The Middle Eastern country Iraq has become one of the territories where the most violence against LGTBI is exercised. The irruption of the Islamic State in 2014 did nothing more than show in images what had been happening for years. There are no statistics on these events, they cannot be counted, murders are made invisible. Families prefer to look the other way because of social disgrace. Human Right Watch denounced this situation in a June 2022 report and accused both Shiite and Sunni armed groups and political authorities of being guilty and often complicit in the situation.
The autonomous area of Kurdistan, in the north of the country, has become a refuge for people fleeing because of their sexuality, not only from armed groups or the police (who also carry out systematic violence against this defenseless group) but also from your families. In private flats and without showing themselves in public, the KRG LTBGI and Queer collective interacts in very closed and clandestine circles. They know that their integrity and life depend on no one outside of those private spaces finding out. In Iraq, if you are homosexual, everyone wants you dead and forgotten.
This photographic work was carried out in April 2022 in the city of Suleymania and surroundings, being able to access one of these secret circles with the only condition of anonymity. Was an assigment for 7K and Jot Down magazines.
Note: This gallery is a small sample of my work on this project. I use the gallery "9 stories 9 pictures" as a sample of my portfolio. If you want to see more photos of this project contact me.