Amendments to anti-prostitution law also enable courts to sentence trans people to three years in prison
Iraq’s parliament has passed a bill making same-sex relations punishable by up to 15 years in prison, in a move condemned as an “attack on human rights”.
Transgender people will also be sentenced to three years in jail under the amendments to a 1988 anti-prostitution law, which were adopted during a session attended by 170 out of 329 lawmakers on Saturday.
A previous draft had proposed capital punishment for same-sex relations, in what campaigners had called a “dangerous” escalation. The new amendments enable courts to sentence people to between 10 and 15 years in prison, according to the document seen by AFP, in a country where gay and transgender people already face frequent attacks and discrimination.
They also set a minimum seven-year prison term for “promoting” same-sex relations and a sentence ranging from one to three years for men who “intentionally” act like women.
I re-iterate my previous point of “it looks to me like this would’ve happened anyways, it was just a matter of time.”
“Did you think they were going to stop ‘attempting to maintain legitimacy with conservative Islamic fundamentalists’ at any point?”
And I re-iterate my previous point that it wouldn’t have happened anyway if America hadn’t stuck its nose in.
Saddam didn’t reach out to the Islamists while at war with Iran. He certainly could have.