These posters are spreading pro-LGBTI messages in Iraq
An Iraqi group has reacted to the recent wave of homophobic murders by creating more LGBTI posters.
Last year, a paramilitary mob tracked down and hunted down a group of young human rights activists in Baghdad. In June last year, theyand stuck posters on walls and pillars in the Iraqi capital one night.
Several were tortured and killed, while others went into hiding. One, who we call Kasim, was able to escape Iraq and tell the story on Gay Star News.
The mob was furious by pro-LGBTI leaflets through doors that were posted through doors and pro-LGBTI posters on walls and pillars in the Iraqi capital.
Undeterred, activists have done it again.
The poster reads in Arabic: ‘Killing won’t stop the marching of life.’
Displaying a rainbow flag, it includes the group’s name LGBT Iraq.
Anonymous sources have told GSN they have vowed to bring visibility of gender and sexual minorities to one of the worst places to be gay, even if they risk torture and death.
One told us they again used the cover of night to spread their message, but concealed their faces to protect their identities.
LGBTI posters that sparked a witch-hunt
Kasim, who is now applying for asylum in Ireland, has said he is concerned for the group’s safety.
‘My life is still being threatened…just because of being gay and displaying a poster,’ Kasim said.
‘I just want to live a normal life, to love who I love and not be in fear.’
‘A very brave step in Baghdad, Iraq’
Ayaz Shalal is the deputy director of programs at human rights group Rasan based in Kurdistan, Iraq.
Speaking to Gay Star News, he called it a ‘very brave step in Baghdad’.
‘It shows us how much change is going to happen soon in the future and that there is a national movement in the whole country that wants to actually change something in the society, but it lacks the proper support,’ Shalal said.
‘I am personally very impressed by those who did the posters, and I support them all the way to the end.’
I fled an anti-gay gang while my friends were tortured and killed
