A lot of Iraqis also believe that if a young person is dressed like an emo, they must also be homosexual. Many religious people consider homosexuality a sin. There is also a strong reaction against anybody who looks different in more conservative parts of Iraq.
“It was then that me and my friends started to get really scared,” Ihsan told NIQASH. “I seriously started to think about leaving Iraq. My family wouldn’t let me but I keep on dreaming about emigrating.”
Previously this kind of alternative look was almost unheard of in Nasiriyah, which, in common with other southern Iraqi cities, has a fairly conservative culture. However today these kinds of young men are more courageous and one sees more of them in the south; militias are preoccupied with other issues and that gives them some small freedom to dress as they like.
The phenomenon is nothing new, says Abdul-Razak Ali, a local sociologist. “It’s a more popular phenomenon in Iraqi cities now but it’s not a new one,” Ali told NIQASH. “It was also around in the past but given the conservatism in society, nobody dared to talk about it. Thanks to globalization and new patterns of consumption as well as a culture that prizes outward appearances, it is becoming more obvious in Iraq.”
Mental health counsellor Saleh Hussein believes that the desire to do something different, or to look different, is actually a normal part of adolescence in many cultures, including Iraq’s.
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