Comments on: The Last, Great Taboo: Sexual Identities in the Middle East http://caledoniyya.com/2009/07/06/the-last-great-taboo-sexual-identities-in-the-middle-east/ Sat, 04 Feb 2012 18:43:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Layla http://caledoniyya.com/2009/07/06/the-last-great-taboo-sexual-identities-in-the-middle-east/#comment-1974 Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:21:54 +0000 http://caledoniyya.com/?p=4184#comment-1974 Yes, I absolutely agree in the context of writers in the region, but in terms of Western academics, I wonder how far this is truly the case. That is the most interesting aspect of AbuKhalil’s conclusion.

On the blackmail front you are entirely correct: not only are academics anxious, but also in the political context such laws have been deployed to intimidate political activists, actors, and opponents. In many ways such legislation has developed a new purpose: that of control.

At the moment the topic resembles a sprawling spaghetti monster of issues: health, awareness, legal, cultural… The crux of the conference is violence, so I shall look at the measures adopted by regional organizations such as Helem, Bekhsoos and Meem (amongst others) that utilize the web as a means to not only dispel misconceptions, but articulate the needs of the LGBT community and provide legal and health advice and resources.

]]> By: bambam http://caledoniyya.com/2009/07/06/the-last-great-taboo-sexual-identities-in-the-middle-east/#comment-1973 Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:21:11 +0000 http://caledoniyya.com/?p=4184#comment-1973 There is a general shying away from the topic to this day and shameful the reasons that you mentioned are the least of the peoples worries in reality.
Some of the more extreme consequences are imprisonment for breaking public indecency laws and the publications laws when tackling such an issue as “voilence based on sexual identity”. The posibility of blackmail or even imprisonment beacuse of anti-homosexual laws in certain countries guarantee the distancing of any academic from those studies and they barely allude to them because of that. The more sinister explanation is that to most arabs they prefer it if those communities remain hidden and are thought of as outsiders and foreign and hence any enlightenment on the issue is frowned upon because it will challenge that mentality… simply if they see the topic “violence based on sexual identity” the first thing that will pop in their head is “serves them well, they deserve it for going against our culture”.
so lets start with getting sexual identity into the Arabic lexicon first. although things have been improving slowly and work has been done to better understand the issue at hand in the MENA region. especially in the area of health awareness.
out of curiosity how are you going to tackle the topic ? are there others you are thinking off ?

]]>