Pink News is reporting that militia within Iraq have been targeting youths perceived as "emo", and/or LGBTQ. The militia have been attacking the targets, with attacks frequently leading to kidnap, torture, and murder. The attacks have been focused around the capital city of Baghdad, as well as in some of the Southern provinces.
While anti-LGBTQ violence and persecution is not uncommon in Iraq, this particular wave appears to have begun in early February. Pink News reports that "militias had warned emo youth and LGBT people that they would kill them a month ago. Posters containing the threats were put in cafés and on street corners in Baghdad." An image of such posters, listing the names of individuals marked for death if they do not conform to normative styles of dress and behaviour, has been circulated online, courtesy of Sumaria News TV.
Whilst the attackers appear to be acting independently of the Iraqi Government, official bodies have been contributing to the atmosphere of moral panic around the emo phenomenon within the country, as evidenced by the following excerpt from an Iraqi Interior Ministry statement, sourced from Al Arabiya News:
'The âEmo phenomenonâ or devil worshiping is being probed by the Moral Police who have the approval to eliminate it as soon as possible since itâs detrimentally affecting the society and becoming a danger.''They wear strange, tight clothes that have pictures on them such as skulls and use stationery that are shaped as skulls. They also wear rings on their noses and tongues, and do other strange activities.'
In addition, Colonel Mushtaq Taleb Muhammadawi, director of the Interior Ministry's community police, made some extremely strong comments about emo youth to Iraq News Network:
'âResearch and reports on the emo phenomenon has been conducted and shared with the Ministry of Interior which officially approves the measures to eliminate them.ââThe Ministries of Education and Interior are taking this issue seriously and we have an action plan to eradicate them. I will be leading the project myself and we have the necessary permits to access all schools in the capital,â
A Pink News source within Baghdad, quoted under the moniker 'O', said, 'There are so many myths around them. They are being killed for being perceived as too feminine and gay.â
Al-Sharqiya TV, an Iraqi satellite TV network, reports that 90 men and women in the country have been murdered by these militias thus far.