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Saudi Arabia’s gay subculture
Just when you thought life couldn’t get any wierder . . . .
The article appears in The Independent, and was written by John R. Bradley of Arab News fame.
EFL.
In the glass and marble shopping malls of this cosmopolitan and comparatively laid-back city on the Red Sea, young Saudi Arabian men are taking advantage of the emergence of an increasingly tolerated Western-oriented gay scene. . . . The paradox of Saudi Arabia is that while the executioner’s sword awaits anyone convicted of the crime of sodomy, in practice homosexuality is tolerated.
Like San Francisco with camels.
Ibrahim bin Abdullah bin Ghaith, the head of the goon squads religious police (the Committee for the Prevention of Vice and the Promotion of Virtue) acknowledged, in unusually tempered language, that there are gay Saudis, while also speaking of the need "to educate the young" about this "vice". But he denied media reports that gay and lesbian relationships were the norm in the strictly segregated schools and colleges, that homosexuality "is spreading".
"Nothing to see here, just move on . . . ."
In an unprecedented two-page special investigation, the daily newspaper Okaz said lesbianism was "endemic" among schoolgirls. It justified the article with a saying of the Prophet’s wife Ayesha that "there should be no shyness in religion". The article told of lesbian sex in school lavatories, girls stigmatised after refusing the advances of their fellow students, and teachers complaining that none of the girls were willing to change their behaviour.
"Teenagers rebelling and defying adult authority? Never happens here!"
Mr Ghaith dismissed a suggestion that he should send his "enforcers" to investigate.
"Denial? I can’t be in denial; denial’s a river in Egypt, and this is Saudi Arabia. We don’t have rivers here"
"This perversion is found in all countries," he told Okaz.
So you’re not in denial after all, eh?
"The number [of homosexuals] here is small . . . ."
Spoke too soon.
That assessment is contradicted by teachers and students who say that, in the absence of other outlets, a "gay" subculture has inevitably flourished among youth.
One more reason to invade the Arabian Peninsula.
Posted by: Mike 2004-02-20
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=26623