The Iraqi parliament has motioned towards passing a law that will make homosexuality illegal again. Iraq legalized homosexuality when Saddam Hussein was removed from power in 2003 but the country’s politicians want to make it explicitly clear that they believe homosexuality is a crime.
The news broke when a member of the Parliamentary Legal Committee told Iraqi News Agency that criminalizing homosexuality was on the government’s agenda.
“It was agreed within the parliament to collect signatures after returning to session to legislate a law prohibiting homosexuality in Iraq,” said Aref al-Hamami, an MP with the State of Law coalition. “[The] legislation of such a law will be reinforced by legal provisions that prevent homosexuality and the perversions associated with it.”
LGBT rights groups have reacted to the news by warning it would allow homophobic vigilantes to “get away with murder,” according to Middle East Eye.
Despite homosexuality being legal in Iraq for decades, “politicians and religious leaders in the country have frequently railed against LGBT people, and laws punishing “immodest acts” have been used to target them.
“Many members and suspected members of the community have also been subject to death threats, attacks and outright murder by armed groups.”
Amir Ashour, head of the IraQueer rights group, told the Middle East Eye that banning homosexuality would simply increase and legitimize hate crimes.
“This will allow the Iraqi government to legally get away with murder and provide legal protection for armed groups and other criminals who continue to target LGBTQ+ citizens,” he said.
“This will also have a huge impact on the movement, as queer people and those advocating for us will be facing legal consequences, in addition to the extra-judicial violence that we’ve been facing for decades.”
Iraq has not been able to form a government since elections in November 2021, but Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr won the most seats.
Sadr has attacked LGBT people, even blaming them for the COVID-19 pandemic and the spread of other diseases.
On May 23, he took to Twitter, suggesting that monkeypox was a result of homosexual behaviour.
“I call on them [homosexuals] to repent,” Middle East Eye translated. He then called to repeal laws upholding gay rights in order to “protect humanity from the monkeypox epidemic or what we call homosexual-pox.”
Sadr has also proposed an annual day against homosexuality.
Ashour said Sadr and other politicians are using homophobic campaigns as a diversion from the material problems Iraq faces. If they focus on how bad they think homosexuals are, then the public might not consider parliament’s failures and, instead, will unleash their anger at gay people.
“I think the Iraqi government, including individuals like Sadr, continue to try to distract Iraqis from the real problems in Iraq, including their failure to form a government, uphold human rights, and provide basic needs like paying salaries and other services,” he said.
“They have been using the public’s lack of accurate knowledge about LGBTQ+ identities by pretending that they are fighting against ‘real problems’ that Iraq is facing.”
