Syria

Syria’s legal landscape remains highly restrictive for LGBTIQ individuals, with “sexual acts against nature” and public indecency being criminalized under Articles 520 and 517 of the penal code. Syrian law does not provide a path for legal gender recognition, nor does it prohibit nonconsensual medical interventions on intersex youth.

From the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in March 2011 to December 2024, Syria was embroiled in an armed conflict, which pitted the government and various armed groups against each other. During this period, violence on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity escalated. Islamist groups that applied a strict interpretation of Shariah executed and publicly tortured sexual and gender minorities, particularly targeting queer men and trans women. Government forces arrested sexual and gender minorities on morality-related charges, committed enforced disappearances, and perpetrated acts of sexual violence in detention centers, checkpoints, jails, and within the army. Due to societal stigma, these forms of violence are often underreported, and survivors’ severe mental and physical health trauma is compounded by a lack of adequate access to care and justice.

In regions controlled by opposition Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Kurdish forces, the situation for sexual and gender minorities was marginally better, but still fraught with legal and social challenges. While Kurdish forces have sometimes shown a degree of tolerance for sexual and gender diversity, they do not legally recognize same-sex relationships or transgender people’s gender identities, and people of queer experience still face severe social stigma in regions they control.

In December 2024, the regime fell at the hands of opposition forces, ending five decades of Assad family rule. This was celebrated by some people of queer experience in Syria, with the Guardians for Equality Movement, a Syrian LGBTQIA+ organization, calling the Assad dictatorship “one of the greatest sources of violence and terror” and expressing hope that regime change would improve access to safety and rights. However, in early 2025, queer activists reported a renewed crackdown, including arrests, raids, public shaming, and violence. Trans people were specifically targeted, with reports of assault and arbitrary arrests by authorities and civilians engaging in mob attacks.

In a context of state-sponsored violence and radical anti-gender persecution by opposition groups, families and communities have been a source of hate and violence against people of queer experience, further entrenching queerphobia, with lesbian persons in particular reporting cases of effective house arrest by their families. LGBTIQ groups operate underground or from outside the country, and persecuted individuals in Syria cannot easily turn to organizations for protection or support. Many have been forced to flee the country as refugees, seeking asylum in neighboring countries like Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan, where they still face significant risks of discrimination and marginalization.