LGBTIQ+ communities in the Middle East are increasingly facing government repression. Even in once liberal countries there is discussion about the death penalty for these people. For activists, they are diversionary tactics from the failure of politics.
Within a few months, the controversial cybercrime law in Jordan was pushed through parliament and then passed by King Abdullah II: “Incitement to immorality” has recently become a punishable offense in Jordan. Vague offenses such as the spread of “fake news” and “undermining national unity” are also covered by the new law, which criminalizes online posts.
The accused face up to three years in prison and fines of up to 25,000 euros. Journalists, opposition figures, but above all the LGBTIQ+ community, i.e. lesbians, gays, bisexuals, trans and queer people, fear that the reprisals will expand. The law threatens the ability to move anonymously on the Internet because it prohibits access to corresponding browsers such as Tor, which are often used by the queer community to exchange ideas with hidden identities.
A scapegoat is needed
Jordan is one of the few countries in the Middle East where same-sex relationships are not punishable. However, they are not tolerated in the conservative kingdom. The more visible the LGBTIQ+ community became in recent years, the more pressure on them increased. Activists report kidnappings by the secret police and forced outing to their families. Since August, the government has blocked access to Grindr, a dating app used by queer people. The human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) fears that the new law could be used to expand such practices.
For homosexuals in Iran, love only exists in secret. Photographer Ashkan Shabani’s self-portrait shows him and his partner in a remote location in northern Iran, in the Hyrcanian forests on the Caspian Sea. This is where they met after meeting on social media. Ashkan has now left Iran.
(Photo: ashkanshabani.com)
For human rights activists, the backlash has a political reason: the country is doing poorly economically and needs a scapegoat to distract from the failure of politics. There will also be parliamentary elections next year. The Jordanian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood promotes itself by fomenting hatred against LGBTIQ+ people. When a queer Egyptian film was scheduled to be shown in Amman in June, the Performance canceled due to pressure from Islamist parliamentarians.
Iraq: Parliament discusses death penalty
Reprisals against the community are also increasing in other countries in the region. In Iraq, the possibility of punishing homosexuality with death was recently discussed in parliament. Here too, the timing of the initiative appears to have been deliberately chosen in order to distract from the numerous domestic and foreign policy conflicts. The oil-rich but war-ravaged country is struggling with a serious political and economic crisis. For this reason, too, a protest movement emerged there in October 2019: for several months, hundreds of thousands demonstrated against rising unemployment, corruption and a lack of democracy. The uprisings could only be suppressed through repression and corona restrictions.
Nevertheless, thousands took to the streets last year to mark the third anniversary of the demonstrations. Those in power probably feared that riots could break out again in October, but that didn’t happen.
“Sexual Deviance”
Same-sex sex is not officially punishable in Iraq. However, the authorities use a law against prostitution to still impose penalties. A study published by HRW last year also came to this conclusion Resultthat state-backed armed groups kidnap, rape, torture and kill LGBTIQ+ people.
In March 2020, influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr cited same-sex marriages as one of the reasons for the spread of the coronavirus. In August this year, a directive was issued directing the country’s media to replace the word “homosexuality” with “sexual deviance.”
Iran: Death penalty and hate speech in Africa
The situation in Iran is particularly dramatic – and has been for decades. The community lives in hiding, the people are ostracized not only politically but also socially. In conservative and strict religious circles, being gay, lesbian or transgender is considered a mental illness that is supposed to be curable. Desperate victims even choose the path of gender reassignment surgery, which the regime has advocated since it was officially legalized by the former revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In the eyes of the ruling clerics, the operations serve the purpose of curing a “disease” and fitting those affected into the traditional categories of heterosexual men or women.
On the other hand, same-sex love is considered a criminal offense in Iran and can be punished with death. Thousands of people have been executed since the Islamic Revolution in 1978. According to media reports, two women were executed for the first time in September 2022 because they were said to be lesbians. After an international outcry, the regime claimed the two were involved in human trafficking.
When Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi visited Uganda in June, he emphasized conservatism as a shared belief. The West is trying to “present homosexuality as a sign of civilization, even though it is one of the dirtiest things that has happened in human history,” said Raisi. His visit to the African continent was the first by an Iranian leader in more than a decade. Iran is suffering from severe economic sanctions from the USA and is trying to find new allies. In Uganda, an anti-homosexual law was passed that even provides for the death penalty.
Anyone who flees abroad, for example to Germany, must demonstrate in the asylum procedure in this country that they are at risk of reprisals in their home country because of their sexual orientation. But there are always deportations of queer people to their countries of origin, where they are threatened with persecution. The Berlin-Brandenburg Lesbian and Gay Association reports that many of its Iranian clients are currently very afraid of having to return to Iran if their asylum application is rejected.
Lebanon: Hate against the LGBTIQ+ community unites the divided politics
While Lebanon was previously considered tolerant towards the LGBTIQ+ community, the community has also become increasingly targeted by politicians in recent months. Lebanon has also been in an economic crisis since 2019, for which the political leadership that has been in power for decades is blamed. According to an article in the penal code, sexual relationships that “contrary the laws of nature” are prohibited here. This article is increasingly being used against homosexuals. While politicians are divided among themselves, the country’s political and religious leadership are united in their hatred of the LGBTIQ+ community.
When some parliamentarians called for the article to be abolished in July, they incurred the anger of the majority of MPs. Hassan Nasrallah, head of the Islamist Hezbollah, called for the death penalty to be introduced for homosexual people. A Sunni MP announced a draft law that would criminalize any attempt to legalize homosexuality. Many members of the LGBTIQ+ community retreat in the face of such demands. Tarek Seidan, head of the activist group founded in 2004 Helem, said politicians were scapegoating a vulnerable group to distract from their own failures. “Do any of these people have solutions for water, electricity and health care?” criticized Seidan. “They have nothing. And when they have nothing to offer, they create an enemy.”
Türkiye: Erdoğan insults opposition as “LGBT”
The abbreviation LGBTIQ+ is also a insulting word for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Just a few years ago, tens of thousands of people celebrated a Pride parade in Istanbul. Today that would be unthinkable. Since 2015, rallies for the rights of queer people have been banned in Turkey. The longer the country is in a severe economic crisis, the more often there is political agitation against the community.
The government justified its withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention on the Prevention of Violence Against Women in 2021 by saying that the agreement normalized homosexuality. After a government siege, thousands of people took to the streets in several Turkish cities in 2022 to demand a ban on “gay propaganda”. “This nation has no LGBT,” Erdoğan said shortly before the presidential elections in May. He described queer people as “perverts” and was able to score points with religious conservative voters with this rhetoric. Even immediately after his election victory, Erdoğan insulted the left-behind opposition as “LGBT.”
The photos in this text are from Ashkan Shabani, an Iranian photographer, visual storyteller, video journalist and LGBTQ+ activist. He focuses on social issues and human rights, particularly LGBTIQ+ rights in the Middle East.