Iraq has ordered a ban on the use of the word 'homosexuality' on all media platforms, reported CNN.
The official media regulator of Iraq on Tuesday ordered all media and social media businesses operating in the Arab nation to use the phrase "sexual deviance."
The use of the word "gender" was also prohibited, according to a document from the Iraqi Communications and Media Commission (CMC). It forbade the use of the phrases in any of the mobile applications of all phone and internet providers that it had granted licences to.
The regulator “directs media organizations … not to use the term ‘homosexuality’ and to use the correct term ‘sexual deviance,’” the Arabic-language statement said, according to CNN.
According to a government official, the punishment for breaking the law has not yet been determined but may include a fine.
However, according to CNN, a government official later stated that the decision still required final approval.
Although gay sex is not criminalized in Iraq, members of the LGBT community have been targeted under vaguely interpreted morality articles in the country's penal code.
Major Iraqi political parties have increased their condemnation of LGBT rights in the last two months, and rainbow flags are routinely set ablaze in demonstrations by Shi'ite Muslim groups objecting to recent Koran burnings in Sweden and Denmark.
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