UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...
UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...
UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...
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2. Sexual Orientation<br />
a) General<br />
Iraq’s largely marginalized and vulnerable LGBT community is often targeted for attacks.<br />
Although attacks on the basis of a person’s sexual orientation and general intolerance of<br />
homosexual practices occurred before 2003, the current environment of impunity and<br />
lawlessness along with the stronger embracing and extralegal enforcement of strict Islamic<br />
values have led to a spate of killings in recent years.<br />
b) Current Situation<br />
While Iraqi law does not institutionally discriminate against LGBT citizens, homosexuality<br />
and alternate gender identity remain strictly taboo and subject to intense individual, familial<br />
and social sanctions.<br />
In a conservative society where religious sanctions are increasingly enforced by<br />
extrajudicial means, Shari’a proscriptions of homosexual conduct place LGBT Iraqis in<br />
significant physical danger. In October 2005, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani allegedly<br />
issued a fatwa which reportedly called for the killing of homosexuals “in the most severe<br />
way.” 679 The fatwa, published on a website in the Iranian city of Qom in the name of Al-<br />
Sistani, appeared in the Arabic-language section but not the English. 680 While Al-Sistani<br />
has denied issuing any such fatwa, his representative, Seyed Kashmiri, appeared to<br />
acknowledge the ruling when he explained to BBC News that “homosexuals and lesbians<br />
are not killed for practising their inclinations for the first time,” and that not all rulings are<br />
to be implemented. 681<br />
From October 2005 until the removal of the statement from the Al-Sistani website on<br />
10 May 2006, at least twelve LGBT Iraqis were reportedly killed in targeted attacks based<br />
on their sexual orientation. 682 The statement was revoked following the public killing of<br />
14-year-old Ahmed Khalil in Al-Doura by men wearing police uniforms, on the basis of his<br />
imputed homosexuality and amid “mounting evidence that fundamentalists have infiltrated<br />
government security forces to commit homophobic murders.” 683 Killings have increased in<br />
brutality as well as frequency; in a highly public attack, Haydar Faiek, a transsexual Iraqi,<br />
was burned alive in September 2005 in Karada’s main street. 684 Ali Hili, the founder of the<br />
Iraqi LGBT Society said that he had received hundreds of reports of attacks, and had<br />
679<br />
Daniel Howden, Sistani renounces fatwa on gays, The Independent, 16 May 2006,<br />
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article485024.ece.<br />
680<br />
Michael McDonough, Gay Iraqis fear for their lives, BBC News, 17 April 2006, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/<br />
hi/middle_east/4915172.stm.<br />
681<br />
Ibid.<br />
682<br />
Based on compiled news reports and information received in host countries, together with a list of gay<br />
Iraqis killed since 2003 provided to UNAMI HRO by IraqiLGBT, a UK- and Baghdad-based gay rights<br />
group.<br />
683<br />
Howden, Sistani renounces fatwa on gays, see above footnote 679.<br />
684<br />
Daniel McGrory, Gays flee as religious militias sentence them all to death, The Times, 17 May 2006,<br />
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-2183948,00.html.<br />
126