Iraqi militias are increasingly torturing and executing men suspected of homosexuality but the authorities in Baghdad are doing nothing to stop the violence, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Monday.
The New-York based group said hundreds of men have been kidnapped, tortured and killed this year in a wave of violence that began in the Baghdad Sadr City stronghold of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi army militia.
Almost Half of Israelis Consider Homosexuals Deviants: Poll
Almost half the Israeli population considers homosexuals to be deviants, according to an opinion poll published on Thursday, five days after an attack at a Tel Aviv gay centre killed two people.
Almost half the Israeli population considers homosexuals to be deviants, according to an opinion poll published on Thursday, five days after an attack at a Tel Aviv gay centre killed two people.
Mahdi army spokesmen have suggested that military action was the remedy for the "feminisation" of Iraq men, according to the report in which survivors are quoted as saying militiamen invade homes and interrogate victims before killing them in order to identify other potential victims.
HRW said Iraqi doctors and morgue employees also have records of grotesque torture marks on the bodies of men, including mutilation and even anuses glued shut.
Psychologists Reject Sexual Reorientation Treatment for Homosexuals
US psychologists are slamming therapies treating homosexuality as an illness, and warning mental health workers against promising patients their sexual orientations might be changed.
US psychologists are slamming therapies treating homosexuality as an illness, and warning mental health workers against promising patients their sexual orientations might be changed.
It also said some of the murders were so-called honour killings, carried out by victims' family members "because 'unmanly' behaviour threatens the reputation of the family or tribe."
Syrian Homosexuals Are Beginning To Step Out Of The Shadows
In Syria, where being gay is often regarded as sickness or perversity, changes may be afoot. To come out as a homosexual in a vibrantly macho Arab nation cannot be the easiest of lifestyle choices.
In Syria, where being gay is often regarded as sickness or perversity, changes may be afoot. To come out as a homosexual in a vibrantly macho Arab nation cannot be the easiest of lifestyle choices.
"Iraq?s leaders are supposed to defend all Iraqis, not abandon them to armed agents of hate," Scott Long, director of HRW's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Programme, said.
Gays Livid By Pope's Recent Anti-Homosexuals Comment - "Threat to Human Race"
A suggestion by Pope Benedict XVI that homosexuality is as much of a threat to the survival of the human race as climate change sparked outrage among gay rights campaigners on Tuesday.
A suggestion by Pope Benedict XVI that homosexuality is as much of a threat to the survival of the human race as climate change sparked outrage among gay rights campaigners on Tuesday.
The report said men have fled to neighbouring countries, despite consensual homosexual activity being illegal in regional states such as Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, even though it is not a criminal offence under Iraqi law.
"Although many militias in Iraq claim to be enforcers of Islamic law, the Human Rights Watch report also shows how the killings -- committed without evidence or trial, on the basis of prejudice and whim -- violate standards in sharia law for legality, proof and privacy," the report said.
Source-AFP
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