News Dedicated to Muslims lesbian,gay,bisexual

[Rasputin]

Iranian gay men safe in Netherlands

The Dutch government Wednesday granted special asylum rights to Iranian gay men and lesbians, despite earlier comments by Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk that they would be safe in their home country as long as they were discreet, the Reuters news agency reported.

Verdonk, whose tough stance on immigration and asylum has been condemned by many on the left, based her decision on an unpublished report by Human Rights Watch, which refers to systematic abuse of gays in Iran, her ministry said in a statement.

She also extended a moratorium set to expire this month for Iranian Christian asylum seekers to remain in the Netherlands until May 2007.

"Homosexual Iranian asylum seekers can now find a safe haven in the Netherlands from the persecution and inhuman treatment they face in Iran," Frank van Dalen, chairman of gay rights group COC Nederland, told Reuters.

"A year ago, an Iranian asylum seeker with a death sentence hanging over his head was still sitting at Schiphol airport waiting to be deported," van Dalen said.

Verdonk raised the ire of gay groups in March when she moved to lift her reprieve on the deportations. When lawmakers in the ruling coalition joined the opposition Labor party in fighting Verdonk's plan, she backtracked until an "investigation" could be completed in the fall.

[abadani69]

woooow, dige chi kaar hast ke nemikonan

[Rasputin]

[Rasputin]

همجنسگرا : مجرم، بيمار، منحرف يا ...؟

مدتها درصدد گفتگو با يك همجنسگراي ايراني بودم. اين فرصت پيش نمي آمد. اكثر همجنسگرايان ايراني، به دليل فشارهاي سياسي و اجتماعي حاكم بر ايران و احساس خطر، حاضر به بيان گرايش جنسي خود و انجام مصاحبه با يك ايراني نيستند. تا اينكه ا.ابراهیم حاضر شد در يك گفتگوي دوستانه، از خودش، گرايش جنسي و مشكلاتش در ايران بگويد. او به دليل مشكلات شخصي به يكي از كشورهاي اروپايي پناهنده شده ست. با هم مي خوانيم :

شما يك همجنسگراي ايراني هستيد،* اين يعني چه؟

ببينيد، سوال شما از دو بخش تشكيل شده، همجنسگرا يك نوع گرايش جنسي و ايراني يك مليت است . فرد همجنسگرا شخصي است كه از لحاظ روحي، جنسي و جسمي، تمايل به همجنس خود دارد، خواه مي تواند مرد يا زن باشد. همجنسگراي ايراني يعني فردي با داشتن اين مشخصات در جامعه ايران .

چطور شد كه همجنسگرا شدي؟

من همجسنگرا نشدم. همجنسگرا بودم. سوالتان را با يك سوال ديگر جواب مي دهم. چطور شد كه شما، غير همجنسگرا شديد؟ لطفا جواب بدهيد..

مسئله كمي متفاوت هست. بيشتر مردم دنيا، لااقل آنطوري كه ديده مي شود ،*مثل من هتروسكشوال (دگرجنسگرا) هستند، يا دست كم اينطور ادعا مي كنند. وقتي من از شما اين را مي پرسم، منظورم اين هست كه چرا با ديگران و اكثريت جامعه، تفاوت داري؟

اين من نيستم كه با ديگران تفاوت دارم. جامعه با من متفاوت برخورد مي كند. همانطوري كه در جامعه، افراد بلند قد و كوتاه قد، چاق و لاغر وجود دارند، در همين جامعه افرادي با گرايشهاي جنسي متفاوت هم مي توانند وجود داشته باشند. يك فرد مي تواند به جنس مخالف خود علاقه داشته باشد يا به همجنس خود

اما خيلي ها ، اين تفاوت را به رسميت نمي شناسند، يعني اين مثال شما را صحيح نمي دانند. همجنس گرايي به عقيده خيلي ها ، يك انحراف است. يك اشتباه، يا يك بيماري است...

اگر از نگاه علمي به قضيه بنگريم و بخواهيم جواب علمي براي اين موضوع پيدا كنيم، مي توان با مراجعه به مقالات علمي و پزشكي* پيشرفته ترين كشورهاي دنيا، مثل آمريكا، كانادا، استراليا، ژاپن و قاره اروپا پاسخ سوالمان را بيابيم. حتي در بسياري از كشورهاي آسياي جنوب شرقي كه پيشرفت علمي آنچناني هم ندارند ، اين گرايش بدور از هرگونه تعصب و پيش داوري و عامي گرايي، يك موضوع صد در صد طبيعي و خواست جنسي قشري از افراد جامعه بنام همجنس گرا شناخته شده است. بسياري از كشورها از جمله آمريكا، آلمان، هلند كليه قوانين اجتماعي و حقوقي از جمله قوانين مربوط به ازدواج و فوت همسر، ارث و پذيرفتن فرزند را براي همجنسگرايان نيز برسميت مي شناسند.

يعني تحقيقات علمي، اين را ثابت كرده كه همجنسگرايي انحراف نيست؟ بيماري نيست؟

تحقيقات به سادگي روشن مي كنند كه نه تنها بيماري نيست، كه در بسياري از موارد به علت وجود اسم انحراف بر روي اين گرايش، اين خواست منحرف شده و مشكلات جدي به بار آورده است.

ممكن هست در همين موارد مثالهايي از ايران بزنيد؟

به عنوان مثال، پسري را مي شناختم كه از نظر گرايش جنسي، همجنسگرا بود ولي بدليل وجود تابوي همجنسگرايي در ايران و نداشتن اطلاعات صحيح از جمله سوالاتي مثل : "من چه كسي هستم؟ و چه مي خواهم؟" خانواده اش او را وادار به ازدواج با زني مي كنند و عروس بخت برگشته به لحاظ عدم برخورداري از لذات جنسي، درخواست طلاق از دادگاه مي نمايد و مرد از ترس كشف رازش، دست به خودكشي مي زند.. حال با نگاه به اين مثال، چند نكته آشكار مي شود :
يك- سركوب غريزه جنسي مرد همجنسگرا و همسرش ( نه اين مرد از لحاظ جنسي ارضا مي شد، نه آن زن)
دو- پديده طلاق
سه- از دست رفتن يك انسان بيگناه
چهار- تشكيل يك پرونده جنايي

شما از نداشتن اطلاعات صحيح گفتيد و پاسخ به سوالات "من چه كسي هستم و چه مي خواهم"، اين يعني چه؟!

بسياري از همجنسگرايان ايراني كه من مي شناسم، بدليل نداشتن اطلاعات كافي در مورد ذائقه جنسيشان دچار يك سردرگمي مي شوند. نمي دانند كه هستند؟ حتي در مواردي كه نمي شود به راحتي از آن گذشت، ديده شده است كه فرد همجنسگرا تغيير جنسيت داده و تبديل به زن يا مرد شدن را، راه حل مناسبي براي مشكل لاينحل خود مي داند. به نوعي مي شود گفت كه پس از ساعتها تفكر،* به ناگهان پاك كن را برداشته صورت مسئله را پاك مي كند. مخصوصا بخاطر بافت سنتي و مذهبي بسياري از كشورهاي جهان سوم از جمله ايران (كه همه چيز بايد در چهارچوب شرع و عرف و مذهب و قوانين اسلامي بگنجد) علم سكسولوژي دستكاري شده و به جامعه گفته مي شود كه رابطه جنسي فقط در چهارچوب شخص فاعل و مفعول مي گنجد. به اين معنا كه علم من در آوردي روانشناسي اسلامي به بازار مي آيد و متخصصيني را به زير پوست اين جوامع تزريق مي كند كه مي خواهند همه چيز را در چهارچوب مذهب و سنت بگنجانند. از جمله علم سكسولوژي را. اگر بخواهيم كمي عاميانه تر صحبت كنيم، بايد بگوييم كه از نظر اين به اصطلاح پزشكان و نظريه پردازان، انسانها از لحاظ جنسي فقط و فقط به دو دسته مرد و زن و رابطه متقابل بين اين دو تقسيم خواهند شد. همان فاعل و مفعول . پس موجود بيچاره همجنسگرا از ديد جامعه وجود خارجي نخواهد داشت يا يك وصله ناجور است. البته از آنجايي كه همه قوانين سنتي و مذهبي تبصره هم دارند، روانشناسي اسلامي هم از اين قانون مستثني نيست و كلاه شرعي مخصوص به خود را دارد. نام اين كلاه شرعي، تغيير جنسيت است .

چرا تغيير جنسيت را كلاه شرعي مي دانيد؟

ببينيد، به عنوان مثال، علي يك مرد همجنسگراي ايراني است. مي خواهد با همان رفتارهاي به اصطلاح اوا خواهرانه يا زنانه، به زندگي عادي خود ادامه دهد. (با توجه به اينكه از لحاظ جنسي، به مردها گرايش دارد.) علم سكسولوژي در جوامع مدرن، لزومي نمي بيند كه علي را وارد پروسه تغيير جنسيت كند. سليقه جنسي علي، در علم سكسولوژي به رسميت شناخته شده و نيازي به مرمت و بهسازي ندارد. اما در يك جامعه سنتي و مذهبي مثل ايران، علي يك شخص ناقص است. او همجنسگراست و همجنسگرا در روابط مردان و زنان مذهبي و سنتي جايي ندارد. پس مردسالاري حاكم بر اين جوامع، علي را نه تنها يك انسان ناقص مي بيند بلكه او را يك متجاوز قلمداد مي كند كه جوانمردي ، مردانگي، مردسالاري و در نهايت سمبلهاي مرد ايراني را زير سوال مي برد. بنابراين علي نمي تواند يك مرد باشد. او را بايد زير تيغ جراحي به يك زن تبديل كرد، به يك باصطلاح خودشان ضعيفه ،* يك مفعول منفعل از ديد يك جامعه مردسالار...


در ايران، به شما به عنوان يك همجنسگرا چگونه نگاه مي شد؟

نمي شود به اين سوال پاسخ قطعي و كلي داد. ديدگاههاي مختلفي در اين زمينه وجود دارد:
دسته اي از افراد معتقدند يك همجنسگرا نه تنها جامعه را به انحراف و ابتذال مي كشاند، بلكه خشم خداوند را متوجه اين جامعه خواهد كرد. اين گروه با توسل به احاديث و كتب آسماني و تفسيرهاي مربوط به آنها، نه تنها فرد همجنسگرا را يك مجرم تلقي مي كنند بلكه وي را مستحق مجازات مرگ به طرق مختلف مي دانند. ( رجوع شود به قانون مجازات اسلامي و توصيه هاي مراجع تقليد مثل آيت الله موسوي اردبيلي و محمدي گيلاني)

دسته اي ديگر، با ملايمت بيشتري برخورد كرده و همجنسگرايي را يك بيماري مي دانند كه بايد در جامعه ريشه كن شود تا نتواند افراد ديگر را مبتلا كند. ديد و رفتار اين گروه در مقابل همجنسگرايان شبيه به برخورد در مقابل يك بيمار مبتلا به جذام يا طاعون است. اين دسته معتقدند همجنسگرا بايد تحت نظر و مراقبت پزشكان مخصوص قرار بگيرد تا نه تنها گرايش خود را به دست فراموشي بسپارد، بلكه ديگر انسانهاي همجنسگرا را به داخل اين نظريه بكشاند : " تو بيمار هستي و بايد درمان شوي! " عده اي هم حكم به تغيير جنسيت فرد همجنسگرا داده و او را يك موجود ناقص الخلقه، بين زن و مرد مي دانند.

عده انگشت شماري هم، اين گرايش را يك بيماري ندانسته بلكه پارا فراتر از اين گذاشته معتقدند انسانها با داشتن گرايشهاي جنسي متفاوت بايد آزادي زندگي مسالمت آميز در جامعه داشته باشند.

دوست دارم كه مثالهاي ملموس تري از برخورد مردم ايران با همجنسگرايان در خانواده، كوچه و خيابان بشنوم...

در بسياري از موارد خانواده ها فقط به رفتار خارجي يك فرد همجنسگرا نگاه كرده و هيچ در صدد يافتن خواستها و مطالبات وي نيستند. مثلا به يك پسر همجنسگرا مي گويند :چرا اين لباس را مي پوشي؟ چرا نوع آرايش موهايت با فلان عموزاده يا خاله زاده ات فرق مي كند؟ حتي در مواردي كه در ايران كم هم نيست، لغات كاربردي براي همجنسگرايان بسيار شديدالحن و زشت است. مثل : اوا خواهر، كوني و لغات زشت از اين دسته... لازم به تذكر مي دانم كه ممكن فردي همجنسگرا باشد ولي ظاهرش نشان دهنده گرايش جنسيش نباشد. در اين موارد مشكل چند برابر مي شود. فشارهاي خانواده و اجتماع بر اين دسته، مضاعف است. براي مثال، ازدواجهاي اجباري و متعاقب آن طلاق و زندگي هاي نافرجامي پيش مي آيد كه نمونه اي ذكر شد...

در پايان دوست دارم بپرسم، آيا شما روزي را مي بينيد كه در ايران با توجه به مفاد اعلاميه جهاني حقوق بشر، همجنسگرايان و گرايش آنها يك بيماري يا انحراف تلقي نشود و از طرف هيچ مرجع حكومتي، قضايي، نظامي،* سياسي و نيز اعضاي اجتماع مورد خشونت و فشار قرار نگيرند؟

اين بستگي به اين دارد كه چقدر به جامعه اطلاعات صحيح داده شود، چه اندازه مراجع علمي در درسترس عموم قرار گيرد. امروزه با وجود اينترنت دسترسي به داده هاي علمي در اين مورد آسانتر شده و سانسورهاي حكومتي كاربردش را رفته رفته از دست مي دهد. ممكن هست تعداد زيادي از ايرانيها، همين گفتگوي ما را بخوانند و شايد براي اولين بار، يك همجسنگرا فرصت مي يابد تا با هموطنانش به گفتگو بنشيند. در صورتيكه در گذشته اين امكان وجود نداشت. تا مادامي كه مسائل جنسي در جامعه ايران، تابو است نمي توان انتظار داشت گرايش همجنسگرايي به عنوان يك گرايش اقليت، به رسميت شناخته شود.

[Rasputin]

Iran: Man Hanged for 'Sodomy'

The official Iranian news agency IRNA has reported that a man has been hanged in public in the city of Kermanshah on multiple criminal charges, including "sodomy" ("lavat" in Persian).

According to a translation of the IRNA dispatch made for the Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization (PGLO) by Hossein Alizedeh of the International Lesbian and Gay Human Rights Commission, "Shahab Darvishi, a delinquent person, was executed in the Azadi Square of Kermanshah on Tuesday evening. According to the communications department of the Justice Department of the Kermanshah Province, the above-mentioned was found guilty [by the court of law] of forming a coterie of corruption rings, physical assaults, and the despicable act of sodomy."

A report by the Web site Iran Focus, an exile Iranian enterprise not considered 100 percent reliable by many Iranian experts and human rights groups, claimed that a "gay man" was executed, but this reporter has been unable to independently confirm that information from my own Iranian sources. At press time, Jessica Stern of the LGBT desk at Human Rights Watch told Gay City News that HRW had not been able to confirm from its own sources that the executed man was homosexual.


Arsham Parsi, secretary-general of the PGLO-who has been headquartered in Toronto since granted political asylum by Canada as a sexual refugee-received an e-mail from an underground PGLO activist in Kermanshah whose nick-name is "Raha" (his real name cannot be used for security reasons) who said he had attended the execution. Raha reported that people he spoke to in the crowd appeared to be pleased that the man was being punished because he was a known criminal.

Raha said it was his understanding, after talking to police at the public hanging, that Darvishi, the hanged man, had participated in an assault and rape on a heterosexual couple. But no independent information with details of the hanged man's alleged crimes has as yet become available from non-police or non-governmental sources.

A rough translation of the e-mail from Raha says: "I'd like to give you some information on the execution of this person, and I should tell you that I was present during the last execution. As the security officials mentioned, this man was accused of numerous crimes, including lavat [sodomy]. His story is as follows: He was the leader of a gang that included three others. With his gang he kidnapped a recently married couple (man and woman) from Kermanshah, and after sexually assaulting both of them they killed them. His other crimes included kidnapping, killing someone while in prison, and forming a corrupt gang. These are things that I myself have heard. At the same time, many people were happy with his sentence, and said that he shouldn't have been executed so soon, but rather, should have been turned over to the hands of the people so they could kill him. As a homosexual and a resident of Kermanshah I am telling you these things honestly, and hope that it will be helpful for you."

Reporting on events inside Iran, where the media and the press are tightly controlled and censored by the government, is always difficult-and this is even more true in any case involving homosexuality.

The Iranian government has been waging a vicious campaign against Iranian gays and lesbians, including entrapment via the Internet, raids on private gatherings in the homes of gay people, abductions of gay people, imprisonment, and the widespread use of torture and violence, both by the police and by the basiji, a para-police force that enforces religious moral strictures, does the Tehran regime's strong-arm work, and is under the control of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence.

Iranian gays who are arrested are routinely tortured or blackmailed into giving the names of everyone they know who engages in homosexual sex, and those named are then in turn arrested.

The Interior Ministry maintains a computerized list of homosexuals, and those on the list are prevented from leaving the country because the government does not want them telling the story of the sometimes-lethal anti-gay campaign of oppression taking place inside Iran. Still, a steady stream of gay and lesbian refugees has managed to flee the country, and a number of them have related their tragic experiences at the hands of the homophobic authorities, including the torture they experienced, in the pages of this newspaper.

In the past, the Iranian government has used trumped-up criminal charges to execute gay people, and through the use of torture extracted "confessions" from gays to crimes they never committed.

It is not clear why the Iranian government chose to make public the charge of "sodomy" against Darvishi, or why the alleged murder by Darvishi of which police informed Raha was not mentioned in the Iranian Ministry of Justice's announcement.

Since the worldwide protests over the hanging of two gay teenagers in the city of Mashad on July 19, 2005, the Iranian government has refrained from announcing executions for homosexual acts, which are a capital crime under Iranian law. On the first anniversary of the hanging of the two boys in Mashad this past July, vigils and demonstrations were held in 29 cities around the world, from Mexico City and Moscow to London and Warsaw, including in eight American cities.

Underground gay activists in Iran, including the editors of the clandestine Persian-language gay 'zine MAHA, have told this reporter that executions of homosexuals have taken place in secret since the hangings of the two lads in Mashad. Why, then, announce this one-and leave out the alleged murder?

In conversations this reporter had with PGLO activists, human rights group staffers, and Iranian scholars, speculation was rife as to the possible motive of the government in making public the "sodomy" charge against Darvishi. "It could have been to excite public approval of the execution and draw a large crowd, since homosexuality is detested by very religious Iranians," Parsi told Gay City News. Others speculated that the "sodomy" charge might have been tacked on to the other criminal charges in the hopes of dividing public opinion in the West, or that the government hoped to draw protests by the international LGBT community that could then be discredited inside Iran because of Darvishi's alleged criminal record, to the detriment of the cause of oppressed gay Iranians.

The hanging of Darvishi was the 117th execution carried out by the Iranian government this year, according to a count established by Agence-France Presse based on government statements, media reports, and eyewitness accounts.

This reporter has been covering the Iranian government's anti-gay campaign for nearly a year and a half in dozens of articles, and my conclusion is that extreme caution must be exercised before jumping to conclusions about the public hanging of Darvishi-although that execution is certainly to be deplored by all of us who oppose capital punishment, and who find public executions staged as entertainments shocking and barbaric. But, in the absence of hard, independent information, it is certainly premature to conclude that-unlike the hanging of the two gay teens in Mashad-Darvishi was hanged only because he was a "gay man."
This case is too murky at this point to reach any definitive conclusions-except to condemn Iran's continuing widespread use of capital punishment. This reporter will continue to try to confirm more independent information from Iran on the troubling case of Darvishi.

[BehnazNaNaz]

yani dar iran har ki gay hast baiad bemire?yani eslam ino gonah midoone>?

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Hanging caught on video reveals Iran's crackdown on dissidents

With a smile the young man emerges from a car and swaggers towards the camera, but his balance is off kilter because his hands are tied behind his back and he slips a bit on the grass.
He recovers and bends his gangly body with a laugh, looking for all the world like a teenager making a home video with friends. Another young man follows him, walking stiffly. Someone in a thin grey suit kisses both men on both cheeks and strolls off-camera.

Dozens of people are milling about. A crowd can be seen held back by barriers, but even the guards look relaxed, standing well back from the two with their hands bound. Two rusty cranes on flatbed trucks are parked on the grass, the ropes hanging from each are rough, tangled with knots and the noose at the end looks amateurish - like a random piece of rope washed up on a beach.
Almost casually someone puts the rope round the awkward youth's neck first, then the second, steps back and the cranes pull up the ropes. The second man's body is still, and the camera stays on the taller one until he stops moving, about six minutes.

The film shows the public hanging of Alireza Gorji, 23, and his friend Hossein Makesh, 22, in July in Broudjerd, Iran. According to official versions of the charges, they were put to death because they had behaved 'immorally'. The truth, according to anti-government campaigners, is that the two men were among increasing numbers of political activists being executed by Iran on trumped-up charges.

'Both these men had been involved in anti-government protests in their home town and everyone who watch the hanging knew this,' said a human rights observer in Tehran.

On Tuesday the UN General Assembly condemned Iran for human rights abuses and the video - filmed by a Revolutionary Guard, smuggled out by opposition activists and seen by The Observer - is rare evidence of Iran's efforts to quell dissent. Amnesty International last year documented at least 94 public executions although many more are suspected to take place in secret - in September the authorities told a lawyer for Valliollah Feyz-Mahdavi, 28, that he had died after a suicide attempt in prison. Feyz-Mahdavi had been arrested for membership of Iran's main opposition - the People's Mojahedin Organistation of Iran.

Tehran has now been condemned on more than 50 occasions by the UN for severe human rights violations.

The Broudjerd video has been obtained by an exiled opposition group - the National Council of Resistance of Iran. At the House of Commons on Tuesday, it will be shown to cross-party MPs to encourage the British government to reconsider what the National Council regards as a policy of appeasing the Iranian regime. The group will unveil documents on the execution of more than 20,000 political victims, including evidence for the involvement of President Mohammad Ahmadinejad.

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Reports claim Iranian gay was hanged

A Web site called Iran Focus reported Nov. 14 that "a gay Iranian man was hanged in public on Tuesday in the western city of Kermanshah on the charge of sodomy."

The report said "Shahab Darvishi was charged with organising a 'corruption ring,' deliberate assault and 'lavat,' which means homosexual relationship between two men or sodomy."

The report credited "the official news agency IRNA" as a source for the story.

The Islamic Republic News Agency's version of the story said the Kermanshah Province Justice Department Communications Department said Darvishi was "found guilty of forming a coterie of corruption rings, physical assaults and the despicable act of sodomy."

IRNA said the death sentence was issued by the Second Court of the town of Sahneh, and upheld by the Second Appeal Court of Kermanshah and the 27th Branch of the Supreme Court.

"Hundreds of Kermanshah's residents were present at the scene of the execution," IRNA said. "They were supportive of the judicial system's decision and called for adopting a tough stance against criminals and disturbing elements."

Iran's version of Islamic law does punish gay sex with execution, and many human-rights activists say, with varying degrees of certainty, that the nation has executed numerous men for the crime since the 1979 religious revolution.

But it is notoriously difficult to fact-check news that emanates from the nation, and skepticism of any one report is always warranted, as Iran does not have a free press.

On Nov. 15, Human Rights Watch's Jessica Stern sent an e-mail to this publication which said, in part: "We are concerned with the charges in the case and by the case's lack of information. One or two sources should be considered inconclusive, especially in reporting on a case of this kind. ... We strongly urge caution until more information is known."

In the same vein, the secretary general of the Iranian Queer Organization, formerly called the Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization, commented: "Similar to the Mashad incident last year, it may be extremely difficult to firmly establish why this man was hanged, or whether the charges were fabricated. Whatever the truth is, the Iranian government must be stopped from killing people for sex-related crimes."

On July 19, 2005, two teenage boys, Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni, were publicly hanged in Mashad, and graphic photos of the executions circulated on the Web. Some Iranian and foreign media said the teens' crime was being gay lovers. Other Iranian and foreign media said they had raped a boy. International human rights groups say they have been unable to determine which version of the story is true.

Nonetheless, "the death penalty is on the books for gay sex [and] it'sat least sporadically enforced," said Scott Long, HRW's LGBT program head, in a Nov. 16 interview.

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As I prepared to leave Cairo at the beginning of the fall, I received an e-mail message from M., the businessman from the Queen Boat, since relocated to the States. “I sit here, and the Americans talk about something called Islamic fascism, the Arabs go on about their values,” he wrote. “All of us, and I don’t mean gay men, I mean all of us who don’t fit the norm — democracy activists, queens, anything — it’s us who get branded as Western, fifth columnists. We pay the price.”

Negar Azimi is senior editor of Bidoun, an arts-and-culture magazine based in New York.

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