Iraq’s parliament on Saturday passed a bill criminalizing same-sex relations, which would receive a sentence of up to 15 years in prison, in a move rights groups condemned as an “attack on human rights.”
Transgender people would be sentenced to three years’ jail under the amendments to a 1988 anti-prostitution law, which were adopted during a session attended by 170 of 329 lawmakers.
A previous draft had proposed capital punishment for same-sex relations, in what campaigners had called a “dangerous” escalation.
Photo: AP
The new amendments enable courts to sentence people engaging in same-sex relations to 10 to 15 years in prison, according to the document seen by Agence France-Presse, in the country where gay and transgender people already face frequent attacks and discrimination.
They also set a minimum seven-year prison term for “promoting” same-sex relations and a sentence ranging from one to three years for men who “intentionally” act like women.
The amended law makes “biological sex change based on personal desire and inclination” a crime and punishes transgender people and doctors who perform gender-affirming surgery with up to three years in prison.
Homosexuality is taboo in Iraq’s conservative society, but there had not previously been a law that explicitly punished same-sex relations.
Members of Iraq’s LGBTQ community have been prosecuted for sodomy or under vague morality and anti-prostitution clauses in Iraq’s penal code.
“Iraq has effectively codified in law the discrimination and violence members of the LGBTI community have been subjected to with absolute impunity for years,” said Razaw Salihy, Iraq researcher at Amnesty International.
“The amendments concerning LGBTI rights are a violation of fundamental human rights and put at risk Iraqis whose lives are already hounded daily,” Salihy added.
The amendments also ban organizations that “promote” homosexuality and punish “wife swapping” with a prison sentence of 10 to 15 years.
“The law serves as a preventive measure to protect society from such acts,” said Iraqi lawmaker Raed al-Maliki, who advanced the amendments.
He said passing the new amendment was postponed until after Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani’s visit to the US earlier this month.
The US and the EU oppose the law and “we didn’t want to impact the visit,” he said. “It is an internal matter and we do not accept any interference in Iraqi affairs.”
LGBTQ Iraqis have been forced into the shadows, often targeted with “kidnappings, rapes, torture and murders” that go unpunished, a 2022 report by Human Rights Watch and the non-governmental organization IraQueer said.
Iraqi politicians and social media users have increasingly resorted to anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, which stokes further fear among members of the community.
Sarah Sanbar, Iraq researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the new law change “is a horrific development and an attack on human rights.”
“Rather than focusing on enacting laws that would benefit Iraqis — like passing the draft domestic violence law or draft child protection law — Iraq is choosing to codify discrimination against LGBT people,” she said.
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
In front of a secluded temple in southwestern China, Duan Ruru skillfully executes a series of chops and strikes, practicing kung fu techniques she has spent a decade mastering. Chinese martial arts have long been considered a male-dominated sphere, but a cohort of Generation Z women like Duan is challenging that assumption and generating publicity for their particular school of kung fu. “Since I was little, I’ve had a love for martial arts... I thought that girls learning martial arts was super swaggy,” Duan, 23, said. The ancient Emei school where she trains in the mountains of China’s Sichuan Province
RSS