hi sanjay i do not under stand your message
On 8/5/09, Sanjay Lulla <[email protected]> wrote: > > Please find below the key note speech by Rasha Moumneh at the > outgames, it was a great moment: > > “Thank you, it’s wonderful to be here. I was asked to come here today to > speak about the situation and progress of LGBT rights in the Middle East and > North Africa. Obviously it’s impossible for me to cover the breadth of LGBT > issues in the entire region in the space of 10 minutes, or even 10 hours for > that matter, so I’m not going to. What I am going to do instead is posit > some observations I’ve had about the international LGBT rights movement in > relation to this particular region. > I have to say it’s always fantastic to see so many faces from the movement > gathered under one roof, if only for a short period of time, to talk, > exchange, debate, and learn from each other. A lot of us from the movement > are here. A lot of us unfortunately aren’t, and this isn’t a coincidence. > The term “global LGBT rights movement” is perhaps a little misleading, > unless by global we mean of the global North, because that is largely the > locus of power from where this movement operates. And we need to always be > conscious of that, we need to always be aware of who frames the terms of > debate, of how that debate is framed, and ultimately, to what end. I think > this is particularly relevant when discussing the Middle East and North > Africa because there seems to be an abundance of people from the global > North falling over themselves to speak on our behalf. There is a missionary > zeal within the international LGBT rights movement to deliver us, to save us > from our wretched lives, to rescue us from other people like us (and by us I > mean Arab/Muslim/brown). There is an un-self-reflexive othering that takes > place of people from the global south generally and from the Middle East in > particular. A few weeks ago I was introduced to a gay European activist, a > lovely, earnest, well meaning fellow who had this insight about Iran to > share with me; he said: “you know, something has changed for the average > person in your average Western democracy. We now see that people in Iran > wear Chanel sunglasses and high heels and use mobile phones just like us, > and that’s led to an amazing transformation. They’re like us, we can relate > to them now, we can support them”. Of course he was making a point about how > the media has the ability to shatter stereotypes, but that statement in > itself is so incredibly loaded. Does that mean that if they didn’t possess > the trappings of “modernization” then people from Europe would be less > likely to support them? Or that “like us” amounts to having the latest > mobile phone? Or that we need to start proving our credentials in order to > earn European support? > I think that statement is also indicative of a lot of other things > particularly relevant to the LGBT rights movement. There is an unfortunate > tendency within the movement towards a reduction of people’s multiple selves > into a single aspect employed falsely in place of the whole: in this > context, sexuality and gender identity. By doing this, by positing a “global > gay citizen” stripped of context, of environment, of relationships, of > community, of a politics, in order to sustain the myth of a “happy global > gay family”, we are doing harm. As if, if we just manage to take away all > this extraneous noise that is “culture” (for lack of a better word) and > politics, we would then emerge with a distilled, undiluted “Essence de Gay”. > And Essence de Gay is invariably white, usually male, and predominantly > middle class. But that is not how people live, it is not how people > identity, and it is dishonest and disingenuous to claim that. But we do, and > we do it regularly, and this has been an integral part of the incredibly > strong drive to completely depoliticize gender and sexuality, when by their > very nature they are political. And we see this from every side. On the one > end we hear about how homosexuality is a Western conspiracy bent on > destroying the moral fabric of Arab societies (much as the religious right > in the US characterizes the “homosexual agenda”). I cannot count how many > articles come out in the Arab press accusing some LGBT rights group or > another of having ties to Israel and a Zionist agenda. > On the other end, and particularly when we, as queers, start talking about > the intersectionality of different axes of oppression, we are accused of > “politicizing” human rights, of diluting and obscuring the Essence de Gay by > bringing up annoying things like occupation, militarization, nationalism, > war, and racism, things that are simply not talked about in polite society. > I’m not sure why this is breaking news, but the battles we are waging are > political, and I for one, gave up on polite society a long time ago. > I recently returned from a trip to Iraq, where as many of you are aware, > there is a murderous campaign against gay men and men with non-conforming > gender presentation. The information we gathered there pointed to the Mahdi > Army as the driving force behind this campaign. After the surge, many > members of the Mahdi Army were imprisoned, and the militia was greatly > weakened. However, more recently many were, and continue to be, released > from prison since they were being held without charges and without trials. > By going after the most vulnerable segment of the population, those > individuals that no one would rush to defend, the Mahdi army attempted to > position themselves as force for the moral cleansing of society, > reconstituting themselves politically through recourse to emotive issues > such as social decay, westernization, tradition, and moral purity. There are > clearly more issues at play here than just homophobia, particularly when we > remember that the Mahdi Army was at times strengthened by the Americans > themselves as a sort of proxy army. > A recent article in the Israeli Haaretz newspaper reported that the Israeli > Foreign Ministry has decided to change tactics when dealing with the problem > of Iran and its nuclear program, since it became apparent to them that in > the wake of Iraq, the world is less likely to support yet another war in the > name of preserving the peace. So they sat there in their fancy Foreign > Ministry offices and had a stroky beard meeting and started thinking: “Who? > Who can we harness for this? Who is going to lead this campaign against Iran > for us so that we don’t end up looking like the bad guys?” And they had > their A-ha! moment. According to Haaretz, “The new campaign, to be overseen > by the Foreign Ministry, aims to appeal to people who are less concerned > with Iran's nuclear aspirations and more fearful of its human rights abuses > and mistreatment of minorities, including the gay and lesbian community. The > campaign plans to recruit the international gay community, which Iranian > President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed in 2007 when he said there were no > homosexuals living in his country”. The ironic part is that they are so > utterly transparent about their propaganda. The insulting part is that they > assume that they can be because we won’t really care that we are being used > as pawns in an explosive geopolitical conflict. And the sad part is that > they are correct. They are correct because too few people have spoken out > against it. They are correct because Tel Aviv is featured as one of the > OutCities during this event without even a thought of what that means, > without an awareness that by doing this we are creating a hierarchy of > rights, implicitly saying that one set of rights, that of LGBT Israelis, is > more important than another, that of Palestinians, queer and straight, > living within Israel or within the ‘67 borders of Gaza and the West Bank, > who daily suffer from occupation, land expropriation, house demolition, the > apartheid separation wall, and the death and destruction wrought by one of > the most powerful military forces in the world today. But none of this is > our concern of course. This is clearly a politicization of human rights and > there’s too much noise around the Essence de Gay for it to be relevant to > us. But willing ignorance is complicity. > We’re totally fine talking about the threat of radical Islam to queers and > women, but anything beyond that, like for example the unflinching support of > Egypt and Saudi Arabia by the US government, the former of which, as Parvez > Sharma mentioned yesterday, was the site of one of the most aggressive > campaigns against gay people in the past few years, that’s stuff we don’t > really want to engage with. > Before this conference, I had the privilege of being part of the first ever > meeting of queer Arab activists from all over the Middle East, North Africa, > and the diaspora in Europe, around 80 people in total from organizations, > individuals, and unorganized groups put together by Sabaah, an Arab LGBT > organization here in Copenhagen. It was awe-inspiring to sit there with all > these incredible people who were really putting themselves at risk in their > home countries to engage in the difficult struggle for their rights as > queers living in Arab societies. Interestingly, and this occurred to me only > after we were done, the words “Islam”, “Islamism”, or “religious extremism” > did not come up once in the three days we came together. Not once. On the > other hand, an inordinate amount of time was spent talking about how we, as > activists, should deal with and respond to donors, foreign governments, and > the international LGBT movement because it was apparent to everyone that > there is a problem in the way these groups engage with local LGBT > organizing. But, as many of you who attended yesterday’s panel entitled > “Desiring Arabs” witnessed, when faced with an overwhelmingly white > audience, Islam seems to become the only issue on the table. Which is of > course not to say that we don’t have a problem with religious extremism, or > that the only, or even biggest, obstacle we face is with activists from the > North, but I think that this is a telling illustration of the lack of truly > honest engagement between people from the North and those from the South, > and of the fact that the Middle East is not by any means a one issue region > and that it is actually much more complex and multi-faceted than that. > I’d like to go back to yesterday’s plenary conversation about the lack of > trans representation at large LGBT events such as this one. Of course > representation is important, but more than just having token trans people as > keynoters, it is incumbent upon us to create inclusive spaces for trans > people, for bisexuals, for women, for the disabled, for all and any > underrepresented groups in our communities, and that is not as easy as it > sounds. Often it means that we have to rethink our politics from the bottom > up, or else we run the risk of tokenism. Similarly, it is incumbent upon us, > as LGBT activists, to know, to seek out information about the world we build > our activism around, to understand its complexities and intersections and to > create a progressive and inclusive politics of justice, because the lies we > are fed come in so thick and so heavy that it takes energy and commitment to > sift through them to get to our truths. And if we don’t, we do harm, to > ourselves, to our communities, to the people we are standing in solidarity > with, and to our movements for social justice. That, to me, is energy worth > spending. > > > Mr. Rasha Moumneh is a Researcher - Middle East & North Africa Division > Human Rights Watch based in New York/Beirut. > > > > > > little prince-Sanjay N Lulla > > >
