Promising Democracy, Imposing Theocracy:
Gender-Based Violence and the US War on Iraq
Part VI. Gender-based Violence against Men
A corollary to the systematic violence against women in Iraq is the campaign of torture and killing of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, and intersex (LGBTTI) Iraqis under US occupation. Homophobic attacks intensified in early 2006, after Grand Ayatollah Sistani issued his fatwa (religious decree) saying that anyone accused of "sodomy or lesbianism" should be killed "in the worst, most severe way possible." The fatwa triggered a systematic witch–hunt by SCIRI's Badr Brigade, which was carried out while the group was receiving military training from the US. Badr militiamen began ordering Iraqis to kill gay and lesbian family members in "honor killings."90 In so–called religious courts with no official authority, self–appointed clerics—including those affiliated with Sistani—preside over the "trials" and executions of those accused of homosexuality.91
Crimes committed as part of the Islamist campaign of "sexual cleansing" are a form of gender–based torture: they are gender–based because they seek to enforce prescribed social roles for men and women; and they constitute torture because state authorities have acquiesced to and participated in the violence. US authorities have responded to Iraqis seeking protection or justice in the wake of homophobic attacks with derision and outright mockery.92 The US–backed Iraqi police stand accused of rape and extortion by gay men. According to one Baghdad resident, "Policemen raped me several times at gunpoint and threatened to hand me over to extremist groups if I refused."93
Gender–based attacks on Iraqi men are also used to foment sectarian violence. "Terrorists in the Hands of Justice" is Iraq's most popular television show.94 It airs six nights a week on the Iraqiya television network, which was created by the US Pentagon. The show—financed with US tax dollars—consists of an interrogator eliciting live confessions from alleged insurgents. The detainees—who have not been tried or convicted of any crime—usually show signs of torture: bruised and swollen faces and the "robotic manners of those beaten and coached by police interrogators off–camera."95 The program relies heavily on gender ideologies to fuel sectarian hatred. The "suspects" are invariably Sunni men rounded up by the US–backed Special Police Commandos—a Shiite group affiliated with the Badr Brigade. Confessions frequently include admissions of homosexuality, pedophilia, pornography, and rape.96 In fact, the word mujahid, meaning holy warrior, has become slang for homosexual because so many of the detainees appearing on the show have confessed to using mosques to hold "gay orgies" for Sunni insurgents.97 Like Rwanda's notorious Radio Mille Collines, "Terrorists in the Hands of Justice" is a dangerous use of popular media to promote gender–based and communal hatred.
The most widely circulated images of gender–based violence from US–occupied Iraq are the notorious Abu Ghraib photos. Released to the public in April 2004, the photos document the sexualized torture of Iraqi men by US soldiers. They include images of prisoners forced to stand naked, masturbate, simulate gay sex, and wear women's clothing. In essence, the torture consisted of an attack on the gender identity of the prisoners. The forcefulness of that attack derived from the misogyny of both the detainees and their torturers. As Dhia al–Shweiri, an Iraqi who was tortured in Abu Ghraib said, "They were trying to humiliate us, break our pride. We are men. It's OK if they beat me. Beatings don't hurt us, it's just a blow. But no one would want their manhood to be shattered. They wanted us to feel as though we were women, the way women feel, and this is the worst insult, to feel like a woman."98
The systematic killing of LGBTTI Iraqis is a grim reminder that all human rights are indivisible. In Iraq, as elsewhere, protecting LGBTTI rights and ending violence against women are inextricably linked.
90Jennifer Copestake, "Gays Flee Iraq as Shia Death Squads Find a New Target," The Observer, June 8, 2006.
91Basim al–Shara'a, "Baghdadi Gays Fear for their Lives," Electronic Iraq, Oct. 23, 2006, http://electronicIraq.net/news/printer2557.shtml (accessed Dec. 11 2006).
92Doug Ireland, "Shia Death Squads Target Gay Iraqis," Gay City News, March 23–29, 2006, 93Basim al–Shara'a, "Baghdadi Gays Fear for their Lives," Electronic Iraq, Oct. 23, 2006, http://electronicIraq.net/news/printer2557.shtml (accessed Dec. 11, 2006).
94Knight Rider News, "Wolf Brigade Heroes to Iraq Shiites," May 22, 2005.
95London Guardian, quoted in A.K. Gupta, "Unravelling Iraq's Secret Militias: Ruthless U.S. Tactics are Propelling the Country Toward Civil War, A Special Report," Z Magazine 18(5) 2005, http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Images/gupta0505.html (accessed Dec. 11, 2006).
96A.K. Gupta, "Unravelling Iraq's Secret Militias: Ruthless U.S. Tactics are Propelling the Country Toward Civil War, A Special Report," Z Magazine 18(5) 2005, http://zmagsite.zmag.org/Images/gupta0505.html (accessed Dec. 11, 2006).
97Doug Ireland, "Reality Television Hits Iraq: Lynch–Mob 'Justice' Encouraged by U.S.–Financed Iraqi TV", TomPaine.com, March 28, 2005, http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2005/03/28/reality_television_hits_iraq.php (accessed Feb. 5, 2007).
98China Daily, "Iraqi Prisoner Details Abuse by Americans," May 3, 2004, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004–05/03/content_328017.htm (accessed Dec. 11, 2006).