The bodies of up to 25 suspected homosexual men have been found over the past two months in the newly democratic Iraq, according to the New York Times.

A modicum of liberation for Iraq’s gays has arrived with the regime change, but tribal values remain strong. In 2005, Shiite leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani called for the execution of gays and lesbians, saying that they should be put to death “in the worst, most severe way of killing.”

The latest report comes two days after an Iraqi official revealed that six gay men had been murdered by tribes after being disowned by their families.

Categorized in: