The official fictn, Brian Whaker explas, is that gay people don’t exist the Middle East. They do – and for many of them, attus of fay and society are a bigger problem than fear of beg persecuted
Contents:
- EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI
- LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE
- MEET THE MAN HOPG TO BEE THE MLIM WORLD’S FIRST OPENLY GAY PRINT
- WHAT ’S LIKE TO BE GAY AND MLIM
- GAY PEOPLE ARE RECLAIMG AN ISLAMIC HERAGE
- MEET AMERI’S FIRST OPENLY GAY IMAM
- WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE GAY AND MLIM AMERI
EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BEG GAY MLIM UNTRI
* famous gay muslims *
The movie tells the story of an Algerian-French heterosexual young man begng a soclogy study of gay islamic homosexuali and disverg gay love wh a young French steward.
But when Waleed sudnly dumps him to marry a woman, Rami mt face the realy of life as a gay man Egypt. The batn of beg back his hometown, this prsure om his mother and his homosexualy him to have equent panic attacks.
Out Loud is the first film om Lebanon wh a gay theme that sets a new standard for cema om the Middle East the midst of the Arab Sprg.
LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE
A three-storey mosque and Islamic centre, named 'Picdilly Prayer Space,' is set to be tablished wh the Troro, a historic entertament plex London's entertament quarter. However, the cisn to build the mosque has also sparked a bate, wh crics qutng s lotn, also known for s bars, nightclubs, gay venu and strip jots. * famous gay muslims *
Abllah, a young gay man, is tryg to fd his way through the difficult sexual, polil and racial climate of Moroc. A documentary by Peter Barbosa and Garrett Lenoir, I Exist giv a voice to gay and lbian Amerins om the Middle East, who often rema silent out of shame and fear.
MEET THE MAN HOPG TO BEE THE MLIM WORLD’S FIRST OPENLY GAY PRINT
Filmed 12 untri and 9 languag, this documentary, directed by gay Mlim filmmaker Parvez Sharma, tells the lorful and varied stori of gay and lbian Mlims om all over the world. This timate documentary follows a number of young Morocn gay men their exploratn of their relig and sexual inty. For a gay filmmaker, filmg Sdi Arabia prents two ser challeng: filmg is forbidn the untry and homosexualy is punishable by ath.
Enuraged by Sandra, Ama lnch a blog lled “A Gay Girl Damasc, ” reprentg a margalized voice the Middle East on polics, relign, and sexualy. In 2015, he me out as gay on Facebook, makg him the first openly gay man om Sudan, this a massive outrage the Sudane muny. In this portra that is multi-layered both terms of form and ntent, a gay man nonts the ghosts of his past and explor hidn longgs, unrequed love and tormentg feelgs of guilt.
WHAT ’S LIKE TO BE GAY AND MLIM
In post-Fran Madrid where he lived an openly gay existence, his life rembled one long Almodóvarian y, full of excs and sexual taboo-breakg. After beg tranged om his fay for his homosexualy, we observe a young Arab man over four seasons and om far away as he navigat his solu – all the while attemptg to rennect wh his mother. A short documentary that tells the stori of Mashrou’ Leila, a Lebane rock band wh an outspoken gay sger, and Sarah Hegazy, an Egyptian activist.
Between realy and animatn, the story of Nidhal is told, a young homosexual Tunisian who fend dividual eedoms Tunisia through his work rad. The Ottoman Empire, the seat of power the Mlim world, didn’t view lbian or gay sex as taboo for centuri.
But go back to the begng, and you’ll see there is far more homosexualy Islam than you might have ever thought before. ‘It wasn’t exactly how we would fe homosexualy as we would today, was about patriarchy, ’ Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed, a gay imam who liv Marseill, France, told GSN. ‘If you look at the tradns some e to jtify gay killgs, you fd much more evince – clear evince – that Muhammad was very clive.
GAY PEOPLE ARE RECLAIMG AN ISLAMIC HERAGE
While the Ottoman Empire risted European culture at first, hence gay sex beg allowed 1858, natnalizatn soon won out.
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.
MEET AMERI’S FIRST OPENLY GAY IMAM
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. Morocn activists participate a vigil Rabat to pay tribute to the victims of the Orlando gay club shootg.
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 those that have no specific law agast homosexualy, gay people may still be prosecuted unr other laws.
WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE GAY AND MLIM AMERI
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. Statistics are srce but the number of arrts is undoubtedly lower than was durg the Brish wave of homophobia the 1950s.
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. 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. Arrts the Arab untri often volve groups of men at parti (sometim scribed as gay “weddgs”) and ocsnally at hammams (bathho).