Skip to main content

Home/ Media in Middle East & North Africa/ Group items tagged LGBTQ

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
Ed Webb

Anti-LBTQ backlash grows across Middle East, echoing U.S. culture wars - The Washington... - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...dle-east-lgbtq-gay-transgender

Turkey Lebanon Jordan LGBT LGBTQ repression homophobia politics

shared by Ed Webb on 13 Dec 23 - No Cached
  • Across the Middle East, LGBTQ communities face a growing crackdown, echoing efforts by prominent American conservatives to restrict the rights of gay and transgender people and erase their influence from society.
  • Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey have always stood out in the region on LGBTQ issues. All have queer scenes, all have hosted Pride parades or similar events. But in all three places, the community exists in a legal gray area — neither criminalized nor protected by the law. As anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment intensifies and is championed by some of the region’s most powerful figures, gay and trans people feel more vulnerable than ever.
  • Turkey’s Radio and Television Supreme Council levied fines against streaming platforms including Netflix, Disney and Amazon Prime for showing “homosexual relationships” that are “contrary to social and cultural values and the Turkish family structure.”
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Although the talking points about protecting the family echo those espoused by some right-wing politicians in the United States, there are other influences closer to home, specifically Russia.
  • Russian videos with Turkish subtitles were proliferating on social media, promoting a new law in Russia that makes it illegal to spread “LGBT propaganda.”
  • Tarek Zeidan, the director of Helem, a Lebanese LGBTQ advocacy group, told The Post of “a cloud of fear and anxiety among the community.” Last week, he said, the organization received “dozens of calls” from people asking for assistance in leaving the country and advice on what to do if they were attacked.
  • the moral panic over LGBTQ people is ultimately a deflection strategy, “to shift the tension away from the actual problems” in a region beset by economic troubles, political stasis and climate woes.
Ed Webb

Tunisia's first LGBTQ play lifts curtain on hidden violence - 0 views

www.france24.com/...fts-curtain-on-hidden-violence

Tunisia media theatre politics rights LGBT LGBTQ

shared by Ed Webb on 26 May 22 - No Cached
  • It's the first queer play to be staged in Tunisia -- director Essia Jaibi's latest work aims to challenge conservative attitudes in a country where same-sex acts are punishable by prison terms.
  • The work, co-produced by LGBTQ rights group Mawjoudin (translating to "we exist"), is played by six mostly amateur actors aged between 23 and 71, reflecting a decades-long struggle for gay rights in the North African country
  • other problems facing all Tunisians: police and judicial corruption, impunity and the brain drain as people leave to seek better economic prospects in Europe and elsewhere.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • rights groups say the community is still vulnerable, with as little as a photo on a telephone potentially leading to arrest, physical violence and anal examinations.
  • The NGO also organised Tunisia's first queer cinema festival in 2018.
  • Tunisia is seen as relatively liberal on social issues compared with other Arab countries, but nevertheless imposes sentences of up to three years in prison for "sodomy" for both men and women
  • Rights groups are continuing to campaign for an end to Article 230, first introduced by French colonial administrators in 1913.
  • United Nations Committee Against Torture has condemned Tunisia's use of anal tests
  • The country in 2017 committed to ending the practice, but it has continued nonetheless.In December, two men were found guilty of same-sex acts after they refused to undergo such examinations -- seen by judges as proof of their guilt.
  • The Tunisian president, whose July power grab allowed him to issue laws and seize control of the judiciary, has said he is opposed to jail terms based on sexual orientation -- but also to the full decriminalisation of homosexuality.
Ed Webb

Ahwaa.org - 0 views

ahwaa.org

lgbtME LGBT LGBTQ middleeast socialmedia

shared by Ed Webb on 17 Apr 11 - No Cached
  • Ed Webb on 17 Apr 11
     
    Officially launching our latest project, an interactive bilingual platform to debate LGBTQ issues in the MENA: http://ahwaa.org #lgbtME @mideastyouth rock
Ed Webb

Beirut's draq queen scene is starting to flourish, inspired by Ru Paul - The Washington... - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...8-a17e-162b712e8fc2_story.html

Beirut Lebanon drag LGBT LGBTQ

shared by Ed Webb on 28 Jan 19 - Cached
  • Beirut’s drag-queen scene
  • The Middle East is known for its conservatism, but with its febrile nightlife and more liberal mores, Beirut has long been hailed as a relative haven for the region’s LGBTQ community, though not without challenges.
  • Performers usually turn up in their street clothes, transform into a whole new character, then shed their costumes again before slipping back outside. Anissa, though, will be making an entrance tonight. A car to the venue has been organized, and she wants to enjoy the reactions of her fellow passengers. 
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Many here who became drag performers grew up watching Bassem Feghali, a comedian who gained popularity in the early 2000s by impersonating female singers. In 2015, Evita Kedavra, a Palestinian Armenian drag queen, took the stage, and one by one, the circle grew. 
  • With dozens having taken the plunge since last year’s Grand Ball, the artists credit one celebrity above all: RuPaul and his wildly successful talent show “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” “That made a huge difference,” said Narcissa, another drag queen, of the Emmy-winning U.S. television series. “Suddenly everyone was watching it, and you just thought, ‘Wow, I could do that, too.’ Those artists taught us a lot.”
  • a scene that blends an homage to American drag culture with something distinctively, and irreverently, Lebanese. Anissa Krana and Narcissa exude Hollywood glamour, all tumbling curls and dresses with jewels. Performers like Kawkab Zuhal set kohl liner on dramatic lashes for acts lip-syncing to Arabic music or telling sharp jokes about Lebanon’s crumbling political system. 
  • The Grand Ball earlier this month was to be at one of the biggest, with some 30 contestants competing in front of an exuberant, tightly packed crowd
  • In October, to almost everyone’s surprise, “RuPaul’s Drag Race” star Sasha Velour strode through one of Beirut’s most famous civil war landmarks, a brutalist-style cinema still riddled with bullets known as the Egg
  • “My drag is what I couldn’t be when I was young,” said one performer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear for his safety. He said he had started trying on his mother’s heels and makeup in secret, years before coming out as gay. When his parents found out, they barred him from their house and his friends turned on him. He lives with other drag queens now. “They’re like my family,” he said. “We help each other with food, with makeup, money — everything.”
  • Although the Lebanese state is more tolerant of homosexuality than other Arab governments, the penal code can still be invoked to make arrests
  • “We don’t have stable laws here,” said Narcissa. “One minute, the state is looking one way; the next, it’s staring right at us.”
  • Only a small number of venues are recognized as “safe spaces” for the drag and broader LGBTQ community, and owners must have strong ties to local authorities to ensure the police won’t turn up and harass attendees
Ed Webb

Tunisia's LGBTQ scene celebrates Mawjoudin Queer Film Festival - Al-Monitor: Independen... - 0 views

www.al-monitor.com/...-mawjoudin-queer-film-festival

Tunisia saied media film LGBT LGBTQ

shared by Ed Webb on 03 Dec 22 - Cached
  • “Daring to organize and host an event dedicated to the question of gender identity and the reality of queer people is after all a militant act,” Aouini said. The MQFF took place on the backdrop of a reversal of Tunisia’s hard-won democratic gains following a year of drastic moves by Saied that expanded presidential powers since his power grab on July 25, 2021, effectively taking the country — once the Arab democratic exception — back to one-man rule.
  • “The fact that we succeed in having a queer festival in an Arab Muslim country is an achievement,” Jerbi told Al-Monitor. “Coming to this event and meeting people like me is in itself something. We are not here to seek attention; we are here to just see our rights respected.”
Ed Webb

Egypt: Forcibly disappeared transgender woman at risk of sexual violence and torture | ... - 0 views

www.amnesty.org/...of-sexual-violence-and-torture

Egypt LGBT LGBTQ policing police rights abuse abuses authoritarianism

shared by Ed Webb on 08 Mar 19 - No Cached
  • Fears are growing for the safety and wellbeing of Malak al-Kashef, a transgender woman seized during a police raid from her home in Giza in the early hours of 6 March and who has not been heard from since, Amnesty International said. Malak al-Kashef was taken by police to an undisclosed location. Her lawyers have not been able to locate her and police stations have denied she is in their custody.
  • Egyptian authorities have a horrific track record of persecuting people based on their sexual orientation and gender identity
  • Amnesty International believes that Malak’s arrest relates to her calls for peaceful protests following a major train crash in Cairo’s central train station on 27 February that killed at least 25 people. “Malak al-Kashef appears to have been detained solely for peacefully exercising her rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Due to her gender identity, Malak is at increased risk of torture by the police, including rape and sexual violence, as well as assault by other detainees
  • Malak al-Kashef is a transgender woman who is undergoing gender affirming surgery. However, she has not yet managed to have her gender identity officially recognized and is therefore registered as male in official documents
Ed Webb

'No Flag of Gays': Egyptians Checked for 'Rainbow Flags' at Red Hot Chili Peppers Conce... - 0 views

egyptianstreets.com/...-red-hot-chili-peppers-concert

Egypt music LGBT LGBTQ censorship

shared by Ed Webb on 18 Mar 19 - Cached
  • On Friday night, American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers performed a concert for more than 10,000 people with the Pyramids of Giza in the background. Some concertgoers have posted on social media their bewilderment after being asked by policemen upon entry whether they have any “flag of gays”. On Twitter, Samer Al-Atrush wrote that the concert had high security. Among the items banned, Al-Atrush tweeted, were rainbow flags often used in support of the LGBTIQ+ community.
  • Another user, Ahmed Mohieldin, responded that policemen confiscated his friends’ daughter’s crayons in case they were thinking of drawing a rainbow flag.
  • less than two years after seven people were arrested for raising a rainbow flag during a concert by Mashrou’ Leila in Cairo.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Mashrou’ Leila was later banned by the Syndicate of Musical Professions from performing in Egypt for performing “abnormal art”.
  • police have often relied on anti-debauchery laws to arrest and detain both homosexuals and supporters of homosexuality on charges of debauchery, blasphemy and others. Similarly, private citizens have also raised lawsuits against a number of figures for promoting the rights of the LGBTIQ+ community.
Ed Webb

Police Arrest Student and Venue Owner Organizing an Egypt Gay Concert - 0 views

hornetapp.com/...egypt-gay-concert

Egypt LGBT LGBTQ lgbtME repression music

shared by Ed Webb on 19 Feb 18 - No Cached
  • Egyptian police recently arrested a student in the Giza district of Kerdasa for “debauchery” after allegedly organizing a concert for gay people. The Egypt gay concert never happened. Now the student and one other man face legal charges.
  • Egypt’s recent and massive anti-LGBT crackdown began by targeting a musical event when  police arrested several young people who waved a rainbow flag at a Cairo concert in September 2017. The concert was that of Mashrou’ Leila, a Lebanese band whose name means “A Night Project” in Arabic. Mashrou’ Leila’s lead singer, Hamed Sinno, is openly gay.
  • Since homosexuality is not criminalized in Egypt, people are often arrested and charged with vague crimes like “debauchery,” “immorality” and “blasphemy.”
Ed Webb

Egypt TV host Mohamed al-Ghiety jailed for interviewing gay man - BBC News - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-middle-east-46946612

Egypt media TV television LGBT LGBTQ censorship

shared by Ed Webb on 22 Jan 19 - Cached
  • An Egyptian TV presenter has been sentenced to one year of hard labour for interviewing a gay man last year.A court in Giza also fined Mohamed al-Ghiety 3,000 Egyptian pounds ($167; £130) for "promoting homosexuality" on his privately owned LTC TV channel.
  • Homosexuality is not explicitly criminalised in Egypt, however, the authorities have been increasingly cracking down on the LGBT community.
  • lawyer Samir Sabry, who is well known in Egypt for taking celebrities to court, filed a lawsuit against Ghiety for his interview which took place in August 2018
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Egypt's top media body, the Supreme Council for Media Regulation, immediately took the channel off air for two weeks, citing "professional violations".
  • In addition to the jail term and fine, the misdemeanours court also ordered Ghiety to be put under surveillance for one year after serving his sentence
  • Egypt's media council banned homosexuals from appearing on any media outlet after a rainbow flag was raised at a concert in Cairo in 2017, in a rare public show of support for the LGBT community in the conservative, mainly Muslim country.
  • The authorities rely on a 1961 prostitution law that criminalises "habitual debauchery" to charge people who they suspect of engaging in consensual homosexual conduct.
  • Mr Sabry was also the lawyer who filed a case against Egyptian actress Rania Youssef on charges of "inciting debauchery" over a see-through outfit she wore at an awards ceremony last year. He later dropped the case after Ms Youssef apologised.
Ed Webb

An Arab world first: LGBT radio goes online in Tunisia despite threats | The Japan Times - 0 views

www.japantimes.co.jp/...online-tunisia-despite-threats

Tunisia radio media LGBT LGBTQ

shared by Ed Webb on 11 Jan 18 - Cached
  • An online radio station catering for the LGBT community, believed to be the first of its kind in the Arab world, started broadcasting in Tunisia on Monday
  • homosexuality is officially illegal
  • It intends “to sensitize the people of Tunisia, ordinary citizens and political decision makers about homophobia in society and to defend individual liberties,”
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Gay rights activists have emerged from the shadows in Tunisia since the revolution in 2011, but their position remains precarious in Tunisia’s conservative Muslim society.Article 230 of the penal code includes a punishment of up to three years in prison for homosexuality and young men are regularly detained and prosecuted.
Ed Webb

Top Egyptian actor and trans son stir debate in rare media appearance | Middle East| Ne... - 0 views

www.dw.com/...a-53353144

Egypt LGBT LGBTQ transition gender identity media

shared by Ed Webb on 07 May 20 - No Cached
  • The appearance of prominent Egyptian actor Hesham Selim and his transgender son on DW's Arabic program "Jaafar Talk" has made waves in a country where sexual identities are rarely discussed.
  • After the actor first spoke publicly about Nour, formerly Noura, on local television last weekend, the two went on international TV to express support for one another and talk about Nour's transition and the challenges he has faced.
  • As Egyptians stay glued to their favorite TV series during Ramadan, the rare public message of solidarity from a top actor in a largely conservative and patriarchal country generated an emotional response on social media.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Many were surprised by the positive reactions of their families and older generations
  • a conservative state where official gender transitions require religious approval.
  • in the eyes of the law, he is still considered female.
  • According to an Associated Press report, only 87 transitions were officially allowed for "physical reasons" between 2014 and 2017 in Egypt, while none were approved for "gender identity disorder."
Ed Webb

LGBT+ activists call on Facebook to move faster on hate speech - 0 views

news.trust.org/...20200812181007-yflrc

Facebook socialmedia LGBT LGBTQ lgbtME hate bigotry speech rights Egypt Jordan

shared by Ed Webb on 16 Aug 20 - Cached
  • the Arab Network for Knowledge about Human Rights (ANKH), which has conducted the first survey of LGBT+ Arab Facebook users. More than 90% of the 450 Arabic speakers who responded had been targeted by hate speech on the platform, it found. A quarter of online hate speech in the Middle East and North Africa urged violence against LGBT+ people and 15% made direct threats. More than half the respondents reported feeling hopeless or depressed as a result and almost one in four had thought of self-harming.
  • Activists say Facebook can be an essential tool for LGBT+ people in the Arab world, where many face an oppressive legal and social atmosphere, and vague laws against indecency are often used to criminalize sexual activity. Strong social stigma around homosexuality, amplified by conservative religious entities, has led to low acceptance of gay people across the region. LGBT+ activists in the area risk social exclusion, prison sentences, and violence by security forces, according to Human Rights Watch.
  • Jillian York, director of international freedom of expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, said enforcing policies would require vast investment in language skills to navigate slang and dozens of dialects. "(Social media companies) are really bad at defining and dealing with incitement and dehumanizing language," she said, adding that Facebook "have a dearth of content moderators in a number of languages where they should have a lot more".
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Many Arab LGBT+ activists - even those who work closely with Facebook - say the rules are still poorly enforced. In recent months, LGBT+ groups have formed their own Facebook groups to mass-report viral hate speech, appealing to the company to act quickly. In June, Facebook set up phone calls with prominent Arab LGBT+ activists and groups to hear their concerns, according to four participants in those calls. But activists said they were unconvinced that moderators were well-trained to identify all Arabic hate speech.
  • The ANKH survey found the problem persisted into August, with 77% of respondents saying they were subjected to online hate speech.
  • "People were sending them to my family and colleagues asking if it was me," he said. "I never expected things would turn real."
1 - 20 of 29 Next ›
Showing 20▼ items per page