2012 Iraq emo killings

Series of murders of Iraqi teenagers in 2012 December 2021 June 2026 Emo Killings in Iraq during 2012 Baghdad, Iraq Iraqi teenage boys who dressed in an emo style, and assumed homosexuals March 2012 Homicide, torture, kidnapping Between 6 and 70 Paramilitary groups Attack on Western culture and association of emo with homosexuality Cement blocks, firearms, bladed weapons The 2012 emo killings in Iraq were a string of homicides that were claimed by some sources to be part of a campaign against Iraqi teenage boys who dressed in an emo style carried out by paramilitary groups as an attack on Western culture. The BBC could find no evidence to support the idea that between 6 and 70 young men were beaten to death with cement blocks in Baghdad in March 2012.Healy Jack Threats and Killings Striking Fear Among Young Iraqis, Including Gays https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/world/middleeast/killings-strike-fear-in-iraqi-gay-and-emo-youth.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all 29 June 2026 The New York Times 11 March 2012 https://web.archive.org/web/20120317173340/https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/12/world/middleeast/killings-strike-fear-in-iraqi-gay-and-emo-youth.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all 17 March 2012 subscription live In September 2012, BBC News reported that unrelated killings were happening.Antelava Natalia BBC investigation reveals police persecution of gays in Iraq https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-19570870 27 September 2012 BBC News 12 September 2012 Background thumb|right|Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy displaying features of emo fashion: skinny jeans, eye liner, and flat, straight, jet-black hair with long bangs covering the face The emo subculture gained popularity among Iraqi teens in 2011.Iraq's Emo Youth Fear Threats 23 March 2012 https://www.ecoi.net/de/dokument/1322093.html 2021-04-07 Emo, a form of post-hardcore,Cooper Ryan Post-Hardcore – A Definition http://punkmusic.about.com/od/punktionary/g/posthardcore.htm dead https://web.archive.org/web/20160304063251/http://punkmusic.about.com/od/punktionary/g/posthardcore.htm March 4, 2016 July 12, 2016 About.com all emo is post-hardcore, but not all post-hardcore is emo. is associated in most of the world with teen fashion and alienation, but in the Arab world is also strongly associated with homosexuality and satanism. Homosexuality was not illegal in Iraq at the time but has always been taboo, and many LGBT people in Iraq are discriminated against, abused or murdered.Iraqi 'emo' youths reportedly killed by conservative militias https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17333275 11 March 2012 BBC News 11 March 2012 https://www.gq.com/news-politics/big-issues/200701/ali-hili-gay-iraqi-spy Dying to Come Out: The War on Gays in Iraq France David GQ January 2007 30 June 2026 https://web.archive.org/web/20100626015821/https://www.gq.com/news-politics/big-issues/200701/ali-hili-gay-iraqi-spy 26 June 2010 dead Activists say anti-gay harassment has increased since the invasion of Iraq and subsequent Iraq War, with gay Iraqis being bullied and harassed by security forces, and beaten and killed by reactionary paramilitary groups in heavily Shiite areas of Baghdad, including Sadr City and Al-Shu'ala,Tawfeeq Mohammed Iraqi murders put gay and emo youth on edge http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/11/world/meast/iraq-emo-killings/index.html 12 March 2012 CNN 11 March 2012 since at least 2006. Before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, sexual minorities there enjoyed a fair amount of freedom, but the invasion brought to power the conservative Islamic Dawa Party2012-09-12 Witch-hunt in Iraq en-GB BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-19525137 2021-04-07 and Human Rights Watch says that since 2004, hundreds of Iraqi gay men have been killed. The campaign has been said to be led by the Mahdi Army, with Iraqi security forces said to have "colluded and joined in the killing." Witnesses told Human Rights Watch the killers broke into houses, picked up people in the street, interrogated them to extract the names of other victims, killed them and mutilated their bodies.Anti-gay attacks on rise in Iraq https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8204853.stm 27 September 2012 BBC News 17 August 2009 By 2007, according to the London-based human rights organization Iraqi LGBT, Iraqi political and religious organizations had launched an organised, coordinated campaign to hunt, arrest, torture and kill everyone they perceived as gay. Iraqi LGBT says the Iraqi government forces gay people to give names and addresses of other gays, then arrests them and hands them over to paramilitary groups to be murdered.Hilli Ali Viewpoint: Iraqi gays in 'hell on earth' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19525137 27 September 2012 BBC News 11 September 2012 Israeli intelligence analyst Daniel Brode claims the murders are part of an overall shift inside the Iraqi Shiite-Arab population towards becoming "more religious, more conservative and more assertive," with the goal of consolidating its own power by creating a "fundamentalist Shiite government."Brode Daniel Iraq: The Next Shiite Islamic Republic? http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=51322 26 March 2012 Middle East Online 21 March 2012 22 December 2015 https://web.archive.org/web/20151222144937/http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=51322 dead In The Guardian newspaper, American human rights activist Scott Long described Iraq as "a devastated society with a broken political process and a fractured public" and said the labelling of the murders as "gay killings" was "counterproductive". He called on Iraq to begin a debate about difference, mentioning the events of the previous 40 years.Long Scott Massacre of emos in Iraq goes to core of a damaged society https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/mar/18/iraq-massacre-emos-killing-gay 27 July 2012 The Guardian 18 March 2012 Killings In February 2012, the Baghdad Morality Police published a statement on the Iraqi Interior Ministry website criticizing emo teens for wearing "strange, tight clothes with pictures of skulls on them", as well as nose and tongue piercings. The statement condemned emo as Satanic, and quoted Colonel Mushtaq Taleb al-Mahemdawi as saying the Morality Police had been given official approval by the Interior Ministry "to eliminate [the phenomenon] as soon as possible", as they believed it had a negative effect on Iraqi society.Abramovitch Seth 2012-03-10 Truth Check: Is Iraq Killing Hundreds of Emo Teens? https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/03/truth-check-iraq-killing-hundreds-emo-teens/330719/ 2021-04-07 The Atlantic en The New York Times reported that in the following weeks, anti-emo flyers threatening death "unless gay men cut their hair, stopped wearing the clothing of devil worshippers and stopped listening to metal, emo and rap music", began appearing in neighbourhoods across Baghdad. Interior Ministry security officers say the number of dead is six. However, the Reuters news agency reported that hospital and security officials put the number at 14 or more, and human rights groups such as the Brussels Tribunal said that the body count could be as high as 101.Emerging from Iraq: Reports of Kidnapping and Murder of Gay and Lesbian People http://www.iglhrc.org/cgi-bin/iowa/article/takeaction/resourcecenter/1492.html International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission 11 March 2012 12 March 2012 https://web.archive.org/web/20120312021433/http://www.iglhrc.org/cgi-bin/iowa/article/takeaction/resourcecenter/1492.html dead The Associated Press reported that an unnamed Interior Ministry official put the number at 58, and said all but one were male.Associated Press Violent 'Emo Killings' Rattle Iraqi Youth https://www.npr.org/2012/03/11/148419422/violent-emo-killings-rattle-iraqi-youth 30 June 2026 dead NPR 11 March 2012 https://web.archive.org/web/20120312053449/https://www.npr.org/2012/03/11/148419422/violent-emo-killings-rattle-iraqi-youth 12 March 2012 According to the BBC, the United Nations puts the number of dead at 12 minimum, but believes the real number is much higher. The dead were found in dumpsters, after having been beaten to death with cement blocksDozens of Iraqi teenagers stoned to death for 'emo' haircuts: activists http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/03/09/199614.html 11 March 2012 Al Arabiya News 9 March 2012'Emo' killings in Iraq create different reactions among religious clerics http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/03/10/199751.html 11 March 2012 Al Arabiya News 10 March 2012 https://web.archive.org/web/20120311011708/http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/03/10/199751.html 11 March 2012 live in a practice known as "death by blocking" or "mawt al-blokkah".LeVine Mark LeVine Mark Killing emos, and the future, in Iraq http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/03/201231911938716976.html 26 March 2012 Al Jazeera 20 March 2012 A person who survived one such attack told the Beirut-based newspaper Al Akhbar that concrete blocks are thrown at teenagers' arms and legs before being thrown at their heads, repeating the process if the boys survived.Iraqi teenagers stoned to death for "emo" haircuts http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/iraqi-teenagers-stoned-death-emo-haircuts 12 March 2012 Al Akhbar 9 March 2012 https://web.archive.org/web/20120311155148/http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/iraqi-teenagers-stoned-death-emo-haircuts 11 March 2012 dead Aftermath and responsibility for the murders As a result of the emo killings, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission joined Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International in March 2012 to call on Iraqi authorities to investigate the killings,Agence France-Presse Rights groups urge Iraq to investigate 'emo' killings http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/03/16/201079.html 26 March 2012 Al Arabiya 16 March 2012 https://web.archive.org/web/20120325202750/http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/03/16/201079.html 25 March 2012 live saying they are the work of paramilitary groups and the police,Taete Jamie Lee Curtis Is the Iraqi Government Killing LGBT People? https://www.vice.com/en/article/is-the-iraqi-government-killing-LGBT-people/ 11 March 2012 Vice magazine 9 March 2012 including groups such as the Mahdi Army, created in 2003 by Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The Dutch government stated that it "expanded" its asylum policy towards LGBTQ Iraqis in May 2012.Iraq Baseline Study 2013 http://iglhrc.org/sites/default/files/Iraq%20Baseline%20Study%20Final%20with%20Table%20of%20Contents%201.29.13.pdf https://web.archive.org/web/20131003222620/http://www.iglhrc.org/sites/default/files/Iraq%20Baseline%20Study%20Final%20with%20Table%20of%20Contents%201.29.13.pdf dead 3 October 2013 International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission 16 April 2014 19-20 The U.S. State Department's 2013 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for Iraq reported that in 2013, Iraq's Council of Ministers established an inter-ministerial committee that issued a statement saying LGBTQ people are "no different" from others, and that established a charter to describe the baseline protection owed to them.Iraq Human Rights Report 2013 https://2009-2017.state.gov/documents/organization/220565.pdf United States Department of State • Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor 16 April 2014 Iraqi commentators and American professor of Middle Eastern history Mark LeVine have speculated that deploying paramilitary groups against emo kids serves Iraqi authorities' interests by keeping the groups occupied, and deflecting the groups' anger and unhappiness from other possible targets in chaotic post-war Iraq. Iraqi television network Al Sumaria reported that Sadr denied responsibility for the deaths, calling the emo teens fools and unnatural but saying they should be dealt with through legal means. Following coverage of the murders, Iraqi officials denied there was any campaign to kill gay or emo teenagers,Ruhayem Rami Iraq's Emo killings: A horror story out of control? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17450437 26 March 2012 BBC News 20 March 2012 and said the story was made up to serve anti-religious and anti-government agendas. They added that emo teens can dress as they please, and that the government will protect them. In September 2012, the BBC reported that arrests and killings are still ongoing. See also Emos vs. Punks, confrontations against emos in Mexico in 2008 LGBT activism in Iraq LGBT history in Iraq LGBT rights in Iraq Murder of Doski Azad Subculture Violence against LGBTQ people References yes yes yes 33.325 44.422 type:city title Category:Emo Category:Violence against LGBTQ people in Iraq Category:Anti-Western sentiment in the Middle East Category:LGBTQ history in Iraq Category:LGBTQ rights in Iraq Category:2012 mass murders Category:Violence against men in Iraq emo Category:2012 in LGBTQ history Category:Adolescence in Asia Category:Discrimination in Iraq Category:Incidents of violence against boys Category:Assassinations in Iraq Category:Violence against LGBTQ men Category:2012 murders in Iraq Category:March 2012 crimes in Asia Category:2010s crimes in Baghdad Category:March 2012 in Iraq Category:21st-century mass murders in Baghdad Category:Child murder in Iraq