“Free” Iraq Kills Gays

It seems like Shi’a troops and the regular army have found a strong common ground in Baghdad: the desire to cleanse Iraq from the curse of the Tantas, or homosexuals. According to the latest report from Human Rights Watch coming from Iraq, this is the most recent evolution of the social war that continues to afflict the country.

The 67 pages of “‘They Want Us Exterminated’: Murder, Torture, Sexual Orientation and Gender in Iraq” document the campaign of kidnapping, torture and executions of gays that began in 2009, with hundreds of victims already. Torture includes gang rape and permanent wounds inflicted on presumed gays.

Here is the story, collected in April, of one of the survivors: “‘Confess what?’ I asked. ‘The work you do, the organization you work for, that you are a Tanta.’ For days I was beaten and humiliated…then they raped me. For three days.” In the report, doctors bear witness to having seen corpses and having treated men with grotesque wounds.

We will leave the rough details for the people who are going to read the report, which should be released publicly on the 17th of August, although some things have already been leaked. According to the human rights organization, these actions started in the Shi’a area of the capital, Sadr City; a district known in the history of Baghdad as a strong resistant of Saddam’s regime. Today it is the headquarters of the political and military group of Moqtada al-Sadr. Beginning in that area, the pogrom campaign spread to other cities, thanks to the secret collaboration between the Shi’a troops and members of the regular army, composed mostly of Sunnis.

The fear of the “third sex” and the “femalization” of Iraq has become a propagandist theme of Shi’a troops in the last few months. Actually, anti-gay campaigns are common in a lot of Muslim countries. In Iran, hangings are well known, as are pogrom campaigns against gays in Egypt. But in the case of Iraq there’s a big difference: the presence of the USA, still around today. After the U.S.’s decision not to get involved in the country’s security (American troops are gathered in city garrisons), the task fell to the Iraqi regular army. But can Washington ignore such violations?