Middle East Aggregator

Police in Dubai have arrested several men and women for cross-dressing in what they said was a campaign to preserve the social values of the cosmopolitan Gulf Arab trade and tourism hub, newspapers reported on Monday.

Dubai is part of the seven-member United Arab Emirates, a Muslim country where cross-dressing is frowned upon but whose population is dominated by migrants with diverse backgrounds and lifestyles.

"We have noted an emerging trend of men dressed as women and vice versa in the UAE markets and streets," the Khaleej Times daily quoted Dubai Police Chief Dhahi Khalfan as saying.

"Several men in women's dresses and make-up have already been arrested from shopping malls and residential buildings," he said.

The detainees were being referred to the public prosecutor as part of the one-week campaign called "Preserve Our Social Values", though it was not clear what charges would be brought.

Khalfan urged the Social Affairs Ministry to study the reasons behind the trend, which he said could be a consequence of mixed-sex schools.

Dubai is a city of sky-scrapers and mega-developments, which attracts foreign workers ranging from well-paid Western executives to low-wage Asian laborers. Tourists may wear bikinis and drink cocktails at hotel nightclubs but sex outside marriage is banned as is homosexual behavior. (Reuters)

Labels: Dubai, Free Speech, Gay Rights, U.A.E.

Mehdi Kazemi, 19, came to London to study English in 2005, but later discovered his boyfriend had been charged with sodomy in Iran and hanged.

A 38-year-old Iranian soldier who deserted rather than lay anti-personnel landmines also won the right to stay.

The soldier, identified only as BE, fled to Britain after refusing to plant mines in roads.

In March 2001 the home secretary refused the man's claim for asylum, saying he had not only undertaken military service but had signed up as a regular soldier "without any apparent qualms".

The conclusion drawn was that civilian deaths were an unfortunate consequence of war which did not justify desertion.

But this was overturned by judges who ruled the soldier was entitled to succeed in his claim for international protection. (BBC)

Labels: Gay Rights, Iran, U.K.

Human Rights Watch on Monday condemned a wave of arrests of transvestites in Kuwait and called for the scrapping of a new law which outlaws cross-dressing. "New arrests show that Kuwait has resumed enforcing a repressive dress code that criminalizes 'imitating the appearance of the opposite sex,'" HRW said in a statement. The New York-based group called on the government to investigate allegations of ill-treatment of detainees and to repeal the offending provision, which violated the emirate's human rights obligations. Last December, Kuwait's National Assembly approved an amendment to the criminal code.

HRW said it states: "Any person committing an indecent act in a public place, or imitating the appearance of a member of the opposite sex, shall be subject to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year or a fine not exceeding 1,000 dinars [$3,500]." Police began arresting people almost immediately, jailing at least 14 people in the first month, HRW said. After a two-month lull in enforcing the dress-code law, arrests began again in mid-March. Of the 14 people arrested in December 2007, police beat at least three while in detention, leaving one unconscious, HRW said, quoting their friends. (AFP)

Labels: Gay Rights, Human Rights Watch, Kuwait

Israel has granted a Palestinian a rare residency permit after the man, who is gay, said his sexuality put his life in danger in the West Bank, a Defence Ministry official said on Tuesday.

The 33-year-old Palestinian from Jenin was issued a temporary permit to live with his Israeli partner in Tel Aviv after arguing he faced death threats from fellow Palestinians who disapproved of him being gay, the official said.

Israel's Interior Ministry rarely issues permits for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank who want to live with their partners in Israel, regardless of sexuality. Requesting such a permit can take years.

"In this case the man's lawyer said his life was in danger because of his sexual preference," said Peter Lerner, spokesman for Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, whose office comes under the defence ministry.

"On this basis we issued the temporary permit," he said.

But while homosexuality is largely taboo in conservative and majority Muslim West Bank cities, one rights groups working with Palestinian gays said there had been few reports of physical violence in recent years. (Reuters)

Labels: Gay Rights, Israel, Palestine

The home secretary is to review the case of Iranian homosexual teenager Mehdi Kazemi, who has said he will be executed if forced to return to Iran.

The UK rejected his first asylum plea, but Jacqui Smith has now granted him a temporary reprieve from deportation while she reconsiders his case.

Mr Kazemi, 19, had failed to gain asylum in the Netherlands.

Homosexual acts are illegal in Iran and Mr Kazemi's boyfriend had named him as his partner before his own execution.

Ms Smith said: "Following representations made on behalf of Mehdi Kazemi, and in the light of new circumstances since the original decision was made, I have decided that Mr Kazemi's case should be reconsidered on his return to the UK from the Netherlands." (Link)

Labels: Gay Rights, Iran, U.K.