Gay middle eastern
LGBTQ communities face threats in Middle East
Most of the people around him don't know he identifies as queer, the 20-year-old Iraqi scholar told DW. But life in his comparatively conservative southern city of Najaf is dangerous for him anyway.
"Once I wore a pink shirt and I was harassed, just because of the color," said Haiden, whose full designate cannot be published for his security. "Sometimes people are harassed and even killed just because they don't glance like everyone else."
And, he said, things are getting worse for LGBTQ communities in Iraq. "We're already exposed to all kinds of harassment and attacked on a daily basis," he said. "And that's even before this law to criminalize homosexuality has been enacted."
'Severe penalties'
In July, Iraq's government announced that it was planning a rule prohibiting homosexuality. Iraq is one of three Arab-majority countries in the Middle East that doesn't explicitly criminalize same-sex relationships. The others are Jordan and Bahrain.
If the law is passed, it would carry Iraq into line with the repose of the region. Most other Middle Eastern nations outlaw same-sex intimacy more directly, punishing it with anythi
Was there no room for the queer individual in Arab history? Have people like us simply never belonged?
‘I’m sure you’ve heard about Sarah Hegazy,’ read the text on my phone. It was 2020; I was tying a red bandana around my face – for both aesthetic and pandemic purposes – en route to a BLM activism in the thick of Manhattan’s June. ‘You’re always checking in on me when something tragic happens in my community. I’d like to extend the alike solidarity when something happens in yours. I’m here to converse if you want to.’
That write was how I found out that Hegazy, a 30-year-old Egyptian lesbian activist, had killed herself. I first heard of her in October 2017, when she was jailed by the Egyptian government for flying a rainbow flag at a Mashrou’ Leila concert – an edgy Lebanese rock band known for existence openly queer. In Egypt, homosexuality is legally considered a develop of debauchery, and in the aftermath of this concert the law was explicitly updated to sanction the promotion of queer behaviour in the media with up to three years in prison. For three months after her arrest, Hegazy was tortured at the hands of the Egyptian police, who electrocuted her and encouraged inmates to ph
Which countries impose the death penalty on gay people?
Around the world, queer people continue to face discrimination, violence, harassment and social stigma. While social movements have marked progress towards acceptance in many countries, in others homosexuality continues to be outlawed and penalised, sometimes with death.
According to Statistica Research Department, as of 2024, homosexuality is criminalised in 64 countries globally, with most of these nations situated in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. In 12 of these countries, the death penalty is either enforced or remains a possibility for secret, consensual same-sex sexual activity.
In many cases, the laws only apply to sexual relations between two men, but 38 countries own amendments that include those between women in their definitions.
These penalisations represent abuses of human rights, especially the rights to freedom of expression, the right to develop one's own individuality and the right to life.
Which countries enforce the death penalty for homosexuality?
Saudi Arabia
The Wahabbi interpretation of Sharia law in Saudi Arabia maintains that acts of homosexuality should be disciplined in the sa
Everything you need to know about creature gay in Muslim countries
When the US supreme court ruled in favour of same-sex marriage last year, the White House welcomed it with rainbow-coloured lights and many people celebrated by adding a rainbow tint to their Facebook profile.
For the authorities in Saudi Arabia, though, this was cause for alarm rather than celebration, alerting them to a previously unnoticed peril in their midst. The first casualty was the privately sprint Talaee Al-Noor educational facility in Riyadh which happened to hold a rooftop parapet painted with rainbow stripes. According to the kingdom’s religious police, the college was fined 100,000 riyals ($26,650) for displaying “the emblem of the homosexuals” on its building, one of its administrators was jailed and the offending parapet was swiftly repainted to equal a blue rainbow-free sky.
The case of the gaily painted school shows how progress in one part of the world can acquire adverse effects elsewhere and serves as a reminder that there are places where the connection between rainbows and LGBT rights is either new or yet to be discovered.
In Afghanistan, only a few years ago, there was a craze for decorating cars with ra