ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Iraqi parliament’s recent amendments to the country’s anti-prostitution law criminalizing any practice of homosexuality and transsexuality will not apply to the Kurdistan Region until the Kurdish legislature votes to pass the amendments, an advisor to the body told Rudaw.
Under the new law, anyone who engages in consensual homosexual relations shall be imprisoned for a period no less than 10 years and no longer than 15 years.
Any individual who undergoes a sex-reassignment surgery, as well as the doctor or surgeon conducting the operation, will face one to three years in jail. The bill excludes cases of medical intervention to "treat birth defects to affirm the sex of the individual," referring to genital surgeries on intersex children, which can inflict permanent harm on the individual and compromise sexual function and sensation.
“To implement the law [in the Kurdistan Region], the amendments need to be activated by the Kurdistan parliament,” Dana Dara, the Kurdish parliament’s legal advisor told Rudaw’s Hastyar Qadir.
The Kurdistan Region has been without a parliament for nearly a year, after Iraq’s top court in May of last year ruled that the self-extension of the Kurdistan parliament’s term by an additional year was “unconstitutional,” effectively dissolving the fifth term of the legislature.
New parliamentary elections are currently set to be held on June 10, but the process could be delayed due to the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) decision not to participate in protest over court rulings that the party deemed detrimental to the Region’s political entity.
LGBTQI+ individuals face a lot of persecution in the Kurdistan Region as well, and the passing of the law by the Iraqi legislature has spread terror and fear among members of the marginalized group in the semi-autonomous Kurdish Region.
Navid*, a 27-year-old transgender woman, is one of many of Iran’s LGBTQI+ community that have migrated to the Kurdistan Region in recent years to escape the risk of death and endless persecution at home.
She said that she did not leave her apartment for days following the passage of the amendments, and worries that the little glimpse of safety she has experienced living in Erbil over the last three year may be at risk.
“This decision impacts my fate directly. I am once again haunted by anxiety and fear. Police and prison are boogeymen for us,” Navid told Rudaw English, unable to hold back the tears, “this place is not safe for us anymore.”
“I fear dark days are awaiting me,” she added.
A prison term of one to three years will be imposed on anyone charged with "imitating women" or promoting effeminacy, in addition to a fine of five to 10 million dinars.
Promoting homosexuality "in any way" will also be punishable by no less than seven years in jail and a fine of 10 to 15 million dinars. The activities of any organization promoting prostitution or homosexuality in Iraq are also prohibited.
An initial draft of the bill suggested life imprisonment or the death penalty for same-sex relations, but the sentences were reduced before it passed in parliament.
The passing of the law was condemned by several countries and human rights monitors, but the response from the international community has been mostly criticized by members of Iraq's LGBTQI+ community, calling for more definitive stances.
Being homosexual or transsexual is considered a sin in traditional Islamic interpretations. Nonetheless, many Muslim communities permit intersex people undergoing medical intervention surgeries as a form of “treatment”.
Iran is one of the only Muslim countries where gender-affirming surgeries are officially recognized, and in fact, subsidized by the government. However, the state recognition does not shield the community from widespread prejudice and sexual violence.
Consenting adults participating in same-sex relations could receive sentences as severe as the death penalty based on their marital status. Scores of cisgender homosexuals are reluctantly forced into gender-affirming surgeries in Iran, while many others opt to undergo the surgery in an attempt to save their own lives.
*Names have been changed to protect identities
Translated by Chenar Chalak