The ‘Nightmare’ of Beg Gay Tunisia - DAWN

Contents:

• THE 'NIGHTMARE' OF BEG GAY TUNISIA
• TRAVEL TO TUNISIA FOR GAY PEOPLE - TUNISIA FOM
• GAY LIFE TUNIS? - TUNIS FOM
• IS THERE ANY GAY BARS OR CLUBS HAMMAMET TUNISIA - HAMMAMET FOM
• DISVER THE 5 MOST GAY-IENDLY ARAB UNTRI
• TUNISIA GAY
• GAY HAMMAMET - TUNISIA FOM

THE 'NIGHTMARE' OF BEG GAY TUNISIA

Gay and Lbian Review. What I almost never saw om my seat at my favore hnt—the Café Paris, chosen bee, not attached to a hotel, always attracted more Tunisians than tourists—were any signs of a visible, easily intifiable gay or lbian culture. While the gay visor particular might be thrown ially by the ways which two men or two women openly display their physil affectn—whenever we would cross the avenue together, for example, my iend Hs would grab my hand to make sure that I would not be n down by one of Tunis’s notorly reckls b drivers—and while the sight of a man walkg down the street wh a jasme blossom tucked behd his ear might (wrongly) suggt otherwise, open signs of Wtern-style gay inty are owned upon if not absolutely taboo.

TRAVEL TO TUNISIA FOR GAY PEOPLE - TUNISIA FOM

I found nearly impossible to spot any Tunisian I uld intify as gay.

Neverthels, same-sex sire, if not a gay inty, is certaly prent Tunisia. In some s, this adolcent homosexual behavr is nsired a stage of life that will soon be left behd, so men who ntue the practice to adulthood—or, worse, who still prefer the passive role—are open to cricism, or worse. In more recent tim, however, as a rult of global media broadsts via satelle televisn and the Inter, Tunisians are regularly exposed to Wtern notns of gay inty.

GAY LIFE TUNIS? - TUNIS FOM

Though sometim clumsily censored, Wtern shows wh gay characters—like The OC or the Spanish Un Dos Tr, a Fame-style show about a performg arts school—are easily available via satelle dish, as are gay phone sex ads that ma me blh.

We also sometim fet the ways which, even the Wt, gay style is munited through the media and “assumed” by as we figure out how to reprent ourselv to each other and to a larger heterosexual public.

As Tunisians who feel same-sex sire see more Wtern reprentatns of gay life, they’re likely to imate the ways of beg and actg, however nstraed by the nf of an Islamic social system. Bee a visible gay inty is often seen the Islamic world as a product of the Wt, is difficult to untangle a rejectn of gay inty om a rejectn of the Wt wh s profoundly different standards of public behavr and private moraly.

IS THERE ANY GAY BARS OR CLUBS HAMMAMET TUNISIA - HAMMAMET FOM

Somethg to nsir, then, is the possibily that the tenncy of our media to portray Islam a negative light is makg harr for those Tunisians who wish to “e out” as pennt women, as gay, or as otherwise nontradnal.

The fact that gay inty is built precisely upon a public acknowledgment of beg gay plit thgs a society where, for example, men are so most that they shower their unrwear at the gym, or where, until recently, heterosexual upl uld not so much as hold hands public.

DISVER THE 5 MOST GAY-IENDLY ARAB UNTRI

Not surprisgly, whatever gay life that exists tak place vertly, while the life s more public forms is virtually nonexistent. Homosexualy, Tunisia Style: Where the Actn Is. In Tunisia, the issue of gay inty is plited by the untry’s long history of European tourism, cludg sexual tourism.

Many of the men might be lled, a Wtern exprsn, “gay for pay. I equented the tablishment bee was one of the only plac Tunisia where I uld experience some semblance of a gay culture, but I had to learn to pe wh the daily proposns.

(Aaid of where the nversatn might lead, I never disclosed to him my gay inty. In addn, I also had two Tunisian iends who self-intified as gay.

TUNISIA GAY

His homosexualy, along wh his antipathy for relign of any kd and his awarens of the many ironi of his role as a universy profsor a police state, had left him, if not exactly jad, at least world-weary om a lifetime of knowg, but never beg able to say out loud, that the emperor has no cloth. At this fé, where Jacqu met his rent boy, I saw what I would intify as the only visible signs of a gay inty that I saw: some young men nductg surveys about safer sex practic.

She wanted to tell me that she found my say movg and that my beg gay was not an issue for her. But she warned, “I also wanted to tell you to be reful to raise gay issu Arab untri.

We do have gays and lbians jt like any other society, but ’s a very closed circle of people and they do everythg to hi and keep secret. She was particularly ncerned that when I return for a vis I not bee a victim of vlence, as foreign gays n be targeted.

GAY HAMMAMET - TUNISIA FOM

Belhadj, who was 38 years old at the time, was charged wh homosexual activy and taed the civil prison of Mornaguia, southwt of the Tunisian pal. Belhadj's story is all-too faiar Tunisia, where the crimalizatn of homosexualy ntradicts the right to privacy and nondiscrimatn that is supposedly enshred Tunisia's 2014 nstutn. "Yet homosexualy is crimalized unr Article 230 of the Tunisian penal , which dat back to the French lonial era.

His oral shows what is like livg as an LGBTQ person a untry where homosexualy is nmned and illegal, and the social stigma of beg exposed n have dire nsequenc on people's a recent terview wh Democracy Exile, Belhadj said that his se was overwhelmgly publicized whout his knowledge while he was prison. "Belhadj's story is all-too faiar Tunisia, where the crimalizatn of homosexualy ntradicts the right to privacy and nondiscrimatn that is supposedly enshred the nstutn. Ali Boselmi, the executive director of Mawjoud—"We Exist, " Arabic—a Tunisian NGO fightg for LGBTQ rights, nfirmed Belhadj's acunt of prison and scribed the majory of Tunisian society as homophobic.

"After the revolutn 2011, thgs have changed, but homophobia persists. "When Mounir Baatour, who is also the head of Tunisia's Liberal Party, announced 2019 that he would n for the untry's princy, he beme the first openly gay printial ndidate not only Tunisia but throughout the Arab world. After the revolutn 2011, thgs have changed, but homophobia persists.