On his first trip here at just 17 years old, Hyder’s excitement to visit the bustling capital to meet friends quickly faded to a traumatising nightmare that would leave him depressed for years to come.
Hyder, who identifies as queer, was stopped at a checkpoint on the way downtown and taken into a closed caravan where the security officers proceeded to touch his genitalia backed by a chorus of laughter.
They taunted Hyder, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, saying if he went to jail he would never leave and would be sold to prisoners.
“It was one of the most horrible events that ever happened to me … It has killed something inside me,” Hyder, now 19, told Al Jazeera.
The experience Hyder described as why the LGBTQ community in Iraq lives in constant fear, as a new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Iraqi LGBTQ rights organisation IraQueer highlights.
The 86-page report, extensively details cases of abductions, attempted murder, extrajudicial killings, sexual violence including gang rape, and online harassment against LGBTQ people by Iraqi police and armed groups.
In some cases, the abuses documented in the report were against children as young as 15.
Hyder told Al Jazeera the police had profiled him and stopped him because he had long hair. After searching him they found vitamin tablets he was using to recover from COVID, and accused him of drug possession.
‘Can’t you just be a man’
After wiping his face with a tissue to see if he was wearing makeup, the police took Hyder to a station and he was verbally abused by 14 officers who accused him of being a prostitute and threatened him with rape.
According to Hyder, the police asked demeaning questions such as; “How much did your boyfriend pay you yesterday for sex?” and “Can’t you just be a man?”Hyder’s genitals were fondled by officers as he was made to undress for an anal examination – which one policeman referred to as an “honour examination” – to “determine if I was gay or not”.
The sexual violence Hyder suffered made him feel “soul-eating fear”, but after finally being retrieved by his family and driven back home to Najaf – a holy city for Shia Islam 160km (90 miles) south of Baghdad – he could not rest.
“When I came back home my family were even worse than the police … because I brought shame on the family,” Hyder said, adding his relatives know nothing of his sexual identity but were only concerned with him being arrested.
Holding him at gun point, Hyder’s father threatened to kill him. “I’ve suffered from depression until now … and have a body image issue,” Hyder said.
Facing attacks for years
While abuses against the LGBTQ community in Iraq have long continued, HRW researcher Rasha Younes said the attacks have become multifaceted and the methods expanded.
Online platforms such as social media and same-sex dating applications now serve as avenues to target individuals and track them down offline.
“Also, a significant development in recent years is that families have become aware of the state sponsored anti-LGBT discourse and are perpetuating the same violence against their children based on their gender expression that they would usually face in the streets,” Younes told Al Jazeera.
Hasan, a 24-year-old an activist who co-founded Gala Iraq, a platform for queer Iraqis, described his life as being like a jail.
“I can’t express myself, I can’t talk to my family … My home and my family are like the police,” Hasan, whose name was also changed for safety reasons, said in voice messages.
“The Islamic militias here in Najaf threaten me … They told me [through my Instagram] account that if they find me they’ll kill me … Every time I go out I have a panic attack, and am thinking, ‘are they following me? They’re going to kill me,’” he continued, saying he only leaves the house about once a month.