Emo kills in iraq

Emo culture gained popularity among Iraqi teens in 2011. A little earlier, it became popular in other Arab countries ^[6] . Under the conditions of a conservative religious society, emo culture became unreasonably associated with homosexuality , for which, according to Sharia law, heavy punishments up to the death penalty rely . In Saudi Arabia, there is a ban for teenage homosexuals, supporters of the emo subculture and girls in male-style clothing to attend schools and universities of the country ^[7] . In 2009, Saudi religious police arrested 10 emo women who visited a cafe, allegedly for disturbing public order ^[8] , and in 2008, conservative Egyptians criticized supporters of emo-fashion in Cairo for being “disciples of Satan and homosexuals” ^[9] . Homosexuality is not a crime in Iraq, but it is taboo , and many representatives of non-standard sexual orientation are harassed there, even to the extent of murder ^[10] . The persecution of gays became even more active after the start of the Iraq war and peaked in 2006 ^{[11] [12] [2] [13]} .

In February 2012, the Baghdad morality police published on the website of the Iraqi Interior Ministry a statement criticizing emo teenagers for wearing “strange, narrow clothes with skulls” and “bells in the nose and in tongues”. In a statement, emo was compared with Satanists and cited by Colonel Mushtaq Taleb al-Mahemdavi, who stated that the moral police received official approval from the Ministry of Internal Affairs "to eliminate [the phenomenon] as soon as possible because it adversely affects society and becomes dangerous" ^[14] . According to the New York Times , propaganda began in Baghdad and its surroundings calling for killing people, “if these gays didn’t cut off their hair, don’t wear the clothes of devil worshipers and didn’t stop listening to metal , emokor and rap ” ^[2] .

The first dead were found in trash containers with signs of killing by concrete blocks ^{[15] [16]} . This method of lynching is called “mawt al-blokkah” and is widespread in Iraq: attackers put 2-3 concrete blocks on the end with ropes, after which they put the victim next to them and turn the blocks up first on their legs, then on the body and on the head ^{[ 17]} . Subsequently, cases of emo murder were established by other cruel methods, for example, with the help of an ax ^[18] .

Reuters news agency reported that hospital staff and police rated the number of victims at 14 or more. According to the human rights group “ Brussels Tribunal ”, about 100 people were killed ^[19] . The Associated Press , citing a representative from the Interior Ministry of Iraq, said that 58 emo were killed and all of them were men ^[20] . According to the BBC , 12 emo women were also killed. UN officials report that the actual number of victims may be much higher ^[5] .

International human rights groups called on the Iraqi authorities to investigate the killings, stating that they were the work of militia groups and police, including such semi-criminal groups as the Mahdi Army , created in 2003 by the popular Shiite priest Muktad al-Sadr ^{[21] [13]} . Iraqi journalists and American orientalist Mark Levin suggested that setting armed groups against emo serves the interests of the Iraqi authorities, distracting them from political ideas in chaotic post-war Iraq ^[17] . The Iraqi television channel Al-Sumariya said that Sadr denied his guilt in the massacres, criticizing Emo, but calling for the issue to be resolved in the law order ^{[2] [15] [16]} .

After reporting on the killings, Iraqi officials denied the existence of any organized measures to kill non-formals, and said that this hysteria was raised as anti-Islamic and anti-government propaganda ^[22] .

In September 2012, the BBC interviewed 17 young men belonging to informal subcultures whose friends were killed, and reported that they all accuse the Iraqi Interior Ministry of instigating murder ^[5] .

In May 2012, the Dutch government extended the political asylum program to Iraqi citizens who are at risk due to the actions of state-financed offenders ^[23] .

Israeli intelligence analyst Daniel Brode argues that the killings are part of a general shift within the Iraqi Shiite-Arab population towards a "more religious, more conservative and more embittered society" in order to strengthen the vertical of power by creating a "fundamentalist Shiite government" ^[24] .

Before the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, sexual minorities and subcultures enjoyed sufficient freedom. But the invasion brought the conservative Islamic party Dava to power, and Human Rights Watch says that since 2004, hundreds of Iraqi gays have been killed. It was reported that the campaign was led by the Mahdi army, and the Iraqi security forces stated that they "conspired and joined the murder." There have been cases of abduction of victims from their homes, torture to obtain information about the whereabouts of other non-formals, rape and abuse of corpses ^[25] .

In the Guardian newspaper, American human rights activist Scott Long called Iraq “a wrecked society with a broken political process and a broken public” and said: “You can't call what happened killing gays - the criminals did not understand the sexual orientation of the victims.” In addition, he stated that “Iraqis need to discuss why the horrors of the past four decades have made otherness seem unbearable.” ^[26]