensus on this issue.
Deputy Sheriff Souleimane of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) told the government newspaper Al-Sabah that he intends to support the new legislation, which he believes will uphold “moral and human values and combat abnormal phenomena in society.” . .
Even so, the text of the new law is still subject to change and, according to MP Saoud al-Saadi, the second debate on the issue and the vote will still be scheduled on “dates to be defined.”
For Rasha Younès, a researcher specializing in the rights of the LGBTQI+ community at Human Rights Watch, the Iraqi government is trying to “divert public attention from the lack of results”, at a general level.
“It is a very dangerous measure,” Younès said.
This new legislation is “the culmination” of a series of attacks against LGBTQI+ people, he said in an interview with AFP.
At the same time, the Iraqi government’s Communications and Media Commission admits to having decreed that the Iraqi media will be prohibited from using the term “homosexuality.”
A source from the organization told AFP that the term “sexual deviance” may be adopted.
Iraq is not the only country trying to toughen laws against LGBTQI+ people. Uganda recently saw all new World Bank loans suspended due to an anti-homosexuality law enacted by President Yoweri Museveni.
Specifically, the political discourse against the LGBTQI+ community has worsened in Iraq since the beginning of the year.
In late 2022, Shiite religious leader Moqtada Sadr, a key figure in Iraqi politics but not part of the government, called on “all believers” to show opposition “to homosexual society, not through violence (. ..), but through education and awareness”.
This summer, when supporters of Moqtada Sadr demonstrated in Baghdad against the burning of the Koran in Sweden, they burned “rainbow” flags (the LGBTQI+ symbol), in response to the leader’s appeal.
Meanwhile, lawmakers approved an amendment to the 1988 anti-prostitution law proposed by a relative majority in Baghdad’s parliament, where Islamist parties hold a majority.
Source: TSF
