Iraqi militias are carrying out a spreading campaign of torture and murder against men suspected of homosexual conduct, or of not being “manly” enough, and Iraq authorities have done nothing to stop the killing, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Monday. Human Rights Watch called on Iraq’s government to act urgently to rein in militia abuses, punish the perpetrators, and stop a new resurgence of violence that threatens all Iraqis’ safety.
The photograph on the cover of the Human Rights Watch report, 'They Want Us Exterminated': Murder, Torture, Sexual Orientation and Gender in Iraq, shows graffiti in a neighborhood in Najaf: “Death to the People of Lot.” “People of Lot” is a derogatory term in Arabic for men who engage in homosexual conduct, derived from the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The 67-page report, 'They Want Us Exterminated': Murder, Torture, Sexual Orientation and Gender in Iraq, documents a wide-reaching campaign of extrajudicial executions, kidnappings, and torture of gay men that began in early 2009. The killings began in the vast Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City, a stronghold of Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia, and spread to many cities across Iraq. Mahdi Army spokesmen have promoted fears about the “third sex” and the “feminization” of Iraq men, and suggested that militia action was the remedy. Some people told Human Rights Watch that Iraqi security forces have colluded and joined in the killing.
“Iraq’s leaders are supposed to defend all Iraqis, not abandon them to armed agents of hate,” said Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. “Turning a blind eye to torture and murder threatens the rights and life of every Iraqi.”
Silence and stigma surrounding sexuality and gender in Iraq make placing a precise figure on the number killed almost impossible, but indications are that hundreds of men may have died.
One man told Human Rights Watch that militiamen kidnapped and killed his partner of 10 years in April: “It was late one night, and they came to take my partner at his parents’ home. Four armed men barged into the house, masked and wearing black. They asked for him by name; they insulted him and took him in front of his parents. … He was found in the neighborhood the day after. They had thrown his corpse in the garbage. His genitals were cut off and a piece of his throat was ripped out.”
The killers invade homes and pick people up in the street, witnesses and survivors said, interrogating them before murdering them to extract names of other potential victims. They practice grotesque tortures, including gluing men’s anuses shut as punishment. Human Rights Watch spoke to doctors who said that hospitals and morgues have received dozens of mutilated bodies, living and dead.
“Murder and torture are no way to enforce morality,” said Rasha Moumneh, Middle East and North Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “These killings point to the continuing and lethal failure of Iraq’s post-occupation authorities to establish the rule of law and protect their citizens.”
Consensual homosexual conduct between adults is not a criminal offense under Iraqi law. Although many militias in Iraq claim to be enforcers of Islamic law, the Human Rights Watch report also shows how the killings – committed without evidence or trial, on the basis of prejudice and whim – violate standards in Sharia law for legality, proof, and privacy.
International human rights law forbids all forms of torture and inhuman treatment and guarantees the right to life, including the right to effective state protection. In its 1994 decision in the landmark case of Toonen v. Australia, the United Nations Human Rights Committee held that the protections against unequal treatment in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) extend to sexual orientation as a protected status.
The report also documents how fears that Iraqi men’s masculinity is under threat propel the killings as much as prejudices about sexuality. Many men told Human Rights Watch that their parents or brothers have threatened them with honor killings because their “unmanly” behavior threatens the reputation of the family or tribe. In a provision left over from the Saddam Hussein era, Iraqi law allows mitigated penalties for crimes committed “with honorable motives.” This exception encourages gender-based violence.
Many Iraqis who fear being attacked have sought safety in surrounding countries, but those countries are no safe haven, the report says. Consensual homosexual conduct is criminalized in most of these countries, and prejudice based on sexual orientation and gender identity fosters violence and discrimination in all of them. Human Rights Watch urges the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), as well as governments that accept Iraqi refugees, to offer rapid resettlement to these endangered people.
Accounts from the report (all names are aliases, to protect the speakers):
“[The killers’] measuring rod to judge people is who they have sex with. It is not by their conscience, it is not by their conduct or their values, it is who they have sex with. The cheapest thing in Iraq is a human being, a human life. It is cheaper than an animal, than a pair of used-up batteries you buy on the street. Especially people like us. … I can’t believe I’m here talking to you because it’s all just been repressed, repressed, repressed. For years it’s been like that – if I walk down the street, I would feel everyone pointing at me. I feel as if I’m dying all the time. And now this, in the last month – I don’t understand what we did to deserve this. They want us exterminated. All the violence and all this hatred: the people who are suffering from it don’t deserve it.”
– Hamid, in Iraq, April 24, 2009
“We’ve been hearing about this, about gay men being killed, for more than a month. It’s like background noise now, every day. The stories started spreading in February about this campaign against gay people by the Mahdi Army: everyone was talking about it, I was hearing about it from my straight friends. In a coffee shop in Karada, on the streets in Harithiya [Baghdad neighborhoods], they were talking about it. I didn’t worry at first. My friends and I, we look extremely masculine, there is nothing visibly “feminine” about us. None of us ever, ever believed this would happen to us. But then at the end of March we heard on the street that 30 men had been killed already.”
– Idris, in Iraq, April 24, 2009
“They did many things to us, the Mahdi Army. ... They kidnapped [my partner] for six days. He will not talk about what they did to him. There were bruises on his side as if he was dragged on the street. They did things to him he can’t describe, even to me. They wrote in the dust on the windshield of his car: ‘Death to the people of Lot and to collaborators.’ They sent us veiled threats in text messages: ‘You are on the list.’ They sent him a piece of paper in an envelope, to his home: there were three bullets wrapped in plastic, of different size. The note said, ‘Which one do you want in your heart?’ … I want to be a regular person, lead a normal life, walk around the city, drink coffee on the street. But because of who I am, I can’t. There is no way out.”
– Mohammad, in Iraq, April 21, 2009
“At 10 a.m., [Ministry of Interior officers] cuffed my hands behind my back. Then they tied a rope around my legs, and they hung me upside down from a hook in the ceiling, from morning till sunset. I passed out. I was stripped down to my underwear while I hung upside down. They cut me down that night, but they gave me no water or food. Next day, they told me to put my clothes back on and they took me to the investigating officer. He said, ‘You like that? We’re going to do that to you more and more, until you confess.’ Confess to what? I asked. ‘To the work you do, to the organization you belong to, and that you are a tanta’ [queen]. For days, there were severe beatings, and constant humiliation and insults. … It was the same form of abuse every day. They beat me all over my body; when they had me hanging upside down, they used me like a punching bag. … They used electric prods all over my body. Then they raped me. Over three days. The first day, 15 of them raped me; the second day, six; the third day, four. There was a bag on my head every time.”
– Nuri, on April 15 and 27, 2009
To read the Human Rights Watch report, 'They Want Us Exterminated': Murder, Torture, Sexual Orientation and Gender in Iraq, please visit:
• English: http://www.hrw.org/node/85050
• Arabic: http://www.hrw.org/node/85056
Scott Long, Director of Human Rights Watch's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Rights Division writes in "Anti-gay gangs terrorise Iraq" in The Guardian (UK):
Most survivors pointed to Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi army, the largest Shia militia in Iraq, as the driving force behind the killings. Sadrist mosques and leaders have warned loudly that homosexuality threatens Iraqi life and culture – though even some Sunni militias may have joined the violence, competing to show their moral credentials. No one can yet give an accurate tally of the victims, but some say the dead may number in the hundreds.
Police and prosecutors ignore the murders. Infiltrated by militias, fearing for their reputations if they defend "effeminate" men, government officials give the killers virtually complete impunity. One 21-year-old even told us how interior ministry forces kidnapped him in February, believing that gay people had access to western money. They tortured him and raped him repeatedly over three weeks, until he managed to raise cash to pay for his freedom. He says he saw the bodies of five other gay men whom the police killed because they could not pay.
The militias mask themselves in moral purpose, but politics underlies the violence. The US "surge", which supposedly cemented Iraq's democracy by ensuring security, succeeded mainly because the Mahdi army chose a strategic retreat. In the process, though, it lost considerable credibility on the street. Now, many believe, it is trying to recoup its reputation by recasting itself, through these murders, as a defender of Iraqi manhood and morality.
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Reader's Comments
However, why are lesbians safe?
To aput: Yes you're right. Bt remember: if you are as what you described in yr profile, then you will be equally despised & treated the same as the victims in Iraq.
Being once a zealous religious devout, have I not seen enough hypocrites? Being gay, have I and my other gay friends not come under the fire of traditionalists? Have I not come accross enough religiously contradicting Facebook pages & Youtube comments?
So, shallow? Maybe not.
I didn't withhold so much just to be dubbed that way. Be thoroughly embarrassed if you have to, but I'll never stop letting my thoughts heard, nor am I gonna be ready to make nice.
Still, again I have to say, this incident is extremely disgusting, and shouldn't be condone. I'm just hoping it will receive a much wider international attention, especially in Singapore.
just to get on my hoby horse for a brief moment, this genocidal behaviour puts the straight acting debate in stark perspective- fight prejudice everyday, follow Milk's calll from the grave to come out where ever you are. Is there a political action being organised to join and give funds to to fight this ?
isal is doing what the christians did when they had power
killing all those they not undestand
we do not understand the religions yet we wish not to kill them
so why they have so much hate when they should show love
religions = hypocrits and hate
stop religions now
while, in such a islamic "code of behavioral, conduct" country, CHANGE takes time
Religion should progress with time. Shouldn't a prophet predicted science and technology will bring about changes to our lives several thousands of year down the road? (think about the condom use, the contraception, divorces, women wearing pants etc) Religious preaching should keep up with time to stay relevant.
Happy Panda is quite right about drawing a (almost) equal sign between religion and war. History has proven it right time and again for thousands of years!
They use brutal force and killings to strike fear for all to conform to their purist ideals, Now they persecute feminine gay men, wanting only REAL MEN to live........ Hey GUYS that sounds so GAY. Maybe they are repressed gays with a staunch fixation on REAL MEN. Who knows they may just pick straight guys off the streets and fulfill their fantasies of straight rape under the guise of their islam. Interesting how religion can be twisted huh.
There are anti-gay people in every country in the world - especially maybe amongst the rabied right wing republicans of the USA.
UK, Australia, Germany, Thailand, Scandinavia - and yes, Iraq,Iran and other Middle Eastern countries - ALL have people who harbour antigay sentiments.
If those bigots COULD GET AWAY with gluing gay men's anuses and then force-feeding laxatives to them- irrespective of which religion they follow - THEY WOULD do it happily.
It is nothing to do with religion. Every religion is perverted by extremists. It is more to do with lack of adequate governance and a lack of laws.
Unfortunately, there's is no safe haven for them, either theses countries need to reform for more equality or tolerance or other countries should start giving asylum to these victims.
Why the hell are these militia doing this when its not illegal? I personally think this might be the tip of the iceburg for their campaign to full total Islamic fundamentalist control of the countries. It's hard to imagine anything worse like this but people can always to worse things to other people.
In case if I have offended anyone, I'm sorry, I have no intention to do so, I just want to express my opinon on this terrible event.
so doesnt this make them gay too? LOL
wat a confused world...
i cant take any of the comments made in the site seriously when majority of the profile pictures of the commentor are half naked.. in undy... seriously. dress up properly and make a formal complaint where it is relevant.
most of the comments are emotionally driven... without much thinking of the root reason of any of the problems we see... be it in particular country or just generalising any religions.
and how weird is this website.. empowering gay asia..? what power do you actually give? other than network for basic ons. i mostly see hate driven articles provoking emotional responses that invite more hates and immaturity... grow up fridae... its the weekend that we look forward to.
So STOP defending these dysfunctional systems of blind faith. Call a spade a spade! It's always about these erring religions. No, not Buddhism, not Hinduism, not Taoism, not Paganism, not Wicca, not Satanism...BUT..always, always, Islam , Christianity and Judaism. Do we need to repeat!
And 36-syenzo. With your own sleazy profile picture and pointless immature b.i.t.c.hing comments that amount to nothing, I agree, we all are very disappointed indeed that you logged on with nothing to offer. At least strap on a bomb and blow yourself up. Make yourself useful. Yawn..zzz
PS: There are other sites if Fridae bores you. No need to ever come back. Your kind is so 2000. Get with the flow. :P
We use site such as Fridae for a variety of reasons; no one is particularly more superior or noble than the others.
Hatred has the fingerprints of intolerance all over it. So, it you don't learn to live and let live, what so different about you than the other bigots?
Here's A Poison Tree by Blake to all those who does not tolerate differences, those who judge and call others name:
I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
And I watered it in fears,
Night and morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.
And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright.
And my foe beheld it shine.
And he knew that it was mine,
And into my garden stole
When the night had veiled the pole;
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.
And hey, at least I ain't a boy flashing my body in a underwear, so you can take me seriously. =)
this is way off the line. way off.
South Africa's criminals instigated by extremist Christian sects, Iraq by extremist Muslims...go figure. They should ask themselves WHY their religions attracts such psychopaths like flies to the honeypot.
"I don’t understand what we did to deserve this. "– Hamid, in Iraq, April 24, 2009
"One 21-year-old even told us how interior ministry forces kidnapped him in February, believing that gay people had access to western money. They tortured him and raped him repeatedly over three weeks, until he managed to raise cash to pay for his freedom. "
I thought the religious people condemn gay sex? Then why did they 'rape him'? Isn't that hypocrisy?
The answer is very simple. People believing in Islam , Christianity and Judaism are called descendents of Abraham. These people has an enemy called the devil, and a common God called God Almighty. God has come in the flesh about 2000 years ago, as a Queer Man on earth (John 13:23; John 19:26; John 21:7; John 21:20) and died on the cross, with His blood cleansing the whole world from sin. The Way of Salvation has come through the descendents of Abraham. They got their world view 'close' to the Truth (i.e. heaven and hell).
But their doctrines are wrong. This is because in the spiritual realm the devil is defeated by a Queer Man, who died on the cross. All mankind can go to heaven after physical death. The devil/ serpent is very, very angry (read Genesis 3:15) and thus deceived the descendents of Abraham, 'blinded' their spiritual eyes, making them kill their own beloved God. The holy scriptures (the Koran and the Bible, which are 1/2 truths and 1/2 lies), are written by the devil, who came in the name of a 'holy god', to steal, kill and destroy.
Killing homosexuals = killing Allah
Killing homosexuals = killing Jesus
Killing women = killing Mary the Mother of Jesus
Raping homosexuals = raping Allah
Raping homosexuals = killing Jesus
Raping women = raping Mary the Mother of Jesus
The devil wants to grieve God's heart to the extent by making His own children kill Him. This is how much bitterness the devil has towards Abraham, Mary and Jesus (Genesis 3:15).
The devil took revenge against Jesus, who is queer, by cursing homosexuals via HIV. Just like the blood of Jesus, a queer Man, blesses and saves the whole world from sin, the devil make the blood of homosexual apparently 'dirty' before all men and make them think it is related to HIV.
Gay marriage is a holy promise by God Almighty, and Jesus has purchased this promise on the cross. Jesus got married to John when He was hanging on the cross (John 19:25-27). That is, Mary became John's mother in law and John became her son in law. Though Jesus' marriage is short lived, He has opened a way for the Father to accept gay marriage (including anal sex within marriage). God Himself married Man and ordained gay marriage! See how much He loved us! But the devil is very, very angry and thus make anal sex be one of the most risky sexual activity in contacting HIV, making it into a taboo.
He who has ears, let him hear, understand and believe!
Note: Before any breakthrough, the spiritual warfare will be intensive. In seeing all these sufferings, one can perceive that a breakthrough for homosexuals is near. The devil is struggling at the last minute, trying his best to steal, kill and destroy before a breakthrough is going to happen!
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