Iraq approves anti-gay regulation: sentences of as much as 15 years in jail | EUROtoday

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The Iraqi Parliament has accredited a regulation that punishes gay relations with sentences of as much as 15 years in jail. Transgender folks might be detained for between one and three years. An earlier draft had proposed capital punishment for same-sex relationships, in what activists referred to as a “dangerous” escalation towards human rights.

The new amendments permit courts to condemn folks in same-sex relationships to phrases of between 10 and 15 years in jail, in a rustic the place homosexual and transgender folks already face frequent assaults and discrimination. The regulation additionally offers for a minimal sentence of seven years in jail for “promoting” gay relationships and a sentence of 1 to a few years for males who “intentionally” behave like ladies.

The amended regulation makes “biological sex change based on personal desire and inclination” a criminal offense and punishes transgender folks and docs who carry out surgical procedure with a sentence of as much as three years in jail. Homosexuality is taboo in Iraq's conservative society, however beforehand there was no regulation explicitly punishing same-sex relationships.