Gays in Iraq once enjoyed limited freedom, now open targets in Iraq

[Mathematician]

A populace armed to their boot straps with weapons. Large, foreign companies stealing national resources. Gays killed on the streets. Competing factions trying to implement their idea of a perfect theocracy.

Sounds like Bush is shaping Iraq to be his image of America. Now, what to do about those thousands of teenage prostitutes?

AGHDAD, Iraq — Samir Shaba sits in a restaurant, nervously describing gay life in Iraq. He speaks in a low voice, occasionally glancing over his shoulder.

Before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, the heavyset, clean-shaven man says he frequented the city's gay blogs, online chat rooms and dance clubs, where he wore flashy tight clothes, his hair long and loose to his shoulders.


After the invasion, he and other gays and lesbians were driven underground by sectarian violence and religious extremists. Shaba, 25, started wearing baseball caps and baggy T-shirts, stopped visiting clubs and chat rooms, packed his flashy clothes away. But he said he couldn't bear to cut his hair.
"I cannot change everything immediately," he said, fingering his black ponytail. "I suffered because I didn't cut it."

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/world/08/06/0806iraqgays.html

 

[Mike182]

.... i'm so sorry people suffer like that.

 

[angellous_evangellous]

I don't buy that gays had it better before the war...

Before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, the heavyset, clean-shaven man says he frequented the city's gay blogs, online chat rooms and dance clubs, where he wore flashy tight clothes, his hair long and loose to his shoulders.

After the invasion, he and other gays and lesbians were driven underground by sectarian violence and religious extremists

This looks much more like anti-American propaganda than anything else.

 

[FatMan]

If you look at the majority of Arab nations that aren't at War with the US, they are brutal to gays.

I have to agree with my Daddy, Angellous

 

[Mathematician]

Saddam and his Baath Party were renown for being one of the most secular governments in the Middle East. It sounds reasonable to me. Religious extremism has flared up because of the war. Why wouldn't gays be attacked more often now?

 

[angellous_evangellous]

Saddam and his Baath Party were renown for being one of the most secular governments in the Middle East. It sounds reasonable to me. Religious extremism has flared up because of the war. Why wouldn't gays be attacked more often now?

Well - everyone is probably more attacked now...

 

[nutshell]

Propaganda

 

[Dr. Nosophoros]

There is so much more to the equation than small matters, a few miniscule percentiles mean nothing when presented with the big picture as it has been and as it will always be so, you choose the hill to die on and it seems all in vain to a certain extent- priorities first.

My question is, how does it affect the invasion force? They are our boys/girls and we hail them as heroes so I put their priorities (their needs) first.
I was one of them at a certain time in my life, it could have been me.

 

[ayani]

Saddam and his Baath Party were renown for being one of the most secular governments in the Middle East. It sounds reasonable to me. Religious extremism has flared up because of the war. Why wouldn't gays be attacked more often now?

true, and also true that *everyone* is getting attacked, massacred, etc.

i was talking to a Baha'i friend the other day, and we were speculating as to the Baha'i community in Iraq. "almost certainly decimated", he said. "and i think the Mandaeans are going the same way".

still, the backlash against sexual minorities is vicious in its own right, and distinct from religious persecution.

 

[jamaesi]

A glance at this article may be helpful.