Reform in the Maghreb

Here's a series of posts that appeared on Al-Jazeera, covering the referendum in Morocco:

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/07/20117154535570851.html

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/insidestory/2011/06/201161964029349942.html

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/06/20116181756279674.html

I'm not sure what to think about the referendum. Do the reforms proposed by the king go far enough? Hardly, but is it a total decoy to fight off further protests, or is it a genuine step towards democracy?

On Mid East Youth a little article about a survey taken in Tunesia on LGBT issues:

http://www.mideastyouth.com/2011/07/01/on-lgbt-rights-in-tunisia/

And a series of articles on sexual harassment in Egypt:

http://www.mideastyouth.com/2011/06/19/sexual-harassment-in-egypt-part-ii-the-good-news/

Out of the closet.

For the past weeks I've been following the blog of Amina. Little did I know that we in the Netherlands have an Amina of our own. Monique Samuel, the Dutch-Egyptian publicist who was on TV almost every day during the unrest in Egypt, came out in an emotional post on her blog. She's divorced her husband and has told the world she's a lesbian. Though I've met her only once, when we were both invited to speak in a panel about the Iranian and Egyptian protest movements, I have to say I'm very proud of her and wish her luck!

Unfortunately this is only in Dutch:

http://www.moniquesamuel.nl/?p=1245

Love Jihadists

Amsterdam has a very special guest: South-African Imam Muhsin Hendricks. Some people know him from the documentary a Jihad for Love (http://www.ajihadforlove.com/). He's a queer Imam on a mission to rid homophobia from muslim communities. In his own studies he's come to the conclusion that Islam has no negative views on mutual consentual love.

I had the pleasure of meeting him a few days ago. Today I will attend a conference on Islam and Homosexuality where the Imam will speak.

Here's an article on mr. Hendricks:

http://www.echoinggreen.org/fellows/muhsin-hendricks

Homosexuality

It's an issue that always kind of hung there. The taboo no one talked about. Everyone knew about the human rights abuses against the LGBT community, but to talk about their rights was not done. Luckily things are changing. Iranians are getting more educated, and instinctively feel that if we have 3.750.000 gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders in Iran (my rough estimate, based on a conservative 5 percent of the total population) you can worry about their rights, even if you are not gay yourself.

Also, many TV channels are writing about the issue. Radio Zamaneh has a page dedicated to LGBT called degarbash (in Persian).

And the new TV channel Man-o-to TV came with this item. Not shocking stuff, unless you're an Iranian that's been kept away from this kind of info:

Maybe this is the battle, to slowly inject sanity to the discourse, one item at a time...

Homosexuality in the Animal Kingdom

To take a break from all that's happening in Iran, here's a little link that might put a smile or a frown on your face, depending on your personal beliefs.

Same-sex attraction is found to be commonplace in the animal kingdom:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fg%2Fa%2F2009%2F07%2F01%2Fnotes070109.DTL&nl=fix