UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...

2. Sexual Orientation
a) General
Iraq’s largely marginalized and vulnerable LGBT community is often targeted for attacks.
Although attacks on the basis of a person’s sexual orientation and general intolerance of
homosexual practices occurred before 2003, the current environment of impunity and
lawlessness along with the stronger embracing and extralegal enforcement of strict Islamic
values have led to a spate of killings in recent years.
b) Current Situation
While Iraqi law does not institutionally discriminate against LGBT citizens, homosexuality
and alternate gender identity remain strictly taboo and subject to intense individual, familial
and social sanctions.
In a conservative society where religious sanctions are increasingly enforced by
extrajudicial means, Shari’a proscriptions of homosexual conduct place LGBT Iraqis in
significant physical danger. In October 2005, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani allegedly
issued a fatwa which reportedly called for the killing of homosexuals “in the most severe
way.” 679 The fatwa, published on a website in the Iranian city of Qom in the name of Al-
Sistani, appeared in the Arabic-language section but not the English. 680 While Al-Sistani
has denied issuing any such fatwa, his representative, Seyed Kashmiri, appeared to
acknowledge the ruling when he explained to BBC News that “homosexuals and lesbians
are not killed for practising their inclinations for the first time,” and that not all rulings are
to be implemented. 681
From October 2005 until the removal of the statement from the Al-Sistani website on
10 May 2006, at least twelve LGBT Iraqis were reportedly killed in targeted attacks based
on their sexual orientation. 682 The statement was revoked following the public killing of
14-year-old Ahmed Khalil in Al-Doura by men wearing police uniforms, on the basis of his
imputed homosexuality and amid “mounting evidence that fundamentalists have infiltrated
government security forces to commit homophobic murders.” 683 Killings have increased in
brutality as well as frequency; in a highly public attack, Haydar Faiek, a transsexual Iraqi,
was burned alive in September 2005 in Karada’s main street. 684 Ali Hili, the founder of the
Iraqi LGBT Society said that he had received hundreds of reports of attacks, and had
679
Daniel Howden, Sistani renounces fatwa on gays, The Independent, 16 May 2006,
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article485024.ece.
680
Michael McDonough, Gay Iraqis fear for their lives, BBC News, 17 April 2006, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/
hi/middle_east/4915172.stm.
681
Ibid.
682
Based on compiled news reports and information received in host countries, together with a list of gay
Iraqis killed since 2003 provided to UNAMI HRO by IraqiLGBT, a UK- and Baghdad-based gay rights
group.
683
Howden, Sistani renounces fatwa on gays, see above footnote 679.
684
Daniel McGrory, Gays flee as religious militias sentence them all to death, The Times, 17 May 2006,
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-2183948,00.html.
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