Archive: iraq
5th December 2010
More than seven years after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, Iraq is still a dangerous place for many of its citizens – and none more so than men who are gay or considered not "manly" enough .... Read the full article in the latest issue of Near East Quarterly.
Posted by Brian Whitaker, 5 Dec 2010.
3rd August 2010
The Gay Middle East website has a compilation of attacks in Iraq last month directed against men who are gay or not looking sufficiently "masculine". Some were beaten up, some disappeared and others were murdered, according to the website's sources.
As a report by Human Rights Watch explained last… Read more
14th July 2010
Following last month's police raid on a "safe house" in Karbala used used as a refuge for gay, lesbian and transgender Iraqis, there's news of another raid – this time at a male beauty parlour in Baghdad. Interior Ministry forces took away the manager and four workers.
The London-based Iraqi LGBT… Read more
2nd February 2010
Eager to promote traditional family life, the Conservative party in Britain is promising tax incentives for married couples if it wins the next election.
But already Iraq has gone one better (and possibly two or three better) with financial incentives to promote polygamy, according to Al-Iraq al-… Read more
10th November 2009
Some important new research raises doubts about the effects of the famous "surge" in Iraq and whether it could become a model for Afghanistan.
In an article for ISN Security Watch, Claudio Guler argues that the US surge – and the troop increase in particular – was not responsible for ending the… Read more
27th September 2009
The plight of Iraqis who worked as interpreters for the British army in Iraq is highlighted in The National. One of them, identified as "Hussein", resigned after a few months when insurgents began targeting interpreters as traitors and two of his colleagues were killed. He then fled to Syria:… Read more
26th September 2009
Two articles from the Institute for War & Peace Reporting highlight a growing language gap between Arabs and Kurds in Iraq.
“Arabic is officially the second language of Kurdistan and the primary language of Iraq,” Najeeba Mohammed writes. “Though studying Arabic is currently compulsory in… Read more
13th September 2009
A shocking report in the Observer by Afif Sarhan and Jason Burke:
Sitting on the floor, wearing traditional Islamic clothes and holding an old notebook, Abu Hamizi, 22, spends at least six hours a day searching internet chatrooms linked to gay websites. He is not looking for new friends, but for… Read more
29th August 2009
Sometime soon the Iraqi parliament will be asked to approve a new protection law for journalists (the draft was approved by the cabinet at the end of July).
I have pointed out before that "liberated" Iraq, far from becoming a model for the region, is rapidly acquiring the negative characteristics… Read more
18th August 2009
Major news organisations (CNN, Washington Post, BBC) missed a key point yesterday in their coverage of the Human Rights Watchreport on sexual orientation and gender in Iraq, reducing the issue to one of attacks on “gay” men.
As I explained here yesterday, and as HRW goes to some lengths to make… Read more
ARAB ART ONLINE: Susan Hefuna: Al Sabr Gamil (Patience is Beautiful) 2007. Ink stained on wood 140 x 170 cm. More information | Click to enlarge
