Al Jazeera Arabic ignores gay news

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Source: Toronto Media Coop - 8 Feb

Al Jazeera English is ready for broadcast in Canada thanks to a CRTC decision last November, which heralded the network's arrival as "increasing [the] diversity of editorial viewpoints in the Canadian broadcasting system." While the English network garners lavish praise, gay activists say its Arabic sister network does a poor job of reporting on queer issues.

Al Jazeera is based in Doha, Qatar — making it the only global news service with headquarters in the Middle East.

When Al Jazeera Arabic was started in 1996, it created a paradigm shift in news reporting in the region--what media analysts dubbed the "Al Jazeera effect." Hossein Alizadeh, Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator at the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), says: "Before Middle Eastern media covered the news of dignitaries and courts. Al Jazeera revolutionized reporting by providing people on the street space to talk of more serious issues."

While Al Jazeera liberalized media in the Middle East by giving voice to the voiceless and providing an unprecedented grassroots perspectives on political, social and economic issues, it produced a different kind of "Al Jazeera effect" in the West. It distinguished itself with its fearless, independent coverage of wars and occupations in the Middle East. Instead of embedding with invading forces, as did most Western corporate media outlets, Al Jazeera offered an alternative perspective by covering wars from behind civilian lines. It provided a focus on civilian deaths in the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the bombardment of Fallujah in Iraq, and what it called "the war on Gaza." To its credit, unlike North America's media, Al Jazeera did not act like a megaphone for the Bush Administration's call for war in Iraq.

In 2007, Al Jazeera added a sister channel, Al Jazeera English, to its network--the channel that is now unconditionally approved as an "eligible service" in Canada (Note that in 2004, Al Jazeera Arabic was approved to broadcast in Canada but the CRTC attached stringent conditions rendering it unattractive for cable companies to carry the Arabic news channel). Today, Al Jazeera English provides strong competition to CNN International and BBC World News with its global South perspective, something which is often missing in North American media.

"I feel Al Jazeera English is a reliable source of information, and I think what they are offering is a perspective from the Middle East region, but the professionalism of the reports, including on [lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans] topics, has global standards," says Alizadeh. "Al Jazeera English is competing in Europe with the BBC, CNN, and the Russia Today 24 news channel, yet it manages to stay competitive. It is offering something."

Asked what Canadians can learn from watching Al Jazeera English, El-Farouk Khaki, the grand marshall of Pride 2009 in Toronto, says it opens up perspectives we might not get otherwise. Khaki says, "a diversity of opinion is always important. Muslims are often seen as a monolith. Anything that diversifies that image is important." Khaki hopes Al Jazeera will further open up those diverse images within Canada and in geopolitical South.

A veil of secrecy also surrounds queer Muslim issues in the West, according to Khaki. "What we suffer from is invisibility in Canada within the larger Muslim community. Some of the more traditional, conservative groups do not recognize our existence."

With the opening of a Canadian bureau Khaki hopes AJE will help break the wall of silence and invisibility in the West. "It should not only cover queer issues ‘over there' in India, but also feminist and queer Muslim issues in the West."

Al Jazeera English regularly reports on gay issues. In recent months, its coverage included:

• segments about the gruesome murders of close to 100 gay men by al Mahdi Shi'ite militias in Iraq in 2009
• the killing of gay youths in a Tel Aviv club last summer, and  
• India's court decision to decriminalize gay sex.

But Al Jazeera's Arabic network "is not interested in covering gay rights issues the way Al Jazeera English does," says Alizadeh. Comparing Al Jazeera Arabic with Al Jazeera English "is like comparing apples and oranges." Al Jazeera Arabic is geared towards a Middle Eastern audience and does not challenge cultural values or orthodox religion, he says.

Extremist religious viewpoints are expressed on Al Jazeera Arabic's religious talk show 'Shariah and Life.' A number of participants who regularly contribute to Al Jazeera Arabic make negative comments about homosexuality but appear on the channel again and again, he says. This includes Yousef al-Qaradawi, a prominent scholar who is on every other week. While Alizadeh says the cleric has offered some progressive views such as "discouraging government monitoring of citizen behaviour, the right of people to commit sin and the right to privacy," he also promotes anti-gay views — in line with orthodox Islam.

"Al Jazeera and any other network operating in the region," says filmmaker Parvez Sharma, "are very uncomfortable talking about homosexuality in any honest and open way." Al Jazeera Arabic "offers an orthodox religious viewpoint which mirrors any Christian, evangelical website. Expect religious extremism in any religion to present viewpoints that are negative on gay people. What happens in the media is a mirror."

Alizadeh suggests that most Middle Eastern media use negative language in reports about homosexuality. For instance, media in the Middle East tend to frame it as a personal scandal if an actor is gay and claim that homosexuality is a Western conspiracy designed to undermine the social fabric of the Arab world.

Brian Whitaker, a Guardian reporter and the author of Unspeakable Love: Gay and Lesbian Life in the Middle East, writes in the book: "While clerics denounce it as a heinous sin, newspapers, reluctant to address it directly, talk cryptically of 'shameful acts' and 'deviant behaviour.'"

Whitaker says that when gay issues are mentioned in Middle Eastern newspapers, the focus is typically on same-sex marriage in the West. Moreover, the falsely framed "Western otherness" of homosexuality "can be readily exploited to whip up popular sentiment."

"Al Jazeera English is different," says Parvez. "Its mandate is to project a secular, modern image of the Arab world. In doing that it has a completely different management." The English channel has to compete for a global audience that is more tolerant of homosexuality than the current Middle East. Al Jazeera English, in all fairness, Alizadeh agrees, is a different entity. "They have a different viewership and a different editorial team. The only thing in common is the name and the financial sponsor."

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Uganda : 200 courageous LGBT activists showed up for a LGBT conference

Ugandan gay activist Val Kalende at the Feb 14 conference

Source: IDAHO Committe - Feb 18

Press release

Summary: In spite of the anti-gay law prepared by the government of Museveni President, 200 courageous LGBT activists attended the conference recently organised by the IDAHO Committee correspondent in Uganda, which turned out to be a great success.

« All these Uganda activists who challenged the threats of the government are a strong response to President Museveni, and this is even a heroic attitude », commented on Louis-Georges Tin, President of the IDAHO Committee, who attended the event.

The Ugandan government is preparing what could soon become one of the most homophobic laws in the world. It reinforces the laws already existing, includes death penalty for homosexual people who are “guilty” of being HIV infected, and according to one of these articles, outing of gay and lesbian people would become a legal obligation.

In that dreadful context was organised on february 14th a conference the title of which was: « standing on the side of Love. Reimagining Saint Valentine’s day ». More than 200 people attended this extraordinary event in order to protest against the laws that could be voted in a few weeks, if not in a few days.

Among the participants were members of IDAHO-Uganda, Spectrum Uganda, Queer Youth Uganda, Integrity Uganda Chapter, and several other local organisations, giving evidence of their incredible courage. These organisations work in different areas, among students, among inhabitants of slums, among people infected by HIV, but all of them were inspired on this day by the same and unique hope: homosexuality should be decriminalised in Uganda. Freedom for all! This was the message.

Among the keynote speakers were the retired bishop Christopher Senyonjo, a remarkable man of the Uganda Anglican church, the correspondent of the IDAHO Committee, a pastor himself, the president and founder of the IDAHO Committee, Louis-Georges Tin, Patricia Ackerman and Marlin Lavanhar, American pastors. This strong focus on religions during the meeting was aimed to show that religious arguments, so often used by homophobic people against LGBT citizens, can be defeated, including by religious arguments. It is not because one is a believer that he or she is forced to be homophobic. To put it other words, religion can’t be used to break and violate human rights in any way.

Thus, this conference was definitely part of the IDAHO campaign for 2010-2011 on « Religions, homophobia and transphobia ». It took place on February because of the situation in Uganda, but it is a first step before other similar conferences on the same issue that will take place around may 17th in other countries like Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Brazil, France, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Malta, Russia, Belorussia, etc. Or course, in Uganda, given the dreadful context, this conference was very special…

The CNN and BBC journalists did not fail to feel the importance of the event, and gave the conference a very large media coverage. For the organiser of the conference, whose name cannot be mentioned for safety reasons, “this conference shows that gays and lesbians from Uganda will not yield to this unacceptable pressure.” “We will fight until the end”, he added.

Louis-Georges Tin, president of the IDAHO Committee who came to attend this event, also met the representatives of the French embassy to ask “France in particular, and the European Union in general to keep pressure on the Ugandan government. The economical sanctions should be considered by President Museveni as a serious threat. The European financial help devoted to develop the economy of Uganda, and paid by European citizens, cannot be a help for the development of hatred and homophobia.”

~~~~~~

Xtra reports from Uganda: Gay Ugandans gather to pray, plan

Ugandan gay activist Abdallah Wambere (aka Long Jones) at the Feb 14 conference. He consented to having his photo used in this report.

Source: Xtra - Feb 15

By Kaj Hasselriis

More than 100 gay and lesbian Ugandans packed a hotel conference room in Kampala on Valentine's Day to talk about anti-gay legislation that threatens all of them.

But the main message of the day, repeated over and over again, was a Christian one: Jesus loves you.

"Being gay or lesbian does not make you fall short of God's glory," the emcee of the conference, Abdallah Wambere, told the crowd. The main opposition to homosexuality in Christian-dominated Uganda comes from Christian conservatives, yet most gay and lesbian Ugandans are themselves Christian and fear that the homophobic preachings of anti-gay pastors are true.

"The Bible's message and the story of God's unconditional love can also be inspirational to the LGBT community," assured Sam Ganaafa, president of Spectrum Uganda, a local lesbian, gay, bi and trans organization. Spectrum Uganda co-sponsored the event along with the Unitarian Universalist Association of Uganda.

Many of the speakers at the one-day event were pastors, including an Anglican bishop from Uganda and two Unitarian ministers from the United States. The biggest cheer of the afternoon came when Rev Marlin Lavanhar, a Unitarian preacher from Oklahoma, said, "You can be a good person and be a gay or lesbian person. Please know you will reach the promised land. God bless Uganda!"

Conferences like the one held yesterday — called "Standing on the side of love: Re-imagining Valentine's Day" — are rare in Uganda. Organizers feared that anti-gay outsiders might learn about the event and try to infiltrate or disrupt it, so the time and location were only announced at the last minute, by word of mouth.

Since gays in Uganda are often accused of trying to seduce minors, organizers also tried to keep out anyone under the age of 18. Most of the people in attendance were gay men in their 20s, though there were also about 20 young women. Everyone who came was offered a red T-shirt with a rainbow heart on the front, and rainbow flags were displayed prominently around the room. Attendance was free; the biggest financial sponsor was the Austria Foundation.

"Let's resist bad laws being propagated," Ganaafa told the crowd. He referred, of course, to a bill before Uganda's Parliament that calls for the execution of gays and lesbians, the imprisonment of heteros who fail to report homos and the abolition of organizations that support queer rights.

"If it passes," Ganaafa said, "our lives will never be the same again. I encourage you all to talk, raise issues and be courageous." A petition was passed around the room for people to sign.

But participants had other concerns on their minds, too. During a question and answer session, the crowd's queries included:

• "Why weren't politicians and cabinet ministers invited to the conference?"
• "Everyone in my neighbourhood knows I'm gay. Am I safe?"
• "What are we doing to educate people in the villages?"
• "Why aren't we gathering research and statistics about Uganda's gay population to counter the anti-gay side's homophobic claims?"
• "Where can I get reliable condoms and lube?"
• "How can we end the culture of dependence that causes us to depend on Western agencies for help in our struggle?"
• "How can we get together as a community to help each other find jobs?"

After the six-hour event was over, participants were offered free lunch and beer. Most of the people in attendance seemed satisfied with the day.

"I learned about so many things," said a young woman named Kevin Simbwa, "like what the Bible says about my being lesbian. Before, I thought it was saying evil things about me. Now I don't think that anymore. Now I'm confident to go to church and face my pastor."

"There were many people I didn't know here," said another lesbian, Warry Ssenfuka, "many people I've never seen. It takes time to collect all these people together like this, and it encourages unity."

A young man who only wanted one of his names — Titus — used, expressed concern that there was too much talk and not enough plans for action. "Though there are plans to do many things, there are no strategies," he said.

"Before we help ourselves," he added, "we need to help others understand what the bill is all about."

Binational stories of American lesbian + gay couples

Source: Lez Get Real

• Lesbian spouse 102 days in ICE detention
• A Binational Xmas wish in a letter to President Obama
• ANOTHER American exiled! – UAFA Now or 1,666 years of stories

Lesbian Spouse 102 days in ICE Detention

By Melanie Nathan

Here is a letter which was sent to President Obama, with the emotive reflections of a foreign born spouse.  Although each story has a unique fingerprint, this is different from the very many stories we hear, as this letter reflects the abhorent and unconscienable detention of the writer by the American authorities.

Dear President Obama,                       (January 3, 2010)

Preaching in the 60s, when the US was racked with racism and the horrors of the Vietnam War, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. inspired the American people to pursue justice, the truth and simply to do the right thing, because “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy”.

So, where do the American people stand at this point in time of challenge and controversy, although almost 50 years later? Does America, the “land of the free and home of the brave” hold up to George Washington’s expectation of “Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair”? As I look through my wife’s passport, I find comfort in words of wisdom by the 34th President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower: “Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America.”

It was in 1963 when Dr. King delivered his speech “I Have a Dream” in Washington. Dr. Martin Luther King had a dream, a dream to end racial segregation and racial discrimination; in 2009 as a result this country elected its first African-American President Barack Hussein Obama. In 1967 the Supreme Court declared interracial marriage fully legal in all U.S. States. Since then many more subjects on human rights issues have been addressed and corrected by congress. Just a few months ago President Obama signed hate crimes bill into law as a step toward change to “help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray”, (CNN Politics article, Oct. 28, 2009). So, could one finally say that all men are not only created equal but surely treated equal as well? Can America stand up to the world and with integrity proclaim that “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” – an excerpt from the Declaration of Independence written on pages 10-11 of the American passport.

I look at my wife’s American passport with its beautiful design, I read those profound words, wise words by wise men and I wonder why those words don’t reflect our reality!

Is it because our life is out of the ordinary range of the usual set of circumstances?  Is it simply because our life differs from the typical portrayal of a married couple? We are committed to each other, we know each other for more than 11 years, we love each other, we live together, we built a life together, we are married and we actually would have a happy life if it wasn’t for the remaining failure of the U.S. Government to ensure the pursuit of happiness for all U.S. citizens; this nation still neglects the basic human rights of their homosexual fellow citizens treating them as “second-class”, just a minority… 

“All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.” – Thomas Jefferson 

This nation must make significant changes to ensure equal rights for gays and lesbians. Although President Obama has urged Congress to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, the States of New York and New Jersey recently refused the recognition of same-sex marriages. The subject matter becomes even more profound when dealing with immigration issues, as my wife and I do. I am a 47-year-old highly educated woman from Europe. For over 11 years I stayed in the US “out of status”, constantly living on the edge of being terrified of discovery and deportation. One could say fear was my constant companion. It was no fairy tale life or even in any way close to living the American dream, but as Albert Einstein simply puts it, “In the middle of difficulty lays opportunity”.

Most bi-national heterosexual couples living in the U.S. have no problem staying together; the American citizen can sponsor their foreign spouse in obtaining a green card including work authorization. The foreign-born spouse can easily pursue and further her/his professional career. Bi-national homosexual couples are denied those rights. I depended on my wife/life partner for support since I had no work authorization. Often I felt deprived of the right to contribute to society as well as my own household, simply put: a waste of time, a waste of talent, and a waste of life! In all those 11 years, my wife and I were “prisoners” of a political system that seems antiquated, out-dated and rather forces people into committing fraud. Many commit marriage fraud as a means to an end in exchange for a green card, but I never considered this to be an option, because for me marriage is too sacred to be dishonest about.

On March 18, 2009 our life took a tragic turn. As feared for so many years, I was finally picked-up at a Greyhound bus station as a result of a raid by border patrol and taken into custody by ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement). I was detained for 102 days in a facility for ‘illegal aliens.’  I don’t think that any one of us, meaning my American spouse, our American friends and family members knew detention centers for immigrants existed. I was treated as a criminal, although with no criminal record at all. I was even told by officers in this facility that we all were criminals and deserve to be treated as such.

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Iran: The case of raping a gay man by Basij agents exposed

Source: Committee of Human Rights Reporters

Homosexual people in Iran suffer from problems to the point that their only choice is to hide their sexual identity and comply with prevailing traditions of the main stream society. Not only they have no rights, according to the constitution, but the majority of Iranian folks too refuse to accept and respect the rights of homosexuals.

Ali Reza Naeimian is a 40-year-old gay man who got married under pressures from his environment and his parents. He was loving towards his wife only as a fellow human being but he had no feelings for her as his wife and partner. The couple had a daughter when they got divorced because of many problems.

What you read in this report is the accounts of the rape and assault inflected on Ali Reza by a group of Iranian agents. Based on his recollections and court documents, the agents are members of Basij from the city of Roodhen. He has heard the name of a few of them while they talked among each other and with those names, he pressed charges. The court ruled to release the agents.

As Ali Reza recalls, the agents beat him severely right after they arrest him in the street. Later on, they rape him, and at the end of a long day, they take him to the police station (Kalantari) and hand him over. At present, like many homosexual s of Iran, he has left his country because of unbearable troubles he faced. He is living abroad.

Ali Reza Naemian was a resident of the city of Roodhen, and owned a coffee shop there. On Aug 16, 2007, while in the street, a group of agents approached him and arrested him. They beat him on the spot and insulted him violently. In a dark green Peugeot, they took him to his own house.

As he recalls the scene: “On the way to my house, one of the agents (Hamid Mazinani) kept on beating me and swearing at me. When we got to my home, the agents threw me out of the car and took my keys out of my pocket. They walked in as if they were stepping in a team-house (hidden lodging of under-ground political activists) and took all security measures before entering; they dragged me along inside.

Hamid said to another: Take his cloths off. They un-locked my hand-cuffs and took off my cloths and (…) (threats of rape). I said: I am one of Haj Agha …s’ acquaintances. They punched me in the face so hard I fainted. When I came to, they had taken me into the shower, splashed water on my face. I was wet all over my body and (…) (sexual assaults and threats of rape). I said, “ You tell I am a sinner, I accept it, but please you don’t commit the same sin. If you let me go I promise I will leave Roodhen altogether, and no later then tomorrow morning.”

Musa Showghian, (one of the agents) was inspecting my belongings. He had cut open all the boxes looking for something to use against me. He saw the video receiver. Two of them began beating me again until I couldn’t take it anymore. Hamid said, “Do you have satellite? Then say good by to your house for 6 months. And he began hitting me in the chest with his rifle-stock over and over and I passed out. I must add that I had no sense left in me at that point; the beating didn’t hurt as I couldn’t feel anything. I thought my face was big as a tray. My eyes were swollen and I couldn’t blink easily.

They emptied the drawers of my child’s dresser. Musa Sh’abani took out the jewellery box and said, “These are all women’s jewellery.” I said, “They belong to my ex-wife and daughter, and the rest has come to me from my mother. There is only a wedding ring which is my own.” Musa said, “As if a wretched like you can have any dealings with women. Of course she would divorce you. A man with long hair is not a man.” “And he attacked me again punching and kicking not noticing where in my body he was hitting. I was so weak and breathless I couldn’t move. I don’t know how they had put my cloths back on and took me to the car again.”

Ali Reza continues in his account and recalls that they took him to a place they called “the lounge of entertainment” . The place was a remote and abandoned building in Laleh Boulevard, on the side of the soccer field in Roodhen. Handcuffed, they dragged him and all the while they punched him and kicked him and pulled him into kitchen which stank with fowl smells.

What went on in the kitchen, as Alireza told us in detail, is of a sort we are not comfortable putting it in print so we omit the part. And he says to our reporter that in this kitchen, everyone laughed at him and sexually assaulted him everyway they wanted and raped with their batons. They said things to him in line of “you’ve been with many men, so why not us.”

Then they put a paper in front of him with a text and forced him to sign. Alireza recalls the scene: “Hamid got up and said to me, Put on your cloths. We’ll kill you and throw you in the field for the dogs to eat.” They put a paper in front of me, with some writing on it, and told me to sign it. Although I was too scared I said “What is this that I should sign?” Musa Shovghian said, “Shut up and sign.” And suddenly I felt as if my legs went empty from the inside. The soldier had brought his baton down on my legs. I fell. They dragged me to the kitchen again and placed my foot between the door and the frame, and pressed. I screamed and he hit me and swore at me and said, “He has no shame, wants us to explain for him what he is it he is signing. This is the execution order. You have no choice but to sign it.” They forced me to sign it and put my finger print beside the signature. Then they whispered together for a bit. Then they took me to the courtyard of the house and told me to undress. They put detergent all over me and with a hose on high pressure they poured cold water over me to wash the mess they made to my body. I got dressed after, and they threw me in the car.”

They took Ali Reza to his coffee shop in Roodhen, and inspected the place. With a different car then (Silver Samand) they took him to the Roodhen police station. There the group of on-call sergeant, the security officer and the (on-call) judge objected the fact of the illegal entry to Ali Reza Naeimian’s home and announced the declaration form signed under torture was void of legal validity. They prepared another declaration form. Also, for the third time on that day, a group was sent to Ali Reza’s home and after inspections, they confiscated such stuff as CDs and the accessories for the video receiver and took them to the police station. Based on Ali Reza’s claim, he found out then that his valet has been emptied. They took Ali Reza to the detention center. Ali Reza says that in the detention center, agents’ reaction towards him was good.

After a few days he appeared in court. He recalls the day of the court, “When we went to the public prosecutor’s office, Judge Rahimi was in-charge and he studied my file. He asked the agents whether I was alone, or someone was with me when I was arrested. The agent said, No one was with him. The judge turned to me and said, “You are cleared of this one (Sodomy) but you must pay a fine for the receiver. I pulled my shirt up to show him the wounds and bruises. With much anger he said, “Cover yourself.” I said, “Then, what about all the harm they have done to me?” He said on Saturday (first day of the week in Iran) go to the forensic medical office. I will write to them and ask them to examine you.” After 5 days, they took me to the forensic medical office. They checked the wounds and the bruises. After they examined the anus, doctor said, “48 hours after insertion of sharp object, it’s no longer possible to comment on it, but according to the signs, something is shown very similar to haemorrhoid.”

After 10 days, when Ali Reza visited his own home, accompanied with an agent, he found out that his belongings have been stolen. The agent made a list of the stolen items. After that, even though he had pressed charges against the Basij agents, the court refused to follow up the case and Ali Reza’s repeated visits to the police station and other authorities was left with no results.

[translated by IRQR]

CNN Iranian claims rape in prison

Arab winds of change

Image by openDemocracy via Flickr

Source: The Guardian

By Brian Whitaker

"Women, bloggers and gays lead change in the Arab world." That is the headline of an article by Octavia Nasr for CNN's blog AC360°. "Several new lines are being drawn in the Middle East's desert sand simultaneously," she writes. "If they continue to be drawn at this rate longer and thicker, it's hard to foresee any governments, censors or jails being able to stop them."

Though Nasr sounds a bit overexcited about the existence of a feminist mag in Arabic in which "no one dares to advertise" and a few other developments which are interesting straws in the wind but scarcely signs of an imminent revolution, I think she has a point. If asked where change is likely to come from in the Arab countries, I would not put much faith in "reformist" politicians and opposition parties – they're mostly no-hopers – but I would definitely put feminists, gay men, lesbians and bloggers very high on my list.

It's important not to exaggerate what they are actually achieving at the moment, but let's consider their potential as challengers of the status quo and drivers of change. The "Arab problem" is mostly perceived in terms of the regimes: the lack of democracy, authoritarian rulers who trample over people's rights, and so on. That was the perception of the Bush administration in particular and it led to the simplistic idea that regime change was the solution.

It's now very clear (as I explain in my new book, What's Really Wrong With the Middle East) that this was a mistake. You can overthrow dictators, you can force countries to have elections and you can even insist on voting procedures that are reasonably fair, but that doesn't bring freedom unless it forms part of a much bigger social transformation.

What has emerged in Iraq, for example, is not so much a model for the rest of the Middle East (as originally intended by Bush and the neocons) but a model of it. As the smoke drifts away, Iraq is emerging as a fairly typical Arab state with most of their usual negative characteristics – a government with authoritarian aspirations, institutionalised corruption and nepotism, pervasive social discrimination and a rentier economy that produces little besides oil – plus, for good measure, resurgent tribalism and sectarianism.

Arab regimes, by and large, are products of the societies they govern and it is often the society, as much as the government itself, that stands in the way of progress. In Kuwait, for instance, it was not the hereditary emir who resisted granting votes to women, but reactionary elements in the elected parliament – and there are plenty of similar examples.

Khaled Diab, an Egyptian who contributes regularly to Cif, summed it up pithily when he told me: "Egypt has a million Mubaraks." In other words, the Mubarak way of doing things is not confined to the country's president; it is found throughout Egyptian society, in business and in families too. The Arab family as traditionally conceived – patriarchal and authoritarian, suppressing individuality and imposing conformity, protecting its members so long as they comply with its wishes – is a microcosm of the Arab state.

Changing the power structures within families (and in many parts of the Arab world this is already happening) will also gradually change the way people view other power structures that replicate those of the traditional family, whether in schools and universities, the workplace, or in government. This is where women come in. In an Arab context, demanding the same rights as men is a first step towards change. Asserting their rights doesn't mean that all women have to be activists for feminism. Even something as simple as going out to work – if enough people do it – can start to make a difference.

Contrary to popular opinion, most human rights abuses in the Arab countries are perpetrated by society rather than regimes. Yes, ordinary people are oppressed by their rulers, but they are also participants themselves in a system of oppression that includes systematic denial of rights on a grand scale.

In these highly stratified societies, people are discriminated for and against largely according to accidents of birth: by gender, by family, by tribe, by sect. Women, as the largest disadvantaged group, can play a major role in overcoming this and helping smaller disadvantaged groups to do the same. Once the equality principle is accepted for women it becomes easier to apply it to others.

Discrimination against gay people has only begun to be challenged in the Arab countries during the last few years. In a patriarchal system, where masculinity is highly prized, any deviation from the sexual "norms" and expected gender roles is not only subversive but is regarded as extremely threatening. The vigilante killings in Iraq are the nastiest example – not just of men who are thought to be gay, but others who simply don't dress and behave "as men should".

The third group driving change are the bloggers. A recent survey found 35,000 people blogging in Arabic, plus countless others who use Facebook, Twitter, etc, to communicate over the internet. There has been much debate about the extent to which this is reshaping public discourse and undermining censorship, but that is not really the main significance of blogging and the internet in the Middle East. The traditional "ideal" of an Arab society is one that is strictly ordered, where everyone knows their place and nobody speaks out of turn. Basically, you do what is required of you and no more. You keep your head down, don't make waves and let those who supposedly know better get on with running things.

The point about bloggers is that they want none of that. They are engaged, they are alive, and they'll speak out of turn as much as they like. Put all these elements together and you can see how, sooner or later, the edifice could start to crumble.

•  Berkman Center for Internet and Society: Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere: Politics, Culture and Dissent
  

Coverage of HRW report on anti-gay Iraqi pogrom

• BBC World Service 'Newshour' (audio). Includes interview with Iraqi LGBT's Ali Hili
• BBC Radio Four 'Today' (audio): Gay killings 'normal' in Iraq
• CBC (Canada) interviews Tom Porteous, London director of Human Rights Watch: QuickTime Real Media
  

• Huffington Post: Iraqi Gays Targeted, Brutally Killed: Human Rights Watch
• New York Times: Human Rights Watch: Iraqi Gays Tortured and Killed
• CNN: Gay Men Atacked, Executed in Iraq, Rights Group Says
• As-Safir The death of hundreds in the context of the campaign« Alnaamin »and narrow Alkinsat (Google translation)
  

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Unsafe Haven Final

Iraqi Gay Murders Surge; World Finally Takes Note

By Doug Ireland

As organized killings of Iraqi gays have escalated in recent months amid a homophobic campaign in that nation's media, openly gay Democratic Congressman Jared Polis of Colorado has asked the US State Department to investigate. Polis, the first non-incumbent openly gay man ever elected to Congress, who returned from a visit to Iraq at the beginning of April, told Gay City News that while in Baghdad he had met with the chargé d'affaires, who is overseeing the US embassy pending the arrival of a new ambassador.

"We asked the embassy and the State Department to investigate the reports of killings of gay men, and turned over to the chargé d'affaires the names and phone numbers of all the gay Iraqi contacts we had and a letter detailing our concerns," including allegations that the Iraqi government is involved in the killings, Polis told this reporter, adding, "They seemed very willing to investigate."

If the State Department does undertake such an investigation, that would reflect a significant change in US policy by the Obama administration. In 2007, two openly gay members of Congress, Democrats Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, wrote a lengthy letter to Bush Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice detailing the anti-gay death squads' murder campaign and asking the US to investigate and intervene.

Their letter, which cited extensive reporting in Gay City News on repression of gays in Iraq, had no effect.

Polis, a millionaire Internet entrepreneur and philanthropist, traveled to Iraq at his own expense before his election last year and attempted to investigate the ongoing campaign of "sexual cleansing" of Iraqi homosexuals, and on his return contributed $10,000 to the London-based all-volunteer association Iraqi LGBT, which has a network of members and correspondents throughout Iraq that has been tracking the organized campaign of assassinations of Iraqi gays.

Ali Hili, the coordinator of Iraqi LGBT, who briefed Polis by telephone for his Iraqi trip, told Gay City News from London that "we have been able to confirm 63 more murders of gay people in Iraq just since December," bringing to nearly 600 the number of cases of LGBT Iraqis killed for their sexuality that his group has documented since the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the spiritual leader of all Iraqi Shiite Muslims, issued a death-to-all-gays fatwa in 2005. But, Hili added, "Since there are parts of Iraq where we have no correspondents or members, we are convinced that the actual number of gays killed in these last months since December is much higher."

At the same time, the BBC reported last week that according to Amnesty International "in the last few weeks 25 boys and men are reported to have been killed in Baghdad because they were, or perceived to be, gay." In an unusual move, Amnesty International wrote to the Iraqi President, Nouri al-Maliki, demanding "urgent and concerted action" by his government to stop the killings.

Hili told this reporter, "There is an intensive media campaign against homosexuals in Iraq at this time which we believe is inspired by the Ministry of the Interior, both in the daily newspapers and on nearly all the television stations. Their reports brand all gays as 'perverts' and try to portray us as terrorists who are undermining the moral fiber of Iraqi youth." Hili said the current homo-hating media campaign appears to have been sparked as an unfortunate reaction to an April 4 Reuters dispatch that reported: "Two gay men were killed in Baghdad's Sadr City slum, a local official said, and police said they had found the bodies of four more after clerics urged a crackdown on a perceived spread of homosexuality... The police source said the bodies of four gay men were unearthed in Sadr City on March 25, each bearing a sign reading 'pervert' in Arabic on their chests."

"After the Reuters dispatch, the Iraqi media spoke about the murders of gays for the very first time," Hili said, "but unfortunately in such hate-filled and incendiary terms that their reports and commentaries only encouraged further violence." On April 8, the New York Times published a story, headlined "Iraq's Newly Open Gays Face Scorn and Murder," in which it recognized for the first time the existence of anti-gay death squads, which Gay City News first reported three years ago (see this reporter's March 23-29, 2006 article, "Shia Death Squads Target Iraqi Gays,"). "Gay men and lesbians have long been among the targets of both Shiite and Sunni death squads" in Iraq, the Times reported.

Unfortunately, the Times article omitted any mention of the anti-gay death squads of the Badr Corps, the military arm of the former Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), which in 2007 changed its name to the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq when it entered the coalition government as its largest Islamist party, and which acknowledges Sistani as its supreme leader and spiritual guide.

The estimated 11,000 members of the Badr Corps militia, which has been responsible for a large majority of the murders of gays since Sistani's fatwa calling for such killings, was integrated into the Ministry of the Interior in 2006, and since then its Badr anti-gay death squads have operated in police uniforms with complete impunity, as Gay City News has previously reported on many occasions.

Iraqi LGBT activists in Iraq have been the victims of Badr Corps members operating in police uniforms, including five key gay activists arrested in a police raid on a secret organizing meeting in 2006; no word of them has since surfaced, and they are presumed to have been killed (see this reporter's December 7-12, 2006 article, "Iraqi Gay Activists Abducted" ).

There have been 17 Iraqi LGBT activists killed since the Ayatollah Sistani's 2005 fatwa, including Hili's own brother.

Hili said the Times article also gave a somewhat misleading impression about the degree to which Iraqi gays are able to be open. Iraqi LGBT had maintained a network of four safe houses in Baghdad for queers targeted by the anti-gay death squads. But now, Hili told Gay City News, "We have had to close three of them out of fear. The guys we were trying to protect in those safe houses became so afraid in the current climate of vicious anti-gay crusading by the media and the clerics, and following the latest assassinations of gays, that they were afraid to continue living collectively, that this made them easy targets. So they simply left our safe houses.

We have now only one safe house left." Hili also said that he had received reports from Iraq of five gay men, all Iraqi LGBT members, who are in prison awaiting execution. Hili said "We have been told they are expecting to be executed in two weeks."

Hili said it is unclear on what precise charges the gay men will be executed. "One of our informants who was in detention with these five guys and then was released told me by phone how these men told him that their trial was a lightening-quick kangaroo court. It was an incredibly brief trial, and these five members of ours weren't able to obtain legal representation or defend themselves in that kind of context." Hili said that according to this account, the five members of his group "thought they were being accused of being a part of a 'terrorist organization,' meaning Iraqi LGBT," Hili recounted. The five were found by police in possession of literature from his group. Hili has spoken with both Amnesty International and with Human Rights Watch about the case of his five members awaiting execution.

Dalia Hashad of Amnesty International told Gay City News, "Amnesty has been unable to get from the Iraqi government any confirmation that the men are in custody or that they are facing execution, but from what we have heard from individuals in Iraq, they were sentenced to die for belonging to a 'banned group.' We are protesting to the Iraqi government and are continuing to try to investigate, but it is very difficult to get any information about such prisoners in Iraq." Scott Long, director of Human Rights Watch's LGBT desk, told Rex Wockner's gay news service, "Together with other groups, members of Congress and concerned activists, we're doing everything we can to investigate and determine who's jailed and what their fates may be. The Iraqi government and the US government must both investigate these charges immediately." Long is traveling to Iraq to pursue an HRW investigation.

Polis is also trying to ascertain the status of the five imprisoned Iraqi LGBT members, but a statement given by a State Department spokesman to Edge.boston.com, a gay news website, raises concerns that the US may not yet be taking the charges seriously, despite the congressman's recent visit. The site quoted John Fleming, public affairs officer for the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, as pooh-poohing the notion that the five gay men facing execution were being targeted for belonging to Iraqi LGBT, saying that homosexuality "is immaterial to Iraqis." Fleming, according to Edge, stated, "Frankly, there are other issues they are concerned about like basic survival, getting food and water. It's a luxury for the average Iraqi to worry about homosexuality." This statement by Fleming, who served a year in Iraq under the Bush administration, is, of course, contradicted by the recent media reports this month by such diverse sources as the Times, Reuters, CNN, and the British dailies The Independent and The Guardian, confirming Gay City News' three years of reporting.

This State Department staffer's statement suggests rather strongly the urgent need to keep up the pressure on the Obama administration and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to thoroughly investigate the dangers facing gay Iraqis and act decisively to save those threatened with death.

Iraqi LGBT is desperately in need of contributions to finance its work in Iraq. Donations may be made on credit cards through PayPal on the group's web site.

Doug Ireland can be reached through his blog, DIRELAND

Cary Alan Johnson; IGLHRC's new executive director speaks on his role

By Antoine Craigwell (New York, NY) - Fresh from an outpost office as the senior specialist for Africa in Cape Town, South Africa, Cary Alan Johnson, newly appointed executive director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC), spoke exclusively with GBMNews.com on Mar 6, 2009 about assuming this position, the challenges it brings, and his expectations for himself and the organization.

GBMNews: Mr. Johnson, good day and thank you for agreeing to spare me the time to share with our readers your thoughts about assuming this new position?

Johnson: I am thrilled. This is an organization I've been involved with since its inception as one of the original members of the Board of Directors, since about 20 years ago, about the time when organizations such as Gay Men of African Descent and the Minority Task Force on AIDS were themselves set up. It was really wonderful for me to have been a leader in Africa, which has been my area of expertise. Now I see myself developing IGLHRC's expertise against homophobia in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and the Caribbean. In the Middle East and Caribbean, we need to identify more with our partners in those regions.

GBMNews: What do you bring to this leadership role?

Johnson: I bring four years working as a staff member, a long involvement as a Board member, and 20 years working in Africa. I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa since 1983 and I bring solid experience in LGBT politics.

GBMNews: In your new role, what do you see are some of your expectations?

Johnson: I hope that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) movements around the world could feel positive about the work of IGLHRC over the years and develop better partnerships with us. My hope is that we could build better partnerships with organizations such as the Jamaican LGBT organization, Jamaica Forum for Lesbians All-sexuals and Gays, organizations on the ground, and people who know the cultures. It is only with the people on the ground that IGLHRC can make a meaningful contribution; we can't do it from the outside.

I expect to be busy in this new role.

I recently visited Latin America where I encountered very well developed LGBT and HIV organizations in Argentina and Brazil. But, of concern to me is the types of violations people face in different parts of the world that are different and require different approaches. These underlie the continued violence based on sexual orientation that is promoted by states, families or by non-governmental agencies, or a combination of all three.

GBMNews: Originally you are from New York. How do you feel about returning to your hometown?

Johnson: There's an excitement in the air here in the United States. There are many people looking and waiting for change, and it's exciting to be here to see the manifestation of change. It is exciting to see that Hillary Clinton, who has a strong commitment to LGBT rights, now as the Secretary of State. In South Africa, I was experiencing New York on the Internet and from CNN, but it's great to be here. However, at the same time the financial crisis has already had a severe impact on IGLHRC's funding and maintaining our programs is our biggest challenge. But, it's way too early to tell which programs would be affected by cuts.

GBMNews: What were your thoughts about leaving your office in South Africa?

Johnson: We have a great staff in South Africa. We have superlative activists in Joel Nana, a grassroots activist from Cameroon and from Victor Mukesa, a transgender, from Uganda. We'll be hiring a new head for the office who would be a senior human rights director.

GBMNews: In your position in South Africa, what were some of or one of the moments/ accomplishments you were most proud?

Johnson: When I look back, the original case of the 11 men from the Cameroon who were arrested in May 2005 and released after 13 months in prison. We poured so much into them. These were men who were hanging out in a bar and were arrested. The courts ordered forcible anal examinations to prove they were gay and one of the men who was HIV-positive, died shortly after he was released. We were glad to get a lawyer, Alice Nkom, who took on the cases, because without representation [in Cameroon] a person could spend years in prison without seeing a judge.

GBMNews: What were your disappointments, what did not work, and why?

Johnson: I'm disappointed with mainstream human rights organizations who do not embrace the overall human rights discourse. There were occasions when someone was fired from a job or beaten up and when we went to the mainstream human rights organizations we were rebuffed and told that these cases were not human rights issues. An example is the human rights organization in Rwanda refusing to work on LGBT issues. This is not about color, but opening up their minds to include others, where often it is about religious influence and that homosexuality is un-African.

Johnson whose term of office is contracted for two years, took over from Paula Ettelbrick on Mar 1.

COMMENT: A crack in the UK's asylum edifice

PinkNews

By Paul Canning • May 22, 2008 - 12:58

It's very hard for most British gay men and lesbians to imagine what it's like to grow up in a country like Iran.

To fear what you are and to have to act with care 24 hours a day, lest your family finds out and perhaps takes your life in a so-called 'honour killing,' or the state discovers you and tortures you.

So trying to understand the sheer torture of your boyfriend being discovered and executed, seeking safety from what you know is your certain, similar fate, in what you'd always thought was the 'civilised' West - and being disbelieved and rejected - is beyond most of us.

Imagine how much harder this would be when you are still a teenager. Most of us couldn't begin to.

But this has been the life experience of Mehdi Kazemi, still only 19 years old.

We all know the story - PinkNews.co.uk has been one of the few news outlets which has been keeping us informed of the case's twists and turns.

But there are many other 'cases' who have already been kicked out of Britain to unknown fates, who have committed suicide rather than be sent 'home' or shiver in fear today because this 'civilised' country leaves them 'hanging' for years before they learn their final fate.

In Holland their policy is to automatically grant 'leave to remain' to LGBT asylum seekers.

If they commit no crimes, after five years they can claim Dutch nationality.

Sweden has something similar — many other countries, including the United States, treat LGBT asylum seekers better than the UK.

For the UK, 'leave to remain' - what Mehdi has - doesn't necessarily mean that people can stay permanently.

As gay rights activist Peter Tatchell told CNN: At the end of five years [Mehdi] will have to go through the whole appeal process again."

The Dutch Liberal MP Boris van der Ham, who led parliamentary efforts to secure asylum in that country for Mehdi, made a point of finding out just how many gay people are 'flooding' into Holland under their policy.

He did this because the debate there, echoing what some say in the UK, had included that familiar right-wing claim: 'we'll be flooded'.

Six LGBT asylum seekers are expected over the next year and 38 to 40 in total since 2006.

In the UK the ukgayasylum group has about 25 people currently on its books.

These are tiny numbers and both the Dutch and Swedish experience proves that adopting a civilised policy doesn't result in so-called 'flooding'.

But it is clear from my information through back channels that the Home Office has dug in its heels, remains extremely keen to 'not set a precedent' and is influenced by such reactionary ideas.

In a statement issued to CNN the Home Office said:

"We keep cases under review where circumstances have changed and it has been decided that Mr. Kazemi should be granted leave to remain in the UK based on the particular facts of this case."

The truth is that the only circumstance which has changed is the publicity and that cannot be the actual reason otherwise many others, like the gay Syrian JoJo Yakob, who The Scotsman is backing, cannot be kicked out.

The normal sort of statement is such cases is one like this from another gay Iranian's case (my emphasis):

"On the evidence we find the appellant can reasonably be expected to tolerate the position on any return … For the reasons given the appellant's appeal remains dismissed."

This reflects the attitude shamelessly outlined by Home Office Minister Lord Spithead in the Lords at the height of the interest in Mehdi's case:

"We are not aware of any individual who has been executed in Iran in recent years solely on the grounds of homosexuality, and we do not consider that there is systematic persecution of gay men in Iran."

As the Mehdi campaign dragged on, as The Independent newspaper gave it front page coverage, as numerous Labour and other Members of Parliament lobbied, as the European Parliament passed a resolution, as US networks carried it on their evening news, the fear that he would indeed be deported regardless was very real. They have done it before.

As gayasylumuk's Omar Kuddas explains:

"He was almost deported at Christmas. They came for him at precisely the time when they thought it would be hardest to get lawyers and others out to defend him. This is how the Home Office behaves."

There have been others before Mehdi.

Last year the Italian Prime Minister contacted Gordon Brown to argue the case for Iranian lesbian Pegah Emambakash - all to no avail as she slipped from news coverage and is now on her last legal legs to save herself from deportation back to Tehran.

JoJo Yakob in Scotland has just suffered through the blatant homophobia of the Home Office on display at a tribunal and will only be safe if a judge is sympathetic and rejects that homophobic policy and practice for which Jacqui Smith and, ultimately, Gordon Brown are responsible.

is one of the many unsung heroes - gay and straight and from many countries - who have helped save Mehdi.

As you read the many claims of responsibility for 'Jacqui's u-turn' from politicians and some showboating organisations over the next few days bear that in mind.

The only reason that the government shifted in Mehdi's case was because it was all getting just too embarrassing for Gordon Brown.

Him, not Smith. And they hope that by granting leave to remain just to Mehdi, and by twisting their 'rules' in order to do it, that we'll all shut up.

They don't want a policy change and there is no doubt in my mind that the real reason is because they fear the Daily Mail and other agenda-setters and their 'hardline' against asylum seekers more than they fear a backlash from us, the LGBT community.

Tony Blair and David Blunkett set the 'quotas to fill' ball rolling, and Jacqui Smith is the latest to be carrying it through and damn the consequences.

They present one face to us citizens and another face - 'discretion' and blatant homophobia - to persecuted foreign LGBT who dare to claim asylum.

Worse, another government department - the Foreign Office - is out there preaching to other countries about human rights, including LGBT rights. The hypocrisy couldn't smell any stronger.

What I think has been their major political miscalculation is precisely their perception of the attitude of Middle England.

When publicity about Mehdi was at it's height you had to search for hardline opinion saying 'throw him out anyway' and even those saying this had a guilty tinge to their tone.

Comments left with the Daily Mail and - yes - even those of The Sun's readers recognised this country's historic attitude to accepting genuinely persecuted people as refugees - it goes back centuries, it's part of who we are.

It was clear from reading those comments, and many of those on the 7,000 strong petition, that ordinary British people well understood this and accepted that this meant accepting persecuted gays and lesbians from countries like Iran.

It was also clear from the horrified overseas media coverage - 'this is Britain!?'

But this political miscalculation only seriously holds true if, now he has 'asylum', Mehdi's case isn't seen as a one-off and, particularly, if gays and lesbians hold Labour to account for their unchanged homophobic policies towards these members of our community. I fear we won't. So prove me wrong.

For us, I think the government's attitude to the pitifully few LGBT asylum seekers we have in Britain shows them up as hypocrites over LGBT rights.

I honestly think that they think these people are so powerless, that their cases so rarely provoke protest and news coverage, they can safely ignore protest; that they will not face any consequences.

They just don't expect a voter backlash.

For us, I think we need to be collectively saying 'enough is enough' to Labour on LGBT asylum seekers and behave as one community.

I, for one, could not be happier for Mehdi but I am not 'grateful' to Jacqui Smith or her boss for this crack in the asylum edifice.

It will take a lot to get me voting Labour again (after a lifetime of support) precisely because of how I have seen how they treat these weakest members of our community.

I hope you feel the same and I hope you tell Labour why you feel it. Until they change their shameful policy on LGBT asylum seekers they don't deserve anyone's vote.

Paul Canning has been an gay activist in two continents for more years than he cares to remember. He is the webmaster for http://madikazemi.blogspot.com.

CNN: Britain grants asylum to gay Iranian student

From CNN's Alphonso Van Marsh

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain has granted asylum to Mehdi Kazemi, a gay Iranian student who faced deportation from the United Kingdom and feared execution in Iran for being homosexual, officials confirmed Tuesday.

Mehdi Kazemi feared persecution if he had to return to Iran.

"We keep cases under review where circumstances have changed and it has been decided that Mr. Kazemi should be granted leave to remain in the UK based on the particular facts of this case," Britain's Home Office said in a written statement quoting an unnamed UK Border Agency spokesman.

Kazemi's uncle, known as "Saeed," says his teenage nephew received an "unconditional" letter of asylum from the Home Office on Monday.

Kazemi, 19, moved to London to study English in 2004 but later discovered that his boyfriend had been arrested by Iranian police, charged with sodomy and hanged.

Fearing the same fate, he applied for asylum in Britain but was denied in 2007.

The office of Simon Hughes, the member of parliament who took up Kazemi's cause, said the Home Office has granted Kazemi leave for five years.

"Like Mehdi and his family in Britain, I am delighted by the Home Office decision that my constituent, Mehdi Kazemi, can now stay in this country and will not be sent back to Iran," Hughes said in a written statement.

"As I have argued over the last 18 months, the Home Office should not send gay and lesbian people back to countries where they will be at risk of persecution, torture or worse," he said.

Hughes was expected to meet with Kazemi late Tuesday.

Peter Tatchell, of the London-based gay rights activist group OutRage, said the decision "is a victory of sorts in that Mehdi has gotten only a temporary leave to remain. At the end of five years he will have to go through the whole appeal process again."

He added: "Mehdi wouldn't have got leave to remain if there hadn't been massive publicity to his case. There are many other gay and lesbian Iranian asylum seekers that are scheduled for deportation to Iran."

Mehdi granted 'leave to remain'

I am just waiting on confirmation for this but I have just heard second-hand that Mehdi has been granted asylum. More detail when I get it.

2.30pm: It's confirmed, Mehdi told the ukgaynews website that he had received a letter from the Home Office today to say his asylum request had been granted.

“I am so happy,” he said, adding that he was grateful to all the help he had been given, especially by Simon Hughes MP.

A statement will be issued tomorrow.

6.30pm: CNN reporting soon that Mehdi has been granted 'leave to remain' for five years. This is standard Home Office practice and is not the same as 'asylum'.

Further updates will be added as new posts.

News update

The Independent carries an interview with Madhi today:

I know what Jacqui Smith has said about my case and that of course is a good thing. But I know what this government can do to me. They tried to take me at Christmas time two years ago when everyone was away, even my lawyer.

I can not be confident they won't try this again, perhaps in the Easter holiday. These things have happened to me before. What they haven't done is promise me I won't go back to Iran.

If I am allowed to stay in this country I want to continue with my English studies. I like it in England, I felt safe and much freer. If I go back to Iran it will be most certainly death for me.

Madhi says he was told that he would be safe in Iran if he was discreet about his sexuality. For gay people in Iran it was "like a genocide no one will talk about".

I miss my mother and my little sister a lot, but by father wants to kill me [not a euphemism], he does not accept me.

Speaking through his Uncle, Madhi, told UKGayNews:

I am very thankful for everyone’s concern and help.

UKGayNews also reported his uncle saying that it would be in the best interests of his nephew if he were to be returned to the UK where he speaks the language and has family — But only if the possibility of his deportation was removed.

Having lived in the UK for more than 30 years, Saeed said that he had first met Mehdi in 2001 when he visited Iran. And Mehedi had “come out” to his uncle in early 2006 while studying in the UK.

A few months later, Mehdi was a ‘face in the crowd’ when, in Brighton, he took part in his first – and only – Gay Pride.

CNN Headline News last night carried the following exchange in which the host, Glenn Beck, compared the situation of Iranian gays seeking asylum to those of Jews fleeing Nazi Germany. He cited the SS St. Louis, which was turned back by America in 1939.

Beck spoke with Irshad Manji, senior fellow of the European Foundation for Democracy, and author of The Trouble with Islam Today. She said that what really lies at the heart of the experience of gay asylum seekers is "incompetence".

Sarah Ludford MEP, interview about the campaign for Dutch radio (MPEG3, audio). Translated to English Article. Dutch.

[The Home Office might think] for other people 'we could quietly ship them back'. This is not the only gay Iranian at risk, not only of their liberty but their life by being returned.

He has gone through the process, but I think there is something wrong with the Home Office guidelines which are the basis for the assessment of an asylum claim.

Press release by Ludford, quoting her colleagues Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert (VVD, Netherlands):

It is absurd that Kazemi has to demonstrate that he risks persecution if you look at the whole record of Iran's repression of gay people by detention, torture and execution. It would be outrageous if Kazemi would be sent back to Iran.

And Marco Cappato (Radical Party, Italy)

The European Union should be a community that protects people, instead of acting as a cold machine with common rules creating a 'lowest common denominator' of asylum seekers protection. It is high time leaders of the EU show compassion instead of hiding behind bureaucratic rules.

News update

The Independent, who have spearheaded the UK press coverage, headline today: Victory for Kazemi as Home Secretary halts deportation to Iran

The Government's surprise intervention yesterday follows an international outcry.

Emma Ginn, of the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation Campaigns:

This is, finally, a good decision. There are many flaws in the UK's so-called 'fair and efficient' asylum determination process that others, not so fortunate to attract such global news coverage, are subjected to. The whole thing seems like not much more than a lottery.

The MP who has been leading for Madhi, Simon Hughes, said that arrangements are already in place for an urgent meeting with him, his family, specialist lawyers and Hughes to prepare a new application to the Home Office.

An MEP who helped get yesterday's European parliament resolution passed, Sarah Ludford, said:

It should have come voluntarily and without the need for so much pressure. But we must not forget other gay Iranians fearing for not only their liberty but their lives, such as Pegah Emambakhsh. They deserve justice, too.

Read about Pegah's case, she is planning to apply for a judicial review at the High Court. Pegah is one of at least another 29 other lesbian or gay refugees at risk of deportation from the UK to persecution.

PinkNews points out that there are many similar cases which are being overlooked by the government.

Quoting Peter Tatchell:

The review of this case is welcome, but there are still many more which need to be reconsidered, including Pegah Emambakhsh and many other individuals who are fleeing violently homophobic countries such as Uganda, Nigeria, Iraq, Zimbabwe and Palestine.

The underlying problem is the government's whole asylum system and the way it is rigged to fail as many applicants as possible, combined with the homophobic biases of the asylum process. Asylum staff and adjudicators are given no training on sexual orientation and there is no explicit official policy supporting the right of refugees to claim asylum on the grounds of sexual orientation.

The news about Madhi is reported in at least 300 media outlets around the world:

• New York Times International News brief
• CNN, which reminded viewers that

In a written statement earlier this month, Britain's Home Office said that even though homosexuality was illegal in Iran and homosexuals did experience discrimination, it did not believe that homosexuals were routinely persecuted purely on the basis of their sexuality

• International Herald Tribune
• Washington Post
  

The Times quotes Madhi's Dutch lawyer:

He is very much afraid of being allowed to stay in Britain but without being granted official permission. That would then put him in a no man’s land. He would be very unhappy in the long term.

And Madhi's uncle:

It has been a long time coming and a very long struggle. What I do not understand is why the Government got itself into this mess in the first place. It should always have recognised that gay people are killed for being themselves in Iran.

The Times also said that Madhi's case will be re-examined by Home Office officials who will base their decision on guidance issued last year — after his 2006 application was turned down.

It states: “Where an individual claimant demonstrates that their homosexual acts have brought them to the attention of the authorities to the extent that on return to Iran they will face a real risk of punishment, which will be so harsh as to amount to persecution, s/he should be granted refugee status as a member of a particular social group."

“In addition gay rights activists that have come to the attention of the authorities face a real risk of persecution and should be granted asylum as a result of their political opinion”.

And carries a scathing editorial, which notes:

As with other repressive regimes, Iran's criminalisation of homosexuality is often a convenient way of punishing political opponents.

The Government is not only right to provide refuge to Mr Kazemi, but is to be applauded for sending an unequivocal message to Tehran.

Gayasylumuk Media Statement

GAY ASYLUM UK MEDIA STATEMENT

- MADHI KAZEMI -

12 March 2008

Our hearts, with those of thousands across the globe, go out to Madhi Kazemi.

The Judge has ruled that the Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) can honour the British government's request for his return to the UK, under the Dublin Treaty and all we can now do is await his arrival back to the UK within a few days. We still hope that the British government will not deport Madhi back to Iran but reconsider his case and grant him Asylum based on

* his sexuality and on
* Iran's stance on the subject and proven record of violating human rights by torture, persecution and execution of known homosexuals.

The British government can no longer hide behind its stance that Homosexuals are free in Iran as long as they are discreet, for they, via our own MP's and published in The Times, have been told by a senior Iranian Minister that all homosexuals will be executed.

However, Britain's Home Office told CNN in a written statement that it does not believe that homosexuals are routinely persecuted purely on the basis of their sexuality.

His sexuality has never been in doubt and the Home Office stance that homosexuals are safe in Iran is no different than to say that Ann Franks was safe from the Nazis as long as she hid in the attic, during WWII.

The Iranian president himself said and confirmed that Iran has no homosexuals.

If necessary a legal challenge shall be instigated in the UK and the European Court of Human Rights to prevent Madhi's deportation.

If Britain claims to be the champions of democracy and compassion, this is a time to prove that these are not just ideal words.

The challenge and fight to save Madhis life has only just begun and must be pursued for the sake of decency and humanity.

Just how many more gay Iranians are meant to die before the British government takes action and shows to the world that this genocide must be stopped?

OMAR KUDDUS
GAYASYLUM.

News update

CNN obtained the following from the Home Office today (my emphasis):

In a written statement, Britain's Home Office said that even though homosexuality is illegal in Iran and homosexuals do experience discrimination, it does not believe that homosexuals are routinely persecuted purely on the basis of their sexuality

This is the first time anyone has got them to actually state this.

Dutch radio: Netherlands Democratic MP Boris Ham has asked Deputy Justice Minister Nebahat Albayrak to discuss the matter with the UK authorities to prevent Mr Kazemi being deported to Iran.

Interview by frictiontv with Omar Kuddus of the Uk gayasylum group about the Mehdi Kazemi case. This interview was conducted prior to the Dutch court's decision to return Mehdi to the UK.

Strong CNN story (link to video) today (thanks Alphonso) includes Mehdi's uncle, Simon Hughes and Peter Tatchell. It also quotes the Home Office policy.



From Saturday 8th, interview with Pegah Emambakhsh (NB: RealAudio, media may not be available for more than a week) and Lady Haleh Afshar on the Today Show (Radio 4).

Pegah transcript:

If the British government could prove to me that I would be safe in Iran and to be able to lead a normal life and to be myself I would be very happy to go back to Iran. I had to leave my old father, my ill mother and young sister. I have two lovely children which their father took away from me. i had to give this all up because my life was at risk. At the moment I was safe because I am in England but my life is very difficult. I miss my family and more than anything I am worried all the time that the police will suddenly arrest me and send me back.

Today said that the Home Office has agreed to accept new legal representation for her, despite her losing her last appeal in January.

The interviewer, Edward Stourton, asked if Iranians would pretend to be gay if Home Office policy changed. Haleh Afshar pointed out that there is an enormous social taboo against lesbians and gays.

Ben Summerskill, chief executive of Stonewall, said today that the organisation is "deeply disturbed" about his case.

"There is incontrovertible evidence that lesbian and gay people face danger in Iran and we will be raising this once again with the Home Secretary."

A question of ethics, editorial from newspaper of leading US university Rutgers.

FoxNews story.

British gay MEP Michael Cashman will raise Mehdi's case in the European Parliament later this week.

A Dutch newspaper today quotes Mehdi's Dutch lawyer B. Palm (sorry, Google translation) on what legal hopes there are:

A country may grant asylum even if someone has already made an application in another European country. The Netherlands has a different view on the situation of homosexuals in Iran than Britain. The rules assume that a person seeking asylum in any European country has an equal chance to get asylum. In this case this is not the case.

He hopes that Secretary for Justice Albayrak, who Aliens Office, the matter pull and ensure that Mehdi not returning to Iran.

She is also being lobbied by Dutch MP Boris van der Ham Kamervragen.

Writing in The Irish Times, Quentin Fottrell expresses concern that

The British government isn't the only one tightening the screws on the asylum process of late: our own is keen to clear a backlog of 9,427 asylum applications it has racked up since 2000 . . . one way or another. And, because, where the UK leads on asylum/immigration issues, we invariably follow.

Ireland doesn't give numbers on gay refugee cases, and many are unlikely to declare their sexuality for fear of being "outed" and having to go back if their case is refused, like Kazemi. On that basis, Muslims from brutal regimes are unlikely to make a "study" of gay refugee cases. It would be too hazardous if they failed. Many more have hidden their sexuality their whole life and they choose other reasons for seeking asylum.

On the upside, one Irish lawyer told me he has successfully processed 30 cases of gay refugees, helped by the fact that the 1996 Refugee Act and the new Bill cite sexual orientation under "social group" as a basis for seeking asylum. Dublin-based gay teenage group Belong2 have also worked with several gay teenage refugees. Their two most recent cases - from Albania and Kenya - are now studying in college.

However, direct provision centre staff need more intercultural training, especially on bullying. I've heard of three cases, one of a gay Romanian man who left his accommodation in Cork due to harassment, a Kenyan man in Dublin ostracised because he was damned if he was going to deny his sexuality after everything he had been through, and a Kenyan lesbian in accommodation who hides her sexuality to survive.