An official document from Iraq’s media regulator and a government spokesperson both confirm that the regulator ordered all media and social media companies operating in the Arab nation to stop using the term “homosexuality” and instead to use the term “sexual deviance”.
The phrase “gender” was also banned, according to a document from the Iraqi Communications and Media Commission (CMC).
It forbade the terms from being used by any of the phone and internet companies that it had granted licenses to.
A government official later stted that the decision still required final approval.
In an Arabic-language statement, the regulator “directs media organizations … not to use the term ‘homosexuality’ and to use the correct term ‘sexual deviance’”.
According to a government spokesperson, a fine could be imposed as part of the punishment for breaking the rule, which has not yet been set.
Iraq’s penal code contains vague morality clauses that have been used to target LGBT people despite the country’s lack of an explicit law against gay sex.
Rainbow flags are frequently set ablaze in protests by Shi’ite Muslim groups opposed to recent Koran burnings in Sweden and Denmark, as major Iraqi parties have increased their criticism of LGBT rights over the past two months.
According to Our World in Data, homosexual acts are prohibited in more than 60 nations while same-sex relationships are permitted in more than 130 countries.
Source-CNN
