The Lesbian Fate in the Arab World

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Although many Middle Eastern countries have penal codes against homosexual acts, these are seldom enforced due to the difficulty to prove unless caught in the act. In the Middle East today many countries still do not have codification of homosexuality or queerness as an identification of sexual orientation. [63] In Saudi Arabia, gender segregation is practiced to uphold the purity of women, because this separation exists some women and men will openly seek homosexual companionship in open spaces like coffee shops, public bathrooms, their cars, and their households. To navigate their own sexuality many men who engage in homosexual acts in Saudi Arabia do not deem the acts to be homosexual unless they are a bottom, which is a sexual position deemed to be more feminine while a top is deemed to be masculine. [64] Sanskrit medical texts mention "sexual act[s] in which both the parties are female". [43] The Sushruta Samhita and Charaka Samhita both classify lesbianism as a disease resulting from an atypical conception. [44] :597 The latter describes it as incurable, and states that a lesbian is "a woman who has an aversion for man and who has no breasts." [45] The term used for a lesbian in these texts is nārīṣaṇḍha. [44] :593

Listed below are a few ally organizations that aim to help and support LGBT people in the Middle East. Other organizations with the same goal exist as well; however, these are the organizations that have made the most impact in the regions thus far. In the 19th and early 20th century, homosexual activity was relatively common in the Middle East, owing in part to widespread sex segregation, which made heterosexual encounters outside marriage more difficult. Georg Klauda writes that "Countless writers and artists such as André Gide, Oscar Wilde, Edward M. Forster, and Jean Genet made pilgrimages in the 19th and 20th centuries from homophobic Europe to Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, and various other Arab countries, where homosexual sex was not only met without any discrimination or subcultural ghettoization whatsoever, but rather, additionally as a result of rigid segregation of the sexes, seemed to be available on every corner." [36] Homosexuality was outlawed in 1943 in Lebanon, to conform to the rule of the Vichy regime of France. The law is known as article 543 in the country's Penal Code. [37] In Iran, men could be intimate with other men without being in a formal relationship. Young men without facial hair were considered beautiful and older men would pursue them. It was not until the nineteenth century, when Europeans began to visit Iran, that the view of homosexual male relationships became negative. European men claimed the relations between Iranian men were immoral. This European perspective was widely adopted by Iranian society. [38] This outlook on queerness within the Middle East has worsened as totalitarian governments, beginning in the 1970s, came to power and justified their values on Islamic fundamentalism. [39]Though lesbian sex in the Middle East is mostly illegal, there is less evidence of official persecution than in the case of gay men. The possibility is still there, though. For married women, lesbian activity can be a safe way of adding spice to their sex life. The typical Arab husband jealously guards his wife from the attentions of other men, but the possibility that she might be having a fling with another woman hardly ever occurs to him. The wife, in turn, has no need to account to her husband for time spent with women. He will be satisfied just to know she is not spending her time with men. Holleis, Jennifer. "Situation in UAE increasingly worrying for international LGBTQ community". Deutsche Welle . Retrieved 27 September 2022. Rahman, Momin (2020). "Queer Muslim Challenges to the Internationalization of LGBT Rights: Decolonizing International Relations Methodology through Intersectionality". In Bosia, Michael J.; McEvoy, Sandra M.; Rahman, Momin (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Global LGBT and Sexual Diversity Politics. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190673741.013.27. ISBN 9780190673741. Fargard VIII". The Zend Avesta: Part I – The Vendîdâd. (Müller's Sacred Books of the East). Vol.IV. Translated by Darmesteter, James. Oxford: The Clarendon Press. 1880. V: (31–32), pp. 101–102. (Series editor: F. Max Müller).

Lesbianism is the sexual and romantic desire between women. There are historically fewer mentions of lesbianism than male homosexuality, due to many historical writings and records focusing primarily on men. Article 268 of the national penal code prohibits private consensual homosexual acts between adult men.The stipulated punishment in the law for unmarried men is 100 lashes and up to a year in prison. The law stipulates that married men convicted of homosexuality are to be put to death by stoning. Article 268 of the national penal code prohibits private consensual homosexual acts between adult women with a penalty of up to three years in prison. [83] [84] [82] Massad, Joseph Andoni (2002). Re-Orienting Desire: The Gay International and the Arab World. Public Culture 14. pp.361–385.

Felony – Article 520 of Syria's Penal Code criminalizes "unnatural sexual intercourse", and Article 517 punishes any crime "against public decency" occurring in public with a prison sentence varying from three months to three years. Felony – Men can be sentenced to up to seven years of imprisonment under Article 193 of Kuwait's Penal Code for same-sex relations. Evidence of female homosexuality in the ancient Greek world is limited. [21] Most surviving sources from the classical period come from Athens, and they are without exception written by men. At least among these Athenian men, the discussion and depiction of female homosexual activity seems to have been taboo. [22] Kenneth Dover suggests that, due to the role played by the phallus in ancient Greek men's conceptions of sexuality, female homosexual love was not explicitly defined as a sexuality or category by the authors of surviving sources. [23]

Lebanon votes against international gay rights bill – Georgi Azar". An-Nahar. 2018-10-18 . Retrieved 2018-10-31.

Resources

No Place for Gays in Yemen - Inter Press Service". Ipsnews.net. 16 August 2013 . Retrieved 17 December 2017. Egypt witnessed numerous transsexual cases that went public over the past three decades; however Faghly is considered the first case in which an Egyptian woman has come out as a lesbian to the public.