Bahrain’s gay-hunt
April 24th, 2008While Bahrain is considered one of the more tolerant nations in the Middle East, especially in comparison to its Gulf neighbours, homosexuality remains a crime there.
However, Al Menbar bloc, not content that the penalty of fines, imprisonment or deportation acts as a sufficient deterrent, called on tougher measures to “stamp out homosexuality”.
The proposal – which has been ratified by parliament called on
- The Interior Ministry to stop granting residence permits to foreign homosexuals
- The Education Ministry to monitor students, and punishing those who veered towards homosexuality
- The Industry and Commerce Ministry to monitor massage and hair salons to ensure that they have no closed rooms and that violators be prosecuted
In short, the MPs are calling for the creation of an Orwellian society.
Of course, many questions would have to be resolved before such rules can be implemented. What constitutes “homosexual behaviour” – watching Teletubbies and drinking soy milk? Who will be in charge of monitoring students? What punishment would befall those veering towards homosexuality – would there be camps to pump them with hormones as a cure? And what about computers?
To complement the utter homophobia, an Al Menbar MP sprinkled his statement with xenophobia
Those people are either from the Philippines or Thailand and they come for these two jobs, which they use as a curtain for their homosexual behaviour and immorality.
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This is definitely not a good thing. We don’t need to give Pat Robertson and company any new ideas.
I’m still waiting to see how Bahraini citizens would respond to this news, although some have expressed their fury.
The only thing that’s left is for them to create a national call-line for reporting homosexuals … 800 – KILLGAYS (54554287)
How utterly disturbing, what’s our country coming down to?
But i thought more democracy meant more human rights. Surely these MPs have been misquoted?
Not at all. And who said Bahrain was democratic? We are hardly a democracy – we only seem as such in comparison to neighboring countries, yes, but we’re quite far from a serious, functioning “democracy.”
As for being “misquoted” – you wanna meet our MPs? Check this one out:
Ah yes! Human rights. Insult and punish those who take part in singing, celebrating, listening to rock music, and ew, all those homos too! This is our democracy. Screw serious matters such as education, migrant rights, sex trafficking, health care, affordable housing, et al. They don’t matter. OUR YOUTH ON THE INTERNET THOUGH? The world is over. Let’s launch a campaign to ban every harmless hobby/passion in existence. Much easier than achieving real change in society and helping the unemployed/poor/homeless/sick or work on things such as family law.
Thanks for the reply Esra’a.
Sorry, my question was kind of facetious, but I did want to raise a serious point: the relationship between democracy and human rights. One of the problems with discussion about democratisation in the Middle East is that there doesn’t seem to be an acknowledgement on the part of democracy advocates that more democracy won’t necessarily promote human or minority rights. I’m not saying that Bahrain’s a democracy, only that the lower house of parliament’s a lot more democratic than either the executive or the liberal elite whose laissez faire attitude obviously so angers Mohammed Khaled and his many sympathisers. Yet this truth seems to be swept under the carpet by those who are the most enthusiastic supporters of democracy.
I do have the worst sarcasm detector in the world.
Honestly, in any “democracy,” minorities get screwed. Tyranny of the majority, some like to call it. I advocate certain democratic values, such as freedom of speech for example, limited government, etc, but certainly not “democracy” as a whole within the region. Suppose we do have democracy – the majority say they want severe punishments for homosexuals (and this is totally possible, homosexuals throughout the whole region get abused first and foremost by their societies, not necessarily the government) – or that expat and migrant workers should continue to be treated like slaves (also possible; no one gives a shit and racism in the country is rampant and treated casually, not many bother raising an eyebrow at this abuse) – where’s the human rights in that? If people have a voice in the country, and they vote to actively oppress minorities (ethnic, religious, sexual, whatever) then what?
Makes me realize..
Our problems are societal, not necessarily related to the government (not in these cases anyways.) If we want it to change, I believe we really can, but no one bothers changing it because people do approve.
Actually I am wrong, they are related to the government of course, but I think we have a social responsibility to change the things we consider wrong. To consider homosexuality a crime, to be imprisoned for it, that is something people seem to approve of. So the government gets away with it, people say it’s in keeping with “Islamic values.” Same thing with migrant rights, if people want to improve the laws concerning them, they can. But it’s not to their benefit, because racists are everywhere. They really are treated like second hand citizens. Suck them dry of their cheap labor until they drop dead or commit suicide. Society’s reply: Shrug. Just import more.
That’s a credit to you – sarcasm is the lowest form of humour. Thanks a lot for your reply – I’m v. sympathetic to what you’re saying here.
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