Gay Travels in the Muslim World

[Sky Dancer]

On a day-to-day basis, without calling the behavior gay, sex between men is not uncommon in Egypt.

Gay Travels in the Muslim World: An Interview With Michael Luongo

 

[Sky Dancer]

Parvez Sharma, the filmmaker behind the documentary A Jihad for Love, discusses the underground world of homosexuality in Muslim countries. Filmed in 12 countries and nine languages, the documentary profiles men and women who struggle daily against persecution, danger and social isolation.
Homosexuality in Muslim World Shrouded in Secrecy : NPR

 

[Madeline]

Interesting to see ourselves through their eyes. I wonder how female homosexuality is received.

 

[Grace]

I had a roomie couple a few years ago. One was from Syria and spoke farsi, the other was caucasian (Thomas) and from Los Angeles. Both were major WOW fans and the one from Syria is a champion player that plays at all the competitions being held for (Amir). One time while he was cooking for Thomas and I passed thru the kitchen, Amir had on a white tank like tshirt...and scars all over his shoulder. Bad ones. They trailed toward his back. When I passed by, he hurriedly put his hand up to his arm as if to hide it. I didn't ask what happened and pretended I didn't see it. My other roomie told me later that she asked him how he got such bad scars like that and he got flustered and refused to tell. All he did choose to say was that he was glad he was in the USA..because he would be dead if not.
I miss them. They moved to LA since that's where the WOW and other game competitions were held often and it was too far to drive from here. I told them if they ever came back this way...the door would always be open.
I miss Amir's singing while in the shower..even though I can't understand Farsi.

 

[Ropey]

I had a roomie couple a few years ago. One was from Syria and spoke farsi, the other was caucasian (Thomas) and from Los Angeles. Both were major WOW fans and the one from Syria is a champion player that plays at all the competitions being held for (Amir). One time while he was cooking for Thomas and I passed thru the kitchen, Amir had on a white tank like tshirt...and scars all over his shoulder. Bad ones. They trailed toward his back. When I passed by, he hurriedly put his hand up to his arm as if to hide it. I didn't ask what happened and pretended I didn't see it. My other roomie told me later that she asked him how he got such bad scars like that and he got flustered and refused to tell. All he did choose to say was that he was glad he was in the USA..because he would be dead if not.
I miss them. They moved to LA since that's where the WOW and other game competitions were held often and it was too far to drive from here. I told them if they ever came back this way...the door would always be open.
I miss Amir's singing while in the shower..even though I can't understand Farsi.

“According to Iranian human rights campaigners, over 4,000 lesbians and gay men have been executed since the Ayatollahs seized power in 1979. Altogether, an estimated 100,000 Iranians have been put to death over the last 26 years of clerical rule.”

Allowed to be human here and dead there.

 

[Sky Dancer]

Interesting to see ourselves through their eyes. I wonder how female homosexuality is received.

Aliyah is 22 now, still hovering at 90 pounds, the dark skin of her Indian roots hugging bone, a boyishly feminine lesbian with cropped black hair gelled into a tussle atop her head, long eyelashes and sharp cheekbones.

She has traded her abaya, which she wore throughout middle and high school, for an ankle-length black trench coat and sunglasses with metallic frames. She has one piercing in her left ear, four in her right, a metal rod bridging the cartilage in the ear's upper rim, a ring in her bellybutton, another in her nose.

Aliyah is Muslim. It's a part of her identity she can't shed, like her sexuality, like her last name -- Bacchus, as in the Roman god of wine and merriment -- and like her ink-stained flesh: the angel tattooed between her shoulder blades, the dark dragons on her lower back, the polar bear on her stomach, the dying rose on her right wrist.



Aliyah Bacchus - Faith, family test gay Muslim - Los Angeles Times

 

[Sky Dancer]

Interesting to see ourselves through their eyes. I wonder how female homosexuality is received.

Aliyah is 22 now, still hovering at 90 pounds, the dark skin of her Indian roots hugging bone, a boyishly feminine lesbian with cropped black hair gelled into a tussle atop her head, long eyelashes and sharp cheekbones.

She has traded her abaya, which she wore throughout middle and high school, for an ankle-length black trench coat and sunglasses with metallic frames. She has one piercing in her left ear, four in her right, a metal rod bridging the cartilage in the ear's upper rim, a ring in her bellybutton, another in her nose.

Aliyah is Muslim. It's a part of her identity she can't shed, like her sexuality, like her last name -- Bacchus, as in the Roman god of wine and merriment -- and like her ink-stained flesh: the angel tattooed between her shoulder blades, the dark dragons on her lower back, the polar bear on her stomach, the dying rose on her right wrist.


The story of a lesbian Muslim American and her path of self discovery and acceptance | Gay & Bisexual Women Community, Forum & After Ellen Members | AfterEllen.com

 

[Ropey]

Interesting to see ourselves through their eyes. I wonder how female homosexuality is received.

A gay Iranian woman came within minutes of being put onto a non-stop flight to Tehran at Heathrow this evening as the UK Government’s Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) – part of the Home Office – went through the final process of deportation.

It was only the late intervention of the office of Sheffield Central Member of Parliament Richard Caborn, the Minister of Sport, that prevented the deportation.

However, the deportation is only “on hold” until August 27, a spokesperson at Asylum Seeker Support Initiative in Sheffield told UK Gay News.

Pegah Emambakhsh arrived in the UK in 2005 and sought asylum, having fled Iran after her same-sex partner was arrested and subsequently tortured and sentenced to death by stoning.

Her father was also arrested and interrogated about her whereabouts – he was eventually released, but not before he had been tortured himself.

The claim for asylum was rejected by the BIA, despite her appeals. Ms. Emambakhsh was finally arrested in Sheffield last Monday and was taken on Wednesday to Yarls Wood Immigration Removal Centre.

If returned to Iran, Ms. Emambakhsh faces certain imprisonment and possible execution by stoning. Her ‘crime’ – she was in a lesbian relationship.

http://www.ukgaynews.org.uk/Archive/07/Aug/1601.htm
http://www.melonfarmers.co.uk/awbb07.htm
UK Gay News

 

[Sky Dancer]

You like that story, Ropey?

 

[Grace]

This makes me extremely sad. And angry.
No wonder I like animals more than people.

 

[Ropey]

It's happening right now.

Like has nothing to do with truth. Like is a choice.

Truth simply is Sky Dancer.

This lady you posted about fled certain death and it is not certain she will live through her ordeal. Just because you choose to find a few posts showing Muslims who leave their controlling countries are able to find some modicum of ability to share themselves with their own gender while traveling, etc. in no way shows what is happening to them on the ground in Muslim countries.

 

[Sky Dancer]

Israel loving lesbian feminist Muslim takes aim at Islam.
Lesbian, Feminist, Israel-loving Muslim takes aim at her beloved Islam- Beliefnet.com

 

[Sky Dancer]

Struggle for gay Muslim couples to marry:
The fallacy of “Islamic gay marriage” « Eye on ‘Gay Muslims’

 

[Ropey]

I know one thing. I do not want my openly gay son to travel anywhere Muslims are in control of any country.

On the ground their works are known.

 

[Sky Dancer]

On Valentine's Day, Al-Fatiha released the first-ever survey of Muslims of all traditions who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, and questioning or exploring their sexual orientation and/or gender identity (LGBTQ).
Al-Fatiha

 

[Sky Dancer]

I know one thing. I do not want my openly gay son to travel anywhere Muslims are in control of any country.

On the ground their works are known.

I pray your son is safe no matter where he chooses to travel.

 

[Ropey]

On Valentine's Day, Al-Fatiha released the first-ever survey of Muslims of all traditions who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, and questioning or exploring their sexual orientation and/or gender identity (LGBTQ).
Al-Fatiha

Hopefully the Muslim leaders of these peoples countries (if they are in Muslim countries and not in Western countries that is) do not find out who they are because if they do, then they are in for some world of hurt.

When I see Muslim countries becoming more modern, then I will believe there is actually a movement.

And then the acts will show the countries are modernizing.

I know one thing. I do not want my openly gay son to travel anywhere Muslims are in control of any country.

On the ground their works are known.

I pray your son is safe no matter where he chooses to travel.

Your prayers will not help if it is a Muslim country and he chooses to be himself.

That's where your philosophy fails Sky Dancer.

On the ground.

 

[Sky Dancer]

One gay Muslim is training to be an imam, or religious scholar, in Washington D.C. He prefers to go by Abdala because other Muslim scholars don't know he's gay. Abdala hopes to use his education to help fellow gay Muslims come to terms with their sexuality.

"I'm training to be an imam so I can provide a better service of how to live in this society," Abdala said. Abdala does not believe that the Quoran condemns homosexuality. He explains that in the religious text, men are punished 'for raping and abusing other men' not for engaging in consensual sex.

"I've always challenged scholars because they're heterosexual and that's why they interpreted it that way," Abdala said. "I think I'm breaking new ground."

Still, Abdala acknowledges that he hasn't been open about his homosexuality in training. His instructors have said that being gay is going against good ethics and morals. He worries that coming out would impede the training process and hurt his chances of graduation. If Abdala doesn't graduate, he won't be able to offer religious services to other gay Muslims.

Traditional Muslim scholars don't accept alternative interpretations to the Quoran. Hamza Yusuf, a Muslim scholar at the Bay Area's Zaytuna Institute, condemns those who try to find new meaning in the holy text.

To Be Gay and Muslim | | AlterNet

 

[Sky Dancer]

Apparently, one way that gay and lesbian Muslims get around this oppression is to enter into marriages of convenience with each other.

Muslim homosexual men advertise to marry Muslim lesbians.

 

[Ropey]

One gay Muslim is training to be an imam, or religious scholar, in Washington D.C. He prefers to go by Abdala because other Muslim scholars don't know he's gay. Abdala hopes to use his education to help fellow gay Muslims come to terms with their sexuality.

"I'm training to be an imam so I can provide a better service of how to live in this society," Abdala said. Abdala does not believe that the Quoran condemns homosexuality. He explains that in the religious text, men are punished 'for raping and abusing other men' not for engaging in consensual sex.

"I've always challenged scholars because they're heterosexual and that's why they interpreted it that way," Abdala said. "I think I'm breaking new ground."

Still, Abdala acknowledges that he hasn't been open about his homosexuality in training. His instructors have said that being gay is going against good ethics and morals. He worries that coming out would impede the training process and hurt his chances of graduation. If Abdala doesn't graduate, he won't be able to offer religious services to other gay Muslims.

Traditional Muslim scholars don't accept alternative interpretations to the Quoran.Hamza Yusuf, a Muslim scholar at the Bay Area's Zaytuna Institute, condemns those who try to find new meaning in the holy text.

To Be Gay and Muslim | | AlterNet

In the Muslim countries Sky Dancer? No, of course not. In the West.

And since they are in the West. You know what the Muslim leaders of the Muslim countries say about the gay training to be an Imam, do you?

Traditional scholars run all the Muslim countries since their laws forbid such.

Apparently, one way that gay and lesbian Muslims get around this oppression is to enter into marriages of convenience with each other.

Muslim homosexual men advertise to marry Muslim lesbians.

And if they are caught.

They are killed.