Up Too Late: An Endless Search for Mr.Right & Other Important Things in Life

I have been worrying about miscellaneous personal matters in the last few days and have completely ignored what is happening around the world, only to find out today that the six medics sentenced to death by Libyan authorities only two weeks ago, for supposedly infecting 438 children in a hospital in Libya through blood transfusions workers were finally released.

This may sound strange, but for an hour, I felt relieved and in a sense, as pleased as some Bulgarians and Palestinians must have been to hear that their compatriots were flying back to their homeland, for the first time since 1999, when the group of six was arrested.

I'd been thinking about the six for a while, as they had gone to Libya to help people in need and probably find some work to support their families. Bulgaria in 1999 was a country still recovering from the communist past and migration and unemployment were just two of the problems the country was going through. Eight years later, Bulgarians enjoy a European Union membership.

Somewhere down the line, the medics had become victims, some say, of a system gone awry which wanted to use them as scapegoats for a problem that someone else had created, a problem that is spread nationwide and not limited to the Benghazi hospital, where the initial infections were reported.

I was translating for a family doctor today who is originally from Libya. He said to the patient I was translating for that he was going on vacation for a month to Libya. As I left his office, I mentioned to him about the case of the freed medics [after the Bulgarian government paid $1 million/victim = $438 million to the Libyan authorities] and how big a news item it was today.

Meanwhile, I continued to think about the medics' families and how glad they must have been to have their husbands, fathers, daughters, come back home.

The doctor wasn't so moved by it all. He shrugged, said he didn't care and added that he doesn't really follow the news.

Photo credit: [left] Reuters -Nikolay Doychinovn / [right] Campaign to Free The Six Medics in Libya

Labels: amnesty international, Bulgaria, human rights, Libya

I read an interesting article this morning on the New York Times website about a panel of judges from the US Federal Appeals Court decision to dismiss wiretapping as damaging to certain groups and individuals. The American Civil Liberties Union, which,in recent years, has become synonymous with major human rights organizations for calling on the closing of Guantanamo Bay and for calling on the protection of the rights of Muslim Americans, has sadly lost the challenge.

It is important to emphasize that the court today did not uphold the legality of the government’s warrantless surveillance activity. Indeed, the only judge to discuss the merits clearly and unequivocally declared that the warrantless surveillance was unlawful.

ACLU Legal Director Steven R. Shapiro

On another note, Patrick Stewart speaks about domestic violence in his family and why he stands for Amnesty's "Stop Violence Against Women" campaign. When my grandfather died, I was about 6-7. I used to see Patrick Stewart as my new granddad. See the video below:



I was at my friend Ryan's photo exhibit a couple of days ago when I first heard some of the music by the British musician, producer and composer, Nitin Sawhney. Ever since, I've been hooked to his music... Below are three of my Sawhney favourites:

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Mausan


Koyal (Songbird)

Sunset [Remix]

Labels: american civil liberties union, amnesty international, arabic music, favourite music, human rights

I never thought this could be true, but I googled it and after reading some super-odd articles, i found out that yes, apparently, sex change operations are permitted in Iran and even subsidized by the government.

This is shockingly liberal for a regime nowadays seen as repressive of women's and gay rights. It's incredible, in fact, to know that the government of Iran pays part of the expenses required for sex-change operations for the Iranian transgender community. In most western societies, the government doesn't pay for gender-changing surgeries.

In the 1960s , Khomeini, who overthrew the Shah, took a stance on Iran's transgender community and said that

"if somebody wants to undergo a sex change because he feels trapped inside someone else's body, he has the right to get rid of this body and transform into the other sex, and he is also entitled to new identification documents, in order to put an end to his plight."

Apparently, changing genders does not go against Islam's norms. The sex change is also justified in cases of healthy gay men and women who, in an effort to escape the persecution they face as gays and lesbians in Iran, opt for a change of gender. Going through the operation means relative freedom to have intimate relations with other men or women, within the limits of the rules on public life in Iran.

The other side of the paradox is that if someone is proven to have had homosexual relations (I don't like the word "homosexual", but here, I am forced to use it) and there are three witnesses who can attest to the fact of seeing the person vis-a-vis engaged in gay sex, that is, while the person is having sex, the statements are taken as evidence in a government court and used against them to ultimately result in sentences that start with 100 lashes on the back and, in extreme cases, a public hanging. This process comes from an old, archaic interpretation of Sharia law, the Islamic code and is used for various matters, including punishing acts of extramarital relations, robbery, etc.

Now, CBC Television aired a documentary on February 18th on gay rights in Iran titled Out of Iran: The Persecution of Homosexuals in the Islamic Republic of Iran, which some You Tube fan uploaded immediately after the documentary was shown on TV. The documentary, filmed and produced by Farid Heerinejad and narrated by the CBC TV's Sunday Night host, Evan Solomon, shows some extraordinary men who stand up for their rights in a country where standing up for your rights could pose a life danger, especially if you are a gay man or woman. We see and hear Iranian activists and founding members of IRQO [Iranian Queer Organization, previously known as] the PGLO, the Persian Gay and Lesbian Organization, founded just a couple of years ago to combat homophobia in Iran and to provide gay Iranians with a virtual meeting space, online and in person.

We hear stories of a man and a MTF (male-to-female) transgendered woman who are tortured, physically and psychologically, by their surroundings. The man talks about being gang-raped by the members of Iran's secret service. The woman speaks out on the anger her family feels towards her sexuality, ordering her to stay in her bedroom and never go out.

Sadly, where Out of Iran seems to lack substance is in the narration of the documentary. In fact, Solomon's way of talking is so sensationalist, at one point, you feel like you're watching some reality TV show where someone is about to win something big time ("…and the BIG winner is….!"). In the same pattern, pejorative vocabulary used to portray Iran as hell for gay men and women is a slight bit far-fetched. Of course, as a conservative regime-ruled country, Iran is a dangerous place to be gay in, but it is equally dangerous to be a moderate woman, to walk around in the public without a head covering, to oppose the government, to speak out for secularism, to defend Jews (though, this one, with close to 30.000 Jews in Tehran, is also arguable).

Solomon proves once again his love for anything anti-Islamic and pro-Jewish, and though this documentary has nothing to do with Jews, it indirectly helps further the reasoning used by Israel to prove that Iran is a threat to the world.

Evan Solomon makes reference to two men who were executed in Iran two years ago for allegedly "homosexual activities" and who have caused international uproar in the human rights community worldwide. Official human rights sources say it's unclear whether or not these two men were executed for being gay or for other reasons, including sexually assaulting a 13-year old boy. This has not been proven partly due to closed-door and hidden-evidence court processes, as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have repeatedly stated in the past.

A number of primarily North American publications, including Gay City News ran the story as one of a gay execution, which provoked dozens of protests against the executions. Pet Shop Boys apparently dedicated a song to the two executed men on their new album.

Scott Long of the Human Rights Watch says it's hard to prove whether or not the case was that of a gay execution, due to a - the families' feeling humiliated, b - the court process being closed to the public and c - the general public fearing government reaction if they speak out on specific cases. It is not even a question that Iran would execute men for homosexual acts. In fact, according to the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Association, though not proven, it is alleged that 96 men and women have been hanged in 2005 for various reasons that may include sexuality [IGLHRA does not specify]. It's not what I am questioning in this post. What I am wondering about is the sensationalist nature to the media reports that attribute any slight suspicion to a fact and make gossip the truth.

Rather, what CBC TV and Gay City News, among other media outlets, seem to be doing is enforcing the culture of "Iran is bad, we are good". As an Iranian gay activist filmmaker testifies in a video taken at a Human Rights Watch forum in NYC last year, this sort of sensationalist reporting is causing further marginalization of gay rights issues in countries like Iran and Iraq. When Americans urge the US Army, an occupying force, to protect Iraq's gays, they mean well, but what they end up contributing to is an association of Iraq's gays with the occupier, that is, the United States. As a result, Iraqi/Irani gays are seen as products of the American occupation/influence.

Secondly, the reporting clearly aimed at furthering the journalists' careers is another Canadian/American media push for public reactions against Iran's current government. In fact, the documentary is part of the anti-Iran and pro-American republican foreign policy propaganda. Sadly, what is true is hard to distinguish from media bias nowadays, there's that much of it everywhere.

Yes, the government of Iran has many problems and Ahmadinejad is not exactly the smartest person to be in power (whoever denies the Holocaust is missing a few marbles), and no, the mullahs should not have a slight bit of power, but in the end, things are not always so black and white.

We can't continue to impose our way of living on others, but we can support them in doing so and protect them when feel compelled to do it. Iranian/Iraqi/Middle Eastern activists cannot solve the issues on their own, of course they need our help. Perhaps they simply need to know that up until 1970, the Western world thought all gays were literally mad and if it weren't for those who stood up for their own rights, we would still live in a Canada of mental hospitals for curing homosexuality. In fact, we would still live like in parts of the United States, where some of those hospitals still exist. It's inspiring to see young Iranian gay s stand up for their rights, despite the risk involved. Unfortunately, it will take many of those men and women to show Iran that it cannot continue denying the existence of homosexuality within its society.

For that matter, it will take just as many Kosovar gay men and women to prove that being gay is not a western import. Sadly, though free of extrajudicial executions, Kosova is not far from Iran in its treatment of gays and lesbians. To be gay in Kosova means to be branded and peder, the Albanian and Serbian equivalent of faggot, is the worst word you could say to someone. It comes to show the kind of thinking that still exists in today's Kosova.

Sources used:


Biased Reporting - Gay Executions in Iran? - excerpt from a Human Rights Watch panel [YouTube]

Gays feed into Anti-Gay Hysteria - excerpt from a Human Rights Watch panel [YouTube]

Out of Iran - The Persecution of Homosexuals in the Islamic Republic of Iran - CBC Television [You Tube]

Iran - Have a Sex-Change on Us - Report from the "Al-Arabiya" TV network[YouTube]

Reported Executions in Iran
- International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission

Iran Hacks Web Sites to burry anti-gay pogrom - Doug Ireland [reporter for Gay City News]

Transsexuality in Iran - Big Queer Blog

Labels: amnesty international, Canada, gay rights, homophobia, human rights, human rights watch, iran, Kosova, Kosovo

I have been slightly unfaithful to this blog..in fact, i've cheated and not written about my last week and a half, despite some very interesting things that took place...

Sadly, something happened a few days ago that made me feel like i really need to write on here.

It all started innocently, as any protest day would. I decided not to go to work for half of the day. Instead, I joined the brigades of hard-working human rights activists and volunteers from Montreal's four university Amnesty International groups which had put energies together and had come up with a manifestation together to call for the closing of the disaster that Guantanamo Bay turned out to be for the world history of human rights.

We were all together in the change room, getting ready to get into our orange jumpsuit outfits. The atmosphere was somber, to say the least and as we all changed into our clothes, what we had on was not us anymore. I looked at the things I was putting on, an orange jumpsuit from the army surplus store, a piece of clothing that I would otherwise wear it during Halloween to wear the true colours of the season. On my head, I put on a black hood similar to the ones used in Guantanamo.

A girl came in with a camera. The sudden instinct of wanting to test my camera's pixels and, at the same time, take some pics with my new friends sounded like a good idea. I gave her my camera to make the shot... A second later, flashes of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib [among other prisons in Iraq] detainees pictures appeared in front of me. Suddenly, I felt like a soldier who wanted to make the event a sensation, a memento, something to remember the day by... And an orange jumpsuit with a black hood was nothing to be proud of...

The demo went super well, seeing as it was -25 degrees Celsius outside. There were about twelve detainees and about 70-90 protestors. We walked along St.Catherine St., the main street in downtown Montreal and ended up in front of the American Consulate... Chants varied from "Justice Gitmo Style, Five years no trial!" to "What do we want? Fair trials! When do we want them? Now!"

The day ended with demands from the US to close Guantanamo, the biggest illegal detention centre in the world. Protests similar to the one in Montreal were held around the world, including Toronto, Vancouver, Washington, London and Paris.

As I took off my jumpsuit, I remembered the picture that made me shiver throughout the day...

I went online and signed the virtual flotilla going to the US Naval base in Guantanamo. You can, too, you know. And so can your friends...and their friends...and then maybe, someday, when everyone's friends have signed and as many names have been collected as there are people in the world, I won't feel naive about asking this of you because Guantanamo will have been closed down.

Labels: amnesty international, guantanamo bay, human rights, Montreal, protest

Over mango tango (a mix of orange juice, mango and whipped cream) and with a friend who knew nothing of politics ("ummmm, why are you guys talking so much about Iraq? Did something happen there or something?"), my friend Haroon and I discussed the recent execution of Saddam Hussein.

Both of us being naturally interested in politics and especially Middle East politics, we began discussing the importance of Hussein's execution on the night before Eid-ul-Adha, one of the two most important Muslim holidays of the year. Yes, Saddam Hussein was executed on the eve of what in Christian culture would be seen as the execution of a former president who has committed war crimes on Christmas Eve, or a prime minister who has been executed on the first day of Hannukah. We talked about two things and Haroon disagreed with one, namely the idea that Saddam would now be seen as a martyr by the Sunnis of Iraq, seeing as cell phone camera footage showed the demeaning treatment he had been given during the final moments of his life. Yes, I sympathize with Saddam Hussein when it comes to the last moments of his life because NO ONE deserves to die that way, not even someone who has caused the deaths of tens of thousands of fellow citizens. We both agreed on the point that his execution was well-planned ahead of time so as to collide with Eid-ul-Adha. It was a strategy of revenge of sorts, probably to the Sunnis of Iraq to demonstrate that now, it is the power hour of the Shi'a.

Today, BBC has an interesting article on Egyptian president Hosni Mobarak's reactions to the execution. It turns out, he's not happy either. As for the reactions in the Middle Eastern media, well, let's just say that right now, the cup is almost empty. And what does Amnesty International have to say about all this? Oh, sad times...

Labels: amnesty international, execution, iraq, media, middle east, saddam hussein