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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsISIS & militia members are raping gay men & transgender women because they're "soft"
A shocking new report from Human Rights Watch describes sexual violence against gay and bi men and transgender women in Syria since the Syrian civil war started in 2011.
The report says that gay and bisexual men and transgender women are subject to increased and intensified violence based on actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity and that the violence included rape, sexual harassment, genital violence (beating, electric shock and burning of genitals).
The report which was based on interview with GBT Syrians who had escaped to Lebanon or Europe, as well as with humanitarian organizations working in Lebanon said that GBT people are especially vulnerable to sexual violence during conflict between multiple factions, including the government, militias, and ISIS.
The people HRW interviewed said that they were targeted because of their perceived softness, meaning that stereotypically gay and feminine mannerisms would get them stopped at checkpoints and subject to abuse.
At checkpoints, they generally stop people who are dressed differently or people who take care of their appearances
people dress in Syria, somehow in a conservative way. So, wearing tight pants, wearing lots of perfume or fixing the hair these are practices only for gay and trans people, said Walid, a 26-year-old gay man, adding that police also look at gestures. The way we sit and move our hands, body language. They target gay and trans people.
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live love laugh
(13,204 posts)Behind the Aegis
(54,052 posts)cayugafalls
(5,659 posts)So much this. It has nothing to do with being closeted, this is evil sadistic garbage, people with no souls whatsoever.
CatLady78
(1,041 posts)Sociopaths..Rape was a part and parcel of their playbook. Way more so than was the case with most other extremist groups.
Just about the only good news in the last 5 years or so has been the demise of isis. Or at least I am under the impression that they have declined..I hope that is so...They were more sociopathic than most other extremist groups.
JI7
(89,287 posts)Losers were resentful of others and blamed others for their shitty place in society .
They are similar to Trump supporters in this way. But one was mostly white people and the other mostly brown/black.
But the sheer degree/scale of their brutality distinguished them from other extremists who are disgruntled losers....
I am thinking of the yazidi women, the guy who was set on fire in a cage etc. They made the Taliban look relatively mellow.
I remember doing with them what I normally do only with stories involving factory farmed animals..instinctively blocking out any news item involving them because the descriptions of torture and rape were too disturbing and sickening to read...I could barely stand The Game of Thrones. Real life violence on this scale is too viscerally jarring to process.
They share some characteristics with Stormfront and the types you see on SPLC's HateWatch - the difference being that Chatlottesville etc notwithstanding, those people have fortunately not gotten beyond talking about such things..yet..
JI7
(89,287 posts)Members of ISIS did not have that . They just wanted to control and harm others. Some hostages held by these people said that they did not seem to understand much about Islam .
They were just losers lashing out at others .
We see with other groups how their attacks are more targeted towards certain types of places, people tc.
But ISIS would just terrorize any place they went through .
They mostly reminded me of a real life version of the kinds of people you only see on torture porn like Hostel...