<p>Returng for a vis as an openly gay man, Mawaan Rizwan asks what is like to be gay Pakistan and fds a stgglg but excg and diverse unrgro
Contents:
- PAKISTAN’S GAY COMMUNY QUIETLY BREAKG BARRIERS
- “BEG GAY PAKISTAN, WHAT A MISERABLE AND HARD LIFE!”
- 'HAPPY AND GAY' PAKISTAN?
- HOW GAY IS PAKISTAN?
- GAY DATG PAKISTAN
- HOW GAY IS PAKISTAN?
PAKISTAN’S GAY COMMUNY QUIETLY BREAKG BARRIERS
Actor Assad Khan is part of a generatn of young men breakg barriers for gays nservative Pakistan, where homosexualy is punished by prison or worse. * gay peshawar *
“I got a terrible plex as my fay favored, and gave more attentn to, my brothers, ” he he grew up Islamabad, reached puberty and realized he was gay, he suffered even more. “Beg a gay a society like Pakistan is not easy, ” Khan says. “For a long time, I was ightened of who I was, so I hid my gay stat…I acted 24 hours a day.
“But soon I realized that ’s not my flt that God ma me gay. ”He has flourished ever sce he ma that realizatn—succeedg agast all the odds homophobic Pakistan, where the powerful Mlim clergy preach that homosexualy is prohibed unr Islam, and where sodomy is illegal unr the civil and punishable by a long jail term (though the harsh sentence is rarely hand down).
“BEG GAY PAKISTAN, WHAT A MISERABLE AND HARD LIFE!”
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Even the man on the street seems to have no time for gays. A Pew Rearch Center survey of 39 untri published early June found that only two percent of Pakistanis believed that “society should accept homosexualy, ” send only to Nigeria, which registered a rock-bottom one percent acceptance ratg of gays.
(By way of parison, 80 percent of Canadians said they accepted gays. )While the Pakistani ernment don’t target LGBT cizens, neher do have much tolerance for the gay muny or s issu. Late last month and whout ment, Islamabad shut down the untry’s first and only gay webse,, which was first lnched last July.
'HAPPY AND GAY' PAKISTAN?
Ever sce s creatn, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has been fluenced by var Islamic iologi g om different ernments. Furthermore, he untry’s pennce hered many Brish Era laws cludg Article 377: the most petned agast gay men. Bee the entire society is heavily fluenced by relign, homosexualy remas a taboo. All the major sects * gay peshawar *
” Fakhir says the se is not “blasphemo or pornographic” but is aimed at tg gays on health issu such as preventg the spread of HIV, and on how to al wh social and fay prsur and wh prsn. He played a Taliban terpreter wh gay tennci who worked for a Brish explosive ordance disposal team that Mullah Mohammad Omar’s regime had hired to clear me fields 2010, Khan moved to heavily Taliban-fluenced Phawar to further his actg and fashn reers, but chiefly to be closer to his partner. But he was soon pleasantly surprised by what he found: gays were not as unwele and unr the gun as he had imaged.
On the ntrary, he quickly received a vibe that many young men the ostensibly macho, largely Islamist cy were gay or gay-iendly. “In Phawar I feel like almost every send guy is gay by the way they look and talk, ” he says.
” But, he adds: “Unfortunately gays feel they have to hi their feelgs and their te selv. ”Khan and other Pakistani gays say that beg gay Pakistan is not all that unual spe the ostensibly strong prejudice agast homosexuals.
HOW GAY IS PAKISTAN?
Pakistan's relig laws punish homosexualy wh stong, but you n fd gay members of the ele Lahore, Karachi, and Islamabad. And you n fd homosexual relatnships villag across the untry, though ral areas they sometim volve force and pedophilia. But a untry where most of the entertag is done people's hom, most gay Pakistanis are terrified of practicg openly or speakg about their sexualy publicly. They are fortable discsg among their iends, behd closed doors. There is ltle public acceptance of the notn that someone n love a member of the same sex. * gay peshawar *
“I’ve found that male-to-male sex is more mon than you’d image our society, ” says Shehzad, a smart, fashnable and ted 25-year-old gay man om Lahore. ”Pakistani gays like Khan and Shehzad say the untry is rife wh hypocrisy. “I know that some Pakistani policy makers practice gay love private, then go out and make laws agast gays, ” says Shehzad.
GAY DATG PAKISTAN
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Khan agre: “I know that some Pakistani policians of all parti, cludg those om relig parti, are terted gay men, ” he says. “Even some men who teased me for beg gay sudnly e on to me when we are a quiet spot. ” “If you heard the nam of the proment members of Pakistani society who are gay, you wouldn’t believe your ears, ” adds Chdhry Javid, a 28-year-old gay man who works for a foreign aid agency and liv a luxury apartment , Javid keeps his sexual orientatn the closet, hidg om his fay and iends, and claimg is too early for him to reveal himself.
” Faisal Khan says he don’t dare vis his fay’s home village jt south of Phawar for fear the Taliban would fd out about his gayns and pture him, g a sndal for his fay.
“He would probably send me to the Taliban who would make a kebab of me, ” he so, Faisal Khan and other Pakistani gay men see hope the future as they sense that public attus are slowly changg. If the public is begng to accept men and women datg, they reason, then eventually gay relatnships will also be tolerated. Ironilly, ’s not unmon, and not viewed as homosexual behavr, for young men to hold hands public as they walk—’s a ctomary sign of there are still strict lims.
HOW GAY IS PAKISTAN?
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Yet the tradn-bound nf of the untrysi, is easier for gay Pakistani upl to ngregate public than for mixed-sex upl.
” Javid adds that viewg homosexualy as a s, as most Pakistanis do, is absurd sce there is no victim.