State-Sanctioned Erasure: A Comprehensive Report on the Systemic Persecution of LGBTQAI Populations in the Islamic World and Authoritarian Regimes (2024–2025)
1. Executive Summary: The Global Architecture of Persecution
The trajectory of human rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQAI) individuals in the third decade of the 21st century is characterized by a violent and widening fracture. While legal recognition and social acceptance advance in parts of the Global North and Latin America, a counter-movement of unprecedented ferocity has entrenched itself across the Islamic world, sub-Saharan Africa, and authoritarian enclaves in Eastern Europe. This report, covering the period through late 2024 and early 2025, documents not merely a stagnation of rights but a sophisticated, bureaucratized, and lethal regression. The state, in these contexts, has transitioned from a passive observer of societal prejudice to the active architect of erasure.
The scope of this analysis is exhaustive, focusing on the "worst-case" scenarios where sexual and gender minorities face existential threats. These threats are no longer confined to the shadows of extrajudicial vigilantism; they are increasingly codified in national legislation, validated by supreme courts, and executed by militarized police forces. In Afghanistan, the Taliban’s 2024 "Propagation of Virtue" laws have formalized a gender apartheid that mandates the death penalty for same-sex intimacy.1 In Iran, the judicial machinery has accelerated the use of capital punishment against sexual minorities under the guise of "Corruption on Earth," executing individuals at rates not seen in years.3 In the Russian republic of Chechnya, the state has evolved its "gay purge" into a mechanism of war, coercing detained gay men into military service in Ukraine as a method of disposal.5
Furthermore, this report identifies a disturbing "contagion effect" in legislative homophobia. The success of repressive laws in one jurisdiction appears to embolden others. The re-emergence of death penalty debates in Burkina Faso 1 and the expansion of the "Aggravated Homosexuality" statutes in Uganda 7 suggest a coordinated geopolitical rejection of universal human rights standards, often framed as a defense of "traditional values" against Western cultural imperialism.
This document serves as a critical, high-resolution record of these atrocities. It dissects the legal frameworks of the death penalty, the medicalization of torture through forced examinations and conversion practices, the weaponization of digital infrastructure for entrapment, and the specific vulnerability of transgender bodies in theocratic regimes. By synthesizing data from human rights monitors, legal databases, and survivor testimonies, we reveal a global landscape where the very existence of LGBTQAI people is criminalized, pathologized, and targeted for extinction.
2. The Jurisprudence of Death: Capital Punishment in the Islamic World
The imposition of the death penalty for consensual same-sex sexual acts represents the apex of state-sponsored homophobia. As of 2025, a hardened bloc of retentionist states, predominantly within the sphere of hardline interpretations of Islamic Sharia law, continues to assert the sovereign right to execute individuals for their sexual orientation. This is not a relic of the past but an active, evolving legal reality.
2.1 The Retentionist Bloc: A Comparative Legal Analysis
Currently, six UN member states impose the death penalty for consensual same-sex acts as a matter of codified law, while several others incorporate it through Sharia-based legal parallels or regional autonomy. The application of these laws varies from active, high-frequency execution to "dormant" statutes that nonetheless function as a sword of Damocles, terrorizing populations into invisibility.
Table 1: Status of the Death Penalty for Consensual Same-Sex Sexual Acts (2024-2025)
Country
Status of Law
Enforcement Level
Legal Basis
Recent Developments (2024-2025)
Iran
Codified
Active / Systemic
Islamic Penal Code (Arts. 237-238)
Surge in executions under "Corruption on Earth"; 2024 saw a 32% spike in overall state executions.3
Afghanistan
Codified (2024)
Active / Resurgent
Propagation of Virtue Law (Aug 2024)
Formal reintroduction of wall-toppling and stoning; public executions resumed in stadiums.1
Yemen (Houthis)
Codified (De Facto)
Active / Performative
Sharia / Houthi Decrees
Mass death sentences issued in Jan 2024 (9 men in a single trial) including crucifixion and stoning.9
Saudi Arabia
Uncodified / Sharia
Discretionary / Opaque
Sharia (Judicial Discretion)
Judges retain latitude to impose Ta'zir death sentences for Liwat; used as political control.11
Nigeria (North)
Regional Sharia
Active / Emerging
Sharia Penal Codes (12 States)
2022/2023 stoning sentences in Bauchi; mob violence supporting court decisions remains high.13
Mauritania
Codified
Moratorium
Penal Code (Art. 308)
Death by stoning remains law; arrests continue, creating "social death" despite execution pause.15
Burkina Faso
Proposed
Threat Level High
Military Junta Decree
Nov 2024 discussions by the ruling junta to reinstate the death penalty, explicitly including homosexuality.1
Brunei
Codified
Moratorium
Syariah Penal Code (2019)
Stoning for sodomy remains law; international outcry forces a de facto pause, but law is active.17
2.2 Iran: The "Corruption on Earth" Mechanism
The Islamic Republic of Iran remains the most prolific executioner of sexual minorities in the modern era. The Iranian legal system is unique in its explicit detailed categorization of same-sex acts, distinguishing between lavat (sodomy), tafkhiz (intercrural sex), and other non-penetrative acts, each carrying specific Hudood punishments ranging from lashes to death.1
However, the primary insight regarding the 2024-2025 period is the state’s strategic use of the charge Efsad-fil-Arz ("Corruption on Earth"). Under strict Sharia jurisprudence, proving sodomy requires four male witnesses to the act—a nearly impossible evidentiary standard. To bypass this, the Iranian judiciary increasingly frames LGBTQAI existence as a national security threat. By labeling queer individuals as "corruptors," the state removes the need for sexual evidence and instead prosecutes them for "spreading depravity," "colluding against the regime," or "insulting Islamic values".4
This bureaucratization of death allows the state to execute gay men without explicitly recording "homosexuality" as the cause of death in international records. Amnesty International’s recording of a 32% increase in executions in 2024 highlights a broader machinery of death that ensnares political dissidents, drug offenders, and sexual minorities alike.3 The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty notes that even when LGBTQAI people are not the explicit target of a "sodomy" charge, the interpretation of Islamic law allows for their prosecution under these broader security charges.4 This was particularly evident in the crackdown following the "Woman, Life, Freedom" protests, where the state weaponized sexual identity to delegitimize protesters, subjecting arrested LGBTQAI individuals to gender-based torture and framing their activism as moral corruption warranting death.18
2.3 Afghanistan: The Return to Medievalism
The deterioration of human rights in Afghanistan following the Taliban's return to power in August 2021 has culminated, in 2024, in the complete codification of gender apartheid. The transition period of "ambiguity" is over; the Taliban has formally legislated the erasure of queer life.
In August 2024, the Ministry of Justice issued the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Law. This document is a cornerstone of the new legal order, explicitly criminalizing lawatat (sodomy) and sahaq (lesbianism).1 Crucially, Article 24 of this law grants enforcers—the "moral police"—the unilateral power to impose punishments they deem appropriate, effectively legalizing summary execution and torture without trial.2
The horror of the Afghan context lies in the specific methods of execution resurrected by the Taliban judiciary. Reports from UN experts and human rights monitors in 2023 and 2024 confirmed the judicial sanctioning of "death by wall-toppling".7 This method, prescribed in certain archaic interpretations of Sharia, involves burying the victim beneath a stone wall pushed over by a tank or heavy vehicle. It is a punishment designed not just to kill, but to crush and obliterate the physical form of the "sinner." Furthermore, public stonings and floggings have returned to sports stadiums, transforming the punishment of sexual minorities into a public spectacle of regime power.19 The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has documented these public executions as clear violations of international law, yet the regime continues to perform them as assertions of sovereignty against the "corrupt" West.21
2.4 Yemen: The Houthi Tribunals and Performative Cruelty
In Yemen, the fragmentation of the state has allowed the Houthi militia (Ansar Allah) to establish a parallel judiciary that utilizes extreme homophobia as a tool of political legitimacy. The Houthis, controlling the capital Sana'a and much of the north, view the persecution of LGBTQAI people as a way to demonstrate their religious purity in contrast to the perceived secularism of their adversaries.
This strategy culminated in a horrific mass trial in January 2024. A Houthi-controlled court in Dhamar sentenced 32 men in a single proceeding. The charges included "sodomy," "spreading immorality," and "immoral acts." The court sentenced nine of these men to death by crucifixion and stoning.9 Crucifixion, in this context, typically involves the public display of the body after execution, a final act of humiliation intended to serve as a deterrent.
The sheer scale of this trial—sentencing nearly a dozen men to death at once—is unprecedented in recent years and signals a shift toward mass purging. In addition to the death sentences, 23 others were sentenced to imprisonment and public flogging.9 In a separate case in Ibb Governorate, 13 students were sentenced to death for "spreading homosexuality," a charge that appears to target university students and activists, conflating intellectual dissent with sexual deviance.22 Amnesty International has described these trials as "grossly unfair," noting that confessions were extracted under torture and that the proceedings lacked even the pretense of due process.23
2.5 Burkina Faso: The Contagion of Regression
While the focus is often on the Middle East, a disturbing development in West Africa highlights the contagious nature of legislative homophobia. In November 2024, the ruling military junta in Burkina Faso announced it was considering the reinstatement of the death penalty.1 Explicitly included in the proposed list of capital offenses was "homosexuality."
This represents a terrifying regression for a country that had not previously been a focal point of extreme state-sponsored homophobia. It suggests that authoritarian regimes in the Sahel are adopting anti-LGBTQ rhetoric as a populistic tool to rally conservative support and distance themselves from Western human rights norms. If enacted, this would expand the "death belt" for LGBTQAI people into a new region of Africa, further destabilizing the safety of queer populations in the Sahel.
3. The Machinery of Torture: Medicalization and "Rehabilitation"
While execution provides a definitive end to the state’s violence, the lived reality for LGBTQAI individuals in these regions is often defined by prolonged, state-sanctioned torture. This abuse is frequently medicalized, co-opting the language of science and healthcare to inflict pain and humiliation.
3.1 Forced Anal Examinations: The "Scientific" Rape
Forced Anal Examinations (FAEs) persist as one of the most pervasive forms of torture in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This practice involves doctors or police officers forcibly inserting fingers or objects into the rectum of a male suspect to "prove" habituated sodomy based on the tone or shape of the anal sphincter. Despite being universally discredited by the World Health Organization and the World Medical Association as having no scientific value, the practice remains entrenched in the investigative procedures of Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, and increasingly, Uganda and Zambia.24
In Egypt, the practice has become systematic. When the General Directorate for the Protection of Morals conducts raids or entrapment operations, arrested individuals are routinely referred to the Forensic Medical Authority. The results of these exams—often fabricated or based on "ancient science"—are admissible in court and frequently serve as the primary evidence for conviction.26 Victims describe the experience as a form of state-sponsored rape, designed to break their dignity before they even enter a courtroom. In Tunisia, civil society has mounted significant resistance, yet judges continue to order these exams. Crucially, while a suspect technically has the right to refuse, judicial precedents show that refusal is often interpreted by the court as an admission of guilt, leaving the victim with an impossible choice.25
3.2 Conversion Practices and State-Sponsored "Cures"
In Southeast Asia, specifically Malaysia and Indonesia, the state has adopted a pathologizing approach to LGBTQAI identity, viewing it not just as a crime but as a curable defect. This has led to the institutionalization of conversion therapy.
Malaysia stands out for its formalized, government-funded "rehabilitation" programs. The Department of Islamic Development (JAKIM) operates Mukhayyam (camps) targeting Muslim LGBTQAI individuals.27 While the government claims participation is voluntary, the reality is coercive; Muslim trans women arrested by religious authorities are often given the "choice" between prison or attending a camp to "return to the right path." In a significant escalation, the state government of Johor announced in late 2023 its intention to establish a dedicated conversion therapy center, fully operational by July 2024.28 This moves the practice from ad-hoc religious counseling to a formalized state institution of psychological reprogramming.
3.3 Indonesia: Public Caning and Vigilante Justice
In the Indonesian province of Aceh, the only region in the country with the autonomy to enforce Sharia law, the punishment for same-sex intimacy is public caning. This punishment is designed to inflict maximum physical pain and permanent social shame.
Throughout 2024 and early 2025, the enforcement of these laws intensified. In February 2025, two university students in Banda Aceh were publicly flogged—one receiving 77 lashes, the other 82—after being discovered in their private residence.29 The mechanism of their capture reveals a terrifying layer of societal policing: they were not arrested by police investigations but were captured by a "citizen arrest." Vigilantes, often neighbors or landlords, broke into their home, detained them, and handed them over to the Sharia police.31 The Aceh legal structure incentivizes this vigilantism, effectively deputizing the entire population as moral enforcers. This creates a state of total siege for LGBTQAI individuals, for whom the walls of their own homes offer no protection against the mob.
4. Transgender Rights and the Gender Binary: A Complex Persecution
The treatment of transgender individuals in the Islamic world is marked by a paradox: in some jurisdictions, they are erased entirely, while in others, they are forced into rigid medical binaries to "correct" their existence.
4.1 Iran: The Paradox of Forced Surgery
Iran presents a unique case globally. Following a 1987 fatwa by Ayatollah Khomeini, transsexuality is recognized as a medical condition aimed at "cure" through gender reassignment surgery (GRS). However, this framework is not born of progressive gender identity recognition but of a strict adherence to the gender binary. Homosexuality remains a capital offense; therefore, if a man is attracted to men, the state’s logic dictates he must be a woman trapped in a male body.
This leads to the phenomenon of forced transition. Gay men and lesbian women are frequently pressured by therapists, doctors, and judges to undergo unwanted GRS to "legalize" their sexual orientation.32 The surgery effectively renders their attraction "halal" (heterosexual). Those who resist, or who identify as non-binary and do not wish to medically transition, exist in a legal limbo where they are subject to arrest for cross-dressing or "corruption".33 For those who do transition, the state provides minimal support. Transgender women, in particular, face immense discrimination in employment and are often pushed into sex work, where they are vulnerable to violence and HIV.18
4.2 Pakistan: The Legislative Rollback
Pakistan serves as a tragic example of how quickly rights can be granted and then stripped away. The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2018 was once hailed as one of the most progressive laws in the world, allowing for self-identification of gender. However, the years 2023-2024 witnessed a violent backlash driven by Islamist political parties.
A virulent disinformation campaign labeled the Act as "un-Islamic" and a backdoor for same-sex marriage. This culminated in a 2023 Federal Shariat Court ruling that struck down key provisions of the law, specifically the right to self-identify, replacing it with a requirement for medical verification.34 This legal rollback has unleashed a wave of violence. In the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, activists describe a "silent genocide" of the Khawaja Sira community. Transgender women have been shot, beaten, and denied medical care, with police often refusing to register cases against the perpetrators.35 The state’s withdrawal of protection has effectively signaled to religious extremists that transgender lives are disposable.
4.3 The Gulf: Criminalizing "Imitation"
In the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, specifically Kuwait and Oman, the law targets gender expression directly. Statutes criminalizing "imitating the opposite sex" are used to arrest transgender individuals regardless of their surgical status.
In Kuwait, a legal tug-of-war has ensued. In 2022, the Constitutional Court overturned Article 198 of the Penal Code, which criminalized "imitation," citing its vagueness.36 However, despite this ruling, police continue to use deportation as an administrative tool against transgender expats. Reports indicate that thousands of foreign workers have been deported for "moral turpitude" linked to their gender expression, often without trial or the ability to appeal.37 In Oman, similar laws remain on the books, criminalizing any man who "appears in the likeness of women," effectively banning transgender existence in public spaces.38
5. Conflict Zones: The War on Queer Bodies
In regions where the rule of law has collapsed due to civil war, LGBTQAI individuals face a "double persecution": the general dangers of war (bombings, starvation) and targeted violence from armed actors who view them as "un-Islamic" or convenient scapegoats.
5.1 Sudan: The RSF and Sexual Violence
The civil war in Sudan, which erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), has created a catastrophic protection vacuum. The RSF, a paramilitary group with roots in the Janjaweed militias of Darfur, has been implicated in systematic war crimes, including the targeted use of sexual violence.
Reports from 2024 indicate that RSF fighters explicitly target men and boys for sexual violence and rape as a tool of emasculation and terror.39 In this environment, LGBTQAI individuals are exceptionally vulnerable. At RSF checkpoints in Khartoum and Darfur, soldiers routinely search phones. If they find dating apps, photos, or chats indicating homosexuality, the result is often summary execution or torture.39 The collapse of the judicial system means there is no recourse; the perpetrators are the de facto authority.
5.2 Chechnya: From Purge to Cannon Fodder
The Chechen Republic, a semi-autonomous region of Russia under the rule of Ramzan Kadyrov, represents perhaps the most cynical and brutal evolution of state homophobia. Since 2017, the regime has conducted "anti-gay purges," detaining hundreds of men in secret prisons like the one in Argun, where they are tortured and electrocuted.40
However, 2024 and 2025 marked a terrifying evolution: the weaponization of the purge for the war in Ukraine. Human rights group SK SOS has documented that Chechen authorities are now using the threat of exposure and torture to force detained gay men into "volunteering" for military service.5 The mechanism is extortionate: detainees are offered a choice between facing fabricated criminal charges (or being outed to their families, likely resulting in an honor killing) or signing a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense. This strategy allows the Kadyrov regime to meet military recruitment quotas demanded by Moscow while physically disposing of "undesirables." Reports confirm that at least one coerced man has already been killed on the front lines, his death serving the state’s dual purpose of military fodder and social cleansing.6
5.3 Iraq and Syria: The Legacy of Terror
In Iraq and Syria, the shadow of ISIS remains. Even in areas liberated from the group, the societal norms they enforced have lingered. The murder of Doski Azad, a 23-year-old transgender woman in Iraqi Kurdistan, exemplifies this. Killed by her brother in 2022, her body was found bound and tortured.42 The state’s failure was total: despite prior reports of threats, no protection was offered, and the perpetrator was allowed to flee the country. In the years since, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has failed to prosecute the case, and new "anti-gender" rhetoric has only deepened the danger for the community.43
6. Digital Authoritarianism: The Trap of Technology
In the 21st century, the smartphone has become the primary tool of state surveillance and entrapment against LGBTQAI communities. Police forces have modernized their tactics, moving from street patrols to digital hunting.
6.1 The "Grindr" Hunting Grounds
In Egypt, Qatar, Morocco, and Iran, specialized police units target gay dating apps like Grindr, Hornet, and Scruff.
Egypt: The General Directorate for the Protection of Morals employs officers whose sole job is to create fake profiles. They engage men in conversation, elicit "evidence" (a photo, an agreement to meet), and then arrest them at the rendezvous point.45
Escalation: In 2023, Grindr issued specific warnings to users in Egypt, noting a new tactic: police were not just creating fake accounts but taking over the accounts of arrested men.47 By using a trusted profile, they can entrap the victim’s entire social network. This has created a "trust collapse" within the community; no one can be certain if the person they are messaging is a friend or an officer.
6.2 Cyber-Extortion in the Levant
In Jordan and Lebanon, the threat is often criminal gangs working with tacit police approval. These gangs lure gay men via apps to secluded locations, where they are beaten, robbed, and filmed. The perpetrators then blackmail the victims, threatening to post the videos online or send them to the victim’s family.46 The victims cannot go to the police, as their sexual orientation would criminalize them or subject them to further abuse. A 2023 Human Rights Watch report detailed how Jordanian security forces utilize the digital contents of phones to prosecute individuals under vague "morality" laws, effectively eradicating the right to privacy.46
7. The Refugee Crisis: No Safe Harbor
For those who manage to escape these regimes, the international asylum system is failing. The assumption that fleeing across a border guarantees safety is increasingly false.
7.1 The "Double Persecution" in Camps
Sudanese and Somali LGBTQAI refugees fleeing to neighboring countries often find themselves in environments just as hostile as the ones they left.
Kakuma Camp (Kenya): While Kenya is often seen as a sanctuary, Kakuma refugee camp has become a site of relentless violence against queer refugees. Attacks by other refugees and locals are common, including arson and physical assault. The Kenyan government’s refusal to resettle them and the criminalization of homosexuality in Kenya leave them trapped.48
Gorom Camp (South Sudan): Fleeing the war in Sudan, many LGBTQAI individuals have ended up in the Gorom camp in South Sudan. Rainbow Railroad reported a "mass exodus" from these camps in 2024 because conditions were untenable. South Sudan also criminalizes homosexuality, meaning these refugees are illegal subjects in their country of asylum.49
7.2 The Failure of Resettlement
The backlog in resettlement to safe third countries (like Canada, the US, or the EU) means refugees spend years, sometimes decades, in these hostile transit countries. In Turkey, once a haven, rising anti-refugee sentiment and a crackdown on LGBTQ rights have made it precarious for Iranian and Syrian refugees, who face the constant threat of deportation back to execution or torture.
8. Conclusion: The Trajectory of Persecution
The evidence from 2024 and 2025 points unequivocally to a darkening horizon. The violence against LGBTQAI individuals in the Islamic world and authoritarian regimes is not random; it is structural, strategic, and expanding.
Codification of Hate: The shift from de facto persecution to de jure legislation—as seen in Afghanistan’s 2024 Law, Uganda’s 2023 Act, and the proposed reinstatement of the death penalty in Burkina Faso—demonstrates that states are investing political capital in homophobia. It is being used as a tool of governance and nation-building.
Technological Complicity: The state has successfully weaponized the digital tools that once promised liberation. The era of the "underground" is ending, as digital surveillance makes invisibility nearly impossible.
The Failure of Diplomacy: The increase in executions in Iran and Saudi Arabia, and the brazen public punishments in Afghanistan, suggest that international condemnation has lost its deterrent power. These regimes increasingly view the persecution of LGBTQAI people as a sovereign right and a badge of anti-colonial resistance.
New Frontiers of Disposal: The forced conscription of gay men in Chechnya represents a grim innovation in state violence: the conversion of "undesirable" citizens into expendable military assets.
For the LGBTQAI communities in these regions, the state has ceased to be a protector and has become the primary engine of their destruction. The violence is the law, and the law is the violence.
Data Table References
Table 1: Status of the Death Penalty for Consensual Same-Sex Sexual Acts (2024-2025)
Primary Source Identifiers
Legal & Death Penalty: 1
Afghanistan: 1
Iran: 1
Yemen: 9
Torture/Medical: 24
Chechnya: 5
Nigeria/Mauritania/Burkina Faso: 1
Southeast Asia: 28
Honor Killings/Iraq: 42
Sudan/Conflict: 39
Digital Entrapment: 45
Pakistan/Trans Rights: 34
Gulf/Kuwait: 36
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