Iraq—A Gay Perspective
It has been four years since the U.S. invaded Iraq. It has been four years since we toppled the statue of Sadaam Hussein in central Baghdad. Remember George Bush landing in a bomber (weapon of mass destruction?) on an aircraft carrier? Bush speaking to his adoring masses under a huge banner proclaiming “Mission Accomplished”?
Switch to the present. Over 2,000 U.S. service personnel are dead. Thousands upon thousands of Iraqis—mainly civilians—are dead. Iraq is in the throes of a bloody civil war. I guess the “mission” has not been “accomplished.”
A gay perspective:
Hundreds of lesbian and gay military personnel have been discharged under the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Discharges are occurring while there is a severe shortage in troop levels. Young service people who thought their military service in Iraq was completed are now being returned to the war zone. Lesbian and gay service people are being thrown out of the armed forces despite their credentials to serve—electronic and engineering specialists, linguistic specialists fluent in Arabic—and the list goes on.
Bush promised a free and democratic Iraq. The “mission” has not been “accomplished.” Iraq is evolving into an Islamic theocracy à la Iran. The U.S. presence in Iraq has sown the seeds for the development of future terrorists and for the continued hatred of the U.S. in the entire Middle East.
Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa last October calling for the death of gay Iraqis. According to al-Sistani (who, according to the Bush administration, is a “moderate” who deserves U.S. support), “Those involved in the act of sodomy should be punished. In fact, sodomites should be killed in the worst manner possible.”
As a result, death-to-gays squads have been roaming Iraq and routinely arresting, beating, torturing, and murdering gay Iraqis. Scores of gay Iraqis have fled the country into exile for fear of death. Similar to theocratic Iran, Iraq has been carrying out systematic anti-gay programs. Gay Iraqi exiles now living in London tell horrific stories of gays being beaten on the streets while crowds of onlookers cheer on. Gays are being arrested and kidnapped—kidnapped and eventually found dead with their hands tied behind their backs, blindfolded with either a bullet hole in back of the head or decapitated.
Gay Iraqi Olympian Wissom Adel Odah, his coach, and one other teammate were kidnapped. A few days later, they were found bound, blindfolded, and executed.
According to one gay Iraqi exile, “These assaults and murders have been reported to the Green Zone, but the Americans don’t want to upset the religious authorities, and so they do nothing or treat gay Iraqis with contempt or as an object of humor.”
According to one gay Iraqi, four years after Sadaam’s fall, life for gay people in Iraq is even more unbearable than it was before.
Anu Nawas Group, a gay Iraqi London-based exile group reports the following: Ammar, a young gay man of 27, was abducted and shot in the back of the head in Baghdad by suspected Iraqi militia members in January. Haydar Faiek, 40, a transsexual, was beaten and burned to death on a main street in Baghdad. Naffeh, 45, disappeared. His family was informed that he was kidnapped. His body was found in January. Sarmad and Khalid were partners. Persons unknown revealed their same-sex relationship. They were abducted and their bodies were found two months later—bound, blindfolded, and shot in the back of the head. The stories go on and on.
Perhaps Bush has indeed “accomplished” his “mission.” If he and his supporters cannot create a brutal, homicidal theocracy in the U.S., they have certainly created one in Iraq.
