Baghdad, Iraq Approves Controversial Anti-LGBT Law: Penalties and Reactions Explained

2024-04-27 21:33:00

Baghdad, Iraq

The Parliament of Irak approved this Saturday amendments to the law once morest prostitution to include the criminalization of homosexual relationships and transgender expressions, which from now on will carry penalties of up to 15 years in prison.

In Congress “there are lesbians, homosexuals and bisexuals,” says deputy

The Legislature noted that the amendments were approved “to preserve moral decency in Iraqi society from calls for homosexuality that have invaded the world” and in the “absence of legislation in Irak that punishes dissuasively homosexual acts and to those who promote them,” according to a statement.

The acting president of the lower house, Mohsen al Mandalawi, said that the approval of the amendments is “a necessary step to protect the structure of values ​​of society and of children, who are called to moral depravity and homosexuality.” , according to another statement.

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The amendments to the law once morest prostitution, in force since 1988, were approved in a session attended by 170 of the 329 deputies that make up the Iraqi Chamber.

From now on, Iraqi law penalizes any consensual homosexual relationship with between 10 and 15 years in prison, while promoting relationships between people of the same sex also carries a penalty of between one and three years in prison and a fine of 10 million. of Iraqi dinars (regarding $7,600).

Anyone who undergoes a “sex reassignment” operation, as well as the doctor who performs it, will face a sentence of one to three years in prison. The law also provides punishments for any man who displays “effeminate behavior.” ”.

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”The approval by the Iraqi Parliament of the anti-LGBT law ratifies the terrible record of rights violations once morest LGBT people in Iraq,” the acting co-director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), Rasha Younes, said on her X account.

The human rights defender denounced that this norm “adds insult to the wound of Iraqi LGBT people, who already face cyclical violence and threats to their lives from armed groups,” mainly of a religious nature.

The bill for this amendment was presented in August 2023 by independent MP Raad al Maliki, and initially stipulated that homosexual relations would be punished with the death penalty or life imprisonment, while the “promotion of homosexuality” would mean a minimum of seven years in prison and a fine.

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Although consensual same-sex sexual relations were not explicitly criminalized in Iraq, authorities have used vague “morality” laws to persecute members of the group. EFE

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