The organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) asked the Iraqi government on Wednesday to withdraw the bill that provides for the imposition of the death penalty on people who have homosexual relationships.
The new legislation is currently being debated in the Baghdad Parliament – which has yet to vote on the proposal – submitted on August 15 by independent lawmaker Raad al Maliki.
According to the document under debate, homosexual relations would be punished with the death penalty or life imprisonment.
Under the same bill, the “promotion of homosexuality” would be punishable by at least seven years in prison.
The bill, which is being examined by the North American organization HRW, equates relationships between people of the same sex with “sexual perversion”, proposing to condemn people of the same sex who have sexual relations “more than three times”.
The document also refers specifically to transgender people, calling for prison terms of between one and three years and fines of between $3,800 and $7,000 for men who “imitate women.”
According to the proposal, “imitating women” presupposes the use of feminine makeup and clothing in public spaces.
The bill also prohibits medical hormone therapy and “sex change” based on personal will, as well as any attempt to change identity (gender).
In these cases, the deputy who presented the document requests sentences of one to three years in prison.
According to the same proposal, doctors who “perform sex change operations” will also be punished.
Al Maliki said the new legislation under discussion is aimed at “preserving Iraqi society from the deviations (…) that have already invaded the world.”
“Iraq’s proposed anti-LGBTQI+ law could endanger the lives of Iraqis already facing a hostile environment,” said Rasha Younes, HRW researcher on LGBTQI+ community rights.
Although consensual same-sex sexual relations are not explicitly criminalized in Iraq, authorities have used “morality” laws to harass people in the LGBTQI+ community.
The introduction of this bill comes after several months of particularly violent political speech against sexual minorities by Iraqi politicians and Shiite religious entities that dominate Parliament.
On August 8, the Communications and Media Commission of Iraq decreed a ban on the term “homosexuality”, which was replaced by the name “sexual deviance”.
Source: TSF
