Video: Remembering Ahmet Yildiz

Via: stophonourkillings.com

Japanese artist Gengoroh Tagame donated this artwork to participate in the campaign. He draw Ahmet from a picture by Caner Alper. Arigatou!

Al Jazeera Arabic ignores gay news

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Source: Toronto Media Coop - 8 Feb

Al Jazeera English is ready for broadcast in Canada thanks to a CRTC decision last November, which heralded the network's arrival as "increasing [the] diversity of editorial viewpoints in the Canadian broadcasting system." While the English network garners lavish praise, gay activists say its Arabic sister network does a poor job of reporting on queer issues.

Al Jazeera is based in Doha, Qatar — making it the only global news service with headquarters in the Middle East.

When Al Jazeera Arabic was started in 1996, it created a paradigm shift in news reporting in the region--what media analysts dubbed the "Al Jazeera effect." Hossein Alizadeh, Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator at the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), says: "Before Middle Eastern media covered the news of dignitaries and courts. Al Jazeera revolutionized reporting by providing people on the street space to talk of more serious issues."

While Al Jazeera liberalized media in the Middle East by giving voice to the voiceless and providing an unprecedented grassroots perspectives on political, social and economic issues, it produced a different kind of "Al Jazeera effect" in the West. It distinguished itself with its fearless, independent coverage of wars and occupations in the Middle East. Instead of embedding with invading forces, as did most Western corporate media outlets, Al Jazeera offered an alternative perspective by covering wars from behind civilian lines. It provided a focus on civilian deaths in the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the bombardment of Fallujah in Iraq, and what it called "the war on Gaza." To its credit, unlike North America's media, Al Jazeera did not act like a megaphone for the Bush Administration's call for war in Iraq.

In 2007, Al Jazeera added a sister channel, Al Jazeera English, to its network--the channel that is now unconditionally approved as an "eligible service" in Canada (Note that in 2004, Al Jazeera Arabic was approved to broadcast in Canada but the CRTC attached stringent conditions rendering it unattractive for cable companies to carry the Arabic news channel). Today, Al Jazeera English provides strong competition to CNN International and BBC World News with its global South perspective, something which is often missing in North American media.

"I feel Al Jazeera English is a reliable source of information, and I think what they are offering is a perspective from the Middle East region, but the professionalism of the reports, including on [lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans] topics, has global standards," says Alizadeh. "Al Jazeera English is competing in Europe with the BBC, CNN, and the Russia Today 24 news channel, yet it manages to stay competitive. It is offering something."

Asked what Canadians can learn from watching Al Jazeera English, El-Farouk Khaki, the grand marshall of Pride 2009 in Toronto, says it opens up perspectives we might not get otherwise. Khaki says, "a diversity of opinion is always important. Muslims are often seen as a monolith. Anything that diversifies that image is important." Khaki hopes Al Jazeera will further open up those diverse images within Canada and in geopolitical South.

A veil of secrecy also surrounds queer Muslim issues in the West, according to Khaki. "What we suffer from is invisibility in Canada within the larger Muslim community. Some of the more traditional, conservative groups do not recognize our existence."

With the opening of a Canadian bureau Khaki hopes AJE will help break the wall of silence and invisibility in the West. "It should not only cover queer issues ‘over there' in India, but also feminist and queer Muslim issues in the West."

Al Jazeera English regularly reports on gay issues. In recent months, its coverage included:

• segments about the gruesome murders of close to 100 gay men by al Mahdi Shi'ite militias in Iraq in 2009
• the killing of gay youths in a Tel Aviv club last summer, and  
• India's court decision to decriminalize gay sex.

But Al Jazeera's Arabic network "is not interested in covering gay rights issues the way Al Jazeera English does," says Alizadeh. Comparing Al Jazeera Arabic with Al Jazeera English "is like comparing apples and oranges." Al Jazeera Arabic is geared towards a Middle Eastern audience and does not challenge cultural values or orthodox religion, he says.

Extremist religious viewpoints are expressed on Al Jazeera Arabic's religious talk show 'Shariah and Life.' A number of participants who regularly contribute to Al Jazeera Arabic make negative comments about homosexuality but appear on the channel again and again, he says. This includes Yousef al-Qaradawi, a prominent scholar who is on every other week. While Alizadeh says the cleric has offered some progressive views such as "discouraging government monitoring of citizen behaviour, the right of people to commit sin and the right to privacy," he also promotes anti-gay views — in line with orthodox Islam.

"Al Jazeera and any other network operating in the region," says filmmaker Parvez Sharma, "are very uncomfortable talking about homosexuality in any honest and open way." Al Jazeera Arabic "offers an orthodox religious viewpoint which mirrors any Christian, evangelical website. Expect religious extremism in any religion to present viewpoints that are negative on gay people. What happens in the media is a mirror."

Alizadeh suggests that most Middle Eastern media use negative language in reports about homosexuality. For instance, media in the Middle East tend to frame it as a personal scandal if an actor is gay and claim that homosexuality is a Western conspiracy designed to undermine the social fabric of the Arab world.

Brian Whitaker, a Guardian reporter and the author of Unspeakable Love: Gay and Lesbian Life in the Middle East, writes in the book: "While clerics denounce it as a heinous sin, newspapers, reluctant to address it directly, talk cryptically of 'shameful acts' and 'deviant behaviour.'"

Whitaker says that when gay issues are mentioned in Middle Eastern newspapers, the focus is typically on same-sex marriage in the West. Moreover, the falsely framed "Western otherness" of homosexuality "can be readily exploited to whip up popular sentiment."

"Al Jazeera English is different," says Parvez. "Its mandate is to project a secular, modern image of the Arab world. In doing that it has a completely different management." The English channel has to compete for a global audience that is more tolerant of homosexuality than the current Middle East. Al Jazeera English, in all fairness, Alizadeh agrees, is a different entity. "They have a different viewership and a different editorial team. The only thing in common is the name and the financial sponsor."

Read more »

Peter Tatchell: The global struggle for queer freedom

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By Peter Tatchell

Caroline Benn Memorial Lecture 2009

Delivered 13 October 2009 at Bishop Grosseteste University College, Lincoln, UK.

It is a very great honour, and joy, to deliver the Caroline Benn Memorial Lecture 2009. Caroline was a friend and comrade. I remember her with much affection. She left us with a fine humanitarian legacy as a leading advocate of comprehensive education and better educational opportunities. She also lives on, in spirit, through her inspiring, passionate support for socialism, trade union rights, women’s equality and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) freedom. She was a true progressive, who dedicated her life, with much honour and nobility, to the upliftment of humanity. I am very proud to have known Caroline, and salute her life and work with this lecture.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people have made great progress in Britain, especially in the last decade. But in large parts of the world, homophobic and transphobic oppression remains rife.

Take Jamaica, a country with which Britain has close ties. It is a parliamentary democracy and a member of the Commonwealth. It is not a police-state dictatorship. Yet male homosexuality is criminalised and punishable with up to 10 years hard labour. Homophobic discrimination and violence is endemic and the government refuses to take any serious action to protect LGBT Jamaicans.

One of my Jamaican colleagues was the AIDS educator and gay rights activist, Steve Harvey. He was a trail-blazer for LGBT people and especially for people with HIV. In late 2005, a gang burst into his home, kidnapped him, took him to a remote place and shot him dead in an execution-style killing.

Soon afterwards, Nokia Cowen drowned when he jumped into Kingston harbour to escape a violent homophobic mob that had chased him through town. A few weeks later, Jamaica’s trade ambassador, Peter King, was found dead with his throat slashed and multiple stab wounds. Then there was the gruesome discovery of the mutilated bodies of two lesbians, who were found dumped in a septic pit behind the house they shared. All these horrific, homophobic killings happened just weeks apart.

Only this summer, John Terry, the British consul in Jamaica, was brutally mudered in his own home by a killer who left a note abusing him as a “batty man” (Jamaican patois slang for faggot), and warning that the same fate would happen to “all gays.”

Homophobic violence is routine in Jamaica, according to Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. LGBT victims of hate crimes seldom get justice. Police sometimes ignore anti-gay attacks and some officers have been known to abuse, threaten, beat and arrest gay-bashing victims. The perpetrators of homophobic violence are rarely put on trial and convicted.

What is happening in Jamaica is symptomatic of a much wider homophobic persecution.

Around 80 countries continue to outlaw homosexuality, with penalties ranging from one year’s jail to life imprisonment. Just under half these countries are former British colonies and current members of the Commonwealth – a community of nations supposedly committed to uphold democracy and human rights. The anti-gay laws in these Commonwealth nations were originally legislated by the British government in the nineteenth century during the period of colonial rule. They were never repealed when these nations won their independence from Britain.

As well as homophobic laws, British imperalism imposed homophobic prejudice, by means of the fire and brimstone Christian fundamentalist missionaries who sought to “civilise” the so-called “heathen” peoples of the colonies. Some civilisation! The British conquerers instilled in these countries a homophobic hatred that lives on to this day, which is wrecking the lives of LGBT people.

Homophobia is particularly extreme in the Islamist states that impose the death penalty for same-sex relations, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Mauritania, Sudan and the Yemen. In some regions of other countries, such as Nigeria and Pakistan, Sharia law is enforced and lesbians and gays can be stoned to death.

Amid this gloom, last December something truly remarkable and historic happened. Sixty-six countries signed a United Nations’ statement calling for the universal decriminalisation of homosexuality and condemning homophobic discrimination and violence. This was the first time the UN General Assembly had addressed the issue of LGBT human rights. Previously, all resolutions that attempted to get UN committees to endorse LGBT equality had been blocked by an unholy alliance of the Vatican and Islamic states.

Despite this breakthrough statement, even today no international human rights convention specifically acknowledges sexual rights as human rights. None explicitly guarantee equality and non-discrimination to LGBT people. The right to love a person of one’s choice is absent from global humanitatrian statutes. Relationships between partners of the same sex are not officially recognised in any international law. There is nothing in the many UN conventions that concretely guarantees LGBT equality and prohibits homophobic discrimination

Nor are specific LGBT rights and protections included within the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). It is only in the last decade or so that the ECHR’s equality and privacy clauses been interpreted to outlaw discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation.

In the late 1990s, British LGBT citizens filed appeals at the European Court of Human Rights, against the UK’s then discriminatory, homophobic laws. They cited the ECHR’s right-to-privacy and anti-discrimination clauses to successfully challenge centuries-old anti-gay UK legislation. These victories at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg forced the British government to repeal the unequal age of consent for gay men, discriminatory sexual offences laws and the ban on lesbians and gays serving in the armed forces.

ECHR judgments also successfully pressured Romania and Cyprus to decriminalise homosexuality. The ECHR has thus played an important role in challenging and overturning homophobic legislation.

Of the 192 member states of the UN, only a handful have repealed all major legal inequalities against LGBT people: including the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Canada, New Zealand and, more recently, the UK.

Britain’s record was not always so positive. In the 1980s, the UK had a greater number of homophobic laws than the then communist-ruled Soviet Union. Nowadays, we are one of the most progressive European countries. We’ve gone from zero to hero in a mere decade.

In large parts of the world, however, homophobia is still rampant. Hundreds of millions of LGBT people are forced to hide their sexuality; fearing ostracism, harassment, discrimination, imprisonment, torture and even murder.

Some of this violence is perpetrated by vigilantes, including right-wing death squads in countries like Mexico and Brazil. They justify the killing of queers as “social cleansing.”
Other homophobic persecution is officially encouraged and enforced by governments, police, courts, media and religious leaders.

This persecution is happening even in Europe and the US. In echoes of Margaret Thatcher’s notorious Section 28, Lithuania has just passed a new law banning the so-called “promotion” of homosexuality. The US maintains a federal ban on same-sex marriage and openly LGBT people are not allowed to serve in the armed forces.

Homophobic injustice is rife in much of Africa. Cameroonian gay men have been arrested and jailed in the last year, without any clear evidence that they had same-sex relations.

In Nigeria, in 2005, six teenage lesbians, one only 12 years old, were ordered to be punished with an agonising 90 lashes for consensual same-sex relations. Last year, a Nigerian gay pastor and another Christian gay activist were forced to flee the country after threats to kill them.

In Nepal, there is a long, sad history of transgender people being regularly beaten, raped, arrested and detained without trial.

Government ministers in Namibia, echoing the homo-hatred of President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, have denounced lesbians and gays as unAfrican, as traitors and as spreaders of HIV/AIDS.

In the new post-Saddam Hussein “democratic” Iraq, the rise of Islamist fundamentalism has led to the creeping, de facto imposition of Sharia law, with deadly consequences for LGBTs – and for women who refuse to be veiled. Iraqis who murder LGBT people to defend the “honour” of their family escape punishment. The US and UK-backed Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has issued a fatwa calling for the execution of lesbians and gays in the “worst, most severe way possible.” Islamist death squads of the Badr and Sadr militias are assassinating LGBT people in their homes and streets, with impunity.

Russian religious leaders have united to orchestrate a campaign of hatred against the LGBT community. The Orthodox Church has denounced homosexuality as a “sin which destroys human beings and condemns them to a spiritual death.” The Chief Mufti of Russia’s Muslims, Talgat Tajuddin, says gay campaigners “should be bashed… Sexual minorities have no rights, because they have crossed the line. Alternative sexuality is a crime against God.” Russian Chief Rabbi, Berl Lazar, has condemned gay pride parades as “a blow for morality,” adding that there is no right to “sexual perversions.”

The Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, has denounced gay people as “satanic.” He has repeatedly banned Gay Pride marches. This violates Russia’s constitution and law, which guarantee freedom of expression and the right to peaceful protest. LGBT people who have attempted to march have been violently arrested.

The Iranian persecution of LGBTs continues unabated. Twenty-two year old Amir was entrapped by via a gay dating website. The person he arranged to meet turned out to be a member of the morality police. Amir was jailed, tortured and sentenced to 100 lashes, which caused him to lose consciousness and left his whole back covered in huge bloody welts. He is just one of many Iranian LGBTs who have been subjected to lashings, torture, imprisonment and, sometimes, execution.

The western-backed regime in Saudi Arabia retains the death penalty – usually beheading – for homosexuality. In early 2006, its neighbour, the United Arab Emirates, imposed six years jail on 11 gay men arrested at a private party. They were not imprisoned for sexual acts, but merely for being gay and attending a gay social gathering.

The election of a right-wing, Catholic fundamentalist government in Poland in 2005 resulted in the abolition of the government office for combating discrimination against women and LGBTs. The same year, the Mayor of Poznan banned the Gay Pride parade. LGBT people marched anyway. Over 60 were arrested. Many more were injured after the police failed to protect them from the violence of far right counter-protesters.

Uganda is gripped by the state-sponsored victimisation of LGBT people. Typical is the fate of gay rights activist Kizza Musinguzi. He was jailed in 2004 and subjected to four months of forced labour, water torture, beatings and rape. Another gay Ugandan, Isaac K, narrowly escaped an attempted summary execution by a homophobic mob acting with the connivance of local government officials.

Those who speak out against anti-gay violence risk dire consequences. Bishop Christopher Ssenyonjo was dismissed by the Church of Uganda for defending the human rights of LGBT people.

In recent years, the Ugandan government has passed a law banning same-sex marriage, fined Radio Simba for broadcasting a discussion of LGBT issues, and expelled a UN AIDS agency director for meeting with gay activists.

LGBT people have nevertheless made huge strides forward in many parts of the world. A mere four decades ago, “queers” were almost universally seen as mad, bad and sad. Same-sex relations were deemed a sin, a crime and a sickness. It was in only 1991 that the World Health Organisation declassified homosexuality as an illness, and that Amnesty International agreed to campaign for LGBT human rights and to adopt jailed LGBTs as prisoners of conscience.

Nowadays, the global tide is shifting in favour of LGBT emanicipation. An out gay man and LGBT activist, Sunil Pant, was elected to the parliament of Nepal in the post-monarchy elections. In 1999, Georgina Beyer took office in New Zealand, becoming the world’s first openly transgender MP. Uruguay, formerly a military dictatorship, this summer lifted its prohibition on gay servicemen and women. The Lebanon has made history by becoming the first Arab Middle East nation to allow the open, legal establishment of an LGBT welfare and human rights group, Helem.

While fundamentalist religion is still a major threat to LGBT equality, we also have our allies in many faiths. The anti-aparheid hero, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, has compared homophobia to racism, and described the battle for LGBT freedom as the moral equivalent of the fight against apartheid.

Six countries now outlaw sexual orientation discrimination in their constitutions: South Africa (1996), Fiji (1997), Ecuador (1998), Switzerland (2000), Sweden (2003) and Portugal (2004).

In almost every country on earth, there are LGBT freedom movements – some open, others clandestine.

For the first time ever, countries like the Philippines, Estonia, Lebanon, Columbia, Russia, Sri Lanka, and China are hosting LGBT conferences and Pride celebrations. Via the internet and pop culture, LGBT people in small towns in Ghana, Peru, Uzbekistan, Kuwait, Vietnam, St Lucia, Palestine, Fiji and Kenya are connecting with the worldwide LGBT community. The struggle for LGBT liberation has gone global. We’ve begun to roll back the homophobia of centuries. Bravo!

Postscript:

LGBT movements worldwide are urging every government to legislate LGBT equality and human rights and to tackle homophobic and transphobic prejudice, harassment, discriminatiion and violence. These demands include:

1 – Decriminalise same-sex relations; in particular, abolish the death penalty and flogging.

2 – Allow the formation of LGBT organisations and the advocacy of LGBT human rights; and consult with these organisations and their spokespeople when drafting new laws and policies.

3 – Outlaw discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity, in employment, housing, education, advertising, health-care and the provision of goods and services, such as hotel accommodation and service in bars and restaurants.

4 – Establish an equal age of consent for heterosexual and homosexual acts.

5 – Grant legal recognition and rights to same-sex partners; either via civil marriage or civil partnerships / civil unions.

6 – Teach gay-inclusive sex and civic education in schools, in order to challenge homophobia and promote understanding and acceptance of LGBT people.

7 – Crackdown on homophobic hate crimes, to protect LGBTs from hate-motivated violence.

8 – Revise all laws to make them sexuality-neutral, so there is no legislative differentiation between heterosexuality, homosexuality and bisexuality, and so that heterosexual, lesbian, gay and bisexual people have the same rights and responsibilities in law.

9 – Provide access for same-sex couples to fertility treatment and give them the right to foster and adopt children.

10 – Offer gay-inclusive HIV education and prevention campaigns, non-discriminatory HIV care and support services, and LGBT access to free or low-cost condoms.

Onward, upward and forward to queer liberation worldwide.

* Peter Tatchell has campaigned for LGBT human rights for over 40 years. For more information about his campaigns and to make a donation: www.petertatchell.net

Uganda: What can we do?

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Source; GayUganda

You know, it is kind of funny. We have foreseen this bill for ages. I mean, Nsaba Buturo has been trumpenting it for years. He wanted to arrest us when we first had a press conference. He wondered how come we had been able to have this press conference. He was told that, as Ugandans, we had broken no law, holding a press conference.

Then, the government had the will, (it is politically a good thing, with elections coming in two years), but, it is not popular outside country, with the west, with whom we are friends! Much as we would like to be, we are not an island. That is why this bill is supposed to reject any international agreements that don’t go along with it.

My lover is distraught. He is depressed, and asking me for contingency plans to get out of the country. He wants a Plan B. He is unhappy, and disappointed. But am damned if am going to do that. This is my country. As much as it is Nsaba Buturo’s or Ssempa’s.

So, contingency plans when we are caught, or arrested, or the police is closing in? Of course…

And what happens when one is arrested? Be like Brian, and die at 20?

Not many major options. But, we can do something.

For me in Uganda, as a gay man, I can continue writing this blog. Soon, the Honourable Minister will seek to get my id from Google. And maybe he will get it. But then, I hope my friends put pressure on Google not to cave in on that.

And, though it is a matter of fact that we can do very little in Uganda, we can still do something. Oh yes, not run out of the country, though that may have to happen. But, even when we are in the country. We are front line soldiers. Literally. Of course we do have some huge weaknesses. But we can still fight, and not roll over and be stepped on. Oh well, the courage of one who has no other option... Is that courage?

We don’t want this bill to become law. Unfortunately, it will most likely become law… Uganda’s parliament is a rubber stamp for govt. And, this bill has the support of the government, though, pressure from donors and international community forced the government to use a ‘Private Member Bill’ knowing that the popular homophobia in the country will ensure its passage.

So, what can we do?

* We can educate our friends. All other kuchus; about the law, the fact that we don’t have to fall foul of it, and how to help those who do. And how to fight it. There is too much ‘ignorance’

* We can educate people who are allies, who can be our allies.

* We can highlight, document those of us who fall prey to these laws. Ours are the martyrs stories. I hate the ‘illogic’ of martyrdom. But, I am willing to use it, as long as am not the martyr. Just have little to fall back on.

And what can our friends do?

It is funny, we seem so helpless, but we are not. No country is an island.
So, the major drivers of this ridiculous bill are people with standing. The government, the church and other leaders. They are all ridiculously susceptible to outside views.
So, what can we do? What can our friends do?

* The bloggers who have refused to be friends of mine… Why don’t you shout for me, Princess, Comrade 27… Iwaya, and the others who read this blog surreptitiously? Why? Come on, do you also think that I am so bad that I deserve death for making love with my lover? And you other ‘bloglorren’? Yeah, I know I have steered clear of you. But so what? Am relatively free here, and I have been talking ad nauseaum about my sexuality… So, why don’t you take up my cause for me…! Tall order, ha ha ha.

* Any other Ugandans, who happen to read this, do you really think that I am so bad that I should be killed for making love to my lover? Isnt that a mite over the top, even for Ugandans?

* If you are a Christian, do you in truth agree to the death sentence that fellow Christian Dr James Nsaba Buturo? OK. it is a matter of fact that this bill is being driven by the fervour of Christians, and in the name of God and country. And, the Pentecostals and Anglicans in Uganda are the prime drivers.
So, engage other Christians, about this, less than Christian behaviour! (Or else I will bash you, and them…!)

If you are outside the country, why, that is very good. Your congregation can be made aware of all the good things that some Christians in Uganda wish some sinners called gay Ugandans. I am sure your outrage will help. A letter, a protest match, questions to leaders of Uganda, religious and otherwise traveling outside the country. This is a moral question, how can they justify killing me because I am gay, living in a gay relationship with another gay man?

* Ok, what of gay people in other countries. You are our friends. Yes, we dare to ask our gay brothers and sisters for help, especially when our countrymates believe we should be patriotic enough to ‘die’ in the name of their moral uprightness, for god and country.

• Tell your local gay group about it.
• Organise protests, big and small. Educate any who doesnt know about it.
• Write letters of protest. Be courteous, (the framer of the bill says that we homosexuals want to kill him. He says we have already written him ‘threatening’ letters.)

Who should you write to? Why, the Members of Parliament of Uganda… the Speaker, the President, the Attorney General. Express your concern. Why not? You are a private citizen of another country outraged at a law that seems to be too much. And why the hell punish people for loving each other? In my view, with the bill out, this is already a public thing. So, well, let them know your concerns.

* But, you also have political representatives. Those who represent you…, not me. They most likely don’t know what is happening in Uganda the backwater. And they will remember when your leaders ask them what the hell is happening. I bet you even a Republican member of the US Congress would be setback by the anti-human views of his conservative friends in Uganda. Help us tell them, inform them. You do have clout. Yes, you do. Use it.

* Do you work in an HIV prevention or treatment organization? This bill targets gay men. And, can you imagine the stigmatization of a person who is HIV positive and has gay sex in Uganda, and automatically this guy is supposed to face the death penalty? What does your organization think about that? What do you think about it? How can you help to raise awareness that this is happening in Uganda… the presumed pride of Africa in HIV prevention? Yes, I am inviting you to tarnish the country’s image. It is in a good cause, I want to be alive!!!! Don’t want any legalized, judicial murder of me just because I am different.

Ok, that is my thinnking. Course, it is flawed. Who ever claims to be perfect?!

Stop the deportation of Anwar Basim Saleh

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Source: EveryOne Group

Anwar Basim Saleh, the 21-year old Iraqi gay activist from Baghdad, is at present in Holland, where he has applied for asylum.

Anwar, before leaving his country of origin, was the coordinator of a “safe house” for homosexuals working alongside the Iraqi LGBT organization. He was arrested in February 2009 by members of the Iraqi Interior Ministry (Badr Corps) for his role in the association. He was badly beaten up, tortured and he suffered a serious trauma after the long period of detention and the abuse he was subjected to.

He was put under investigation and interrogated over and over again about his role as an LGBT activist and his involvement in the running of a “safe house” in Iraq, where persecuted homosexuals are secretly taken in and offered assistance.

During his detention he met five other members of this organization who have been sentenced to death for the same reason. During a visit to the jail of an Iraqi LGBT volunteer, Anwar handed over a letter with a desperate appeal: “save me from the death penalty.

Iraqi LGBT immediately paid the authorities 5,000 dollars in bail to obtain the young man’s release. As soon as he was released from jail on April 14th, 2009, Anwar immediately got on a plane to Paris, thus fleeing his homeland where he would have undergone an unjust trial, and would most likely have been sentenced to death.

After a few months without any help from the French institutions, associations and authorities (while begging on the streets and living as a tramp), Anwar (who speaks no other languages but his own) left France, and on June 22nd entered Dutch territory. He approached the police authorities in Rotterdam of his own accord, and after telling them his story, they sent him to the local refugee office, which gave him shelter at Terabil asylum centre on June 24th.

On September 2nd, 2009, Anwar was sent for by the Justice Ministry to discuss his asylum application, and was informed that according to the Dublin Regulation, it is up to France to decide whether or not to grant him refugee status.

Anwar, who is still in Holland, begged them to reconsider his application in Holland (where other homosexual originating from Arab countries have taken refuge) to avoid having to make yet another traumatic move and long wait before he learns his fate.

In the Iraqi capital, in an interview given to the newspaper “The National” a militiaman declared: “we see homosexuality as a serious disease that is spreading rapidly among the young men in the community, after it has been brought here by American soldiers. These are not Iraqi habits or habits of our community, and we have to wipe them out”.

Over the last few months it is believed that dozens and dozens of gay homosexuals have been brutally murdered because of their homosexuality in an effort to eliminate those who are considered “morally deviant”.

However, this kind of crime has been taking place since 2003. Officially, the Iraqi police state that the number of murders over the last two months is less than ten, though unofficially they acknowledge that the figure is at least double that. Some of the victims were murdered by their own families or tribes, who see homosexuality as a serious stain on their own honour.

The Iraqi militiaman, in the same interview states: “we have the approval of the most important Iraqi tribes to get rid of the men who imitate women”, explaining that he was once in the Mahdi Army, but now acts independently of the militia of the disbanded leader of the Moqtada-al-Sadr movement: “Our aim is to contribute to the stabilization of society”.

Homosexuality is illegal in Iraqi and, after instructions posted in 2005 on the website of the Shiite religious leader Ali al Sistani, it is to be considered a crime punishable with the death sentence - and homosexuals are to be killed in the “worst” way possible. Though this page was later removed, the sentiments it expressed appear to be shared by other Iraqi religious leaders.

“The Islamic punishment for gay people is to be burnt to death or subjected to any other form of capital punishment”, said imam Hussein from the mosque in the Karada district of Baghdad. “Those who break God’s laws must be purified by the Muslim community. There are clear rules for humanity: men must be men and women must be women”. The religious leader states that the Iraqi government should intervene with determination against homosexuals, but if it fails to, it is more than acceptable for families and tribes to kill them. “The truth is that homosexuality is a source of shame for them. By killing homosexuals, they are doing God’s will”.

Taher Mustafa, a member of the medical staff in Baghdad, has recently stated that over the last three months he himself has seen three men he believe were killed because of their homosexuality. He also added: “three men, between the ages of 17 – 25, who were either killed or burnt to death”.

In September 2009, an article in the British Sunday magazine ‘The Observer’, revealed that the Iraqi Islamic extremists who hunt out homosexuals have started monitoring chat rooms and websites, and since the beginning of the year they have murdered more than 130 gay men. The journalist from The Observer met the leader of one of these fundamentalist organizations in Baghdad. A 22-year-old computer expert, he spends at least six hours every day hunting out homosexuals over the Internet: “It is the most simple way to find these people who are destroying Islam and who aim to soil a reputation we have taken years to build”.

After the international alarm sounded months ago by Iraqi LGBT and EveryOne Group (and after an attempt by the EveryOne activists Roberto Malini, Matteo Pegoraro, Dario Picciau and Glenys Robinson to seek a mediation with His Excellency Mazin Abdulwahab Thiab, the Iraqi Ambassador in Italy - as well as the institutions of the Multinational Coalition in Iraq), Human Rights Watch has also recently described the repression of homosexuals in Iraq as “an authentic ethnic cleansing programme, a systematic campaign against the gay community which is being subjected to torture and murder”.

EveryOne Group, which is in direct contact with the president of Iraqi LGBT, Ali Hilli, as well as with the young asylum-seeker, is appealing to the Dutch and French authorities, as well as the members of the European Parliament, Commission and Council (particularly the Committee Against Torture) to grant Anwar Basim Saleh refugee status and suitable protection as soon as possible. We ask that his rights be recognised according to the Geneva Convention, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the international laws that defend a person’s right to life, health and personal freedom. We ask that Anwar be spared further psychological and physical stress, because just the news of a risk of him being deported back to Iraq could kill him.

We are requesting the intervention of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, asking the organization to be the spokesman for this case in order to guarantee the most correct and urgent procedure to ensure the boy is granted international protection and the risk of deportation is eliminated for good.


~~~~~~~~~~~~

[French translation by Everyone Group]

Rome, London et Rotterdam, 15 septembre 2009

Groupe EveryOne: nous démandons protection et asile pour le jeune activiste gay irakien Anwar Basim Saleh

Il faut que les autorités lui confèrent immédiatement le statut de réfugié

du Groupe EveryOne

Anwar Basim Saleh, 21enne activiste gay irakien qui vient de Baghdad, se trouve actuellement en Hollande, où il a demandé asile politique. Anwar, avant de fuir de son Pays, était le coordonnateur d'une organisation d'aide pour homosexuels, initiative de l'association Iraqi LGBT. Pour cette raison les autoritées gouvernementales (Badr Corps) l'ont arrêté au mois de février 2009. Le jeune a été frappé, torturé et a souffert une tres grave traumatisme pour les interminables jours de détention et pour les abus subis.

Il a été enquêté et répétéement interrogé pour son engagement comme activiste pour l'association'Iraqi LGBT et pour son activités humanitaires et de droits de l'homme. En Iraq Anwar prêtait secrètement aide et assistance aux homosexuels persécutés. Pendant la détention il a rencontré autres cinq membres de son organisation qui ont été condamnés à mort pour la même raison. En profitant de la visite en prison d'un des volontaires d'Iraqi LGBT, Anwar a délivré une lettre avec son appel désespéré: “Sauvez-moi de la peine de mort”. Iraqi LGBT a payé immédiatement aux autorités une caution de 5000 dollars pour obtenir le relâchement du jeune. Quand il a été libre, le 14 avril 2009, Anwar a embarqué à bord d'un avion de lign pour Paris, en fuyant le Pays qui l'aurait trés probablement condamné à mort.

Après quelque mois, passé sans aucune aide de la part des services sociaux ni des associations ou des autorités françaises, en mendiant au bord de la route et en vivant comme un clochard, sans connaître autre langue que l'arabe, Anwar a laissé la France le 22 juin 2009. Le jeune est allé en Hollande chercher protection humanitaire. Il est allé spontanéement chez la Police de Rotterdam, en résumant son histoire. Les autoritées l'ont adressé à l'Office locale pour les Réfugiés, qui l'ont accueilli dans le Centre pour l'asile de Terabil. Le 2 settembre 2009, Anwar a été convoqué au ministère de la Justice pour sa demande d'asile. Le fonctionnaire lui a communiqué que, sur la base de la Convention de Dublin, la France aurait dû décider si lui conférer le statut de réfugié. Anwar, qui est toujours en territoire hollandais, a prié les autorités de reconsidérer sa demande en Hollande, où il y a autres réfugiés homosexuels originaires des pays arabes, pour éviter des ultérieurs traumatiques déplacements et une longue attente de connaître son sort.

Les autoritées et le peuple de Baghdad considerent l'homosexualité comme une grave maladie ou un crime contre Dieu (http://www.thenational.ae/). Un soldat de Baghdad a declaré au quotidien local: “L'homosexualité est dangereuse pour les jeunes de la comunnauté islamique. Celles-ci ne sont pas des habitudes de notre Pays, mais viennent de l'Ocident et nous devons les éliminer”.

En Iraq, dans les derniers mois, on a tué dizaines et dizaines de gays. Mais la persecutions des gays a commencé en 2003. La police irakenne affirme qu'il y a eté au moins dix homicides de gays. Mais le nombre réel est plus gros et il y a été des personnes LGBT qui ont été massacrées par les mêmes membres de leur famille, qui considerait l'homosexualité comme une grave tache sur leur honneur. Le soldat a dit que “les principales tribus irakennes voudraient liquider les hommes qui imitent les femmes, parce que notre objectif est celui de contribuer à stabiliser la societé “.

L’homosexualité est illégal en Iraq et selon les idées du leader chiite Ale al Sistani, doit être considérée un délit à punir avec peine capital et les homosexuels doivent être tués sans aucune pitié. L'imam de la mosquée du quartier Karada de Baghdad, monsieur Hussein a demandé la torture et autres peines ou traitements cruels pour les gays en Irak, parce que “Ils violent les règles de Dieu et doivent être purifié”. Taher Mustafa, un medecin de Baghdad, a récemment affirmé d'avoir vu trois hommes brûlés à mor parce que gays.

Comme la campagne de meurtres ciblant les gays irakiens s’intensifie, une chaîne de télévision arabe a révélé l’utilisation une horrible nouvelle forme detorture mortelle contre les gays. Des escadrons de la mort anti-gays chiites scellent l’anus deshomosexuels avec une colle très puissante avant d’induire une diarrhée qui conduit à une mort lente et douloureuse. L’utilisation de cette torture terrifiante a été signalée pour la première fois par la chaîne de télévision Al Arabiya, dont le siège se trouve dans les Émirats Arabes Unis, qui a été averti par nombreux activistes pour les droits de l’homme.

Yanar Mohammed, présidente de l’OWFI, a déclaré à Al Arabiya que la substance utilisée pour cette torture “est une colle forte fabriquée en Iran et lorsque la peau est collée avec, elle ne peut être décollée que par une intervention chirurgicale. Après avoir collé l’anus deshomosexuels, ils leur donnent une boisson qui cause la diarrhée. Et comme l’anus est fermé, la diarrhée, cause la mort. Des vidéos de cette forme de torture circulent sur les téléphones mobiles en Irak”.

À Bagdad un journaliste de l'Observer a rencontré un jeune informatique qui travaille pour une organisation fondamentaliste. Chaque jour il passe au moins six heures sur Internet à chasse de homosexuels : “C'est le moyen plus simple pour trouver les homosexuels qui détruisent l’Islam”. Après la campagne internationale initiée au mois de mars 2009 par Iraqi LGBT et le Groupe EveryOne et après la tentative de médiation effectuée par les activistes du Groupe EveryOne Roberto Malini, Matteo Pegoraro, Dario Picciau et Glenys Robinson avec Ambassadeur irakien en Italie, Mazin Abdulwahab Thiab, recemment Human Rights Watch a défini la répression des gays en Iraq comme “une véritable purge ethnique, avec tortures et homicides”.

Le Groupe EveryOne, en contacte avec le président d'Iraqi LGBT Ali Hili et le jeune Anwar Basim Saleh, demande aux autorités et aux institutions françaises (Anwar se trouve en Hollande, mais peut etre que, pour la Convention de Dublin, ce sera la France a lui donner protection et asile) ainsi que aux membres du Parlement européen, de la Commission EU et du Conseil de l'Europe (en particulier du Comité contre la torture), de s'activer afin que soit garantie la protection et soit reconnu le statut de réfugié à Anwar Basim Saleh, comme prevue la Convention de Genêve et les accords internationaux qui défendent les Droits Humains. Nous sollicitons l'attention et l'intervention d'urgence du Haut Commissaire des Nations Unies pour les Réfugiés, Monsieur António Guterres, afin que le jeune reçoit la protection internationale et le statut de Refugé, en évitant chaque risque de déportation.

Nous demandons ainsi à tous les organismes et associations des droits de l'homme, y compris les responsables des organes du gouvernement français, du gouvernement hollandais et de l'Union européenne, ainsi qu'aux syndicats et associations de journalistes, de défendre le droit à la sécurité et à la vie de Muntather Al-Zaidi et de travailler pour assurer sa libération immédiate.


Gruppo EveryOne

Tel: (+ 39) 334-8429527 (+ 39) 331-3585406

www.everyonegroup.com :: info@everyonegroup.com

Sex Wars and Nation Building in Iraq: The Silent Slaughter

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Counterpunch

By David Rosen

The Iraqi political leadership is moving to the right and those identified as unacceptable are paying the harshest price. As U.S. occupation forces attempt to vacate Iraq’s bloody battlefield, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is positioning himself as a stalwart nationalist for the upcoming elections scheduled for January 2010. His efforts are most evident in his use of one of the oldest con-games in the authoritarian leader’s playbook, condoning vicious right-wing attacks on the weakest, most powerless in society.

Faced with a recent escalation in sectarian violence and mounting political disaffection within his strained coalition, al-Maliki and his supporters have sought to push through restrictive policies that appease the most reactionary elements within his faltering coalition.

The Iraqi government is attempting to impose restrictions on Internet service providers and, like the Chinese government, ban sites it claims incite violence or offer pornography. Similarly, efforts to promote women’s rights have come to a near halt as represented most graphically by Nawal al-Samarraie, Iraq's minister for women's affairs, decision to resign.

The al-Maliki government’s condoning of the recent up-tick in honor killings of “adulterous” females and “gay” males reveals a far more dangerous, bloody side of the right-wing drift of the Iraqi government.

Saddam Hussein’s regime was brutally oppressive to its perceived enemies, yet surprisingly tolerant when it came to women’s rights (even involving adultery) and to gay people. Hussein oversaw a secular dictatorship, not an Islamist fundamentalist regime.

During the initial phase of the U.S. occupation, Bush promoted a right-wing ideology of “democratic” nation building that required the Iraqi puppet regime to at least give lip service to broadly shared Western “human rights” values. As the U.S. seeks to depart the Iraqi stage, human rights, especially sexual freedoms, are one of the first casualties of Iraq’s new national building efforts.

* * *

An increase in “honor” killings currently haunts the Iraqi political landscape but is receiving little U.S. media attention. Such killings are rooted in ancient patriarchal culture and represent the most severe expression of a rebellion against modernity, the secularism of the global market. They bespeak Iraq’s mounting social crisis.

In Iraq, and other parts of the developing (and religiously fundamentalist) world, an allegation of a wife’s “adultery” or a man’s “homosexuality” can lead to government-sanctioned violent moral justice, including killings. A family or clan believing its reputation defamed by the allegedly unacceptable conduct of one of its members can lead to the killing of the loved-one in order to restore its honor.

Based on a rationality drawn from another historical value system, the “crime” committed is not a civil or legal offense, but rather a moral or tradition transgression: the woman or man who is punished (along with anyone who tries to defend her/him) is considered the guilty party because s/he has defamed the family or clan’s honor. In less tradition-bound societies in the West and other parts of the world, the perpetrator of such an “honor” killing will likely be punished. In Iraq, and other fundamentalist-religious countries, the dishonored party is seen as the victim and exonerated from criminal prosecution.

A recently report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), “They Want Us Exterminated: Murder, Torture, Sexual Orientation and Gender in Iraq,” analyzes the rise in the killings of alleged gay men since January 2009. If estimates that 90 men have been murdered during this period; however, Ali Hili, a spokesperson for Iraqi LGBT, a UK-based gay rights group, argues that "we have information on over 700 killings including honour killings." [HRW, August 2009]

Amnesty International recounts, in “Trapped by Violence: Women in Iraq,” the story of 17-year-old Rand ‘Abd al-Qader who was killed in Basra in March 2008. Her father murdered her apparently with the assistance of two of her brothers because she had developed a friendship with a British soldier based in the city. Making this killing more perverse, Rand ‘Abd al-Qader’s mother, Leila Hussein, denounced her husband’s crime, left him and was murdered in May 2008. [AI, March 2009]

Hundreds of ostensibly gay men have been targeted and killed in Iraq since the U.S. invasion and occupation. These killings spiked following the U.S. invasion, but declined along with other social violence in the wake of the 2008 “Anbar Awakening” and the subsequent U.S. military “surge.” However, as HRW and others have reported, a new round of gay killings is underway in Iraq. It says that the killings are centered in Baghdad, but have spread to Kirkuk, Najaf and Basra.

Clerics warn that under the occupation, a growing trend of what they consider the "feminization" of Iraqi men is occurring and harsh responses are needed to redress this trend. Many attacks are attributed to a resurgent Mehdi Army, Moqtada al-Sadr’s private Shia militia; it has also been accused of burning down a coffee house in Sadr City that was reputed to be frequented by gay men. More worrisome, the attacks have occurred with the complicity of the Iraqi police; ironically, while homosexuality is condemned as immoral, it is not a crime among consenting adults.

The HRW report is most disturbing recounting the horrendous rage inflicted on the men killed for apparently being gay. Vigilantes often break into homes and forcibly remove the alleged gay men and even seize men on the street. Those seized are subject to vicious interrogations before being murdered, their often mutilated bodies abandoned in garbage dumps.

The report recounts doctors’ testimonials noting that some of the men had their anuses glued and force-fed laxatives to induce excruciating deaths. Others have had their bodies disfigured with terms like "pervert," “son of a bitch” or "puppy," a slur to dehumanize the alleged gay man, inscribed on their chests.

It should be noted that U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Hill, acknowledged the HRW report and voiced concern over attacks against members of the Iraqi LGBT community.

According to the Amnesty report, there has been a marked increase in violence against women perceived to have shamed their families. Such charges can be brought against any woman caught speaking to a man in public who is not her husband or a relative. These women are often considered to be prostitutes and violently punished, often killed; women working as prostitutes are often singled out for violent attacks.

Since the U.S. invasion, the Iraqi government has failed to enact legislation to suppress “honor” violence against women and girls. In fact, current laws condone, even facilitate, such violence. The country’s penal code permits perpetrators of “honor” killings to plead mitigating moral factors and get off with a six months sentence.

The Observer reports that Basra witnessed a 70 percent increase in women victims of “honor” killings during 2008, rising to 81 from 47 women in ’07. It reports that “only five people have been convicted.” It reports that women were being burned in acid attacks walking through the city’s market after speaking to a male friend. A local lawyer insists that the police were protecting perpetrators and that a woman could be killed by a hired hit-man for $100 (£65). [The Observer, November 30, 2008]

Turning to Kurdistan, Patrick Cockburn, writing in the Independent in May 2008, noted that in 2007 at least 350 women (double the number for 2006) were targeted for “honor” attacks. Surprising, many of these women and girls were targeted after “evidence” of an “illicit act” were captured on cell phone pictures. More disturbing, some 600 women and girls in Kurdistan committed suicide by burning, drowning or shooting themselves.

* * *

In anticipation of Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq, the neo-con concept of the “clash of civilizations” was promoted as a critical component to the ideological rationale for the imperialist misadventure. Today, the “clash” concept has disappeared from public discourse.

The notion of a clash was originally promulgated by Bernard Lewis and gained wider acceptance through the writings of Samuel Huntington and Francis Fukuyama. At its core, the neo-cons argued that in a post-Cold War world, new forces emerged to shape global conflicts.

For Huntington et. al., the battle between nation states has been superseded by the battle between cultures or what the neo-cons call civilizations. For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, economic competition, class warfare, anti-colonial battles and spheres-of-influence struggles determined global conflict. However, in the post-Cold War millennium, proponents of the “clash” theory argue that a people’s culture, their values, beliefs and religion, has become the determining cause of conflict.

Sexuality, and the attendant issue of “honor” killings, provides a unique window into the alleged clash of civilizations. It is that sphere of human existence in which the twin dimensions of being human are forged. In sex, the truely human (i.e., consciousness) and the truely animal (i.e., physicality) are unified into a singluar experience. This unity is lived out as both species reproduction and erotic pleasure.

Sexuality is also one aspect of socio-personal life that is very much sharpened by “civilization,” by cultural values and religious beliefs as well as by the marketplace and battles between geopolitical empires. Peoples, nations and civilizations have struggled for millennia over the meaning of sexuality, whether for men, women or young people and whether defined as hetrosexual or homosexual.

Explicit and aggressive sexuality is a powerful force dividing the West from, for example, the Arab and Islamic world. It is one of the most threatening dimensions of Western capitalism’s cultural system that is pushing ever-deeper into the intimate, private lives of people throughout the world.

For many, the experience of globalization resonates less in the plunder of a nation’s natural resources or the exploitation of its collective labor power than in the flood of erotic sensibilities challenging established power relations. This apparent assault often provokes the greatest resistance.

Historically, changing sexual relations, whether in the West or Middle East, have upended traditional patriarchial family and social relations. Nothing has proved more socially destablizing then the changing status of women, whether working for a wage outside the home, securing the vote, being freed from restrictive clothing or controlling their reproductive lives. Similiarly, erotic attractions between people of the same sex threaten traditional notions of partriarchy, especially masculity.

As evident from the experience of the West over the last half-century, how can the conventional masculine role be maintained if female identity is remade, along with structrural changes in the marketplace requiring a two-income family. How this process will play out in the Islamic Middle East remains an open question. Unlike the numerous reports and studies of sex practice in the West, little scholarly research about the Middle East is devoted to the study of sex. The Arab and Muslim worlds await its Kinsey.

Life in Iraq, like much of the developing world, is being upended by capitalist globalization. In all likelyhood, this transition would have taken a very different form had the U.S. not invaded Iraq. While severe political violence could have been expected, social or religious violence may well have been contained. However, the “honor” killings of women and (alleged) gay men is but one consequence of the social destabaliztion wrought by the U.S. invasion. The current rise in such violence might well indicate the deeper crisis that awaits Iraq as America’s occupying forces seek to exit the failed military battlefield.

David Rosen is the author of “Sex Scandals America: Politics & the Ritual of Public Shaming” (Key, 2009); he can be reached at drosen@ix.netcom.com.

Iraqi LGBT welcome Human Rights Watch report on pogrom, urges practical aid

PRESS RELEASE

For immediate use

Iraqi LGBT welcome Human Rights Watch report on pogrom, urges practical aid

The Iraqi LGBT group today welcomed the release by Human Rights Watch of its report 'They want us exterminated' which documents the killing of LGBT people in Iraq, in particular the extensive media coverage it has generated. Much of the information in the report is sourced from Iraqi LGBT members.

"This report underlines what we have been saying since our group's formation in 2006," said Iraqi LGBT spokesperson, Ali Hili. "We have information on over 700 killings including honour killings."

However Hili says that the group, which has 100 members inside Iraq (as well as refugees in neighboring countries) and supports LGBT people through safe houses, offers practical support (food etc.), psychological and educational support, is chronically underfunded.

"We are the only people offering support to our fellow Iraqi LGBT inside Iraq but because we do not have the funds we have had to turn people away," he said.

The group recently published its annual report, available on its website, which showed how the money it receives is spent.

The report explains how it has developed methods of operating clandestinely which are essential for such an operation in the Middle East. Hili is the only visible member of the group and as a result has attracted death threats in his exile in London. He is under police protection.

Recently it received a second substantial donation from a Dutch group. However due to low funding it has had to close safe houses and slow its development plans.

At the same time it has seen very large amounts of money raised in the United States go to a Lebanese group which is supposed to be supporting Iraqi LGBT refugees. Ali says that the refugees, delivered to Lebanon by Human Rights Watch, have in fact been abandoned and some have returned to Iraq because they had no practical support.

"We have been trying to support one refugee who returned to Iraq from Lebanon because his medical needs were not being supported and who is now in danger. Through the United Nations, he has actually been accepted as a refugee by Sweden however it costs $2000 just for him to get back to Lebanon and then there are his travel costs to Sweden on top of that plus organising support in Sweden."

"This is an example of a case where we have great difficulty helping. It also shows something of the real costs involved in actually supporting people. Another example of that would be the bribes we have had to pay to save peoples lives."

"Our group represents Iraqi LGBT - they are our members - and, despite immense difficulties, our group has gained a lot of experience since we were established. Please support us if you want to help save LGBT people in Iraq."

Donations to Iraqi LGBT can be made to the PayPal Account iraqilgbt@yahoo.co.uk .

Or make cheques payable to (IRAQI LGBT) and send them to:

Iraqi LGBT
22 Notting Hill Gate
Unit 111London,
W11 3JE
United Kingdom

For further information please call ++44 (0) 79-819 59453 or email iraqilgbt@googlemail.com or see http://iraqilgbtuk.blogspot.com

Ali said that the group also welcomed those who could donate their skills.

ENDS


ATTACHMENT

The Safe Houses Project

IRAQ: Emergency Shelter, Human Services and Protection for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People:

IRAQI LGBT started to establish a network of safe houses inside Iraq in March 2006.

As of today, we have only two safe houses open and running funded by HIVOS a Dutch based human rights organization.

The members of our group inside Iraq urgently need funds to open at least four safe houses. These funds will allow us to keep the four safe houses open and running, and provide safety, shelter, food and many other needs for our LGBT friends inside Iraq. Any funds we receive that go beyond what we need for these four safe houses could be used to open more safe houses in the near future. We desperately need to add more because we have so many urgent cases in other cities. We receive requests for shelter every day, but we are not able to help yet.

Every safe house has around 200 square meters of living space, but harbors 10 to 12 people, so is very overcrowded. The residents are struggling badly because of the shortages of almost all the basic necessities in Iraq.

Rent: We have paid three months rent in advance. The most recent payments were in August. The average rent per safe house per month is $ 600 US Dollar.

Security: We paid the salaries of two guards per house, at $ 200 US Dollar per guard per month.

Other expenses of each house: We have paid $ 600 a month for each house approximately for natural gas and kerosene for cooking, and for food, fuel for generators which provide the electricity supply.

Urgent priority needs: Our priorities at this stage are: natural gas or kerosene for cooking and heating; fuel for generating electricity; food; mobile phones and calling cards; money for transportation to allow residents some freedom of movement; beds, mattresses, blankets, sheets and pillows; cameras; printers; two computers; house supplies, such as cooking pans, dishes, and flatware; some furniture; clean water for drinking and bathing; soap for washing and bathing, tooth paste, razors and of course housing, guards etc.

Amount needed and how it would be spent (per month):

• Natural gas or kerosene for cooking and heating - 50 GBP
• Fuel for generating electricity – $ 300
• Food - $ 600
• Mobile phones, calling cards, and internet café charges - $ 450 etc.
• Transportation – $ 250
• Beds, mattresses, blankets, sheets and pillows – $ 1,300 – onetime payment
• Cameras – $ 100 – onetime payment
• Printers – $ 100 - onetime payment
• Two computers – $ 1,200 - onetime payment
• Kitchen supplies, such as cooking pans, dishes, and flatware – $ 400 – onetime payment
• Some furniture – $ 500– onetime payment
• Clean water for drinking and bathing; $ 250
• Toiletries (soap for washing and bathing, tooth paste, razors etc.) – $ 150

We also need to pay for medicines for the members of our group, doctors will come and have a home visit monthly for all members their cost is $ 400 US Dollar each month.

• Iraqi LGBT Annual Report and Financial Statements For the period ending 31 May 2009

• Human Rights Watch Report Says

• Report: The Iraqi anti-LGBT pogrom

Ali Hili - Iraqi Lgbt - Chair
22 Notting Hill Gate
Unit # 111
London , W11 3JE
United Kingdom
Mob: ++44 798 1959 453
Website : http://iraqilgbtuk.blogspot.com/

Iraqi leaders attacked over spate of homophobic murders

By Nigel Morris

Iraqi leaders are accused of turning a blind eye to a spate of murders of homosexuals after 25 young men and boys were killed in recent weeks.

Gay groups claim the Iraqi government is giving tacit support to the death squads targeting young homosexuals who venture outdoors.

In an unusual move, Amnesty International will today write to the Iraqi President, Nouri al-Maliki, demanding "urgent and concerted action" by his government to stop the killings. Amnesty said the murders appear to have been carried out by militiamen and relatives of the victims, after being incited by religious leaders. Homosexuality has always been taboo in the country, but a surge of killings followed religious leaders' sermons condemning "deviancy".

The violence came after the improved security situation briefly encouraged some gay men to start meeting discreetly in public. This led to furious condemnation from clerics who have called for homosexuality – which can lead to a prison sentence of seven years – to be eradicated from Iraqi society.

Most of the killings have taken place in the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City, controlled by ultra-conservative Shi'ite militia. Murders have also been reported in Basra, Najaf and Karbala.

The bodies of four gay men, each bearing a sign with the Arabic word for "pervert" on their chests, were discovered in Sadr City three weeks ago. Following the discovery of another two corpses six days later, an unnamed official in the city told Reuters: "They were sexual deviants. Their tribes killed them to restore their family honour."

No arrests have been made. Ali Hili, the London spokesman for Iraqi LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) said it had received reports of at least 63 killings in the last four months. He told The Independent: "Since mid-December we've been getting lots of reports about mass arrests and raids on houses, cafes, barbers shops." He claimed police and the Ministry of the Interior were behind some of the murders.

"Most of the people who are arrested are found dead, with signs of torture and burns. We believe a war has been launched by the Iraqi Government and its establishment against gay people."

Mr Hili said homosexuals in the country were forced to live in hiding for fear of abduction and death. Some had managed to escape to the west, with another 20 preparing to flee Iraq.

He said: "It's impossible to be gay and out ... It's the most difficult thing to be in Iraq. People visit each other's houses, they meet in places where it's safe ... for the most effeminate cases, we advise them not to go out at all."

Amnesty's letter to Mr Al-Maliki protests over his government's failure to condemn the killings publicly or to investigate the murders adequately. It also points to statements by police which appear to condone, or even encourage, the targeting of gay men, and calls for officers who incite homophobic attacks to be "held to account and either prosecuted or disciplined and removed from office".

Niall Couper, a spokesperson from Amnesty International, said: "The gay community in Iraq deserves protection and that means their leaders needs to stand up for them. Amnesty International is calling on Nouri al-Maliki to condemn all attacks on members of the gay community, publicly, unreservedly and in the strongest terms possible."

The letter reminds the Iraqi government that it is bound by international treaties stipulating "all human beings are equal in dignity and rights".

Hasan: Our optimism after the fall of Saddam has turned to despair

Comment

My boyfriend was killed by the police because of his sexuality. Policemen came to his house, 10 minutes away from mine, put him in a police car, arrested and killed him. They told his parents it was because of his job. He was working for Iraqi LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender). For six months I didn't go out, I didn't do anything – just grieved for him. He was killed because of who he is.

After the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, we – the gay community – were very optimistic. We thought that we would live in a democracy and felt safe with US troops around. So we started to print leaflets that promoted freedom for gay and lesbian people.

But members of our group started being arrested for it. The leaflets weren't political, they were just spreading gay rights.

We have the right to exist and be who we are, but this offended the government. The leaflets had our email addresses and telephone numbers, so the government and the militias came to find out who was distributing the leaflets.

In 2004, the situation got much worse. People began to be killed in the streets, burnt alive and mutilated for being gay. We were a target for the government and militias. I fled to the UK; I feel very safe here but get emails every day about more killings in Iraq. And the problem is that the UK Government doesn't allow us to stay with refugee status even though Iraq is one of the most dangerous places on earth for homosexuals and a war is being waged by the parts of the Iraqi government on gay people. In the UK, I can't work or study because I've been denied the right to asylum, but my only option is to go back to Iraq, face my family and my community and be killed.

Four members of our organisation have already been deported. I am fighting for my right to stay by re-applying for asylum with the help of Iraqi LGBT. Otherwise, I have no future. On Thursday, we will protest outside the Home Office to highlight the homophobic killings. I wish someone would listen and help us; this has been going on in Iraq for years and no one cares.

Hasan, 26, is gay. He moved to the UK nine months ago from his home in Babel province, south of Baghdad, after receiving death threats. His boyfriend was killed because of his sexuality.

Source

Another shameful expulsion by UK Home Office

A gay Iraqi man due for deportation tomorrow has been told by the UK Border Agency to conduct his relationships "in private" on his return to Iraq, where homosexuality is punishable by death.

Campaign group Iraqi LGBT says the asylum seeker will become the seventh gay Iraqi to be returned to the country by the UK, despite the country being one of only nine in the world where homosexual people are executed.

Though a ruling was made in September 2007 allowing two gay Iraqis to remain in the UK, campaigners working on behalf of the man facing deportation tomorrow say his case was held too long ago to benefit from the change in case law achieved in 2007.

Keith Best, the director of the Immigration Advisory Service, told the Guardian that the government ought to give the asylum seeker a fresh hearing.

The United Kingdom Border Agency (UKBA) has said that the man's homosexuality did not form the basis of his original asylum application in 2001 and that his subsequent conviction for seeking to stay in the country illegally makes him an untrustworthy defendant, undermining his claim to be gay.

Sarah Teather, the Liberal Democrats' housing spokeswoman, who is the Iraqi's MP, is perplexed by a recommendation from the UKBA that the Iraqi conduct his relationships in private.

The document says: "Even if your client's homosexuality were to be established it is viewed that it would be possible for your client to conduct such relationships in private on his return to Iraq. This would allow your client to express his sexuality, albeit in a more limited way than he could do elsewhere."

Teather, the MP for Brent East, said: "Immigration ministers need to show some humanity. If this deportation goes ahead there is a terrible risk that this man will be killed. How can we possibly claim to be a country that values human rights if we are willing to endanger a life in this way?"

Best said: "This is an incredible position. They [the UKBA] cannot say that on the one hand they do not believe him to be homosexual and then recommend ways in which he can cover up his homosexuality."

In September 2007 two gay victims of attempted assassination attempts by Shia Islamist death squads in Iraq were granted asylum in the UK after having their initial applications turned down by the Home Office despite compelling evidence of homophobic persecution.

That case overturned the claim that national governments did not recognise homophobic persecution as a legitimate ground for asylum under the 1951 refugee convention.

Homosexuality has been punishable by death in Iraq since 2001, when Saddam Hussein's government amended the country's penal code. The move was thought to be an overture to the country's Islamic conservatives, whose support Saddam latterly tried to win.
Iraqi LGBT says that more than 430 gay men have been murdered in Iraq since 2003. Safe houses are reported to operate in Baghdad in which some 40 young gay men hide.

The asylum seeker is scheduled to leave the UK tomorrow on an 8.30am flight but this may be delayed since the government has yet to reply to the representations made on his behalf and he cannot be deported until that point.

Source

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Email Jacqui Smith.

Support Iraqi-LGBT

The immediate urgent priority is to Support and Donate Money to LGBT activists in Iraq in order to assist their efforts to communicate information about the wave of homophobic murders in Iraq to the outside world.

Funds raised will also help provide LGBTs under threat of honour killing with refuge in the safer parts of Iraq (including safe houses and food), and assist efforts help them seek asylum abroad. Donations to Iraqi LGBT are not tax-deductible for income tax purposes.

The Sexual Cleansing of Iraq

Part One. Queer Fear 2 - the sequel to 2007's Queer Fear: Gay Life, Gay Death in Iraq. In Iraq the killings continue. LGBT people are being murdered by Shia death squads, now increasingly integrated into the forces of the Iraqi state. Amd encouraged by leading Shia clerics. Meanwhile the democratically-elected government denies there is a problem.



Part Two. What is being done to protect LGBT people in Iraq from the death squads. How you can help provide safe houses and save lives.



Please support Iraqi-LGBT

The immediate urgent priority is to Support and Donate Money to LGBT activists in Iraq in order to assist their efforts to communicate information about the wave of homophobic murders in Iraq to the outside world.

Funds raised will also help provide LGBTs under threat of honour killing with refuge in the safer parts of Iraq (including safe houses and food), and assist efforts help them seek asylum abroad. Donations to Iraqi LGBT are not tax-deductible for income tax purposes.

Sexual cleansing in Iraq

Islamist deaths squads are hunting down gay Iraqis and summarily executing them.

From CIF

By Peter Tatchell

Some of the links in this article will take you to sites containing images of violence which you may find disturbing

The "improved" security situation in Iraq is not benefiting all Iraqis, especially not those who are gay. Islamist death squads are engaged in a homophobic killing spree with the active encouragement of leading Muslim clerics, such as Moqtada al-Sadr, as Newsweek recently revealed.

One of these clerics, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, issued a fatwa urging the killing of lesbians and gays in the "most severe way possible".

The short film, Queer Fear – Gay Life, Gay Death in Iraq, produced by David Grey for Village Film, documents the tragic fates of a several individual gay Iraqis. You can view it here. Watch and weep. It is a truly poignant and moving documentary about the terrorisation and murder of Iraqi lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

Since this film was made, the killings have continued and, many say, got worse. For gay Iraqis there is little evidence of the transition to democracy. They don't experience any newfound respect for human rights. Life for them is even worse than under the tyrant Saddam Hussein.

It is a death sentence in today's "liberated" Iraq to love a person of the same sex, or for a woman to have sex outside of marriage, or for a Muslim to give up his or her faith or embrace another religion.

The reality on the ground is that theocracy is taking hold of the country, including in Basra, which was abandoned by the British military. In place of foreign occupation, the city's inhabitants now endure the terror of fundamentalist militias and death squads.

Those who are deemed insufficiently devout and pure are liable to be assassinated.

The death squads of the Badr organisation and the Mahdi army are targeting gays and lesbians, according to UN reports, in a systematic campaign of sexual cleansing. They proudly boast of their success, claiming that they have already exterminated all "perverts and sodomites" in many of the major cities.

You can view photos of a few of the LGBT victims of these summary executions
here and here.

My friends in Iraq have relayed to me the tragic story of five gay activists, who belonged to the underground gay rights movement, Iraqi LGBT.

Eye-witnesses confirm that they saw the men being led out of a house at gunpoint by officers in police uniform. Yes, Iraqi police! Nothing has been heard of the five victims since then. In all probability, they have been executed by the police – or by Islamist death squads who have infiltrated the Iraqi police and who are using their uniforms to carry out so-called honour killings of gay people, unchaste women and many others.

The arrested and disappeared men were Amjad 27, Rafid 29, Hassan 24, Ayman 19 and Ali 21. As members of Iraq's covert gay rights movement, for the previous few months they had been documenting the killing of lesbians and gays, relaying details of the murders to the outside world, and providing safe houses and support to other gay people fleeing the death squads.

Their abduction is just one of many outrages by anti-gay death squads. lslamist killers burst into the home of two lesbian women in the city of Najaf. They shot them dead, slashed their throats, and also murdered a young child who the women had rescued from the sex trade. The two women, both in their mid-30s, were members of Iraqi LGBT. They were providing a safe house for gay men on the run from death squads. By sheer luck, none of the men who were being given shelter in the house were at home when the assassins struck. They have since fled to Baghdad, and are hiding in an Iraqi LGBT safe house there.

Large parts of Iraq are now under the de facto control of the militias and their death squad units. They enforce a harsh interpretation of sharia law, summarily executing people for what they denounce as "crimes against Islam". These "crimes" include listening to western pop music, wearing shorts or jeans, drinking alcohol, selling videos, working in a barber's shop, homosexuality, dancing, having a Sunni name, adultery and, in the case of women, not being veiled or walking in the street unaccompanied by a male relative.

Two militias are doing most of the killing. They are the armed wings of major parties in the Bush and Brown-backed Iraqi government. The Mahdi army is the militia of Moqtada al-Sadr, and the Badr organisation is the militia of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), which is the leading political force in Baghdad's governing coalition. Both militias want to establish an Iranian-style religious dictatorship. The allied occupation of Iraq is bad enough. But if the Mahdi or Badr militias gain in influence and strength, as seems likely in the long-term, it could result in a reign of religious terror many times worse.

Saddam Hussein was a bloody tyrant. I campaigned against his blood-stained misrule for nearly 30 years. But while Saddam was president, there was certainly no danger of gay people being assassinated in their homes and in the street by religious fanatics.

Since his overthrow, the violent persecution of lesbians and gays is much worse. Even children suspected of being gay are abducted and later found shot in the head.

Lesbian and gay Iraqis cannot seek the protection of the police, since the police are heavily infiltrated by fundamentalists, especially the Badr militia. The death squads can kill with impunity. Pro-fundamentalist ministers in the Iraqi government are turning a blind eye to the killings, and helping to protect the killers. Some "liberation".

Iraqi LGBT is appealing for funds to help the work of their members in Iraq. Since they don't yet have a bank account, they request that cheques should be made payable to "OutRage!", with a cover note marked "For Iraqi LGBT", and sent to OutRage!, PO Box 17816, London SW14 8WT.

See Iraqi LGBT for more information or to make a donation by PayPal.

LGBT asylum emergency

gayasylumuk
MEDIA RELEASE
18th September

Two gay asylum seekers at serious and real risk of attack, imprisonment and possible killing are currently at the last stage before being deported by the British government.

gayasylumuk has been notified that gay Ugandan John Bosco Nyombi has been transferred from a detention centre to Heathrow. Azerbaijani Babi Badalov has been transferred to a detention centre with a flight booked for this Saturday.

The government plans to return Nyombi to a country which actively - led by its President - persecutes LGBT. Newspapers print the names and addresses of gays and lesbians and demands 'action' is taken against them.

Badalov has been threatened with death by 'honour killing' and his sexuality has already led to persecution and would definitely lead to more persecution if he is returned.

The answer of the British government to this: "be discreet" Seriously. This is the position of the British government.

In reality the policy is to refuse the maximum number of asylum applications on the most spurious of grounds. In reality the British Home Office, which manages asylum seekers, is rife with homophobia.

When he was informed that he was going to be detained and deported Babi responded by saying "I feel sick" To which the UK Border agent told him "well you make us sick, you're going back where you belong."

Recent LGBT asylum cases such as that of the Iranian Mehdi Kazemi have highlighted the absurd and shameful attitude of the British government to LGBT asylum seekers. It is an embarrassment to all right-thinking British people and it is therefore no surprise that support for LGBT asylum seekers has come from across the political spectrum.

gayasylumuk calls for two things:

1. maximum embarrassment and a collective 'turning of the back' by UK LGBT and all right thinking people, particularly as the governing Labour Party conducts its annual conference in Manchester next week
2. signatures to the petition initiated by the Rev. Walter Attwood to Gordon Brown [http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Stopdeportinggay/]

We also reiterate our call earlier this year that:
"We hope that gay and lesbian Labour voters in particular will consider changing their vote if the policy isn't changed before the next election. This is one way to get the message through on their hypocrisy regarding lesbian and gay rights issues — when embassies in other countries are flying the rainbow flag they aren't doing this in Tehran, Kingston or Kampala."

PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS INFORMATION

Further information
Museveni launches campaign against gays
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/460216.stm
Human Rights Watch adds Home Office to 'Hall of Shame'
http://madikazemi.blogspot.com/2008/05/human-rights-watch-adds-home-office-to.html
gayasylumuk condemns "inhumane, anti-gay" Labour government
http://madikazemi.blogspot.com/2008/06/gayasylumuk-condemns-inhumane-anti-gay.html

Babi campaign
http://noborderswales.wordpress.com/campaign-to-stay/keep-babi-safe-in-cardiff/
Bosco campaign
http://www.savebosco.net/