| Twenty-five-year old Roby Hurriya holds two pictures of his friend Saif Asmar lying dead on the ground, having been brutally killed by Iraqi religious police for having a "emo" hairstyle last month. Hurriya, a doctor's assistant and also as a gay activist does not want to reveal his real name so he uses Hurriya, which means "freedom" in Arabic. He holds his mobile phone with a picture of Asmar prior to his death, a teenager with a stylish haircut and another image of him dead, his body sprawled in the back of white pickup truck with his head fractured and bleeding. "They laid him down on the pavement and smashed his head with a cement block," he said. In Iraq, the gay community has been living in fear for years, as religious militia maintain control of the streets in the sectarian warfare which followed the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. Hurriya says in the past two months the killings have increased and are the worst he has seen. He also says that he believes at least 200 men have been murdered for their homosexuality or appearing effeminate. He personally knows 66 of them. In the beginning of the year, death squads targeted two separate groups - homosexuals, and those dressed as "emo", a uniquely Western-influenced style, which for some in Iraq is associated with homosexuality. According to local security and medical sources, at least 14 young men have been bludgeoned to death in a span of three weeks in east Baghdad, an area dominated by Shiite ... |
