The real story of the gay Middle East | World Enomic Fom

Contents:

• EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI
• THE REAL STORY OF THE GAY MIDDLE EAST
• SDI GAY SCENE: 'FORBIDN, BUT I N'T HELP IT'
• HOW THE MIDDLE EAST MOVED FROM TOLERANT OF HOMOSEXUALY TO A BATTLEFIELD OF ANTI-GAY VLENCE
• WHAT PART OF THE MIDDLE EAST IS A GREAT GAY DTATN?
• TEL AVIV, ‘GAY CAPAL OF THE MIDDLE EAST,’ WEL RETURN OF PRI CELEBRATN JUNE 8TH-12TH
• GAY THE MIDDLE EAST? 11 REASONS WHY LGBT RIGHTS ARE LOOKG UP MENA

EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI

Acrdg to the kgdom’s relig police, the school was fed 100, 000 riyals ($26, 650) for displayg “the emblem of the homosexuals” on s buildg, one of s admistrators was jailed and the offendg parapet was swiftly repated to match a blue rabow-ee se of the gaily pated school shows how progrs one part of the world n have adverse effects elsewhere and serv as a remr that there are plac where the nnectn between rabows and LGBT rights is eher new or yet to be Afghanistan, only a few years ago, there was a craze for ratg rs wh rabow stickers – which Che factori were only too happy to supply.

It wasn’t until the Afghan Pajhwok news agency explaed how they might be misterpreted that the craze me to a sudn on the ter and you will also fd pi of the “Rabow Qur’an” for sale – an unnscly gay edn of the holy book wh tted pag of every hue and remend on one webse as “an ial gift for Mlims” there are two sis to this cross-cultural misunrstandg.

Genr segregatn, which go to extreme lengths the more nservative Mlim untri, enurag homosocial behavur, creatg a suatn where men are often more fortable the prence of other men and where placg a hand on another man’s knee is a sign of iendship, not an vatn to sex.

THE REAL STORY OF THE GAY MIDDLE EAST

Historilly, Mlim societi have often acknowledged this – toleratg to some extent even if they the 19th and early 20th centuri, men who had been persecuted for their sexualy Europe often sought refuge Moroc and, long before same-sex marriage was dreamed of the wt, male-on-male partnerships were regnised – and marked wh a ceremony – the remote Egyptian oasis of some Mlim untri, whole towns have bee the butt of jok about the supposed homosexualy of their habants.

In Egypt, for example, an old law agast “bchery” is often laws have a tastrophic effect on the liv of people who are unlucky enough to get ught but, spe ocsnal crackdowns, the thori don’t, on the whole, actively seek out gay people to arrt them. In England 1952, there were 670 prosecutns for sodomy, 3, 087 for attempted sodomy or cent asslt, and 1, 686 for gross problem wh such laws, even if not vigoroly enforced, is that they signal official disapproval of homosexualy and, upled wh the fulmatns of relig scholars, legimise discrimatn by dividuals at an everyday level and may also provi an exce for actn by vigilant. Years before Isis began throwg allegedly gay men off the top of buildgs, other groups Iraq were attackg “un-manly” men – sometim killg them slowly by jectg glue to the reason for the paratively small number of prosecutns is the official fictn that gay people don’t exist to any great extent Mlim untri; homosexualy is regard primarily as a wtern phenomenon and large numbers of arrts would ll that to qutn.

SDI GAY SCENE: 'FORBIDN, BUT I N'T HELP IT'

Some of the most btal Arab regim (Iraq unr Saddam Hse and Syria unr the Assads, for example) also showed ltle tert attackg gay people – probably bee they had other thgs to worry Syrian refugee Subhi Nahas wh the US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, durg an rmal meetg on the persecutn of LGBT people by Isis.

For those ught, the effect on their liv is tastrophic but the law is not much of a terrent and for those who are discreet about their sexualy the risk of arrt is the vast majory who intify as gay, lbian or transgenr the attus of fay and society are a much bigger one issue that affects all gay people – everywhere – at some pot their liv is g out. Also, ’s clear that the prophet Muhammad never specified a punishment for homosexualy; wasn’t until some years after his ath that Mlims began discsg what a suable punishment might nmnatns of homosexualy, like those Christiany, are based maly on the story about God’s punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah which is reunted the Qur’an as well as the Old Ttament.

HOW THE MIDDLE EAST MOVED FROM TOLERANT OF HOMOSEXUALY TO A BATTLEFIELD OF ANTI-GAY VLENCE

Although Mlim societi today n be scribed as generally homophobic, ’s a mistake to view homophobia as a self-ntaed problem: ’s part of a syndrome which the rights of dividuals are subsumed the perceived terts of the muny and – often – matag an “Islamic” ethos. “Transgenr” is a broad term which clus tersex people (whose blogil sex is unclear or was wrongly assigned at birth), those wh genr dysphoria (who feel like “a man trapped a woman’s body”, or vice versa) and may also clu others who simply get pleasure or satisfactn om police e a water nnon to disperse LGBT rights activists before a Gay Pri para central Istanbul, Turkey. There were also many who found the ncept of genr dysphoria difficult to grasp and some characterised her as a gay man who was tryg to game the affair rulted a fatwa om Muhammad Tantawi, Egypt’s grand mufti, which is still ced s across the regn today.

There are plenty of trans people who simply wish to be accepted as they are – whout surgery – and the Iranian system don’t really provi for, the difference between beg transgenr and gay is not well unrstood Iran, even wh the medil profsn, and there have been reports of gay men beg prsured to surgery as a way of “regularisg” their legal posn and avoidg the risk of executn.

My Kali, a Jordanian magaze which aims “to addrs homophobia and transphobia and empower the youth to fy mastream genr bari the Arab world” has been published regularly sce far, no one has attempted to hold a Pri para an Arab untry, though there have been paras the Turkish cy of Istanbul sce 2003 (not whout opposn). Far om wng praise for exposg “the secret behd the spreadg of Aids Egypt”, the programme’s prenter was roundgly nmned and later ran to legal April, the thori Amman, Jordan, ncelled a ncert by Mashrou’ Leila, a popular Lebane rock band wh an openly gay sger, jt a few days before was due to take place. Such was the outcry on social media that the thori rcd their cisn 24 hours later – though too late to reanise the ncert as origally the relig ont, prevailg Islamic views of homosexualy have been challenged here and there, but not on a sle that is likely to make much difference.

WHAT PART OF THE MIDDLE EAST IS A GREAT GAY DTATN?

There are a handful of gay-iendly mosqu and a few openly gay imams – cludg Muhs Hendricks South Ai, Daayiee Abdullah the US, and Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed, a French-Algerian, very noticeably, are the diaspora rather than the Mlim heartlands, but the diaspora is where Islam is forced to nont realy – not the untri where is protected and illtratn of where this n lead me Bra 2007 over the Sexual Orientatn Regulatns – a measure maly tend to prevent bs om discrimatg agast gay people. But “Oriented, ” released on iTun to ci wh this summer’s Pri celebratns, is not your typil take on the Arab brachild of Jewish director Jake Wzenfeld, Oriented offers a ndid view of LGBT life the Middle the Israeli-Gaza nflict lat 2014, viewers follow Khar and his iends Fadi Daeem and Naeem Jiry, all Paltian, through the daily plexi their world; wag out csant air raids, navigatg fay dynamics, and the moral implitns of datg Jewish while Khar and his iends are ee many ways, they are also bound: bound by livg as a Paltian Israel; beg gay wh sometim nservative Arab muni; and bound by beg labeled somethg they are not simply bee of their relign, ethnicy, and sexual orientatn.

TEL AVIV, ‘GAY CAPAL OF THE MIDDLE EAST,’ WEL RETURN OF PRI CELEBRATN JUNE 8TH-12TH

Regardls of the fact that we’re gay, [the film is] an opportuny for the world to see that you nnot rely on some small terror un and ll them Islam, ll all of them Arabs or thk that we’re eatg the same, drkg the same, and prayg the same. This is the first time you n see open-md, really ted people that speak at least three languag, Arab gay guys who are actually not so far om the Wtern [way of] life and n talk at the same eye level as Wtern an Arab livg Israel, how much do you intify wh the larger Arab world, pecially the gay muny?

In some untri, such as Egypt, where homosexualy is not an explic offence, vaguely word “moraly” laws are neverthels wily ed to persecute those who are acced of “promotg sexual viancy” and the, the rise of Islamic fundamentalism the 1980s cid wh that of the gay-rights movement Ameri and Europe, harng cultural differenc. Last year Hassan Nasrallah, the lear of Hezbollah, an Islamist polil group based Lebanon, acced the Wt of exportg homosexualy to the Islamic world, echog Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei’s warng a year before of “ravagg moral y” om the Wt. The offence of “Za” mak any sexual act by a married person outsi of marriage punishable by ath, while sexual acts by non-married persons are punishable
by floggg – both offenc no matter if they were heterosexual or homosexual.

Usg proxy servers men n get around the bans to the blocked s, nnectg wh potential dat and buildg a knowledge base for gay life the Arab blog om Syria, largely nsired a reprsed society, tails a tourist's gui to gay hangouts Damasc and Aleppo. " Human Rights Watch documented dozens of Web-based entrapments -- men arrted by Egyptian police then tormented wh beatgs, electrocutn and anal vice squad's practice of vertly huntg gay men chat rooms oled once the teemg gay Inter scene Egypt slowed down.

GAY THE MIDDLE EAST? 11 REASONS WHY LGBT RIGHTS ARE LOOKG UP MENA

Government Has Been Quiet About Gay Crackdown IraqWhat ensued om the Queen Boat arrts was a show trial -- forced nfsns, some extracted unr torture and a media circ signed to amplify public fear and maximize the ernment's polil ga om the arrt. Though Egypt claims to have no law agast homosexualy, routely crimaliz and prosecut gay men unr a law prohibg "juhur, " or bchery, a charge origally levied for the heat of the se, one article the state-owned Al-Gomhoureya newspaper gave full nam and intifyg tails of the acced, pictg the arrted homosexuals as part of an unrground relig cult. As the se of Egyptian arrts, spected homosexuals were taed, tortured, and forced to give nam of other gay men for thori to Space for Gay PriLong recently traveled to Iraq to document the attacks and advote for gay Iraqis unr attack.

In a untry that mov back and forth between secularism and relig polics, the group and s gay muny center are creatg a space for their other parts of the Arab world gay life has to f to whatever space is provid, and the borrs are nstantly movg. One year later, the first Tel Aviv Pri march occurred, and the event has evolved to a month-long celebratn that clus TLVft, an ternatnal gay film ftival; tribut to Israeli LGBTQ+ historil figur; and a host of other LGBTQ+ events. People still face police harassment and arrt for beg – or simply beg perceived as – gay, but there is creasg support for a repeal of Article 534 of the Lebane Penal Co, which punish “any sexual terurse ntrary to the orr of nature” wh up to one year prison.