Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people generally have limited or highly restrictive rights in most parts of the Middle East, and are open to hostility in others.
Sex being gay in middle eastern countries men is illegal in 9 of the 18 countries that make up the region. It is punishable by death in four of these 18 countries. The rights and freedoms of LGBTQ citizens are strongly influenced by the. Countries where Homosexuality is still a Crime (in alphabetical order) In the Middle Eastern region, there are 13 countries that still criminalise homosexuality.
Of these 8 have ratified the ICCPR. There are a number of Middle Eastern or Muslim-majority countries where same-sex activity is completely legal, including Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan. Homosexuality in the Middle East is a deeply complex and multifaceted issue, shaped by the region’s religious, cultural, and legal landscapes. While attitudes and policies vary across countries, the overarching narrative is one of tension between traditional values and emerging calls for LGBTQ+ rights.
In countries like Syria, punishment for gay sex can be imprisonment. In countries like Yemen, Iran, Qatar the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia, it can even lead to the death penalty. Brazil is hitting record numbers of same-sex marriages, but the legislative landscape surrounding them remains shrouded in uncertainty.
Explore More. Speed Read Some public officials want to roll back long-standing legal protections for journalists. They work to identify individuals who are in danger and provide them with support to flee to safer locations. Notably, the article reported that this was not the view of people in the region hundreds of years ago. Will abortion decide the presidential race?
Source: Landete, P. Speed Read Calls for foreign intervention have mounted as the island nation's situation has deteriorated. Image: Maria Oswalt. Related Articles of Human Rights Art. However, in the Quran, every transgression is subject to a precise legal and moral standard, which is theoretically not the case for sodomy.
In focus. Article of the country's penal code criminalises "sodomy" and defines it as sexual intercourse between two men. As the ILGA report noted, this includes Iran, where their penal code can impose the death penalty for "sodomy," gay sex acts, lesbian sex acts, and more. This brings us back to the game of appearances and the taboo on sexuality that is omnipresent in Arab societies. Why is Alabama pausing its executions?
The existence of this kind of poetry, which developed in the region until the beginning of the 19th century, highlights the fact that homosexual relationships are not prohibited themselves but that it is rather a prohibition of the act itself, sodomy. In many of these countries, all being gay in middle eastern countries intercourse outside of marriage is illegal, including among heterosexual couples. In Februarywhen a court in Ibn, southern Yemen, sentenced 13 students to death for "spreading homosexuality.
As ofhomosexuality is criminalised in 64 countries globally. The prohibition of both forms of homosexuality thus reflects the centrality of penetration in marriage, as a governing act and source of social order [5] Bouhdiba, A. Ina trans woman was detained, tortured and whipped in chastisement of her gender expression before fleeing the country.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox. While Middle Eastern countries have different laws codifying these bans, HRW reported, "Almost all Arabic-speaking countries in the Middle East and North Africa region criminalize forms of consensual adult sexual relations which can include sex between unmarried individuals, adultery, and same-sex relations.
Sexuality in Islam. While homosexuality in all its forms remains little accepted in the region, as an object of study it bears witness to the gender relations characteristic of patriarchal societies and exposes the patterns that make them up. Yemen In Yemen, homosexuality is illegal and punishable by imprisonment for up to three years. University of Chicago Press. There is significant focus on Qatar due to the World Cup.
Much of the root cause could be traced to Islamic fundamentalism that arose in the s in countries like Iran.
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