Birmgham school row: ‘This is ma out to be jt Mlims v gays. It’s not’ | Birmgham | The Guardian

Contents:

• BIRMGHAM SCHOOL ROW: ‘THIS IS MA OUT TO BE JT MLIMS V GAYS. IT’S NOT’
• GAY IRANIAN MAN AD ALLEGED 'HONOR KILLG,' RIGHTS GROUP SAYS
• GAY PERSIAN
• L.A.’S PERSIAN JEWS STGGLE WH THE ISSUE OF GAY MARRIAGE

BIRMGHAM SCHOOL ROW: ‘THIS IS MA OUT TO BE JT MLIMS V GAYS. IT’S NOT’

From the dawn of Persian poetry the nth century all through to the twentieth century, not only was homosexualy ndoned Persian poetry, but fact homoeroticism formed almost the only amatory subject of Persian ghazals (short son-like lyrics) and the ma topic of much of Persian love poetry.

GAY IRANIAN MAN AD ALLEGED 'HONOR KILLG,' RIGHTS GROUP SAYS

Novic workg unr master craftsmen, errand boys (šāgerds) shops, and youths workg at different tras were now mostly the targets of homoerotic love poems, although ls equently qasidas than ghazals, quatras, and ocsnal piec (qetʿas).

The ḵaṭṭ is scribed varly as green (ḵaṭṭ-e sabz), st-lored (ḵaṭṭ-e zangāri), mk-lored (ḵaṭṭ-e moš-k), buddg ḵaṭṭ (ḵaṭṭ-e now-damida), etc., but most often upled wh ḵāl (bety spot) on acunt of their homonymy.

Not only Mlim boys were the subject of homoerotic sir, but so were boys om mory groups, more particularly Zoroastrians boys (mōḡ-bača) servg taverns and Christian on (tarsā-bača), sometim belongg to nvents; for example:. The social acceptance of homoeroticism, spe of relig prohibn, was such that ʿOnṣor-al-Maʿāli Kay-Kāv, a prce of Ṭabartān, his well-known mirror for prc, monly known as Qāb-nāma, wrten as a pendium of advice for his son Gilānšāh, not only approv of male homosexualy, but suggts the bt way of practicg , even though he is by all acunts a man of piety, bound by the dictat of relign.

GAY PERSIAN

The public acceptance of homoerotic love Persian lerature, more particularly Khorasan and Transoxiana durg the 10th-12th centuri, spe of strong relig prohibn both pre-Islamic and Islamic Persia, however, requir an explanatn. ” The romanc classil Persian lerature based on Parthian and Middle Persian origals such as Faḵr-al-D Gāni’s Vis o Rām, ʿAyyuqi’s Waraqa o Golšāh, ʿOnsori’s Vāmeq o ʿAḏrā, Neẓāmi’s Ḵosrow o Šir and Haft Peykar, and possibly Attar’s Ḵosrow-nāma all treat of heterosexual love wh no ht of homosexualy. There is a possibily that Greek loni northeastern Persia durg the Hellenistic perd had a share removg or rcg the stigma of homosexual love and makg socially acceptable, whereas southern Persia, a bastn of Zoroastrianism, and where a good al of Zoroastrian wrgs origated, the suatn was different.

That emotnal ti should velop between Sufi mentors (pirs) and their young discipl the Sufi hospic (ḵānaqāhs) is only natural, given the wispread tenncy toward homoeroticism and s social acceptance on the one hand, and the excln of women om ḵānaqāhs, on the other. In spe of the transparency of homoerotic love the lyril prelus of the qasidas the 10th-12th centuri, the ghazals and robāʿis of the ʿErāqi school, notably Saʿdi and Hafez, and later the poems of the Safavid school and Indian style, as many ocsnal poems (qatáaʿāt), is surprisg that among historians of Persian lerature, om Hermann Ethé (q.

1946) had been published; and his diatrib agast major figur of Persian lerature (wh the exceptn of Ferdowsi) went hand hand wh his homophobia and gave rise to vehement attacks on poets, Sufis, homosexuals, and morn advot of classil Persian poetry, cludg Moḥammad-ʿAli Fo-ḡi, ʿAli Aṣḡar Ḥekmat, Qāsem Ḡani (qq. Recently, however, Šamisā, a lerary scholar, has dited a volume to the subject: Šāhed-bāzi dar adabiyāt-e fārsi (Homosexual love Persian lerature, 2002) which he discs var aspects of the subject and which he has assiduoly brought together ample exampl om Persian poetry and prose.

L.A.’S PERSIAN JEWS STGGLE WH THE ISSUE OF GAY MARRIAGE

The neglect of, or rather, the omissn of and silence about, the subject has been apparently due to a number of , cludg general currents of homophobia both the Wt and morn Persia, aggravated perhaps by the translatn and discsn of acunts of earlier European travelers and wrers on Persia and the Middle East, who had emphasized the strong element of homoeroticism the East. Recently, however, the growg refal of gays and lbians to accept a clanste existence and the rultant visibily of gay culture has led some wrers the Wt to pay attentn also to the wispread currency of perasty the Middle East. It is possible, though, that wh the emergence of important gay and lbian wrers and poets and their translatn to Persian, addn to the spread of more liberal attus toward homosexualy the Wt, exemplified by the drive towards gay marriag the U.