(Baghdad) The Iraqi Parliament adopted on Saturday a law criminalizing homosexual relations and transgender people, with penalties of up to 15 years of imprisonment, after a first version which initially provided for the death penalty.
In reaction, the NGO Amnesty International criticized to the AFP a “violation of fundamental human rights”, estimating that the amendments adopted on Saturday “endanger Iraqis already harassed on a daily basis”, in a conservative country where sexual minorities live in hiding.
These amendments, which modify a 1988 anti-prostitution law, were adopted during a session at which 170 deputies out of 329 were present, according to a press release from the Parliament’s press service.
The new provisions provide for sentences of ten to 15 years in prison for homosexual relations, as well as for swinging practices involving wives, according to the text consulted by AFP.
The law also bans “any organization promoting homosexuality in Iraq”, with a prison sentence of seven years for “promoting” homosexual relations.
It prohibits “the change of biological sex on the basis of individual desires or inclinations” and provides for a penalty of one to three years of imprisonment for any person or doctor involved in this transition.
A similar punishment is provided for any man whose behavior is deemed effeminate.
Iraqi society rejects homosexuality, and the small LGBT+ community is the frequent target of “kidnappings, rapes, torture and assassinations” by armed groups enjoying “impunity”, noted Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a report in 2022.
“Iraq has effectively codified in legal terms the discrimination and violence directed for years with complete impunity against members of the community,” Razaw Salihy, researcher at Amnesty, told AFP.
Iraq used the 1969 penal code to convict LGBT+ people, relying on an article providing for “life imprisonment or several years of imprisonment” for sodomy.
MP Raëd al-Maliki, at the origin of the amendments, recognizes that a vote initially planned for mid-April was postponed to avoid “impacting” a visit to Washington by Prime Minister Mohamed Chia al-Soudani.
“There is an American and European refusal of the law,” he admits. “But for us it is an internal question, we refuse any interference.”
“Today we know that Iraqi society refuses (homosexuality, editor’s note), but there is a deliberate promotion of cultures that we do not recognize,” he believes. “It is the future that worries us and the law is a kind of prevention to protect society.”