Human Rights News: 8/29, #2

This graffiti, found in Najaf, Iraq, is a visible reminder of the recent onslaught of anti-gay violence at the hands of violent militias. It reads "Death to the People of Lot", a derogatory term, derived from the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, for homosexual men.

Militias, including the Mahdi army, have been targeting suspected gay men, or men not "masculine enough", with a systematic brutality. According to Human Rights Watch, "armed gangs have kidnapped men and tortured them, leaving castrated and mutilated bodies dumped in the garbage or in front of morgues". Death threats, blackmail, midnight raids, and abductions are not uncommon.

Mashal, a shopkeeper from Baghdad, was kidnapped, beaten, interrogated, and raped by a group of armed men this past April. He escaped with his life when his family sold all their possessions to gather enough ransom money. Many others, including several of Mashal's friends, have not been so lucky.

Many have identified the Madhi army of Moqtada al-Sadr, an Iraqi theologian and political leader known for his brutal aggression against opposition, as the driving force behind the killing campaigns. This group, the largest Shia militia in Iraq, defends its extreme homophobic violence as a moral crusade. However, the bloodshed is deeply rooted in politics. When the US deployed its military surge, the Madhi army retreated and lost much of its credibility. It now aims to recoup its legitimacy by murdering homosexuals and casting itself as the "defender of Iraqi manhood and morality".

Adding to the terrifying chaos, police and prosecutors have largely ignored the violence. Sometimes, they have even assisted the militias. Interior forces kidnapped one 21-year-old, suspecting that "gay people had access to western money". During his incarceration, he was raped and tortured, and saw the bodies of five other gay men killed by the police.

While some Iraqis agree with the brutalization of the homosexual community, most others fear a revival of sectarian and ethnic violence. "The same thing that used to happen to Sunnis and Shias is now happening to gays." The murders highlight the failure of the US-supported government to respond appropriately and effectively to this targeted violence, often perpetrated in the light of day. As of now, the rule of guns and hatred is trumping the power of fledgling democracy in the streets and neighborhoods of Iraq.

To read more on this story, check out Human Rights Watch.

To take action against similar anti-LGBT violence in Honduras, click here.