The Iraqi parliament is discussing new legislation that could introduce the death penalty for homosexuals, a proposal deemed “dangerous” by non-governmental organizations.
Iraq, which currently has no laws on homosexuality, uses the 1969 Penal Code to convict people from the LGBT+ community (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender), based on an article that provides for “life imprisonment or several years imprisonment for sodomy”.
In 2022, the non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch warned that the Iraqi LGBT+ community is often the target of “kidnapping, rape, torture and murder” by armed groups who enjoy total “impunity”.
The text discussed last week at the first parliamentary session provides for “the death penalty or life imprisonment” for those who “enter into a homosexual relationship”.
Under the same proposal, the “promotion of homosexuality” is punishable by “at least seven years in prison,” according to the document consulted by the agency France-Presse (AFP).
It is the “first version of the text that is still under discussion and is the subject of exchanges of views,” said deputy Saoud al-Saadi of the Shiite Islamist party Houqouq, affiliated with the Hezbollah Brigades (Party of God). , the influential armed group close to Iran.
Parliament intends to “fill a legal gap”, the same deputy explained to AFP.
There seems to be political consensus on this issue.
Deputy Sheriff Souleimane, of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (PDK), told the government newspaper Al-Sabah that he intends to support the new legislation, which he said aims to “give predominance to moral and human values and to prevent abnormal phenomena in society wants to fight”. .
However, the text of the new law is still subject to change and according to deputy Saoud al-Saadi, the second debate on the issue and vote will still be scheduled for “dates to be determined”.
According to Rasha Younès, a researcher specializing in the rights of the LGBT+ community at Human Rights Watch, the Iraqi government is “trying to divert public attention from the lack of results” on a general level.
“This is a very dangerous measure,” Younès said.
This new legislation is “the culmination” of a series of attacks against LGBT+ people, he said in an interview with AFP.
At the same time, the Media and Communications Commission, an official Iraqi body, admits that it has ruled that the Iraqi media will be banned from using the term “homosexuality.”
A source at the organization told AFP that it is possible that the phrase “sexual deviance” will be adopted.
Iraq is not the only country trying to tighten legislation against LGBT+ people. In Uganda, all new loans from the World Bank were recently suspended due to an anti-gay law enacted by President Yoweri Museveni.
Specifically, the political discourse against the LGBT+ community in Iraq has deteriorated since the beginning of the year.
In late 2022, Shiite religious leader Moqtada Sadr, the 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 teaching. conscience”.
When supporters of Moqtada Sadr demonstrated in Baghdad this summer against the burning of the Koran in Sweden, they burned “rainbow flags” (LGBT+ symbol), in response to the leader’s call.
Meanwhile, deputies approved an amendment to the 1988 anti-prostitution law proposed by a relative majority in Baghdad’s parliament, where Islamist parties have a majority.
Source: DN
