In the past few months, 15 non-heterosexual Arabs have been virtually celebrated in the media. According to Step Feed there are only 4 women – either lesbian or trans – that have been brave enough to face the homophobic behavior in the Arab community.
Sexism and taboo
In every sexist society women suffer oppressions, limitations, and constraints on account of being a woman, but in the Arab world the situation is even worse. Women struggle to hold on to their basic rights, like the freedom to choose to remain unmarried, to travel without a male guardian, or to spend the day at the pool with friends! Unfortunately, this submissive mechanism is not adopted only by the men of the family; often the mothers are the ones to impose on their daughters how to carry out certain situations, providing them with tangible examples on how to survive the forceful patriarchal system.
Amelle (not her real name) is a 31 year old lesbian from Algeria, who agreed to a marriage of convenience to avoid being sentenced by the law or casted away by her family. She tells the story in an interview to France 24: “I ended up marrying a gay guy who I met through a friend.” The two of them immediately found a common ground: they both wanted to be parents. Since they can’t marry their “soul mate” or simply love anyone of the same sex, they decided to protect each other from hatred and biases against non-heterosexual love, which is still a taboo.
TenTen and solidarity
Amelle’s testimony was published on October 11th, just one day after the Algerian Gay Pride, and as every year, the group Alouen and the LGBTQIA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, asexual) community, celebrated the TenTen (October 10) in honor of all the sexual minorities in Algeria. TenTen is at its eleventh anniversary: numerous photos of commemorative candles were posted on social networks to support LGBTQIA rights.
Beyond pride and national fights against anti-gay laws, many LGBTQIA associations within the Arab states are trying to team up in order to keep the public informed about the situation all over the world. For instance, in Egypt a rainbow flag triggered a mass arrest [Il Grande Colibrì], and in Tunisia AllOut asked for the abolition of the barbaric anal tests.
Lyas
translation by Barbara Burgio
©2017 Il Grande Colibrì
