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GAY NEWS FOR THE MIDDLE EAST AND ISLAMIC WORLD
JANUARY 2008
THIS MONTH'S GAY NEWS
- MIDDLE EAST AND ISLAMIC WORLD
31 January 2008
Gay activist blocks the route of General Musharraf's motorcade in London
Gay City News
28 January 2008
Egypt bans books from its' international Cairo book fair including at least one mentioning homosexuality
AFP
23 January 2008
There were 441 confirmed new HIV positive cases in Azerbaijan during 2007 bringing the total of HIV positive Azeris infected since 1987 to 1379. Interestingly the article quotes the number attributed to homosexual behaviour at only 12 (less than one per cent !), but it's not clear if this is due to the particular situation in Azerbaijan or to false reporting by msm patients' due to fear of homophobia and discrimination.
Azeri Press Agency
21 January 2008
A short review in advance of the release on video next month of the film "The Bubble" about a love affair between an Israeli and a Palestinian man.
Videobusiness.com
21 January 2008
Controversy over a weekend protest in the Netherlands against Dutch artists photographic portrayal of gay Muslims wearing the masks of the Prophet Muhammad and his stepson Ali.
islamineurope.blogspot.com
21 January 2008
Two leading Argentine gay rights campaigners get married and choose Egypt for their honeymoon.
AP article on PR-inside.com
21 January 2008
Norwegian gay muslim sent back to the Middle East to be "cured"
islamineurope.blogspot.com
20 January 2008
Turkey's transsexuals take to the Ankara stage in a new play "Pink and Grey" highlighting discrimination against the transgender community.
AFP
20 January 2008
Dutch embassies on alert as Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch Freedom Party, prepares to air film which might propose that the Quran be banned because of its' "violent messages" and "intolerance" towards women and the gay community.
PR-inside.com
20 January 2008
Forum comment on question - "Is there a gay scene in Sousse (Tunisia) ?"
TripAdvisor.com
20 January 2008
An American Imam and Islamic Studies student plans to come out as gay when he graduates in a few months time
Blog
20 January 2008
Appeal opens in Dubai male rape case. Defendants could face the death penalty.
AFP article on Inquirer.net
19 January 2008
"Jihad for Love," a ground breaking documentary on lesbian and gay Muslims, wins "Best Documentary" at Delhi's tri-continental film festival.
Director's Blog
19 January 2008
One of Turkey's top television personalities, “The Petulant Virgin,” the country's most popular transexual, has been allegedly pressured into ditching his wig and appearing "as himself"
Turkish Daily News
18 January 2008
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission concludes that a "Little Mosque on the Prairie" programme, in which a fictional gay couple were forced to leave the area to marry in Toronto, was not homophobic.
Broadcaster Magazine
18 January 2008
Young English woman sets up the Lesbian Association of India after a lengthy stay in the country as a guest of a female Kashmiri militant "terrorist".
Camrbidge News
18 January 2008
The flamboyant gay singer, musican and AIDS philanthropist, Sir Elton John, will perform live at the Abu Dhabi’s Emirates Palace next Tuesday
Business24-7.ae
18 January 2008
Dubai male rape teen tests negative for HIV
CNN
18 January 2008
Many Sudanese with HIV battle intense discrimination and rejection by friends and family
PlusNews.org
18 January 2008
Geert Wilders, leader of
the Dutch Freedom Party, suggests that half of the Quran be banned because of what he alleges is its' message of intolerance toward women and the gay community.
PR-inside.com
18 January 2008
Canadian Lesbian Muslim author and activist Irshad Manji will travel to London on 21st January to promote her new film "Faith Without Fear."
Modern Church Blog
18 January 2008
New film on Iranian transexuals claims that Tehran's leading specialist surgeon performs more transgender operations than are carried out in an entire decade in France.
NewsDay.com
18 January 2008
NGO helps HIV-positive Algerians battle workplace discrimination
Maghrebia.com
18 January 2008
A new Iranian cartoon movie "Persepolis" features an adventurous middle class Iranian who goes to Europe where she falls in love with a gay student and on returning to Tehran her experiences lead her to seek out therapy
bendweekly.com
18 January 2008
Kuwait arrests at least 14 people in the last month as part of a new crackdown on cross-dressers, transexuals and "gender inappropriate" dress.
Human Rights Watch quoted on PamsHouseBlend.com Blog
18 January 2008
Mordechai Vanunu, the famous whistle blower of Israel's nuclear program, alleges that the Israeli government tried to portray him as gay in order to discredit him.
Arabisto.com
18 January 2008
Gay marriage one step nearer in Israel
Jewish Chronicle
18 January 2008
Atlanta Jewish Film Festival to screen “Jerusalem Is Proud to Present,” a film documenting the struggle between conservative religious groups and the planners of the annual World Pride celebration, which was held in Jerusalem in 2006.
Southern Voice
18 January 2008
A new Lebanese film, Caramel, includes a lesbian character who works in a Beirut beauty parlour and "sneaks glances at pretty girls on the bus"
New Jersey Jewish Standard
17 January 2008
T-shirts with the slogan "I am not gay but my friend is" which are being sold in a market in Al-Ain, Emirates, provoke complaint.
Khaleej Times
17 January 2008
Desperately depressed gay Algerian, forced in to a marriage by his family 16 months ago, appeals for advice and emotional support on a gay forum.
Posting by Raouf on JustUsBoys.com
17 January 2007
The film Kite Runner has been banned in Afghanistan because of a scene showing the homosexual rape of a Hazara boy by a Pashtun.
BBC
17 January 2008
Amnesty International calls on the Moroccan government to release imprisoned gays.
Amnesty International Australia
17 January 2008
More Malaysian women ordering lesbian mags
Article in the Nation quoted on a blog.
16 January 2008
A new documentary, Living Dangerously, on gay life in the global south includes an interview with Egyptian Ashraf Zanati who spent 13 months in prison after the infamous police raid on the Queen Boat discotheque in May 2001. “My sexuality is my own sexuality," he tells the interviewer, "It doesn’t belong to anybody. Not to my government, not to my brother, my sister, my family. No.”
Best Documentaries Blog
16 January 2008
New book profiles the lives of young American Muslims including "Sarah" - a lesbian Muslim who is annoyed when fellow muslims criticize her sexuality.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution
15 January 2008
Arab Israelis receive letters through the post with comments such as "Muhammad was gay" added.
ynetnews.com
15 January 2008
Lesbian kiss in the film Heen Maysara, recently released in Egypt, is denounced as a "zionist conspiracy."
Muslimah Media Watch Blog
15 January 2008
Not a shred of evidence but the court says they're guilty. Morocco's Appeal Court upholds the case against six found "guilty" of consensual homosexual acts.
Reuters Africa
15 January 2008
Fatima Bhutto, the niece of Pakistan's former premier Benazir Bhutto, defends the rights of lesbians.
Mangalorean
15 January 2008
How the internet has revolutionized life for Israel's gay and lesbian community.
Haaretz.com
14 January 2008
Israeli website claims that Arafat had nightly bonking sessions with his male bodyguards and that Romanian president Caucescu supplied him with pre-teen boys. However it doesn't quote its' sources for this information except for a vague reference to the Romanian Embassy in Egypt.
Israelenews.com
13 January 2008
Convicted gay Iranians will probably be thrown out of a helicopter claims blogger
Anti-Mullah
13 January 2008
A brutal killing of two teenagers in their father's taxi in Texas turns media attention on a prominent Muslim and Egyptian immigrant, who allegedly previously defended "violence, even deadly violence" against women and homosexuals.
Dallas Morning News
13 January 2008
Gay Bangladeshi worker murdered and his penis chopped off
minivannews.com
13 January 2008
The WHO/Iraq Government survey which estimates 151,000 war deaths in Iraq also estimates that 43 per cent of Iraqi women have never heard of AIDS
ScienceDaily.com
13 January 2008
Blogger claims that there are so few women around in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli that it, not Beirut, is the real "gay capital of Lebanon."
ouwet.com comment
13 January 2008
Blogger's article on the debate over Islam and homosexuality in Norway
Islam in Europe
12 January 2008
Gay Bengali compic delights crowds across Britain and worldwide
Manchester Evening News
12 January 2008
AIDS rate doubles in the Iranian Shia holy city of Qum and almost half of those infected are from the theological colleges
MuslimNews.co.uk
11 January 2008
A lesbian kiss shocks Islamists. Brief news article on three new Egyptian films including Khaled Youssef's controversial "Heena maysara" (Until Things Get Better).
Variety
11 January 2007
The Tunis born Mayor of Paris' is gay and an Al Qaeda target.
The Edge
11 January 2008
Home of 17 year old Nigerian gay boy "allegedly burned" to the ground.
The Tide News
11 January 2008
Indonesian activists demand equal rights for transvestites seeking work
The Jakarta Post
For the previous week's news please click here.
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