NYT: Gays Living in Shadows of New Iraq (GLBT Underground)

[Maven]

But, at least until recently, Mohammed and many of his gay friends went one step further, slipping into lovers’ houses late at night. And, until the American invasion, they said, Iraqi society had quietly accepted them.

But being openly gay is not an option in the new Iraq, where the rise of religious extremism has left Mohammed and his gay friends feeling especially vilified.

In January, a United Nations report described the increased persecution, torture and extrajudicial killing of Iraqi lesbians and gay men. In 2005, Iraq’s most revered Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, issued a fatwa, or religious decree, calling for gay men and lesbians to be killed in the “worst, most severe way.”

...

“We thought that with the presence of Americans, life would become paradise, that Iraq would be Westernized,” Mohammed said. “But unfortunately the way things were before was so much better than where we are now.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/18/world/middleeast/18baghdad.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

[gatorboy]

1. There was a middle eastern man on NPR discussing this.

He said he had to keep his homosexuality hidden from his own family in fear that they may kill him. He knew several of his uncles would, given the chance.

[dbackjon]

2. But Iraq is SOOOO much better off under American rule...