Yesterday the EU Delegation in #Iraq along with the embassies of the UK & Canada raised the rainbow flag in Baghdad to mark #IDAHOBIT2020 sparking outrage and bewilderment.

Here are some thoughts on why this was a cynical rather than a principled act:

Scholars of gender & sexuality who use a postcolonial lens in their analysis have written extensively on how LGBT rights are being employed to entrench new hierarchies and power dynamics in international relations

Jasbir K. Puar has coined the term “homonationalism” to describe the setting in which “the right to, or quality of sovereignty is now evaluated by how a nation treats its homosexuals” – something we see played out very clearly in Israel’s pinkwashing

Others argue that the internationalization of LGBT rights are "taking on the character of a modern-day civilizing mission” with states that don't respect sexual diversity being branded backward and uncivilized

Meanwhile, Arab LGBT groups such as the Palestinian Al-Qaws have criticised the internationalised anti-homobia discourse “because of the superficiality” of this discourse, “the absence of a clear naming of oppressive institutions,”

and “the centrality of the duality between those who accept homosexuality (“the good”) and those who reject it (“the bad”).

Al-Qaws also point to how this discourse was used to justify the occupation of Iraq in some quarters where “the love of gayness and ‘democracy’ is to be imposed on them, in a ready-made package, sent to them ‘from America with love.’”

In effect, utilizing western hegemony to advance sexual rights in other parts of the world especially the Middle East undermines & even harms local LGBT activists & scholars, many of whom “are deeply invested in contesting such hegemony even as they struggle for sexual freedoms”

Iraqi LGBT activists have no doubt been greatly harmed by the flag raising performance, as it links them and their struggle for legitimate rights to foreign powers that are rightly being resisted.

I suspect this was precisely the goal of the performance. Manufacture public outrage during Ramadan to prove the uncivilized nature of the population and the need for continued foreign presence to protect sexual minorities.

Please refer to the work of scholars such as Maya Mikdashi, Jasbir K. Puar, Rahul Rao and Al-Qaws for Sexual & Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society for an in-depth analysis of these issues. I hope I haven’t misinterpreted their work.

End.