Egypt: Stop arrests, crackdown on LGBT individuals

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Egypt: Stop Anti-LGBT Crackdown, Intimidation
‘Rainbow Flag’ Arrests Violate Privacy, Freedom of Expression

September 30, 2017

Egypt should stop arresting and harassing people suspected of homosexuality using trumped-up “debauchery” and “inciting debauchery” charges, Human Rights Watch said today. Security forces rounded up at least eleven people in the days following a September 22, 2017 concert in Cairo at which young concertgoers waved rainbow flags, a symbol of solidarity with  lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) people, a defiant act in a country known to persecute gay men and transgender people.

After concertgoers shared photos of the rainbow flag display on social media, pro-government media went on an overdrive attack and conservative politicians and religious leaders demanded that the government take action. Police arrested one man on September 23 through entrapment on a dating app, a common police technique in Egypt, and claimed he had been among those to wave a flag.

On September 25,  the government said that it had arrested seven people identified through video footage of the concert. Several Egyptian activists questioned the veracity of this claim, but they documented additional arrests on September 27, when police picked up six men from the streets, charging them with debauchery and claiming they were all involved in the rainbow flag incident.

“Whether they were waving a rainbow flag, chatting on a dating app, or minding their own business in the streets, all these debauchery arrest victims should be immediately released,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “The Egyptian government, by rounding people up based on their presumed sexual orientation, is showing flagrant disregard for their rights.”

The Dokki Misdemeanor Court in Giza sentenced the first victim on September 26 to six years in prison and a fine for “debauchery,” based on his presumed sexual conduct, and “inciting debauchery,” as prosecutors alleged he was among those who raised the rainbow flag at the concert. The court sentenced him to an additional six years of probation which will require reporting to the police from 6p.m. to 6a.m. until 2029. No lawyer was present at his trial.  He now has legal representation, and his appeal will be heard on October 11.

The six men arrested on September 27 are scheduled for trial on October 1. At least two more men were arrested on September 28 because of their presumed sexual orientation, and Egyptian media reported that another six men were arrested on September 28 in a raid on a home, although Human Rights Watch has not independently verified that report.

At the September 22 concert, people raised rainbow flags during the performance of the Lebanese group Mashrou’ Leila, which has an openly gay lead singer and has performed songs addressing same-sex relationships and gender identity. The Egyptian Musicians Syndicate opened an investigation into the event and banned future Mashrou’ Leila concerts in Egypt.

In Egypt, police routinely round up gay and bisexual men and transgender women, actively seeking them out and entrapping them on dating apps and through social media. One Cairo-based organization has documented the prosecution of at least 34 people for consensual same-sex conduct in the last 12 months. Since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi came into power in 2014, several hundred people have been imprisoned on charges of consensual same-sex conduct.

Egyptian activists told Human Rights Watch they fear that the past week’s arrests could signal the beginning of an even harsher crackdown on LGBT people and those who publicly support them.

Egypt’s Forensic Medicine Authority also routinely subjects people to forced anal examinations. The archaic technique was devised in the 19^th century to seek “evidence” of homosexual conduct,  but forensic experts around the world have condemned the practice as lacking any scientific validity and violating medical ethics. The UN  special rapporteur on torture,  the UN Committee Against Torture, and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights have described the exams as a form of torture or ill-treatment, prohibited under international law. The Egyptian Medical Syndicate has taken no steps to prevent doctors from conducting these degrading exams.

Egypt is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which protects the rights to privacy and to freedom of expression. Egypt’s constitution also protects these rights.

“Egypt should stop dedicating state resources to hunting people down for what they allegedly do in their bedrooms, or for expressing themselves at a rock concert, and should instead focus energy on improving its dire human rights record,” Whitson said.



*Photo by Jamal Saidi, courtesy of Reuters

TV host leads police raid on "Gay Bathhouse" - 26 jailed

Mada Masr

TV host works with police to raid Cairo bathhouse; dozens arrested on perversion charges

Monday - December 8, 2014 

Dozens of men were arrested on "perversion" charges in a bathhouse in downtown Cairo’s Ramses area on Sunday, according to broadcast journalist Mona Iraqi, who filmed the security raid.

Iraqi, a presenter on “Al-Mestakhabi” (The Hidden), an investigative journalism show that broadcasts on the privately owned channel Al-Qahera wal Nas, wrote on her Facebook page that she and her team had been investigating the bathhouse, alleging it was a “den of illegal gay sex workers.”

“Today is one of Al-Mestakhabi’s good days — we have to share with you a new and big victory for the program. Al-Mestakhabi managed to shut down a den of group sex for men, and they were all arrested red-handed,” she wrote.

“Success is great and achieving goals are greater,” she added.

Iraqi also posted photos showing dozens of almost-naked men being arrested in the public bathhouse, which she alleged was a popular site for both Egyptian and foreign gay men. She further accused the 60-year-old manager of running a sex ring.

Al-Mestakhabi reporters secretly infiltrated the bathhouse and filmed what Iraqi described as “gay sex parties,” as well as the owner’s “confessions.”

The owner of the bathhouse had kicked Iraqi and her team out of his establishment before security forces conducted the raid.

The first episode on the investigation was to be aired next week, but Iraqi claimed the broadcast would be postponed “to give police forces the chance to raid the bathhouse and arrest those involved.”

Human rights activists and social media users took to the Internet to lambaste Iraqi’s Facebook report, decrying the journalist’s cooperation with police forces as a flagrant violation of citizens’ personal rights.

Homosexuality is not a crime according to the Egyptian Penal Code, and furthermore, Iraqi did not prove any prostitution had occurred in the bathhouse, rights activist Sherif Azer wrote in response to Iraqi’s post.

Responding to the attacks, Iraqi claimed that the investigation was part of her program’s work on social groups that are most vulnerable to AIDS, as International AIDS Awareness Day was December 1.

“In case of public indecency, it has to be done in public. Is the bathhouse a public place? What are the accusations you presented to the prosecution so that they are arrested? If they [the detained men] are really patients of AIDS, they should be treated as patients not criminals and given proper medical support even if it is contagious. Do you accept seeing one of your family members who has a serious disease to be arrested naked by police?” Azer continued.

Others questioned Iraqi’s ethics and journalistic reputation given her cooperation with the police.

“The airing of the two-episodes investigation was adjourned for human, ethical and security reasons, and all the incident’s inside affairs shall be aired in a third episode. We did our work with the highest levels of professionalism and accuracy, and we urge the public not to judge the episodes positively or negatively before watching them,” Iraqi defended herself in a statement released on Monday.

But internet commentators continued to castigate the journalist, accusing her of heedlessly destroying the reputation of the arrested men — whose faces appeared in the photos she posted on her Facebook page — in her pursuit of fame.

US-based rights activist Scott Long blogged about the incident in his blog, the Paper Bird, and suggested the possibility of a government-sponsored campaign against gay rights.

“What’s clear is that another pro-Sisi media organ is working in close collusion with security forces, to produce a sensational show about sex with appalling and terrifying images, to invade privacy and engorge the prisons and destroy innocent people’s lives,” he wrote.

Long highlighted another recent incident in which eight men appearing in a video that allegedly portrayed a gay marriage ceremony were sentenced to three years in prison on charges of perversion.

“This message about ‘networks’ is a menacing constant. Egypt’s powers-that-be treat homosexuality and gender dissidence as political, and — like any kind of politics under an ever more constricting dictatorship — conspiratorial and sinister,” Long added.

 

*Photo from Facebook page of police-informer Mona Iraqi

 Read also:

Film festival fires TV reporter who led police arrests at 'gay bathhouse'

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Egypt: Release 7 men jailed on charges of homosexuality

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH  

Egypt: 7 Held for Alleged Homosexual Conduct

Unlawful Arrests Undermine Basic Freedoms, Rule of Law

September 9, 2014

 

(Beirut) – Egyptian authorities should immediately release seven men arrested on September 6, 2014 for allegedly “inciting debauchery,” Human Rights Watch said today.  Prosecutor General Hisham Barakat ordered the men detained and “physically examined” after an online video emerged showing the men attending what appeared to be a same-sex marriage ceremony on a Nile riverboat.

The arrests are the latest of a long line of cases in which Egyptian authorities have persecuted men suspected of homosexual conduct. In the most recent convictions, in April, four men were sentenced to up to eight years in prison.

“Over the years, Egyptian authorities have repeatedly arrested, tortured, and detained men suspected of consensual homosexual conduct,” said Graeme Reid, director of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights program at Human Rights Watch. “These arrests represent another assault on fundamental human rights and reflect the Egyptian government’s growing disdain for the rule of law.”

In a statement announcing the arrests, the prosecutor general’s office accused the men of broadcasting footage that “violates public decency,” and urged investigators to quickly refer the suspects to trial, “to protect social values and mete out justice.” The state news agency said that authorities are still searching for two men allegedly involved in the incident, which they have described as a “devilish shameless party.”

One of the men involved in the incident reportedly phoned in to an Egyptian television news program to deny that he was homosexual or that the filmed event was a gay marriage. He said the publication of the video, on YouTube, had made him afraid to appear in public.

As the prosecutor general had directed, the arrested suspects were subjected to forensic anal examinations—a procedure which the Egyptian authorities have used repeatedly in cases of alleged homosexual conduct—and which violates international standards against torture.

In the past, those subjected to the examinations in Egypt said they were forced to bend over while a government doctor working for the police massaged their buttocks and examined and sometimes probed their anus.

“Findings” from such examinations have been used in court, though experts have dismissed them as medically and scientifically useless in determining whether consensual anal sex has taken place.

Hisham Abdel Hamid, a spokesman for the Health Ministry’s Forensic Medical Authority, announced on September 8 that, based on results of the forensic anal exams, the men were “not homosexuals.”

Egypt does not explicitly criminalize same-sex sexual relations between consenting adults, but same-sex marriage is not legal, and authorities have routinely arrested people suspected of engaging in consensual homosexual conduct on charges of “debauchery.”

In October 2013, prosecutors ordered 14 suspects detained and subjected to anal examinations for engaging in homosexual conduct at a medical center in Cairo. In April, four men were convicted of “debauchery” and sentenced to up to eight years in prison after holding parties where authorities found makeup and women’s clothing and which allegedly involved consensual homosexual conduct.

The largest such case in recent Egyptian history, known as the Queen Boat Trials, occurred in 2001with the arrests of more than 50 men allegedly involved in a party at a discotheque on a cruise vessel moored in the Nile.

Egyptian authorities have also sexually assaulted women using the excuse of similarly abusive medical examinations. In 2011, seven women were subjected to “virginity tests” by military authorities after protests in Tahrir Square. The military has never adequately investigated the assaults or held any officer accountable.

In 1994, the United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled in the case of Toonen v. Australia that laws criminalizing consensual homosexual conduct between adults violate the rights to nondiscrimination and privacy.

The committee monitors state compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Egypt is party. Furthermore, Egypt’s use of forensic anal examinations violates international standards against torture. The U.N. Committee Against Torture, in its 2002 review of Egypt, investigated the issue of forensic anal examinations and called on the government “to prevent all degrading treatment on the occasion of body searches.”

In the 14 months since President Mohamed Morsi was ousted by the military, at least 22,000 Egyptians have been arrested, many of them for expressing political dissent.

One Egyptian non-governmental organization has documented over 41,000 arrests or indictments in the same period. Authorities have held many detainees without charge or trial for months, amid mounting reports of torture and other ill-treatment of detainees.

“Egyptian authorities should immediately end the practice of arbitrarily arresting and torturing adults who are privately engaged in consensual sexual relations,” Reid said. “These latest arrests are an ominous indication that President al-Sisi’s government will show no greater respect for the rights of vulnerable groups than its predecessors.”

Increased arrests of homosexuals in Egypt

Index On Censorship

“We no longer feel safe”: Egypt’s attacks on gay rights

There is increased anxiety over the insecurity of Egypt's vulnerable gay community

9 April, 2014

Shahira Amin 

A Cairo misdemeanour court on Monday sentenced three men to eight years in prison “for committing homosexual acts”. A fourth defendant in the case was sentenced to three years in prison with hard labour.

The men were allegedly found dressed in women’s clothes and wearing make-up when they were arrested last month, following a police raid on a private apartment in Cairo’s northern residential suburb of Nasr city. The apartment had been a meeting place for some members of Egypt’s gay community, who had been attending a party there when the raid occurred.

During Monday’s court session, prosecutors said one of the defendants had rented the apartment to receive “sexual deviants” in his home and host parties for them. While there are no laws banning homosexuality in Egypt, “debauchery” or breaking the country’s law of public morals is outlawed.

Egyptian courts use legislation on debauchery to prosecute gay people on charges of “contempt of religion” and “sexual immorality.”

The severe sentences the four men received on Monday have raised concerns among rights campaigners of a widening crackdown on Egypt’s long-oppressed and marginalised gay community.

Youth-activists expressed their dismay and disappointment at the verdicts on social media networks.

In a message posted on her Twitter account on Tuesday, Shadi Rahimi, a journalist and photographer working for Al Monitor described the verdicts as “outrageous”. Blogger Nervana Mahmoud meanwhile said: “The verdicts demonstrate that the current regime is as conservative as their Islamist predecessors.”

In Egypt’s conservative, predominantly Muslim society, homophobia is deeply embedded, with 95% of Egyptians sharing the conviction that “homosexuality should not be accepted”, according to a 2013 poll conducted by the Pew Research Centre.

The recent crackdown on Egypt’s gay community is highly reminiscent of the security clampdown in the spring/summer of 2001 when authoritarian president Hosni Mubarak was still in power.

In May 2001, 52 people suspected of being gay were arrested on charges of immorality during a raid on a tourist boat moored on the Nile in Cairo. Twenty three of the men were sentenced to up to five years in prison with hard labour.

The highly-publicised “Queen Boat case”, named after the discotheque-boat that for long had been a known meeting place for Egypt’s gay community, signalled what rights campaigners feared might be an end to long years of discreet and quietly tolerated public activity by the country’s threatened LGBT population.

Some analysts said at the time that the sudden crackdown was a means of diverting attention away from the regime’s failures, including a political crisis and a looming economic recession. Critics of the 2001 crackdown also believed it was an attempt by the then-autocratic regime to present an image as “the guardian of public virtue so as to deflate an Islamist opposition movement that appeared to be gaining support every day”.

Not surprisingly, many of Egypt’s gay men and women were at the heart of the January 2011 protests demanding democracy, freedom and social justice. They had hoped that the revolution would usher in a new era of change including greater freedoms and tolerance, allowing them to better integrate into mainstream society.

Karim, who requested that only his first name be used out of concern for his safety, told Index: “We had a lot of hope then but the last three years have only brought disappointment. There has been no change in people’s attitudes. In fact, we get insulted more often now, as people feel emboldened knowing that the authorities are siding with them.”

Rights campaigners agree that life has gotten worse for Egypt’s gay citizens since the Arab Spring.

Adel Ramadan, a legal officer at the Cairo-based Egypt Initiative for Personal Rights told NBC News last year that “after the fall of Mubarak, the criticism of revolutionary groups has always contained a sexual element. Women who participate in protests are often called prostitutes or ‘loose’ women, while male revolutionary activists are called homosexuals”.

Meanwhile, the rise of Islamists to power in Egypt in the post-revolution era fuelled fears among rights groups and Egyptian gay citizens over greater restrictions on the gay community. They anticipated an even harder crackdown under Islamist rule and worried that the Islamist-dominated parliament would pass anti-gay legislation.

Whether or not their fears were justified is uncertain, for Islamist rule in Egypt was short lived, lasting only one year. President Morsi was toppled by military-backed protests on July 3, 2013 and the People’s Assembly (the lower house of Parliament responsible for issuing legislation) was disbanded by a Supreme Constitutional Court ruling in June 2012, only a few months after its members were elected.

However, in their time in power, there were signs indicating a potential tightening of restrictions on Egypt’s gays. In August 2012, a man was arrested for allegedly leading a “gay sex network” while later that year, vigilantes beat four men suspected of being gay before handing them over to the police.

“Many of my gay friends fled the country when the Islamists came to power; they were terrified of what would happen to them under Islamist rule. They knew they would not be able to live freely so they emigrated,” said Karim. “Those who stayed behind, participated in the 30 June mass protests demanding Morsi’s downfall. We were overjoyed when he was toppled and hoped there would be fewer restrictions on us from then on,” he added.

Paradoxically, since Morsi’s ouster in July 2013, there has been a rise in the number of arrests of people based on their sexual orientation, according to the US-based Human Rights First group. The group says the surge in arrests and prosecution of gay men and women is part of the military-backed regime’s efforts to reassure Egyptians that the current regime is as conservative as any Islamist party.

In October 2013, state-owned Akhbar el Youm reported that at least 14 men were arrested for “practicing homosexuality” after a raid on a health club in El Marg district in northeastern Cairo.

According to the weekly newspaper, police found the men “in positions that were against religious precepts”. Less than three weeks later, police arrested ten more people on “homosexual-related charges”. The arrests occurred during a police raid on a private party held to celebrate Love Day (Egypt’s equivalent of Valentine’s Day) in Cairo’s western suburb of 6 October.

The men were subjected to humiliating anal examinations before being convicted of prostitution and sentenced to between three and nine years in prison. Mohamed Bakier, one of the defence lawyers in the case, said the charges against them were “political rather than criminal”. He added that the harsh sentences they received were meant to deliver a message that the society is still conservative.

Similarly, the severe sentences handed down to the four men on Monday may be an attempt by the military-backed authorities to appease a sceptical public and win over conservatives in the deeply polarised society ahead of upcoming presidential elections in which the former defence minister Abdel Fattah El Sisi is the lead contender.

The verdicts, meanwhile, coincided with another court ruling upholding three-year jail terms imposed on three secular revolutionary activists convicted of organising or participating in unauthorised protests, prompting rights campaigners to concur in opinion that this is all part of the wider, ongoing crackdown on personal freedoms.

Whatever the motives are behind the harsh sentences, one thing is certain: The verdicts have increased anxiety over the insecurity of Egypt’s vulnerable gay community. “We no longer feel safe,” said Karim. “We know we are being targeted by the police and sooner or later, they will come after us.”

Lenghty prison sentences against 4 homosexuals

Agence France Presse

Egypt court sentences four homosexuals to prison

Monday April 7, 2014

CAIRO (AFP) - A court in Egypt sentenced four men to up to eight years in prison on Monday for practicing homosexuality, a judicial official said. 

Prosecutors had accused the men of holding "deviant parties" and dressing in women's clothes. Three were sentenced to eight years and the fourth to three years in prison.

Prosecutors have used a law banning "debauchery" to try homosexuals in the past.

Those accused of homosexuality are often forced to undergo medical tests to establish they are "habitual" homosexuals, a practice rights groups have decried as abusive.

Homosexuality is not tolerated across the Middle East and much of Africa.

Gender Wars: Brotherhood Vs. Egyptian Women

Atlantic Council

Gender Wars: The Muslim Brotherhood Versus Egypt's Women

March 14, 2013 

Mahmoud Salem

The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (MB) issued a highly critical statement yesterday against the draft proposal of the UN declaration on women’s rights.  The Muslim Brotherhood statement says that the proposed draft includes articles “that contradict established principles of Islam, undermine Islamic ethics and destroy the family”, and, if ratified, “would lead to [the] complete disintegration of society.”

The statement by the MB included 10 specific points of contention, the most controversial of which are the belief that ratifying the document would lead to the following: 

• Granting equal rights to adulterous wives and illegitimate sons resulting from adulterous relationships.
• Giving wives full rights to file legal complaints against husbands accusing them of rape or sexual harassment, obliging competent authorities to deal husbands punishments similar to those prescribed for raping or sexually harassing a stranger.
• Replacing guardianship with partnership, and full sharing of roles within the family between men and women such as: spending, child care and home chores.
• Full equality in marriage legislation such as: allowing Muslim women to marry non-Muslim men, and abolition of polygamy, dowry, men taking charge of family spending, etc.
• Removing the authority of divorce from husbands and placing it in the hands of judges, and sharing all property after divorce
• Cancelling the need for a husband’s consent in matters like: travel, work, or use of contraception.

What is interesting about the MB’s objections, besides seemingly taking issue with women’s equality as a concept and with recognizing that husbands can rape their wives, is that their objections are more inferred from the spirit of the draft document than from the document itself.

What is even more bizarre is objecting to topics that weren’t even mentioned in the draft, like “granting equal rights to homosexuals, and providing protection and respect to prostitutes.” 

Unfortunately, the National Council for Women (NCW) focused on the latter point, attacking the Muslim Brotherhood stance, describing it as a “misleading statement” that aims for sensational and inflammatory politics. I say unfortunately because that entirely misses the point of the MB statement and doesn’t provide the appropriate response that the NCW should have given.

For example, while the draft resolution doesn’t call for providing protection or respect for prostitutes, it does call for ending violence against all women, which would include the minority that work in prostitution.

Those women, while their job may be deemed immoral or illegal in certain countries, deserve protection from violence like any other human being or citizen of their country, a fact which the MB seems to take issue with.

Aside from using religion to oppose equality between men and women, they are even advocating dehumanizing - in the sense of deeming them unworthy of their human rights - those they consider morally bankrupt, like lesbians or prostitutes.

Protecting these two subgroups of citizens from violence is against Islam according to the MB, and therefore shouldn’t be allowed.

As for “regular” females, the MB believes that giving them the right to deny their husbands sex is blasphemous and that reporting spousal rape is destructive to both the family and society.

In a resolution aimed at stopping violence against women, the MB believes that sexual violence is permitted and should not be stopped if it takes place between two married partners. Domestic abuse? What’s that?

To call these objections a set-back to women’s rights in Egypt would be an understatement. The MB object to women even being allowed to use contraceptives without their husband’s consent, let alone work or travel.

We are witnessing, in the 21st century, a group that views women as nothing more than second class citizens or an inferior race that men are allowed to control, rape, or treat violently if they were “immoral”, without legal recourse, and in the name of Islam and the protection of society.

We are also witnessing the stripping away of the few rights that women had in Egypt before the revolution, which were nowhere near satisfactory then, but look really good now.

It’s an outrage, and a sad day for Egyptian women, but will hopefully shine a light on the war that the Muslim Brotherhood has been waging against Egyptian women for the past year.

The National Salvation Front (NSF), the main opposition coalition against the Muslim Brotherhood, whose voter-base is the women of the country, should stand firmly against such policies and recommendations. 

Unfortunately, social policy discourse, especially relating to women’s rights, has been severely lacking in Egypt, with some attributing this to the fact that the NSF is made up of 13 men. 

That needs to change. If the women of Egypt are to fight for their rights against the kind of misogynistic assault the MB seems intent on unleashing on them, the entity championing their issue cannot be made entirely of men, no matter how liberal or open-minded they may be. Now, more than ever, the need for a female political entity advancing women’s rights is paramount.

The international community would be correct to condemn the MB’s objections, particularly since they contravene international agreements and treaties of which Egypt is a signatory, and which as a group, they have promised to honor. 

Another commendable policy is the “more for more” approach that the European Parliament has taken to financial aid to Egypt, linking aid to democratic reforms. Interestingly, in a statement published today, MEP’s are withholding financial support to Egypt until they see progress in democracy, human rights and rule of law.

Their first point? Stopping violence against women.  By virtue of rapid response or fortunate timing, the EU Parliament is on the right side at the right time of the issue, and hopefully the rest of the world will follow.


*Photo by Gigi Ibrahim

Brotherhood denounces UN women's rights document

Associated Press
Egypt's Brotherhood blasts UN women's document

March 13, 2013


Sarah El-Deeb

CAIRO: Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood sharply criticized an anticipated U.N. document on combatting violence against women, saying on Wednesday that it was "deceitful," clashed with Islamic principles and undermined family values.

The text or details of the document have not been published yet, but it may be issued at the end of a meeting of the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women this week in New York. Negotiations have been bogged down in debate.

According to the Brotherhood, which has emerged as the most powerful political faction in Egypt since the 2011 uprising, the draft under discussion advocates sexual freedoms for women and the right to abortion "under the guise of sexual and reproductive rights."

In its strongly worded statement, the Brotherhood also decried the document's defense of homosexual rights, which are not recognized in Islam, and the equating between children born in and out of wedlock.

It said the title of the document addressing violence is "deceitful."

"It contains articles that clash with Islamic principles and its basics mentioned in the Quran (Islam's holy book) and in Islamic traditions," the Brotherhood statement said. "It eliminates Islamic values, and seeks to destroy the family ... which would lead to social disintegration."

The Brotherhood, which won Egypt's presidency and controls parliament, called on other Muslim nations, women's groups and Islamic organizations to reject the document. It called it an infringement on the thought, culture and uniqueness of Islamic societies.

The Brotherhood urged women's rights groups not to be "lured by phony calls for civilized behavior and by misleading and destructive processes."

Libya's supreme religious cleric also raised similar concerns, rejecting the document for violating Islamic teachings.

In particular, he rejected equality between men and women in matters of inheritance, which Islamic jurisprudence does not accept, and criticized wording on sexual freedoms and rights of children born out of wedlock.

The Commission meeting, which opened on March 4, focused on combatting violence against women. Cabinet ministers and ambassadors as well as representatives of civil society from 193 U.N. member states are attending.

The head of the U.N. women's agency, Michelle Bachelet, said she hoped the meeting would produce a document that becomes a tool to improve the fight against violence against women.

She called for more robust action and commitments to ensure the protection of the rights of women and girls to live in dignity, free of violence and discrimination.

The debate over the document is still ongoing in New York, particularly over reproductive and sexual health and rights and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual rights.

U.N. diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because negotiations are private, said Egypt proposed an amendment saying that each country is sovereign and can implement the document in accordance with its own laws and customs, a clause the West strongly opposes.

Such a document was unattainable a decade ago when the commission took up the issue, because governments were unable to reach agreement. Differences over sex education, a woman's right to reproductive health, and demands for an exception for traditional, cultural and religious practices stymied an accord.

The Brotherhood's statement appeared to reflect those persistent differences, saying that religious traditions and values are threatened by such a universal document.

Debates on women's issues in Egypt, and in the Muslim world at large, are traditionally buried in debates over Islamic laws and whether their interpretations are compatible with demands for more personal freedoms.

With the rise of Islamic fundamentalist groups to power in the region following the past two years of protests against autocratic rulers, many women rights groups fear a regression in women's freedoms with a stricter interpretation of Islamic laws.

Already, Egypt's speech at the opening of the commission meeting has set off a storm in the women's rights community.

The speech was delivered on March 4 by Pakinam el-Sharqawi, an aide to President Mohammed Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood. In her speech, el-Sharqawi praised Egypt's new constitution as protective of women's rights, to the dismay of members of the delegation who have been sharply critical of the charter.

Her speech caused some in the delegation to walk out. Leading women's rights activist Nehad Abu el-Qumsan called it "shocking."

Opposition activists say Egypt's new charter has an Islamist slant, undermines women's rights and denies them equality while ignoring their political rights.

Rights groups also worry that the new charter has granted religious authorities the right to review laws to ensure they are in line with Islamic laws, which they say may further undermine their rights.

Violence against women has also been on the rise in Egypt, particularly during political protests.

Some suspect the attacks are an organized campaign to curb women's participation in public life after they played an integral role during the protests against former autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak.

The issue has been a source of contention between the Islamist-led government and opposition activists, who accuse authorities of not doing enough to address the issue.

In her speech, el-Sharqawi said violence against women should be combatted based on "balance between the values shared by humanity, and the cultural and social particularities of countries and peoples."

*Photo courtesy of REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

Elton John - Stay Gay, But Boycott Apartheid Israel

Dear Elton John,

I really don't mind if you are flaming gay, and I don't mind if you refer to Jesus Christ as being gay too - that's alright with me.

What is not alright is your performance in Apartheid South Africa (in 1983,) despite the international boycott of that racist state at that time; and what is DEFINITELY not alright is your intention to perform in Apartheid Israel, in June 2010 - despite the current boycott of this racist state.

Yes, Egypt is homophobic, and the cancellation of your concert here was unjust. But what is far more unjust is Israeli Apartheid. This Apartheid system coupled with the military occupation of the West Bank (along with the Golan Heights and Shebaa Farms) and the siege of Gaza are far beyond unjust.

Please don't perform in Tel Aviv - please boycott Apartheid Israel.

JC

***

The Elton John BDS Song



Deutsche Presse Agentur
Elton John concert banned in Egypt

Cairo, May 02, 2010


(DPA) - Egypt's musician's union on Sunday rejected plans for British singer Elton John to perform a private concert scheduled for May 18, because of his "controversial remarks attacking religions".

"How do we allow a gay, who wants to ban religions, claimed that the prophet Eissa (Jesus) was gay and calls for Middle Eastern countries to allow gays to have sexual freedom," head of the Egyptian Musician Union, Mounir al-Wasimi told DPA.

The pop superstar, 63, stirred controversy after his remarks to US celebrity news magazine Parade in February, where he said "Try being a gay woman in the Middle East - you're as good as dead", after saying he believed Jesus was "gay".

Al-Wasimi said that he has begun coordinating with security bodies to ban John's concert, saying that the union is the only body "authorised to allow performances by foreign singers in Egypt".

In 2008, Elton John performed in the United Arab Emirates to a crowd of more than 13,000 fans.

Although some human rights activists claim homosexuality is spreading in Egypt, the topic is a taboo in the country. In 2008, a lesbian scene in an Egyptian film set in Cairo's slums caused uproar.

In 2001, police raided a "gay" floating disco in Cairo. Around 20 of the 52 arrested were jailed for "habitual debauchery" and "obscene behaviour".