The Iraqi Parliament adopted, on Saturday April 27, a law criminalizing homosexual relations and gender transitions, with penalties of up to fifteen years of imprisonment, after a first version which initially provided for the death penalty.
In reaction, the NGO Amnesty International criticized to Agence France-Presse (AFP) a “violation of fundamental human rights”considering that the amendments adopted on Saturday “endanger Iraqis who are already harassed on a daily basis”in a conservative country where sexual minorities live in hiding.
These amendments modify a 1988 anti-prostitution law and were adopted during a session at which 170 deputies out of 329 were present, according to a press release from the Parliament press service. The new provisions provide for sentences of ten to fifteen years in prison for homosexual relations, as well as for swinging practices involving wives, according to the text consulted by AFP.
Promoting homosexuality prohibited
The law also prohibits “any organization promoting homosexuality in Iraq”with a prison sentence of seven years at stake.
She proscribes “the change of biological sex on the basis of individual desires or inclinations” and provides for a penalty of one to three years of imprisonment for any person or doctor involved in this transition. A similar punishment is provided for any man whose behavior is deemed effeminate.
Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers In Türkiye, an aggressive anti-LGBT campaign
Add to your selections
Iraqi society rejects homosexuality, and the small LGBT+ community is the frequent target of“kidnappings, rapes, torture and assassinations” from armed groups enjoying “impunity”noted Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a report in 2022. “Iraq has effectively codified in legal terms the discrimination and violence directed for years with complete impunity against members of the community”Razaw Salihy, researcher at Amnesty, told AFP.
Iraq used the 1969 penal code to condemn LGBT+ people, relying on an article providing “life imprisonment or several years of imprisonment” for sodomy.
Vote postponed before visit to Washington
MP Raëd Al-Maliki, at the origin of the amendments, recognizes that a vote initially planned for mid-April was postponed to avoid “to impact” a visit to Washington by Prime Minister Mohammed Chia Al-Soudani.
“There is an American and European refusal of the lawhe admits. But for us it is an internal question, we refuse any interference. » “Today we know that Iraqi society refuses [l’homosexualité], but there is a deliberate promotion of cultures that we do not recognizehe believes. It is the future that worries us and the law is a kind of prevention to protect society. »
Read also | Russia adds ‘international LGBT movement’ to list of ‘terrorists and extremists’
Add to your selections
The US State Department is “deeply concerned” by this legislation, spokesperson Matthew Miller reacted Saturday on X, deploring that the text of the law threatens the most vulnerable people in Iraqi society and “undermines the government’s economic and political reform efforts”.
