Same-sex new rule in Iraq: Homosexuals could be jailed for up to 15 years, transgenders could face 3 years jail time

livemint.com:

Iraq's conservative society, however there had not previously been a law that explicitly punished same-sex relations. Members of Iraq's LGBTQ community have been prosecuted for sodomy or under vague morality and anti-prostitution clauses in Iraq's penal code.

"Iraq has effectively codified in law the discrimination and violence members of the LGBTI community have been subjected to with absolute impunity for years," said Amnesty International's Iraq researcher Razaw Salihy. "The amendments concerning LGBTI rights are a violation of fundamental human rights and put at risk Iraqis whose lives are already hounded daily," Salihy added.

The amendments also ban organisations that "promote" homosexuality and punish "wife swapping" with a prison sentence of 10 to 15 years. "The law serves as a preventive measure to protect society from such acts," lawmaker Raed al-Maliki, who advanced the amendments, told AFP.

He said passing the new amendment was postponed until after Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani's visit to the United States earlier this month. The United States and the European Union oppose the law and "we didn't want to impact the visit," he said.

"It is an internal matter and we do not accept any interference in Iraqi affairs." The US State Department is "deeply concerned" about the legislation, spokesman Matt Miller said Saturday, adding that the law threatens those most at risk in Iraqi society and "undermines the government's political and economic reform efforts." LGBTQ Iraqis have been forced into the shadows, often targeted with "kidnappings, rapes, torture and murders" that go unpunished, according to a 2022 report by Human Rights Watch and the IraQueer non-governmental organisation. Iraqi politicians