A leading international rights watchdog called on Iraq on Wednesday to withdraw a law targeting same-sex relationships and transgender people amid rising anti-LGBTQ sentiment in the region.
“Iraq’s proposed anti-LGBT law would threaten the lives of Iraqis already facing a hostile environment for LGBT people,” said Human Rights Watch researcher Rasha Younes in a press release. “Iraqi lawmakers are sending an appalling message to LGBT people that their speech is criminal and their lives are expendable.”
Background: Independent Iraqi parliament member Raad Al-Maliki proposed an amendment last week to a 1988 law against prostitution. The amendment would explicitly make same-sex relations and transgender expression a criminal offense. If passed, it would punish same-sex relations with the death penalty or life in prison. The legislation would also punish “promoting homosexuality” with a minimum seven years in prison, and criminalize “imitating women” with up to a three-year sentence, according to Human Rights Watch.
Agence France-Presse reported on Tuesday that the amendment was still under discussion and a second reading has yet to be scheduled. A first reading passed last week. The change “appears to have broad support” in the parliament, including among Islamists, according to AFP.
