UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...

were believed to be prostitutes. 710 Armed Islamic groups and militias have also launched
violent campaigns against homosexuals, killing several. 711 Persons known to have
HIV/AIDS, who have already suffered from severe discrimination and, under the former
regime, spent many years virtually imprisoned in sanatoria, 712 continue to be discriminated
against. Some have been killed as they are perceived to have engaged in “indecent methods
against Islamic beliefs” such as homosexuality, sex outside of marriage and drug use. 713
In addition, members of certain professions have become victims of religious extremists.
There are continuous reports of barbers being killed, threatened or forced to close their
shops for shaving men, giving “Western-style” haircuts, or doing Al-Haff, the Iraqi practice
in which barbers use thread to pull out small hairs on the face to give a closer shave, all
considered by Islamic extremists as prohibited under Islam. 714 Male doctors have
reportedly been killed for treating female patients and owners of alcohol, 715 DVD and CD
shops and shops selling musical instruments or what is considered “inappropriate clothing”
have also been targeted. 716
Furthermore, in several government offices, many of which are run by religious parties,
Islamic rules have been introduced, including the segregation of staff by sex or the duty
imposed on women to wear a headscarf. 717 For example, women teachers have been
ordered to adopt Islamic codes of clothing and behaviour. 718 Some women were reportedly
denied employment and educational opportunities because they did not present themselves
as sufficiently conservative.
710 BBC News, Iraqi women shot dead in Baghdad, 8 March 2005, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/
middle_east/4329075.stm.
711 See “Sexual Orientation”.
712 On the situation under the former regime, see: Paul von Zielbauer, Iraqis Infected by H.I.V.-Tainted
Blood Try New Tool: A Lawsuit, The New York Times, 4 September 2006, http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/
09/04/world/middleeast/04aids.html.
713 IRIN, Iraq: HIV-positive couple murdered, 9 August 2006, http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?
reportid=60142.
714 UNAMI HRO reported in its December 2006 human rights report that it “has also received reports to the
effect that several barbers were killed in Kirkuk in the reporting period, probable targets of Islamic extremists
advocating conformist Islamic practices such as outlawing shaving for Muslim men. For instance, on
9 December, a “terrorist group” assassinated Qasm Hassan, a barber at the Al-Wasiti Quarter, south
Kirkuk”; see UNAMI HRO, December 2006 Human Rights Report, p. 16, see above footnote 10. See also:
Raghavan, see above footnote 704; IRIN, Iraq: Barbers threatened by hardliners, 24 March 2005,
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=24977.
715 For further information see, for example, “Yazidis 352F ” and “Roma (Kawliyah)”, as alcohol shops are
usually run by non-Muslims.
716 Raghavan, see above footnote 704. See also: UNAMI HRO, October 2006 Human Rights Report, p. 12,
see above footnote 66; CNN, Mosque, music stores bombed in Baquba, 3 April 2006, http://edition.cnn.com/
2006/US/04/02/sunday/index.html; Al Jazeera and agencies, Traditional Iraqi music under threat,
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/archive/archive?ArchiveId=1546.
717 Beaumont, see above footnote 174; UNAMI HRO, June 2006 Human Rights Report, p. 10, see above
footnote 27.
718 Peter Beaumont, Iraq’s universities and schools near collapse as teachers and pupils flee, The Guardian,
5 October 2006, http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1887804,00.html.
130