edited: to put entire article in body of post, instead of just beginning & end.
A law amendment in Iraq has proposed capital punishment for homosexual relationships. Campaigners have called it a “dangerous” escalation in the country where people already face frequent attacks and discrimination. However, life for queer Iraqis hasn’t always been this way. As with so many stains on worldwide human rights, the worsening homophobia and transphobia in Iraq can be traced back to the British empire.
Iraq: debating the death penalty for LGBTQ+ people
The amendment to a 1988 anti-prostitution law passed a first reading in parliament last week. It would enable courts to issue “the death penalty or life imprisonment” sentences for “homosexual relations”. This is according to a document seen by Agence France-Press (AFP). The amendment would also set a minimum seven-year prison term for “promoting homosexuality”.
Currently, no existing laws explicitly punish homosexual relations. However, the state has prosecuted LGBTQ+ people for sodomy, or under vague morality and anti-prostitution clauses in Iraq’s penal code. This also comes at a time when the state and the media are also cracking-down on open discussion about LGBTQ+ issues.
The national media and communications commission is considering banning Iraq-based publications from using the term “homosexuality”. Instead, it would advise media outlets to use the derogatory term “sexual deviance”. It also wants to ban the term “gender”.
‘Abnormal social phenomena’, apparently
The law change appears to have broad support in the Islamist-majority assembly. Saud al-Saadi is member of Shiite Muslim party Huquq, the political wing of the powerful Iran-aligned Hezbollah Brigades and part of the ruling coalition. He said the amendment was “still under discussion and subject to exchanges of viewpoints”. Saadi said a second reading had yet to be scheduled, and argued that parliament aims to “fill a legal vacuum”.
Lawmaker Sharif Suleiman of the Kurdistan Democratic Party said the proposed legislation reflects:
our moral and human values and our fights against abnormal social phenomena… We need deterrent laws.
‘My life will end’
A 2022 report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and non-governmental organisation IraQueer found that people often target LGBTQ+ Iraqis with “kidnappings, rapes, torture and murders”. The state fails to punish the perpetrators. LGBTQ+ rights researcher at HRW Rasha Younes called the new proposed legislation as a “dangerous step”. She told AFP:
That means that Iraqi individuals’ life and constant fear of being hunted down and killed by armed groups with impunity is now going to translate into the law itself.
The Iraqi government (is) using the rights of LGBT people to distract the public from its lack of delivery.
The surge in anti-LGBTQ sentiment has stoked further fear among members of the community. Iraqi gay man Abdallah told AFP:
The situation has become too complicated because we are not protected by the authorities. If someone finds out that I’m gay and has a problem with me, they can send my name or photo to armed groups. My life will end.
It is likely Iraqi politicians will pass the law – and it can be directly linked back to Britain’s colonial influence.
Colonialism: bringing homophobia to Iraq and the Middle East
Historically, Iraq and other countries in the Middle East were not as homophobic as they are today. Rather, the Ottoman empire – part of which would later become present-day Iraq – was relatively permissive of homosexuality, particularly if it was kept out of the public eye.
Then, as History wrote:
Britain seized Iraq from Ottoman Turkey during World War I and was granted a mandate by the League of Nations to govern the nation in 1920. A Hashemite monarchy was organized under British protection in 1921, and on October 3, 1932, the kingdom of Iraq was granted independence.
But the damage was already done. The Economist explained that:
In 1885 the British government introduced new penal codes that punished all homosexual behaviour. Of the more than 70 countries that criminalise homosexual acts today, over half are former British colonies. France introduced similar laws around the same time. After independence, only Jordan and Bahrain did away with such penalties.
Britain forced its anti-LGBTQ+ laws onto Iraq (as it did most of its colonies). Negative societal attitudes and state criminalisation have remained ever since.
Now, it’s LGBTQ+ Iraqis feeling the full effects of the legacy of British colonialism.
“You can blame the British for that [modern day enforcement of backward laws that the rest of the world has since corrected]”
Horrendous state of affairs but the tying it “the British” is mind boggling. Pull your head out of yer arse.
Most brain-dead take I’ve heard. Apparently the UK managed to change Iraqi culture in well less than 20 years to become homophobic. ???
Kind of brain dead not to realize Iraq was a British mandate after World War I, 100 years ago. They did upend the bureaucratic systems following the fall of the Ottoman Empire and instituted sweeping new laws.
I think they are referring to the fact that Britain had control of Iraq for only around a decade.
I’m not well versed to speak about the UK and Iraq, but there are indeed examples in the contemporary world where some 8–14 years would be enough to change the public opinion quite a lot
I realise this, my issue is that this is blamed on Britian despite administration being for well less than 20 years before independence. Iraqi opinions to homosexuality have over history been more influenced by the teachings of Islam than Britain.
Lemmy.ml don’t blame literally everything on the west challenge
OP is from lemmy.zip and that’s the title of the article.
British Law was exported to all of its colonies. Homosexuality was not taboo in Pre-Anglo Ottoman Iraq. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the British land grabs you start to see these kinds of changes in the penal code.
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Bro don’t be obtuse. It was illegal to be gay in Britain as recently as 1981 in some parts. British colonial rule had a profound effect on the countries it held dominion over particularly in introducing laws which often held harsher punishments than at home in order to “civilize” the local people there. As other commenters have mentioned, homosexuality was not nearly as taboo in the Middle East during the days of the Ottoman Empire as it is today. Many countries which were under British rule still maintain harsh anti homosexuality laws today, the harshness of which can be traced back to the introduction of British law codes.
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But instead of blaming a period of time that lasted only around a decade (British control of Iraq), why not blame the massive rise in fundamentalist Islamic views since the mid-20th century? That seems to be the much more important factor.
Hey, where do you think financialist Islam came from? Hint hint, it wasn’t under Ottoman occupation. It was post British colonial rule under a system set up by the British.
It’s more complicated than that. Governments established by Britain are a factor, but Salafi ideology fostered a hatred of Western ideals separate from colonial issues. Trying to say it’s Britain’s fault is oversimplifying to the point of absurdity.
Pretty sure the Ottoman Empire had a pretty good economy without any help from Britain.
You mean the “Sick Old Man of Europe”?
I’m making fun of you for accidentally typing financialist Islam instead of fundamentalist.
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You might as well blame current UK issues on the Romans.