IRAQ’S UNWANTED PEOPLE

Xav Judd investigates the plight of the Middle East’s gay refugees…

A man gazing over the whitish-beige historic city of Damascus may consider himself blessed by the gods, such is the idyllic nature of the view. And yet, underneath the azure blue skyline of the Syrian capital is a grim reality: life is anything but a fairytale if you are gay.

The photo is part of an exhibition by Bradley Secker titled, ‘Iraq’s Unwanted People’, that ran in First Out Café between August and September (It is now possible to see it on his website – www.bradleysecker.com). And the person in this particular picture is Bissam, who fled to this Middle-Eastern state from his home country, Iraq, in 2006 because he was being victimised on account of his sexuality.

But, why would somebody who is not straight, cut and run from Saddam Hussein’s former fiefdom? Surely the homophobic prejudice in that nation began to crumble soon after the tyrant’s statue in Firdaus Square was pulled down by the US-directed coalition, in 2003? It was a symbolic act that appeared to signify that liberation had truly begun.

Nonetheless, according to the Gay Middle East Group, violent attacks on the LGBT community in the country have resulted in 750 deaths since 2003. Such despicable persecution has led to an exodus of non-straight men and women, with Syria being the preferred destination and this in spite of homosexuality’s illegal status there.

One must ask then, what were things like in Iraq before the most recent war and if matters have actually improved post-Saddam? Added to which, what has happened to the LGBT community who left to seek safe-haven in Syria?

First, though, it is interesting to establish why Bradley felt the need to draw our attention to the Iraqi diaspora. In Great Britain and many parts of the Western World the LGBT community has many rights and freedoms and we have almost achieved equality with our straight counterparts.

However, we should not forget that homosexuality is still illegal in up to 80 nations around the world – gay people can be whipped, stoned, jailed and even executed just because of their sexuality.

Bradley, a UK-based journalist, has sought to highlight, in particular, the persecution that many non-straight men in parts of the Middle-East experience. To do this, he resided in Damascus for eight weeks during the autumn of 2010 and became acquainted with members of the LGBT community who had left Iraq as a consequence of victimization or who had feared oppression.

His main goal was to actualise a photo essay with written, first hand testimonies. Added to which, a short documentary film was also created to draw attention to the issue in another medium. A major point of the display was to ask how such atrocities can still be happening in a ‘free’ Iraq.

Technically, in the first part of Saddam’s dictatorship, as specified in the Criminal Code of 1969, homosexuality was not illegal in Iraq. Nonetheless, in 1993 the country’s constitution was amended to make it an offence that could result in the death penalty.

Of course, basically, while Saddam was in power (1979-2003) nobody had any rights in one of the planet’s cruellest dictatorships – estimates of those killed during this time vary from 800,000 to a New York Times figure of over one million.

Yet, according to Bissam, who was living in Iraq at that time, “before 2003, gay men could live their lives in secret; people did not talk about it, they just did it.” (For his more complete story, see box out.)

Another one of the subjects of these thought-provoking portraits, a man in his 60s (due to safety, they all want to remain anonymous) who was in Saddam’s navy, concurred and explained that a lot of homosexual activity went on in the armed forces, with everybody being more or less OK with it.

For sure, this was a far from ideal place to not be straight and one had to be secretive and very careful, notwithstanding, one gets the impression that for the most part, one could just about have some sort of LGBT existence.

“A 60-year-old gentleman was blinded in one eye … Another had his testicle destroyed in a hammer attack and several others were also beaten and tortured.

After the invasion, things changed. In 2003 the Coalition forces restored the Iraqi Criminal Code of 1969, abolished the death penalty – it was reinstated by the country’s new government in 2005 – and eradicated most restrictions on free speech and assembly.

Now this was meant to be a better place to be a part of the LGBT community, with more rights and privileges than before. Nevertheless, without an authoritative state maintaining law and order a power vacuum occurred.

Consequently, just two years after Saddam’s removal, the Integrated Regional Information Networks, which operate under the umbrella of the United Nations, released a report under the rubric ‘Iraq: Male homosexuality still a taboo’.

Worse still, rumours of Badr militia groups seeking out non-straight people and torturing and killing them in the most despicable ways began to surface.

In such a climate many of the people in Bradley’s exhibition were persecuted, as some of the more graphic shots show. For instance, the aforementioned 60-year-old gentleman was blinded in one eye when it was discovered he was not straight.

Another had his testicle destroyed in a hammer attack and several others were also beaten and tortured. As a result of such barbaric treatment members of the LGBT community have had to leave Iraq for their safety.

Syria has often been the favoured destination, so it’s interesting to ask what life there is really like.

Ostensibly, life in Syria may appear to be no improvement on the one left behind in that homosexuality, which is seen culturally as decadent and immoral, is banned and can incur a three-year prison sentence.

Consequently, the state will not even permit the presence of an LGBT rights movement. Notwithstanding, Bradley’s exposé points to some sort of life in the shadows of such a prejudicial environment: Grindr-like networks, meetings in cafes, parties, cruising grounds and the such.

But, then, with some irony, came the Arab Spring…

Since the revolutions, which began to sweep through parts of Western Asia and Northern Africa last December and reached Syria this March, the Gay Middle Eastern Group have reported that ‘the Syrian Secret Police has started systematic raids against LGBT gatherings and meetings’.

In addition, the state authorities use peoples’ sexual orientation to blackmail and harass them, a situation that wasn’t uncommon in the UK a little over four decades ago before it decriminalised homosexuality.

Thus, the living conditions in yet another country have become intolerable, but what are the Iraqi refugees to do?  If they return to Iraq their lives are in constant peril; it is obvious they are unwanted in Syria – as well as the brutality meted out by the state and its agencies, many gay Iraqi asylum seekers can wait years to get their resettlement requests dealt with.

One option is Turkey, but being completely alone in yet another foreign country often without a job (it is particularly hard to get one if you don’t speak the language), much money or somewhere decent to live, is not the solution.

If home is where the heart is, then the members of this LGBT community have had their vital organs remorselessly scattered from one side of a dispassionate continent to the other.

Doubtlessly, it is time that the United Nations and the rest of the international community began to address this inhumane situation to stop the Iraqi diaspora. Ultimately, this group of people deserves the same rights and freedoms that we, in the West, so often take for granted.

 

BISSAM’S STORY

We talked to Bissam, a 41 year-old native Iraqi who had worked as an actor in theatre and TV productions and as an interpreter and translator for the US army and international media operations. He was forced to flee from his native homeland to Syria.

“I got married, in all for four years, two years of which I was in Baghdad, and the rest in Damascus [he was in the Syrian capital the first time, because of threats to his life due to working for the US military].

It was a mistake, as I had not fully come to terms with my sexuality and didn’t until that initial trip to Damascus. Indeed, I was never happy with my wife and tried to divorce her after two years but she refused. However, twenty four months later, she was granted the break-up on the grounds of abandonment because of my time in the Syrian capital.

“One afternoon, during this painful process, my other half searched my bags and found a diary and a gay porn DVD. She read through my agenda and discovered about my sexuality and the non-straight life I had led when I had been in Damascus.

Consequently, she tried to use this information to bribe me – I was threatened with disclosure of my true identity to my family – to get as much as possible out of any settlement. Eventually, my spouse did ‘out’ me and word spread to my whole community.

This was particularly painful as I had always been one of its pillars and was the one that everybody else looked up to. Now exposed and thus in danger, I left Iraq legally and went to Damascus in an American GMC land cruiser.

 

“In Syria, I had hardly any money; I was registered and certified as a refugee by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 2006, who provided financial aid for basic items –  1350 Syrian pounds (approximately GBP 17.75) per month.

It was not enough, even though I also worked for awhile and had the support of a friend. Therefore, often, existence meant living on bread and cheese, or even just one egg a day. One plus, though, was that my ‘gay’ life in Damascus was very much alive and well.

I went to ‘gay’ cafes (they were not openly so, but they were known for having a large non-straight clientele) and cruised the streets late at night in areas where it was known one could pick-up guys.

Eventually, I had to leave the country because the recent political upheaval [the Arab revolutions] and sectarian violence made things increasingly dangerous. It felt like it was becoming Iraq! You know, we could only leave our homes to get essentials, then had to return indoors and stay put.

“There is nothing about homosexuality being illegal in the Koran.”

“I moved to Turkey and have to report to the authorities every day, who hold my passport. I, once again, registered with the UNHCR for resettlement – it is never to a major city and thus I am in a small village somewhere between Istanbul and Ankara –  overseas primarily on grounds of sexuality and secondly due to my links with the US army.

It is very difficult: a foreign culture, different language and I have no friends. And, I have to keep a low profile because the vicinity where I live is very conservative. [In fact, just last week, Bissam was hit over the head with a frying pan by a flatmate who had unearthed that he is gay.

Thus, he is living with a friend for the next few days after reporting the incident to the Turkish police and receiving hospital treatment as stitches were needed].

“I want to find myself; I have been waiting for years as a nobody, stuck nowhere, for some kind of future. It is not fair; I am not really a refuge, but am in this position just because I am gay. I often thought about killing myself.

The only reason I didn’t was because I found religion [Muslim]. There is nothing about homosexuality being illegal in the Koran. It is just that conservative elements use its texts as they wish and against us, in the same way that some people use the bible.”

 

• For more information about this subject see  Gay Middle East (www.gaymiddleeast.com) and Iraqi LGBT (www.iraqilgbt.org.uk).  

• For more photos, see www.bradleysecker.com

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