​A few days ago, the University of Kufa announced that its College of Engineering held a seminar under the title “The Psychological Impact of Homosexuality on The Student in The Academic Behavior” as a way to remind mothers and fathers who attended the seminar about the importance of keeping their kids away from any websites, applications, and cartoons that include the topic of homosexuality, or as called in some parts of the news “Deviation”. As it is mentioned in the seminar, homosexuality is a soft war against our societies specifically the Muslim ones.
 
How do children and teenagers in Iraq learn about homosexuality?
It is important to point out that Iraqi educational system lacks the educational curricula that discuss the topic of homosexuality in a scientific manner. Also, our educational centers lack the teachers who can respond to their student’s questions about such topic properly. 
So how do children and teenagers learn about homosexuality? Most often, children and teenagers learn about homosexuality through warnings and intimidations of their mothers and fathers. A result of that would be creating a negative picture about homosexuality and about the word itself. This is why we see that some children, teenagers, and even adults, in some cases, use the word "homosexual" as a way to offend each other and express the existence of a problem or an illness.
Another way for children and teenagers to learn about homosexuality is through their electronic devices. We all see the huge numbers of children who walk around carrying electronic devices through which they are able to watch hundreds of videos, read posts, and follow certain individuals who might teach them wrong information on topics such as sex, homosexuality, and others. Unfortunately, many are now learning about sex through pornography and about homosexuality through social media accounts that distort the image of the LGBT+ community and directly link homosexuality with moral decay.
The hatred that children learn to hold against homosexuality and homosexuals does not go away. As these kids grow older, their desire to express that hatred grow with them and push them to look for any opportunity to express it. The problem is that some of them end up realizing that the closest people to them are from the LGBT+ community. Perhaps their brothers, sisters, or closest friends are gay. Or even worse, these children might grow older and realize that they are gay and that is when they start hating themselves or fearing that someone knows about them.

How come our educational centers in Iraq divide science into two parts, one that it teaches to students with pride, and one that it associates with moral decay?
There is a great number of universities in Iraq that include various university departments and specializations from which teachers, engineers, doctors, nurses and many others graduate every year.
The curricula in these educational centers are based on purely scientific foundations and laws that came from experiences, research and studies. The question is, how can universities that believe in science refuse the fact that homosexuality is scientifically proven to not be a mental illness? What is the difference between someone who argues that one plus one equals three and someone who says homosexuality is an illness!?
Linking homosexuality to genes, environment and psychological state is not based on any scientific basis and spreading wrong information among students only makes things worse.

What if the son, daughter, relative of one the speakers or attendees is an LGBT+ person?
LGBT+ people are literally everywhere as they are members of the Iraqi families. We often don't think about it this way because we don't hear about their numbers and we all know why, it's impossible for LGBT+ people to show themselves in public when their lives are in danger.
How do you imagine that the daughters and sons of attendees or speakers would feel if they were LGBT+? How much fear do you think they carry knowing that their mothers and fathers are the ones who spread hatred against them and urge others to hurt them?
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What are the risks of holding seminars like this in Iraq?
Iraq suffers from countless problems. Therefore, holding such seminars that spread hatred does not make things any better in the country.
Iraqi fathers and mothers need to educate themselves about homosexuality by depending on scientific facts, and they need to learn to accept differences and accept different points of view, because they will not be able to raise happy and open-minded generation if they are not able to accept their own kids as they are. Iraq needs mothers and fathers who give unconditional love to their kids and encourage them to be proud of themselves.

​The internet, magazines, newspapers, TV, and radio are all media means that aim to communicate with a specific audience. Iraq, like other countries around the world, uses these means to convey news to the Iraqi citizens..... Our question is, to what extent can we rely on the media and its news in a country like Iraq?
In one way or another, media affects our views as well as our opinion about our lives and the lives of others around us. Media, also, changes our level of acceptance or rejection of certain events that take place inside and outside the country. Plus, it constantly changes the angle in which we look at what is around us and perhaps sometimes makes us become extremists as we reject any differences that we notice.
Constant exposure to content that imposes negative opinions about a group of people often increases the likelihood of spreading hatred against them and this is exactly what the Iraqi media has been doing against the Iraqi LGBT+ community.
Imagine that the media can persuade women to use a specific face cream or men to choose a razor from a particular company by constantly sharing advertisements that either speak positively about a product of a particular company or speak negatively about a product of another company. The situation gets worse as we realize that media affects not only what we want to buy, but also things that have a greater impact on our lives and the lives of those around us, such as sexual orientation, religion, political tendencies and many more.
An important point to mention is that not all the information we get from the media is wrong but we have to be careful when choosing our source of information to avoid forming wrong opinions.
 
Does the Iraqi media address the subject of homosexuality and the LGBT+ community?
Iraqi media gives full space and freedom to anyone who wants to speak negatively about the LGBT+ community even without providing any supervision to determine whether the information being published is true in the first place.
We all can see that it’s easy in Iraq to spread rumors about the LGBT+ community but it is difficult to defend the community and to correct the wrong ideas that are already spread about it. While haters are free to say what they want to say about the LGBT+ community, those who want to defend and help the community end up being threatened, insulted, or even dead.
One of the ways in which the Iraqi media negatively affects the Iraqi LGBT+ community is by spreading misconceptions that have no scientific basis. One of the worst misconceptions against the LGBT+ community is that sexual orientation can be changed and controlled. In other words, a gay man who is attracted to men chooses to be like that, and if he had morals, he would have chosen to be attracted to women. For this reason, we see that many of the LGBT+ individuals are blamed and forced to change.
Other than that, the Iraqi media uses harsh and disrespectful words to refer to the LGBT+ community, which in turn makes it normal and acceptable to offend the members of the community. The Iraqi media visualizes the LGBT+ community in a negative way and spreads hate speech. Doing that does not only normalize violence and hatred against LGBT+ people but also teaches Iraqis that it is necessary to kill or violate any LGBT+ person.
In addition, the Iraqi media often associates sexual orientation and the LGBT+ community with topics of pedophilia or with prostitution and moral decay. Doing that creates an image in people's minds that LGBT+ people have sexual obsession and that all their relationships happen to fulfill their sexual needs but never based on love. That could be a reason why most mothers and fathers reject their LGBT+ daughters and sons and they go ahead to either kill them or force them to get married.
As we mentioned previously, frequent exposure to the news that carry a huge amount of hatred against the LGBT+ community in addition to the lack of freedom given to organizations and activists to raise awareness about sexual orientation leads to having generations that think of violence as a way to save the Iraqi morals and values.
Understanding what sexual orientation and gender identity mean as well as understanding the meaning of human rights and freedoms can contribute to reducing cases of violence, suicides, and forced marriage.
Iraqi parents, Iraqi schools, and Iraqi media may not support homosexuality or the freedom of choice but let’s keep in mind that the Internet makes it easier for us to educate ourselves and understand such topics in a scientific and correct way. Reading and spreading awareness by relying on trusted sources can make a huge positive impact on our Iraqi mentality.
 

​"Disfigured" is a word that might be used by some Iraqis to describe a person with special needs. Hearing this word causes huge pain so what if the person with special needs identifies as part of the LGBT+ community while living in a homophobic country like Iraq? The pain seems to be even worse.
People with special needs are the ones who suffer from physical or mental impairment. Sometimes, they are born with the impairment while some other times the impairment is a result of an accident, an injury, or a disease.
Iraqis with special needs rarely live in a healthy environment where they are truly comfortable and accepted since the majority of them are surrounded by people, including adults, who often tend to avoid them or abuse them. In addition to that, people with special needs who live in Iraq struggle with a government that does not provide them with medical services that would enable them to live in a good condition.
According to an article published in 2021 on “Nas” website, the percentage of Iraqis with special needs reached up to 13%, which translates to more than five million people. Among these millions, Hassan comes forward to tell us his story of being a gay person with special needs.
Hassan is a 19-year-old Iraqi guy who lives in Babil with his family of seven that he describes to be as religiously and tribally strict as all the other families that live in villages.
To understand Hassan's story, we need to go back in time several years, specifically to his childhood. Although Hassan was in good health and did not suffer from any disease when he was born, he got diagnosed with a very rare disease called “Retinoblastoma” when he was only two years old. His illness led to the extraction of his left eye and the removal of some muscles and bones of his face, so he ended up with one eye and a face that looked quite different compared to other kids his age.
Living with one eye caused Hassan a lot of abuse by kids in both his neighborhood and school. Hassan says, “I was suffering on a daily basis so I thought several times about quitting school and staying home to avoid the pain, but somehow I was able to continue regardless of my suffering. Despite the difficulties I dealt with during my school years, I survived, I graduated, and I got enrolled in the College of Pharmacy.
The illness I suffered from as well as the way my face looked after the surgery were not the only differences I had compared to others around me. During my teenage years, specifically at the age of fourteen, I started noticing the happiness and excitement I would feel when I dress and act like a woman. Plus, I never really got attracted to the opposite sex.
At first, I thought these feelings were the result of the trauma and the abuse that I had been subjected to throughout my life. I was thinking about it all the time so I decided to search it online and eventually I learned about sexual orientation. I read about homosexuality, transsexuality, and all the other classifications that I never knew about before.
I learned about my sexual orientation as well as about the fact that other people had the same desires as me and after all, I was not alone or odd. Realizing these things gave me a great sense of belonging and allowed me to look at things from a completely different angle.  
My teenage years were extremely difficult and messy since I was trying to understand, accept, and build myself from one side while I was being violated by my family to be who they wanted me to be from the other side.
My father, along with my other family members, hated my feminine side, so they tried their best to change me by abusing me. They used to tie my hands and legs, beat me, then lock me inside a room in the house for days or sometimes weeks. Despite my need for seeking help back at that time, I chose not to do anything about it because I was too scared.
None of that violence happened because of my sexual orientation rather it happened because of a haircut that I used to have, a face cream that I used to buy to treat my acnes, or for buying a certain type of shampoo. Doing any of these things was enough for my family to hurt me.
When I turned seventeen, another phase in my life began as I had my first mobile phone which I used to make friends on social media. Some of them stood by my side and we became good friends while others bullied me and did not accept me. One day, my father looked through my phone and became suspicious about my sexuality that is also when the violence got worse. As things got worse, I came to the conclusion that I will never be able to change my family so I had to do whatever it takes to keep myself alive and safe.
Luckily, I can say that things started getting better as I became a university student. I am no longer spending a lot of time around my family so I am dealing with less violence and problems. Life is also way better in college compared to how my life was during school although I still hear a lot of criticism about my feminine appearance. ButI am no longer hearing bullies and jokes about my eye and this is good for me.” 
IraQueer is interested to know more Iraqis with special needs from the LGBT+ community to share their stories with others from inside and outside the community to raise awareness about the importance of accepting differences of all kinds.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

​Mental health services encompass a range of services that are meant to address anything from an isolated or a daily mental health challenge to long-standing mental illnesses. They include modalities like support groups, medication, therapy and many more. People who provide these services include social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists. These different services are often provided by different professionals. While psychotherapists are equipped to provide psychotherapy, most of them are not qualified to prescribe medication. Likewise, while psychiatrists are qualified to prescribe medication, most of them are not trained to provide psychotherapy.
Therapy also called psychotherapy or counseling, is a process of working with a licensed professional, in person or online, to identify and resolve the emotional, behavioral, and psychological problems someone has. Therapy offers people a safe space to talk about their difficult emotions and feelings, their mental health, and their painful life experiences like war, divorce, childhood trauma, abuse, death of a close person, and many more hard experiences that a person alone can’t deal with or heal from. Therapy can be used alone or combined with medication and other modalities.
Mental Health Services are for everybody, and they are a great tool that people can use at any point in their lives to help themselves find peace, function better, and heal from beliefs and ideas that cause them pain and fear.
Throughout several generations, Iraqis have been through many tragic events including wars, poverty, economic instability, threat of militias, homophobic and transphobic crimes. Some of these events might have ended but their effects and memories remain in people’s heads. All these negative memories cause people to be more violent, depressed, and suicidal. That’s why mental health services are extremely important as they give people a chance to process their negative experiences to understand why they behave in a certain way or feel a certain feeling.
Seeking services like therapy isn’t always going to be fun or easy. During your therapy sessions, you might experience feelings like anger or sadness. These feelings come back as you talk with your therapist about the painful emotions that you might have been hiding for long years. With that being said, you have to be able to distinguish between a good and a bad mental health professional. A good mental health professional will not make you feel sad or guilty intentionally rather they will walk with you through the painful details of a certain experience then give you tips on how to overcome it and heal from it. A toxic mental health professional, however, is going to blame you for the way you feel and try to change you. Keep in mind that not all mental health professionals are qualified as some of them could be licensed, well known, and have years of experience but still fail to understand their patients.
Some mental health professionals might cause you more pain by being judgmental or unethical. Having that experience with a person you think of as a supporter might give you a negative impression about mental health services in general. When a mental health professional is unqualified, they usually use their personal beliefs to judge their patient so if that therapist’s beliefs stand against homosexuality, they will for sure blame the patient for their sexuality, make them feel guilty, and try to change them. Our advice is to take some time to choose your therapist or psychiatrist and be careful with the personal details you share with them in your first few sessions.
Seeking mental health services could be quite expensive and even with that, Iraqis struggle with unqualified mental health professionals who get paid huge amounts of money. We are not stating that all Iraqi mental health professionals are unqualified but a certain percentage of LGBTQ+ Iraqis continue to struggle when looking for therapists and psychiatrists who know how to separate their religious beliefs and social views from their duty to be professional and helpful to their patients.
In 2020, IraQueer made a survey that included over 240 Iraqis from the LGBTQ+ community who come from different cities. Part of the survey covers the subject of mental health to know how many have sought mental health services and how their experience was. Some of the ones who visited psychiatrists or psychotherapists mentioned that they refused to visit a professional in the cities they live in so a person who lives in Najaf, for example, preferred to go to a service provider located in Baghdad rather than visiting one in Najaf. Visiting a service provider in the same city the LGBTQ+ individual lives in can put them in danger and bring troubles.
Noor is an Iraqi lesbian and one of the 240 Iraqis who filled our survey. She describes her experience by saying, “At some point in my life, I felt the need to visit a psychiatrist with my girlfriend so we chose one who was well known. We assumed he was going to be professional and supportive but things didn’t go well at all. During our session with him, he asked me to kiss my girlfriend in front of him and gave me hints that he wanted to have sex with me.”
“I only agreed to visit an Iraqi psychiatrist because I thought he was an LGBTQ+ ally. The psychiatrist wasn’t an ally neither as good as I expected him to be. I went to his clinic and as we were talking, he opened his cabinet, took out some pills, and advised me to use them. When I got home, I searched on Google for the ingredients, usage, and effects of these pills. It turned out they were used to cure homosexuals and turn them straight or as some like to call it “normal”, said a gay Iraq man.
Another guy was asked by his psychiatrist to visit him home and another who was advised to pray and read Quran to heal from homosexuality and become straight.
As an Iraqi LGBTQ+ person, have you ever had unpleasant experience with an Iraqi mental health professional? You can write your experience and send it to us to help us get a clear picture of the situation inside Iraq.
 

The situation for LGBTQ+ Iraqis inside Iraq
Not a single city in Iraq is safe for any LGBTQ+ Iraqi citizen. The fear of death haunts every lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender/transsexual person in the country.
While certain cities in Iraq, including Baghdad and the cities of the Kurdish region, are seen as less conservative, safer, and more liberal, deaths and arrests remain common everywhere in Iraq to prove to us that things can be quiet for a while but can get really bad in the blink of an eye.
The arrest of the individuals who were accused of being LGBTQ+ by the security forces on April 1st of this year is one example of the abuse the community faces inside the region.
Life isn’t any easier for LGBTQ+ Iraqis outside the region as Iraqis continue to ask IraQueer and other NGOs for shelter, mental support, financial support, and advice to flee to another country.
 
What’s going on in Lithuanian?
“The Lithuanian migrant camp that's “like a prison””, is an article written by Maëva Poulet that explains the situation and the miserable daily life that thousands of asylum seekers have been living for months inside the camps.
The article states that since the beginning of 2021, around 4,124 people have fled their home countries and entered Lithuania illegally and that almost half of them are from Iraq.
People who live in these camps aren’t receiving meals that fill their hunger and are forced to stay inside the dirty camps dealing with all the stress. The 28-year-old asylum seeker, Marc says, “They’re pushing people to go back voluntarily: when agents come into the center, it’s not to ask about our living conditions but to ask us, “Have you decided to go back to your country?” After this whole journey … It’s utterly frustrating.”
Abass, who’s an Iraqi gay asylum seeker, tells IraQueer about his own situation and the messy life he has since he arrived to the camps. Abass says, “I have been in Lithuania for five months so far. When others inside the camp knew I was gay, they started looking at me as if I was a monster. I was dealing with a lot of bullying and stress until I was moved, along with many others, to a camp that was supposed to be for LGBTQ+ people only and it had 45 individuals in it.
The problem wasn’t ever resolved because I, along with the rest of the LGBTQ+ Iraqi asylum seekers, are still dealing with a lot of bullying and homophobia inside a camp that was supposed to be accommodating LGBTQ+ people only.
It turned out that majority of the ones we have been sharing the camp with aren’t really from the LGBTQ+ community! These people applied for asylum as gays because they knew that getting their application approved was much easier like that since homosexuals are seen as a marginalized minority. The problem with these people is that they’re not only liars, but they are homophobes too and that means that I have to avoid them as much as possible.
Other than the mess inside the camp with these homophobes, the Lithuania government is not providing us with enough food and while the majority gets paid, we don’t get anything and we don’t even know why. Our applications, including mine, got rejected and when we asked about the reason they said that Iraq is a safe country for LGBTQ+ people so we all can go back there and live safely.”
 
The purpose of this blog
This blog is a small introduction to the report that IraQueer is currently working on. The main goal of the report is to tell the stories of the LGBTQ+ Iraqis who have been living inside these camps for months, to explain the current situation and danger that surrounds the community inside Iraq, and to clarify to the Lithuanian government that Iraq, until this moment, isn’t safe for LGBTQ+ people. IraQueer, with all its hard work to help the community members, is unable to fix the situation.