Most of the people around him don’t know he identifies as queer, the 20-year-old Iraqi student told DW. But life in his comparatively conservative southern city of Najaf is dangerous for him anyway. “Once I wore a pink shirt and I was harassed, just because of the colour,” said Haiden, whose full name cannot be published for his safety. “Sometimes people are harassed and even killed just because they don’t look like everyone else.” And, he said, things are getting worse for LGBTQ communities in Iraq. “We’re already exposed to all kinds of harassment and attacked on a daily basis,” he said. “And that’s even before this law to criminalise homosexuality has been enacted.”