[Foundation-l] Reboot on LGBT/Egypt issue (was Re: [Wikimania-l] Wikimania 2008 will happen in Alexandria, Egypt)

[Oldak Quill]

On 14/10/2007, MeMo <moamen at gmail.com> wrote:
> OK  .. people
>    there is something that i need to clarify
> you r talking like once a gay man enters the an Egyptian airport he will be
> arrested 'for being gay' the imprisoned and tortured .. i must say that this
> is TOTALY wrong.
> the only case that a gay or a straight person might get arrested is for
> doing a direct sexual act in a public place - a street or instance - and
> this apply to both heterosexual and homosexuals a like .. other than that
> there is no problem if you already have a partner.
> as renting a hotel room with you partner or holding his hand is no problem
> at all simply because those acts are common in Egypt ..
> men do hold each others hand and friends do rent rooms together without
> being considered gay or harassing them in any mean .

The problem is not just with having sex in public places.
http://www.mask.org.za/index.php?page=egypt - this website lists some
news items about homosexuality in Egypt.

Since 2001 the government has been cracking down on homosexuality by
entrapping people trying to meet other gay people on the internet and
raiding private parties (the Cairo 52).

On the Human Rights Watch report published in 2004 concerning
homosexuals in Egypt: "It said they spoke of being whipped, bound and
suspended in painful positions, splashed with ice-cold water, burned
with cigarettes, shocked with electricity to the limbs, genitals or
tongue. They also said guards encouraged other prisoners to rape them,
according to the
report."(http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=egypt&id=209)

What's more, the Egyptian authorities have been arresting (and
imprisoning) people who are not Egyptian
nationals.(http://www.mask.org.za/article.php?cat=&id=205)

The point of this discussion isn't to determine whether Egypt has a
good human rights record or not. It doesn't have a good human rights
record and that shouldn't stop us going there (we should not punish
Egyptians for their government).

What some of us seem to be concerned about is whether non-Egyptians
visiting Alexandria for the conference are in any danger. From
everything I've read (imprisonment of non-Egyptian homosexuals, use of
entrapment by the police, torturing homosexuals in custody and trying
homosexuals using tribunals set up to combat terrorism), we cannot say
with certainty that Wikimedians will be safe in Egypt.

It is not a matter of flaunting homosexuality in public or not - the
Egyptian police seem to have caught most homosexuals by other means
(posing as gay men on internet meet services, raiding private
parties). I don't think we can say with certainty that two
non-Egyptian men (namely, a Wikimedian and his partner) sharing a
double room in Alexandria will be safe.

-- 
Oldak Quill (oldakquill at gmail.com)