Gay Facebook arrest in Saudi Arabia

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Gay Middle East

By Dan Littauer and Sami Hamwi

As the British Prime Minister David Cameron visits Saudia Arabia, activists report plight of a man arrested by the religious police who may face corporal punishment.

Activists are concerned for the safety of a 30-year-old man arrested by the religious police in Saudi Arabia for using Facebook to date other men.  The man, whose exact identity is not known, was arrested on 23 December (2011) but full details of the incident are only now becoming clear after a detailed investigation by Gay Middle East. Experts warn he may face blackmail and/or corporal punishment.

He is being held in custody in the Dammam Police Department [on Gulf coast] awaiting the Dammam’s General Attorney office for prosecution. The case has been reported to Amnesty International, while Facebook declined to comment.

The report by Sabaq electronic journal mentions that a Saudi citizen reported an unnamed 30-year old man to the religious police in Saudi Arabia, known as the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which proceeded to apprehend the man who finally confessed that “the Facebook profile is his and that he had been using it for obscenity acts with other men”.

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) law is not strictly codified and its implementation, in either a lenient or severe manner, depends mostly on religious Sunni judges and scholars, as well as royal decrees (and thus subject to extreme variability).  Generally speaking punishments for homosexuality range from imprisonment and/or flogging to the death penalty. Conviction and severity of punishments depends on the social class, religion and citizenship of the accused, whereby non-western migrant workers receive usually harsher treatment than upper class Saudi citizens.

Sami Hamwi, Syria Editor of Gay Middle East, and former Saudi resident explains:

“Native born Saudi citizens who are Suni or from the Bedouin tribes in the country are often let off, while punishment are severely executed against minorities like Shiites and or newly naturalised citizens. Punishments regarding homosexuality are also held against expatriates working in Saudi Arabia, especially those coming from Asian, African and Arab countries. Dammam is a largely Shiite area and if the 30 year old aforementioned man is a Shiite, he is likely to be trialed and sentenced harshly.”

A British Foreign and Commonwealth spokesperson told Gay Middle East:

Read more »

Kenyan men trafficked as sex slaves to Gulf states

By Paul Canning

A Kenyan gay magazine has exposed male sex trafficking between Kenya and the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Identity magazine says that gay and bisexual Kenyans are being lured from universities with promises of jobs only to end up as sex slaves.

The prestigious Kenyatta University is being particularly targeted, the magazine found. The men are often desperate as Kenya suffers from high unemployment.

Men are offered jobs as air stewards or in offices and help with visas and passports. Officials are bribed to facilitate travel.

They spoke to one victim promised a job in Qatar but who ended up suffering humiliating and violent sadistic sexual abuse. He managed to escape but told the magazine that he had traveled to the Gulf state with five others and they were then separated at the airport.

Qatar has no anti-trafficking legislation and is on a U.S. Department of State watch list for showing no evidence of overall progress in prosecuting and punishing trafficking offenders and identifying victims of trafficking.

Kenya does have anti-trafficking legislation, as of last year, but because homosexuality is illegal in both the Arab states as well as Kenya the men are unable to report abuse to police.

In July two men were reported to have been arrested for gay sex in Nairobi. In May the Kenya Human Rights Commission accused the police of sexually assaulting gay men in their custody.

Related articles

• Kenya: New Gay Website Gives New Voice to Lgbti Community (mask.org.za) 
• Report: In Kenya, police abuse LGBT, church, politicians incite violence (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• Gay Kenya appeal (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Update: Denial of US asylum to gay Saudi diplomat

Image via Wikipedia

By Paul Canning

Last week I reported on how a gay Saudi diplomat had been denied US asylum. It was claimed that this was for political reasons.

Jason Dzubow who writes for The Asylumist and is an immigration attorney who specializes in political asylum, immigration court and appeals points out that the initial decision of the case is correct in law.

The story, as reported first on Arab news website Rasheed’s World, quotes a Saudi dissident living in Washington DC, Ali al-Ahmed. He is is the founder and director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs (formerly the Saudi Institute), an independent think tank in Washington, DC. He has testified before Congress on several occasions on the issue of civil rights and religious freedom in the Middle East.

al-Ahmed said:

“This was a political decision by the Obama administration, who are afraid of upsetting the Saudis.”

He told the news website that the diplomat, Ali Ahmed Asseri:

“Had been an inspector to make sure that judicial punishments, such as lashings, were carried out within the law—not more, not less.”

And reported that the Asylum Office member who interviewed Asseri “then accused him of participating in a form of torture.”

Dzubow points out that people who persecute others are barred by statute from obtaining asylum.

“There is nothing political about this, and it has nothing to do with the Obama Administration somehow trying to appease the Saudis,” he writes.

Dzubow says that, despite this background, Asseri is possibly eligible for ‘Withholding of Removal‘. This is relief ‘to prevent removal to a country where the alien has a clear probability to suffer persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group.’ Ironically, he is “certainly eligible for relief under the UN Convention Against Torture” because of  Saudi Arabia’s treatment of gay people, Dzubow says.

As al-Ahmed reports, Asseri has appealed the refusal of asylum and will thus get his day in court — where Dzubow says, as a high-profile gay man, he probably has a good chance of gaining US sanctuary.

Ali Ahmed Asseri was the first secretary of the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles. It was reported last year that he told US officials that his diplomatic passport was not renewed after Saudi officials discovered him going to gay bars and that he was close friends with a Jewish woman. He had also posted a critical note on a Saudi website, it was reported, and threatened to make public embarrassing information on members of the Saudi royal family living in the US.

Last year Ally Bolour, his lawyer, told NBC that other Saudis had been granted asylum by the US on grounds of sexual orientation, but Asseri’s case was unusual because of his diplomatic status. Another gay Saudi asylum case was approved quickly in Dallas in September this year.

Related articles

• Report: political reasons block US asylum for gay Saudi (madikazemi.blogspot.com)
• In Australia, gay Saudi wins review of asylum claim (madikazemi.blogspot.com)

Report: political reasons block US asylum for gay Saudi

Image via Wikipedia

By Paul Canning

Important update

A gay Saudi diplomat has been denied US asylum in what observes believe is a political move.

Arab news website Rasheed's World quotes a Saudi dissident living in Washington DC Ali al-Ahmed:

“This was a political decision by the Obama administration, who are afraid of upsetting the Saudis. His initial interview with [the Department for Homeland Security (DHS)] was very positive, but then they came back and grilled him for two days after they found out that he had worked in the public prosecutor’s office in Saudi Arabia."

"He had been an inspector to make sure that judicial punishments, such as lashings, were carried out within the law—not more, not less. They then accused him of participating in a form of torture,” explained Ahmed.

Ali Ahmed Asseri,was the first secretary of the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles. It was reported last year that he told US officials that his diplomatic passport was not renewed after Saudi officials discovered him going to gay bars and that he was close friends with a Jewish woman. He had also posted a critical note on a Saudi website, it was reported, and threatened to make public embarrassing information on members of the Saudi royal family living in the US.

Last year Ally Bolour, his lawyer, told NBC that other Saudis had been granted asylum by the US on grounds of sexual orientation, but Asseri's case was unusual because of his diplomatic status. Another gay Saudi asylum case was approved quickly in Dallas in September this year.

"It's very difficult to comment on an asylum case without knowing the specific facts, but Saudi Arabia is certainly a very dangerous place for gay men and we hope that the US government would not remove any LGBT person to a country that routinely violates LGBT people's human rights," said Victoria Neilson, legal director of Immigration Equality, a national organization fighting for equality under US immigration law for LGBT individuals.

Only last month, according to a news brief published by the Emirates website 24 / 7, twenty gay men were arrested in Saudi Arabia during a wedding celebration, and over 200 other "wanted persons were also seized".

The news comes at the same time that the White House has announced that a new federal working group tasked with a system-wide review of pending deportations will include an LGBT liaison, DHS executive secretary Philip A. McNamara. However the report says that this will be solely to oversee cases involving same-sex binational couples. They are denied equal citizen sponsorship rights under the Defense of Marriage Act.

The liaison will reportedly not cover asylum cases, and there has also been disquiet over the treatment of other deportation cases not involving couples, particularly those of young LGBT who might qualify under a DREAM Act. The movement in support of that has many young LGBT in its leadership.

As well there are significant issues with the mistreatment of LGBT in detention. At the end of last month Heartland Alliance's National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) filed more complaints with DHS of inhuman, degrading and in some cases life-threatening treatment of LGBT detainees.

NIJC's LGBT Immigrant Rights Initiative said:

"Having a member of the working group who understands the dynamics of LGBT families is definitely a positive first step, but it is only the first step. The process for review of all 300,000 cases has not yet begun and in the meantime, individuals continue to be separated from their families on a daily basis. We hope the working group will develop a fair and transparent system that facilitates the exercise of prosecutorial discretion in favor of both same-sex binational couples and LGBT individuals facing persecution in their home countries."

Ali al-Ahmed said that the gay Saudi asylum seeker Asseri is planning to appeal the decision, and that this process could extend for several years.

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Arrests for 'gay wedding' in Saudi Arabia

According to a news brief published by the Emirates website 24 / 7 , twenty gay men have been arrested in Saudi Arabia during a wedding celebration, and over 200 other "wanted persons were also seized".

According to the brief, the arrests happened in the southern province of Jizan (bordering Yemen) and that among the detainees there are people who were illegally in the country.

Under Saudi Arabia's interpretation of sharia law, homosexuality can be punished with death.

Last October a Saudi newspaper reported that a Saudi gay man was sentenced to a 5-year jail term and 500 lashes.

Earlier this year a gay British nurse was reportedly entrapped, beaten and jailed then later expelled.

HT: dosmanzanas

In Australia, gay Saudi wins review of asylum claim

Source: Herald Sun

By Paul Tatnell

A man who claims to have been paid by a Saudi prince for sex will have a decision to deport him reviewed.

The Refugee Review Tribunal has been ordered to reconsider giving the man, who cannot be named, a visa after first rejecting his claims of secret visas, huge payments and months of secret liaisons.

Homosexuality is banned in Saudi Arabia. Men have been jailed, lashed and reportedly executed.

The man applied for a protection visa claiming that because of his sexuality, he feared his family's wrath and persecution in the Middle East.

According to court documents, the man claimed he left his boyfriend in 2008 and travelled to Saudi Arabia because "the Saudi prince liked him very much".

The prince arranged a visa and paid for his travel, where they had sex "in return for financial and material support". But the agreement allegedly went sour and the man was booted from the country after he was sprung having an affair with another man.

After briefly returning to his home country, the man fled to Australia where, according to court documents, he frequented local gay nightclubs.

Evidence tendered on his behalf included a reference from the prince, which his lawyers claimed showed "he loved [the man] so much".

But the Immigration Department found the man's claims to fear persecution in his home country were undermined by inconsistencies in his evidence about his employment, his first homosexual relationship, and his circumstances immediately before his travel to Saudi Arabia.

The tribunal also doubted the man's allegations, refusing to accept he "was in a homosexual relationship with the prince or one of his friends".

According to court documents, the tribunal even doubted the man was gay.

But the Federal Magistrates' Court ruled the tribunal erred in its decision to deny the man a visa because it failed to raise its doubts about his sexuality and his alleged affair with the prince during their questioning.

The case will be reheard at a later date.

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Blackmail of gay men "common" in Saudi Arabia, Gulf States

By Paul Canning

Saudi Arabia has been described as a “gay heaven” because strict gender segregation supports what's called a "flourishing" underground gay sex scene, but for those who fall foul of official prohibitions, through being discovered or being entrapped, jail and flogging awaits.

The Philippines Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) are looking into cases of 24 Filipino men who were allegedly framed in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on charges of being prostitutes.

The men's case only came to light after OWWA was notified by Philippine Ryan Ferrer. Ferer claims that he was blackmailed by his employer into extending his stay in the Kingdom. He says that his employer had him jailed for six months for prostitution and he met the other men in the prison. On release he was stripped of all pay and benefits.

In 2009 72 Philippine men were arrested and lashed after a private party in Riyadh was raided.

Last May the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Manila issued a memorandum ordering local recruitment agencies to screen Philippine applicants for sexual orientation.

“Officials of recruitment agencies… are strongly advised to screen (applicants) thoroughly. The accreditation of recruitment agencies found to have failed to observe this advisory will be permanently terminated,” the memorandum read.

About three million Asian workers go abroad on contractual jobs each year, mainly in the Gulf and Southeast Asian countries - the Philippines is believed to send 3000 workers every day. However, they can face various abuses including low pay, excessive workload and sexual harassment after spending exorbitant amount of money to find jobs. Asian nations who supply Labour to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states have been criticised for their lack of support for their nationals.

Read more »

Why the West must do more for Iranian LGBT

Ayaz Marhoni and Mahmoud Asgari

Source: Gay City News

By Benjamin Weinthal

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s lethal homophobia requires strong medicine. The international campaign to stop the stoning of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, a woman who was sentenced to death for alleged adultery, shows that the Islamic Republic of Iran is vulnerable to a human rights pressure-point campaign.

While Ashtiani could still face execution, the global effort to influence a change in the behavior of the pariah regime in Tehran has forced Iran’s rulers to temporarily backpedal from their medieval practices. Replicating that concerted drive could deliver another potent dose of behavioral therapy to force the regime to recoil from its ongoing eradication of the Iranian LGBT community.

The opening salvo in a human rights movement to end violence and bias against LGBT Iranians ought to originate from President Barack Obama, who was initially wishy-washy and aloof about human rights when Iran’s regime viciously cracked down on its civilian population during the fraudulent 2009 election.

This past September, however, the Obama administration, to its credit, imposed precedent-setting human rights sanctions against eight top-level Iranian government officials for committing torture, rape, violent beatings, and unlawful detention of Iranians. The sanctions aim to penalize only a slice of the Iranian military apparatus and regime responsible for crushing the pro-democracy protests against the doctored election results in 2009. But it is a fresh beginning.

Read more »

In Saudi Arabia, child marriage seen as a cure for gayness

Image by Waleed Alzuhair via Flickr  

Source: al-bab.com

By Brian Whitaker

I really didn't mean to keep going on about Saudi Arabia but sometimes it's difficult to stop.  

The Jeddah-based Arab News has been talking to a Saudi woman who was married at 13 to a man she had never seen (though, helpfully, her mother and sisters were allowed to describe him to her). The woman, identified by the pseudonym Sabeeha, thinks this is a wonderful idea and recommends it for others. 

According to Sabeeha, one of the major benefits of early marriage (and by "early" we're talking here about early teens) is that it preserves you from getting into illicit romances or – heaven forbid – turning gay. 

"Human nature does not wait for marriage," she tells the paper. "An unmarried girl will start developing an interest in men many years before she reaches her 20s. She might get tempted and have a relationship with a boyfriend who will sleep with her and never marry her ... Even if a girl only has a romantic chat with a man on the phone, it is still a sin." 

Sabeeha continues:

"I see so many students who are lesbians, and they are very open about it. If the parents of these girls had married them off when they attained puberty and began to have sexual feelings, these girls would have been living clean lives without sin with their husbands.

"A girl can continue her education after marriage. What is the wisdom in allowing your daughter to remain unmarried so she can study and become a mature woman, while on the side she has boyfriends or becomes a lesbian?

"Even boys, how many young teenage boys are having physical relations with other boys? Go to the malls and you will see so many boys who are not normal. Some even pluck their eyebrows and wear light makeup and expose their underpants. If these boys were married, wouldn’t that stop them from becoming gay?"

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South Africa's 'mendacious' failure on international LGBT rights

Source: Harry's Place

By Alan A 

The United Nations, reports Reuters, has voted to delete reference to gays and lesbians from a resolution condemning unjustified executions, following lobbying from African and Arab countries.

Western delegations expressed disappointment in the human rights committee’s vote to remove the reference to slayings due to sexual orientation from the resolution on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions.

“The subject of this amendment — the need for prompt and thorough investigations of all killing, including those committed for … sexual orientation — exists in this resolution simply because it is a continuing cause for concern,” a British statement to the committee said.

Of course, it must be kept in mind that of the seven countries that impose the death penalty for homosexuality are all either in the Muslim world or Africa. So are almost all of the 93 countries that still legally punish homosexuality.

So basically what you have is this: an organisation which is supposed to protect the human rights of all the world’s citizens, merely pays lip service to it, while passively condoning, excusing and obscuring the savagery of blocs of its members. It remains a fact that homosexuals are one of the most persecuted groups and removing any reference to this – while name-checking racial, national, ethnic, religious and even linguistic reasons, as well as those with refugee status  - clearly gives the green light for the continued persecution of gay and lesbian people.

Read more »

Saudi gay man sentenced to 5-year jail term, 500 lashes

Source: Emirates 24|7

A Saudi gay will be jailed five years and lashed 500 times with the whip for indulging in homosexual activities and publishing obscene photos of himself online, the Saudi Arabic language daily Okaz reported on Monday.

The court in the western Red Sea port of Jeddah sentenced the 27-year-old man after he was convicted of practicing homosexuality and publishing his pictures online and on mobile phones showing him wearing women underwear.

Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the most feared law enforcement group in the Gulf Kingdom, had seized the unnamed man red handed in obscene acts, Okaz said.

The man had already been tried and jailed for posing as a security man and was accused of indulging in obnoxious acts inside the prison, it said.

“The court found that this defendant had indulged in obscene acts that contravene Islamic teachings…the judge also decided to fine him SR50,000.”

Sex and the Ummah

Source: Religion Dispatches

By Amina Wadud

This was the title of a really good commentary for an online Islamic newsletter for quite some time. So, I’m not making it up on my own. This week has brought just a tad too many funny (or sad or sick) stories along these lines not to give it a shot myself. One of them was a report that Egypt was second for online porn inquiries. I didn’t read all the details—like second to which country? Actually, I thought it would have been second to Pakistan, which I had read a similar report about some time ago.

I know, you probably thought it would be some where in the Gulf, but it’s not. I’m not sure what that says (about you, or,) about the Gulf. Because then there was this story from the Gulf.

Some “Saudi Prince” is accused of the gruesome murder of his male servant, with whom he had been traveling for several months. He is also accused of being gay. He denies both claims. However, as for sleeping in the same bed, as reported from one of the hotels, he says, there was no other room in the inn. And although there was sofa in that same room, he did not want his servant sleeping on it, because he had always considered him an equal, and that would have been contrary to that claim.

I thought, are you joking? I’m not recounting all the details, many of which were already incredible, because that one clinched it for me. If there’s one thing I have learned living and traveling in countries that still make extensive use of in-home servants (in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East), it is that no one, not even the nicest ones, considers their servants as equal. It just doesn’t happen.

Read more »

Boy raped for blackmail in Saudi Arabia

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Emirates 24/7

A Saudi man raped a 13-year-old boy and threatened that he would publish pictures of his naked body on the web if he refuses to give him part of his dead father’s inheritance, Kabar newspaper reported on Monday October 18.

The 22-year man used his new play station as a bait to lure his teen age neighbour into his house in the central town of Makkah, it said.

He then raped him, photographed him naked with his mobile phone and threatened that he would put the photos online unless he brings him SR6,000.

“The boy paid him but he later demanded part of his dead father’s inheritance…he kept blackmailing him for weeks before the scared boy told his sister about him,” the newspaper said.

“His sister informed the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which checked the boy’s mobile phone and saw 36 blackmail messages sent by that man…he was later arrested and handed over to the police.”

Gay Saudi diplomat in LA may have a case, but little support in the Arab world

Peter Tatchell protesting outside the Saudi embassy in London in 2007 after two gay Saudi men were sentenced to lashing

Source: LA Times

By Meris Lutz in Beirut

Damage control in the digital age can be a challenge, especially when you're ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia and one of your diplomats just applied for asylum in the United States on the grounds that he's gay and friends with a Jewish woman.

The story of Ali Ahmed Aseeri's plea for protection was originally broken on Saturday by NBC, which quoted e-mails from Aseeri as well as a letter he allegedly posted on an unnamed Saudi website in which he described his country as "backwards" and claimed his life was in danger.
Aseeri, who is secretary of the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles, also threatened to disclose sensitive information about the Saudi Royal family to the U.S. media.

Despite an absence of any reference to the story in the mainstream Saudi newspapers, it was posted on several blogs and was carried by a number of Lebanese, Syrian, Egyptian and pan-Arab media outlets,  where it has been provoking considerable commentary and a fair amount of skepticism.

Commenter "Abu Khalid," writing on the Al Jazeera website, which cited NBC's report, accused the Western media of bias and "relishing divisiveness among Muslims," and called into question the accuracy of the story. Very few seemed sympathetic to Aseeri's alleged persecution, and many considered his comments against his country and his actions traitorous.

Read more »

Saudi diplomat seeking US asylum

Source: NBC News

By Michael Isikoff

A ranking Saudi diplomat told NBC News that he has asked for political asylum in the United States, saying he fears for his life if he is forced to return to his native country.

The diplomat, Ali Ahmad Asseri, the first secretary of the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles, has informed U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials that Saudi officials have refused to renew his diplomatic passport and effectively terminated his job after discovering he was gay and was close friends with a Jewish woman.

In a recent letter that he posted on a Saudi website, Asseri angrily criticized his country’s “backwardness” as well as the role of “militant imams” in Saudi society who have “defaced the tolerance of Islam.” Perhaps most provocatively of all, he has threatened to expose what he describes as politically embarrassing information about members of the Saudi royal family living in luxury in the U.S.

If he is forced to go back to Saudi Arabia — as Saudi officials are demanding — Asseri says he could face political persecution and even death.

“My life is in a great danger here and if I go back to Saudi Arabia, they will kill me openly in broad daylight,” Asseri said Saturday in an email to NBC.

Read more »

Saudi Arabian issues block order on LGBT Filipino migrants

Image via Wikipedia

Source: abs-cbnNEWS.com

A Filipino lesbian worker hit a memorandum banning members of the third sex from working in Saudi Arabia.

“Dubz” (not her real name) felt bad that lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender (LGBT) will not be allowed to gain employment in the Kingdom.

Dubz was supposed to return to Saudi Arabia as a caregiver.

“Masakit sa amin. Discrimination iyon. Kapag kailangan magbuhat kami ang tinatawag, di na inoobliga ang mga lalaki. Trabahong babae kaya namin, trabahong lalaki kaya din namin,” Dubz said.

She, however, still appealed to the Saudi government not to ban LGBT workers in the Kingdom.

It can be recalled that the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Manila issued a memorandum to all its accredited recruitment agencies from accepting gays and lesbian applicants.

The embassy stated that “officials of recruitment agencies who are responsible in conducting interviews of job applicants to Saudi Arabia are strongly advised to screen them thoroughly so that those belonging to the third sex are exhausted.”

Accreditation of agencies with the embassy will be in jeopardy if they fail to strictly implement the memorandum.

“The accreditation of recruitment agencies found to have failed to observe this advisory will be permanently terminated,” the embassy further stated.

For Migrante International, the said order will greatly affect LGBT migrant workers who are working hard in Saud Arabia.

“Sana tignan ng Saudi government kung ano ang contribution ng lesbian at gay sa lipunan nila,” said Migrante International Chairperson, Garry Martinez.
   
Roland Blanco of ABS-CBN Middle East News Bureau reported that Filipinos working in the Kingdom were saddened by the memorandum.

In June 2009, 67 suspected gays were arrested in Riyadh for dressing up in women’s clothes. They were forced to resign for fear of being slapped with charges.

Meanwhile, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) pinned the blame on those responsible for organizing a gay pageant last March in Riyadh.

“We were told they had one. They were deported,” said OWWA officer-in-charge Vivian Tornea.
   
OWWA advised LGBT members to be careful and act discreetly.

“They should act in accordance with the culture of the country,” she said.

For those like Dubz who are affected by the ban, OWWA said they could still look for employment in other countries or just set up a business in the Philippines. Report from Wheng Hidalgo, TV Patrol World

Is the US helping or hindering internet freedom?

Image via Wikipedia

Source: Brian Whitaker

One of the more significant changes since the Obama administration came it power is that the US is beginning to recognise the importance of the internet in struggles for freedom in many parts of the world.

This is highlighted in the State Department's latest annual report on human rights which describes 2009 as ...

"... a year in which more people gained greater access than ever before to more information about human rights through the internet, cell phones, and other forms of connective technologies. Yet at the same time it was a year in which governments spent more time, money, and attention finding regulatory and technical means to curtail freedom of expression on the internet and the flow of critical information and to infringe on the personal privacy rights of those who used these rapidly evolving technologies."

The US Treasury has now modified its sanctions against Iran, Cuba and Sudan "to ensure that individuals in those countries can exercise their right to free speech and information to the greatest extent possible". Voice of America explains:

"US companies will now be able to legally export certain free services and software related to the exchange of personal communications over the internet, including web browsing, blogging, email, and social networking.

"US Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin said, 'As recent events in Iran have shown, personal internet-based communications ... are powerful tools. This software will foster and support the free flow of information – a basic human right – for all Iranians'."

So far, so good. But American companies are also complicit in curtailing freedom on the internet. Just a few years ago, for example, they were queing up – along with others from Europe – to sell filtering software to the Saudis. ''This would be a terrific deal to win," one of them said. ''Once we sell them the product, we can't enforce how they use it,'' another said, shrugging off any responsibility for the consequences.

Now, Microsoft seems to be getting in on the censorship act too, with its Bing search engine. Research by the OpenNet Initiative (ONI) has found that "users in the Arab countries – or, as termed by Microsoft, 'Arabian countries' – are prevented from conducting certain search queries in both English and Arabic."

Testing of Bing using the "Arabian countries" setting showed that various sex-related keywords, in both Arabic and English, are filtered out. Searching for these terms produces no results but a short message from Bing saying "Your country or region requires a strict Bing SafeSearch setting, which filters out results that might return adult content."

ONI wonders whether that is actually true. It says:

"It is unclear ... whether Bing’s keyword filtering in the Arab countries is an initiative from Microsoft, or whether any or all of the Arab states have asked Microsoft to comply with local censorship practices or laws.

"It is interesting that Microsoft’s implementation of this type of wholesale social content censorship for the entire 'Arabian countries' region is in fact not being practised by many of the Arab government censors themselves. That is, although political filtering is widespread in the MENA [Middle East and North Africa] region, social filtering, including keyword filtering, is not practised by all countries in MENA. ONI 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 testing and research found no evidence of social content filtering (eg, sex, nudity, and homosexuality) at the national level in countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Libya."

The problems with this kind of "keyword" filtering are widely recognised and Microsoft really ought to know better. ONI explains:

"Microsoft’s declared aim from this type of censorship is to filter out 'results that might return adult content'. However, filtering at the keyword level results in overblocking, as banning the use of certain keywords to search for websites, not just images, prevents users from accessing – based on Microsoft’s definition of objectionable content – legitimate content such as sex education and encyclopedic information about homosexuality."

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Saudi Arabian gay man arrested after video goes viral

Source: Towleroad

A man in Saudi Arabia has been arrested and charged with "homosexuality", among other offenses, after a video he made with a friend was posted on YouTube and went viral in Saudi Arabia.

Arab News reports: "Police First Lt. Nawaf Al-Bouq told Arab News that the 27-year-old man had been previously charged 'with a homosexual case but was bailed out.'  ... 'This time he is facing three charges: One is for homosexuality; the other for general security; and the third is for impersonating a police officer,' said Al-Bouq. The video depicts a young Saudi man dressed in a police uniform inside a vehicle flirting with the man holding the camera. He asks the cameraman for his driver’s license and offers 'comfort.' At one point, he waves around what appears to be a real handgun. Later in the approximately two-and-a-half-minute video on YouTube, he lifts up his shirt and rubs his chest. The video quickly spread online and through SMS until police detained both men involved in the act. Attempts have been made to block the video from being viewed in Saudi Arabia."

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• The Saudi Arabian Punishment for Acting Faggy Online? 1 Year In Jail + 1,000 Lashes (queerty.com)

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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UAE: Too close for comfort: Homosexuality in schools

Image by wallyg via Flickr

Source: Gulf News - Feb 11

By Salam Al Amir

Sharjah: A shocking trend is sweeping across educational institutions in the UAE. It’s called same-sex relationships and it’s worrying officials and parents no end.

A number of students, school employees and others confided in XPRESS that inappropriate intimacy among girls is on the rise on campuses.

“They sit intimately close and touch each other inappropriately,” said Umm Rawan, an employee at the Sharjah University for Women (UOS).

The Emirati woman also had to deal with the demon on a personal level recently – first when her 16-year-old daughter fell for an Indian girl and then when her teenage son started receiving overtures from homosexual male students. Umm Rawan lodged a complaint with the school administration. “I am a divorcee and couldn’t handle these things on my own. I feared my kids would become homosexual so I gave them in the custody of their father,” she recalls.

But Umm Rawan’s startling revelation pales in comparison to the scandalous disclosure made by a girl on Abu Dhabi TV’s Step programme some time back.

Badriya, who prefers to be addressed as Bandar (a male name), shocked television audiences across the nation when she openly spoke of her relationship with another girl, Maha, and expressed the desire to marry her and have children with her through artificial fertilisation. “I love my girlfriend and I want to have children with her,” she said on national TV, adding that she would work to support her family.

Prohibited by law

Homosexuality is prohibited in the UAE and violators face stiff punishment.

Authorities are trying to curb deviant behaviour to better reflect the traditional conservative laws of the UAE. Last year the Ministry of Social Affairs launched an awareness campaign called Excuse me, I am a Girl, directed against what was described as ‘the ‘fourth gender’.

Meant to tackle lesbianism-related issues, the campaign included a series of workshops, TV programmes and lectures at universities and schools and was run by the Sharjah Social Care Centre for Women, an affiliate of the ministry. Samira Al Shair, Security Affairs Officer, Ajman Police, who implemented the campaign at Ajman Educational Zone said lesbianism accounted for 40 per cent of the 70-80 per cent of juvenile delinquency cases reported at Ajman schools.

“I dealt with many cases, almost all of which had one thing in common – the absence of a father,” recalled Samira.

Shocking estimates

Ameenah Ahmad, a UOS student who stays at the university dormitory, said that she estimates that up to one-third of the residents are lesbians. “We were ordered to dress properly even inside the dormitory. Sleeveless dresses and shorts have been banned lately,” she said.

Bakheeta Al Khatri, Manager, women’s dormitory at UOS, which has 8,000 female students including 1,600 in the hostel, denied knowledge of deviant activity, but didn’t entirely rule out the possibility. “If there are such cases, I doubt if the girls involved will talk about it,” she said. But some girls are talking.

Nana Rami, 19, an American University pupil, claims she was approached by a girl during a visit to Sharjah University. “She started flattering my body and sought to seek a relationship, but I turned her down,” said Nana.

Hana Al’adi, a student at UOS also had a similar experience. “Now I exercise caution while interacting with them,” she said.

 Dr Alia Ebrahim, a family and educational issues consultant based in Sharjah and Ajman, said there were several factors responsible for the upswing in same-sex relationships.

“Some theories suggest that gender identity disorder, often overlooked by parents and sometimes promoted by discriminating between genders within the family, is a key factor, “ she said.

Other possible contributing factors, she said, could include being the only girl among male siblings, absence of a father figure and sexual assault.

According to Dr Alia, worried mothers have reported many cases of delinquent behaviour at the Umm Al Mo’mineen Society, Family Bonds Consultation Centre in Ajman, which deals with the issue, adding that lack of comprehensive research makes it difficult for experts to estimate exact numbers.

What’s the solution?

The solution, according to Dr Alia, includes gathering accurate statistics and assigning specialised committees to tackle the problem and setting in motion a mechanism to educate students and create awareness.

She also emphasised the importance of revising the curricula and supervising internet use and other technological tools.

In a TV interview, Saudi Arabia-based consultant psychiatrist Dr Tarek Habib admitted that same-sex relationships existed in universities and schools in GCC countries, but insisted that the numbers were fewer compared to educational institutions in other parts of the world. Habib said there are essentially two types of homosexual females; one who feels womanly but is sexually attracted towards girls, and the other who feels manly and trapped within a woman’s body.

He contended that some girls need a specialist therapist and that the issue falls under the purview of medical science and therefore does not need interference from religious scholars.

Scholar speaks

Dubai-based Islamic scholar Shaikh Ahmad Al Qubaisi, speaking on the issue of lesbianism noted that while it is forbidden (haram), there is no specific punishment as per Sharia law. He said Islam considers a woman's status in society to be important and by publicising such cases, the entire family of the woman feels a sense of shame. He advised that such girls be treated discreetly.

Did you know?

According to Samira Al Shair, Ajman police, student delinquency at schools in Ajman stood at a steep 70-80 per cent, with lesbianism accounting for 40 per cent of this percentage.

Characteristics:

• The Boya: The first type is the girl who turns to sexual delinquency and plays the boy's role.
• The Tomboy: The second type is a girl who is not sexually delinquent.
• The Weaker girl: The third type is the weaker, beautiful girl who gets lured by the first type.