Iraq forbids journalists from talking about “homosexuality”: they must say “sexual deviance”

2023-08-09 04:01:00

The official media regulator for Irak ordered the press and all social media companies operating in the Arab state to don’t use the term “homosexuality” and that, instead, say “sexual deviance”.

The Iraqi Communications and Media Commission said in a statement that nor can the word “gender” be used“. It prohibited all authorized telephone and Internet companies from using these terms in any of their mobile applications.

A transgender sheikha fled Qatar to save herself from conversion therapy

The regulator “instructs the media (…) not to use the term ‘homosexuality’ and to use the correct term ‘sexual deviance,'” the statement said in Arabic.

A government spokesman said that The penalty for violating the rule had not yet been set, but it might include a fine.

The situation of the LGBT community in Iraq

Iraq does not explicitly punish homosexual relationsbut vaguely defined moral clauses have been used in its penal code to attack members of the LGBT community.

In the past two months, Iraq’s main parties have intensified their criticism of LGBT rights, and rainbow flags have been frequently burned at protests by Shiite Muslim factions opposed to recent Koran burnings in Sweden and Denmark.

More than 60 countries criminalize same-sex relationships, while same-sex sexual acts are legal in more than 130 countries, according to Our World in Data.

ED

1691554459
#Iraq #forbids #journalists #talking #homosexuality #sexual #deviance

Leave a Replay