14 ‘Emo’ Youths Killed in Iraq

Fourteen “emo” youths have been stoned to death in Baghdad over the past three weeks. The murders seem to be the work of Shiite militants who have launched a campaign against the young people who wear Western-style “emo” clothes. Leaflets distributed in heavily Shiite areas around the city listed the names of young people targeted for killings, along with threatening messages. One such message read, “We strongly warn you, to all the obscene males and females, if you will not leave this filthy work within four days the punishment of God will descend upon you at the hand of the Mujahideen.” Just last month Iraq’s interior ministry released a statement that described the “emo” culture as “Satanism.”