Zhiar Ali

Zhiar Ali (Kurdish: Jiyar Elî; Sorani alphabet: ژیار عەلی, Kurdish pronunciation: [ʒiːɑːɾ], born (1999-09-02)September 2, 1999) is a Kurdish LGBT rights activist and formerly animal rights activist. He was previously in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, and now resides in the Netherlands. He is known for his contributions to LGBT rights in Iraqi Kurdistan. Ali, the former media and communications officer at Rasan, founded Yeksani: an initiative focused on advocating for LGBT rights in the Kurdistan Region. He is the current Executive Director of Yeksani.[1] He had also co-founded the first pro-vegan animal rights organization Kurdistan Vegans. He has freelanced for news organizations, focusing on music journalism and political and social issues.

Zhiar Ali
Image showing Zhiar Ali, taken in May 2021.
ژیار عەلی 
Pronunciation/ʒiːɑːɾ/
Born2 September 1999  (age 22)
Sulaymaniyah 
NationalityIraqi Kurd
Alma materCihan University
OccupationHuman rights defender, singer-songwriter, journalist, animal rights advocate 
Years active2017–present
Organization
  • KVO (2017–2019)
  • Rasan (2019–2021)
  • Yeksani (2021–present)
Known forLGBT activism
Stylealternative music 
Height180 cm (5 ft 11 in)
Signature

Ali was a target of a series of media propaganda attacks against the LGBT community in 2020,[2][3] and was threatened with murder and assault. The attacks increased substantially after Ali delivered a Global Pride speech on June 27, 2020, organized by InterPride.[4] He has frequently criticized Kurdistan Regional Government for not actively responding to human rights violations against the Kurdish LGBT community. The campaign took place after Asaiysh mistook all gay people for sex workers, and Ali tried to address the confusion in a Middle East Eye interview. Denying that all members of the LGBT community in the Kurdistan region were sex workers, he blamed the KRG for driving some into sex work and said that "prostitution is the last choice to earn a living".

Personal life

Ali is the youngest of five siblings. He said in a makanati.net interview that he came out to his mother and older sister in 2017 when he founded Lava Foundation, an unregistered organization working on raising awareness of LGBT issues.[5]

Ali had a plant-based lifestyle and co-founded Kurdistan Vegans in 2018, one of Iraq's first vegan organizations which focused on environmentalism as well as raising awareness about "a healthy lifestyle" at the same time as raising awareness about a vegan lifestyle.[6] A vegan for five years, he had discussed the difficulties of the lifestyle in Iraq; vegan products are scarce, difficult to find, and often overpriced.[7] During an interview, he claimed that their activism led to the opening of a vegan restaurant.[6]

On June 2021, Ali relocated to Utrecht, The Netherlands,[8][9][10] where he participated in a program by Peace Brigades International.[11]

Career

Activism
Ali on World Vegan Day, November 1, 2019

Ali began his activism in 2017 with the short-lived Lava Foundation, and was hired by Rasan in late 2019; Lava Foundation activities were then folded into Rasan.[5] After more than a year with Rasan, Ali left the organization and founded Yeksani, where he is currently holding the position of Executive Director.[12][13] Ali's activism focuses on raising awareness of regional LGBT community issues, presenting community concerns to the public and international actors to encourage action, and normalizing the community in Kurdish society.[14] He emphasizes that LGBT+ living conditions in Kurdistan are poor due to a lack of public awareness.[15]

Gay people should be protected by law and not discriminated against, [homosexuality] is a natural human desire, not an illness. Every workplace should be legally forced to be inclusive to LGBT people in job opportunities, and even the local security forces need to treat them better. – Ali to Kurdish news outlet Peregraf in an interview.[16]

Ali's activism relies on social media.[14] He regularly raises awareness about the legal loopholes used to detain LGBT people, and noted in a BBC Persian interview that Articles 393, 394, 400, and 401 are used to unlawfully detain LGBT people.[17][18][19] Ali was also an animal rights activist and a former project manager of Kurdistan Vegans, where he arranged and coordinated World Vegan Day events for two consecutive years.[20][21]

He was a journalist with Spee Media, a local independent news outlet. Ali focusing there on music journalism, and most of his work featured Wild Fire. Ali also wrote about conflict in the Middle East, LGBT+ rights in Iraq, and social and civic issues.[22][23]

On May 17, 2020, the European Union (EU), British, and Canadian embassies raised the pride flag in their Baghdad headquarters, which caused a massive backlash,[24][25][26][27][28] forcing the EU embassy to take down the flag after a few hours.[14] This caused a hate campaign against the LGBT community of Iraq which was supported by visible Iraqi politicians. Ali wrote an extensive report about the progression and worsening situation of LGBT people in Iraq which was hosted on Rasan's website, reporting the murders of people perceived to be gay, as well as messages of hate broadcast on national TV.[29] The report was later used for assessments and further studies regarding LGBT rights in the region.[30]

During an interview, Ali discussed the difficulties with being part of the LGBT+ community and finding housing, reporting that many LGBT+ youth are denied rent or properties are not sold to them, so they are forced to marry the opposite gender to obtain a residence.[11] He also talked about how the Directorate of Non-Governmental Organizations have made it impossible to register LGBT organizations in the region.[31]

In an interview with Al Monitor, he critisized the Kurdish government for not publicly condemning the murder of a 23-year-old transgender woman known as Doski Azad, who's body was found on January 31, 2022.[32] According to Ali, Azad was one of the few publicly trans individuals.[33][1] He also said that the LGBT community "are extremely alarmed by the continuous human rights violations against the LGBT+ community in the region."[34] He compared Azad's murder to Misho's murder, a transgender internet personality who was also killed by her brother the previous year.[35] He called on the Kurdish regional government to exert maximum pressure to prevent killings like that of Doski Azad.[36] He referred to Azad's case as an example for why living openly as an LGBT person in Iraq is very dangerous, stating that there are risks to this level of freedom.[37][38][39][40] Ali highlighted that honor killings are very prevalent in the Kurdistan Region, and that Azad was only one of the cases they could highlight.[41]

Asayish operation

On April 1, 2021,[42] news broke that Asayish (Kurdish security forces) set checkpoints around Sulaymaniyah and detained a number of individuals perceived as gay.[43] Although a large number of people expressed anger on social media at the operation, seventeen members of Sulaimaniyah's Provincial Council signed a petition supporting the arrests.[44] Ali led Take Action, an online campaign through Yeksani which received broad global support, and helped bring the issue to the attention of Amnesty International, the US Consulate in Erbil,[45][46][47] Human Rights Watch,[48] ILGA Asia,[49] and other international, national, and local groups. The decision to conduct the operation was influenced by conservative groups in the region, especially the Kurdistan Justice Group.[44][48]

According to Ali, 15 individuals (some underage) were apprehended by the operation and security checkpoints were set up in places thought to be popular with LGBT people.[42][50] He said that Asaiysh did not differentiate between LGBT sex workers and other community members or later focused their operation on prostitution to avoid international backlash.[44][51] Ali highlighted security forces' "tests" on suspects to determine if they had sexual contact before their arrests, calling the tests criminal and humiliating.[52] He told Middle East Eye that "even if people resorted to sex working, it's the government's fault since its their last choice of livelihood."[42][53]

Ali repeatedly told the media that community lives were in danger, and he was afraid to be caught at one of the checkpoints since he is openly gay.[43][54][55][56][57][58] After local and international pressure from civil-rights organizations and activists, Asayish stopped the operation, released the detainees, and published a statement that they were investigating reports of prostitution in the region and did not "target any specific groups of society."[43][55][45][56][57][59][12]

Due to discrimination, followed by the operation, Ali reported that many LGBT people (including himself) felt excluded from Kurdish society.[46][47][60] Many others also called the operation dehumanizing and criminal.[61] Ali criticized other NGOs that claim to work on LGBT rights, and said "while they are getting massive funds, they take no action in reality", and recognized them as symbolic entities.[19]

Rasan lawsuit
Main article: Rasan (organization) § Legal challenges
Change.org petition asking the government to "allow local organizations to continue advocating for LGBT+ rights"

On February 22, 2021, it was announced that a lawsuit had been filed against Rasan by an Islamist Kurdistan Justice Group MP because the organization advocated for local LGBT+ rights and this was "against the values of the Kurdish culture."[62][63] In response to the accusation, Rasan said they would defend themselves against the lawsuit in court and they work for everyone equally. Ali spoke against the MP during a live Rudaw interview, defending the LGBT+ community and saying that the MP's comments were "baseless and not based on any scientific evidence."[59]

See also

References
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