For Samir*, a 34-year-old gay man living in Saudi Arabia, each day is a denial. He lives in Mecca, the holiest city according to Islam, and is acutely aware of the stigma that surrounds his gay lifestyle.

“I’m a Muslim. I know it’s forbidden, but I can’t help it,” he tells ABC News, clearly conflicted.

“I pray to God to help me be straight, just to avoid hell. But I know that I’m gay and I’m living as one, so I can’t see a clear vision for the future.”

Samir, like many gay men in the Arab world, guards his sexual orientation with a paranoid secrecy. To feel free he takes long vacations to Thailand, where he has a boyfriend, and spends weekends in Lebanon, which he regards as having a more gay-tolerant society.

But at home in Saudi Arabia, he is vigilant. Samir’s parents don’t know of his lifestyle. He says his mom would kill herself if she found out. They constantly set him up with women they consider potential wives. At work, Samir watches his words, careful not to arouse the suspicion of colleagues.

“You can’t let a word slip that makes you seem gay-friendly or gay,” he says. “Before you make a move you have to think.”

Samir occasionally goes to Saudi cafes known to be popular gay hangouts, but his public engagements stop there. He and his friends are constantly wary of officers from the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the kingdom’s religious police, who patrol for and punish men they suspect of being gay.

Homosexuality is illegal in Saudi Arabia, but the charge calls for four witnesses to make a case. Arrests by the religious police are far more arbitrary. In a recent case they apprehended one man at a Jeddah shopping mall, suspecting he was gay from his tight jeans and fitted shirt.

“I’ve been invited to private parties for gay men in Jeddah, but I never go because I know what would happen if we were caught,” Samir told ABC News.

“Unless it’s a VIP house — if the party is at the home of one of the princes or one of the sheiks then you’re protected.”

In Saudi Arabia, where men and women are strictly separated, there is some space for gay life. Gay men can go cruising — a term for picking up partners — and socialize in male-only sections of cafes and restaurants. In line with sex-segregated social norms, gay lovers can often spend intimate time together without arousing suspicion.

But gays and lesbians in Saudi Arabia still need to accommodate the pressures of public life, in some cases pairing off to accommodate a freer lifestyle.

“There is a gay group of girls in Saudi looking for gay men to marry. It’s the perfect solution,” says Samir, adding that he wouldn’t mind a lesbian wife of his own.

Online Freedom but With Entrapment Risks

For Samir, the dozens of emerging Web forums for gay Arab men are a freer alternative to the offline Saudi society. I met him in one such forum, called Arab Gay Love, e-cruising for new friends and partners. Some of the users there surf with screen names that specify their sexual role: “top” or “bottom.” Among Arabs, it seems, a mix of stigma and machismo steers gay men toward the former.

“The more masculine you are, the more likely you are to label yourself as a ‘top.’ It re-enforces this feeling that you’re not really gay,” said Ahmed*, a gay Palestinian born in Kuwait. “They’re more comfortable with being tops, because it’s easier to negate [the gay stigma].”

Gay Web Sites Blocked in Many Arab Countries

Web forums like arab-gay.com and manhunt.net are inaccessible in many Arab countries, blocked by state-run web filtering software. Using proxy servers men can get around the bans to the blocked sites, connecting with potential dates and building a knowledge base for gay life in the Arab world.

One blog from Syria, largely considered a repressed society, details a tourist’s guide to gay hangouts in Damascus and Aleppo.

“You could almost pick up guys everywhere, you just need to have a good gaydar. …There are four hammams in Damascus where you could play safely, but always be careful,” he writes, then listing the most popular “hammams,” or bath houses. He goes on to name the Safwan Hotel in

Lattakia as “the most famous gay-friendly hotel in the region.”

From his home in Mecca, Samir can surf the web forums and Facebook groups that connect him to the gay Arab world. But he does so with care, fearing that authorities will follow and flag gay activity online.

“You cannot be safe and intimate online. … he government can track everything. If they have their eye on you, they can follow your every move,” he says.

If Samir’s approach seems paranoid, it’s conditioned by horror stories of harsh crackdowns by Arab governments on gay life. In Egypt, where police have systematically arrested and tortured suspected homosexuals, vice squads have logged on to chat rooms posing as gay men. Forming friendships under a false identity, the police set up an expected first date, then meet their “suspects” with a brutal arrest.

“I was waiting for that guy I chatted with on the Internet a couple of days before that day, right in front of McDonald’s [in] Heliopolis. & It was almost 1 p.m., when I found four big guys surrounding me,” one victim of police brutality told Human Rights Watch after being set up on a false date.

“I was fighting and yelling in the street. I was dragged, almost carried to the police car … taken to [the station], the ‘Adab’ Section, which takes care of prostitution, raping and, recently, homosexuality.” Human Rights Watch documented dozens of Web-based entrapments — men arrested by Egyptian police then tormented with beatings, electrocution and anal examinations.

The vice squad’s practice of covertly hunting gay men in chat rooms cooled once the teeming gay Internet scene in Egypt slowed down. Fear and suspicion effectively shut down one of gay Egypt’s few free outlets. At one point online entrapment was yielding one arrest per week, according to Human Rights Watch.

The Web was part of a greater crackdown in Egypt, a country that was once a liberal environment for homosexuals. (One gay Palestinian who has studied Arab homophobia described 20th century Egypt as the “San Francisco of the Middle East.”) Social and authoritarian attitudes toward homosexuality began to change after the Egyptian Revolution in 1952, and grew steadily harsher through the 1990s as the secular state gave way to a growing Islamic puritanism.

Government-led assaults on homosexuals intensified in 2001. The pivot point was a mass arrest known as the “Queen Boat” incident. In the early morning hours of May 11, 2001, police raided a floating nightclub called the Queen Boat, a then-popular gay hangout moored on the Nile River. Suddenly surrounded by uniformed and undercover members of the Cairo Vice Squad, dozens of gay men were arrested, detained and tortured.

U.S. Government Has Been Quiet About Gay Crackdown in Iraq

What ensued from the Queen Boat arrests was a show trial — forced confessions, some extracted under torture and a media circus designed to amplify public fear and maximize the government’s political gain from the arrest. Though Egypt claims to have no law against homosexuality, it routinely criminalizes and prosecutes gay men under a law prohibiting “juhur,” or debauchery, a charge originally levied for prostitution.

In the heat of the case, one article in the state-owned Al-Gomhoureya newspaper gave full names and identifying details of the accused, depicting the arrested homosexuals as part of an underground religious cult. The paper ran one headline, “Satanist Pervert Surprises: They Called Themselves God’s Soldiers and Practice Group Sex in Private and Public & Meetings Every Thursday at Queen Boat,” cited in the Human Rights Watch report.

Analysts point out a number of ways the Egyptian government gains from crackdowns like the Queen Boat raid. News pages full of homophobic rants are a useful distraction from issues like a faltering economy and rampant corruption, which erode government support. In the same stroke, the state gains ground against its Islamist opponents by attacking homosexuals — trumped-up offenders against Muslim values. “They want to reassert their relevance and position themselves as defenders of morality is one way to do it,” said Scott Long, an expert who helped produce the Human Rights Watch report.

“One of the ways [Arab authorities] prove they’re bona fide is by cracking down on people that everyone hates. Hardly anyone is going to stand up and stick up for homosexuals,” he said.

Long applies his analysis to other governments in the region. In 2005, authorities in Abu Dhabi, part of the United Arab Emirates, arrested more than two dozen men in the desert town of Ghantout at an event state officials characterized as a mass gay wedding. The UAE announced the men would receive lashings, jail time and forced hormone and psychological treatment. The case was eventually overturned on appeal, after news of the trial drew criticism from human rights activists and the U.S. State Department.

The U.S. government has been comparatively quiet, though, through a more recent and more deadly crackdown in Iraq. In attacks that accelerated last February, Shiite militiamen have carried out a series of beatings and assassinations of gay men, occasionally with the help of the Interior Ministry, according to Scott Long of Human Rights Watch. Al Qaeda in Iraq, a rival Islamist group, has also reportedly attacked gay men in Iraq, in what human rights activists call a clear moral cleansing campaign.

“The easiest group to attack are gay people, both politically and in regards to the militias’ Islamist aims. & They can’t stop women from going to work, they can’t stop couples from being together in public, but they can attack gay men,” said Michael Luongo, a gay rights expert and author of the book “Gay Travels in the Muslim World.”

“If you want religious credibility you attack gay people,” he said of the Islamist brigades. The recent spate of attacks followed a succession of sermons in Iraqi mosques, attacking the scourge of homosexuality. As in the case of Egyptian arrests, suspected homosexuals were detained, tortured, and forced to give names of other gay men for authorities to pursue.

Small Space for Gay Pride

Long recently traveled to Iraq to document the attacks and advocate for gay Iraqis under attack.

“There’s a campaign to kill them,” he said, describing how homosexuals have learned to protect themselves by keeping a low profile. “They hide. People turn off their phones, change their e-mail addresses, and stay home.”

Outside the spaces of hostile discrimination, homosexuals in the Middle East do manage to form a community and enjoy a freer lifestyle.

Israel, perhaps the most tolerant state in the Middle East, has a thriving gay community. Last year thousands attended the annual gay pride parade in Tel Aviv, though the event has drawn right-wing protests and attacks. A similar parade in Jerusalem, a more socially conservative environment, took place with police protection along the parade route.

Up the coast in Lebanon, a relatively liberal Arab society plays host to the first gay rights group in the Arab world. Members of Helem, an acronym in Arabic for “Lebanese Protection for Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgenders,” are activists at their own peril. In a country that moves back and forth between secularism and religious politics, the group and its gay community center are creating a space for their freedom.

In other parts of the Arab world gay life has to fit into whatever space is provided, and the borders are constantly moving. In Dubai, arguably the most modern city in Arabia, gay expats have little trouble living and loving freely. Rashid, a young Lebanese expat who lives with his partner in Dubai, knows he has it better than most. Unlike many gays in the Gulf, Rashid has come out to his parents, and felt comfortable meeting men and dating as he grew up in Abu Dhabi.

Locals, he says, have a harder time. “The Europeans and Westerners are more comfortable with their homosexuality. The locals, the Saudis and Bahrainis, are less open about it,” Rashid told ABC News.

“One friend, an Emirati, was discovered to be gay at 1999 and his family disowned him. Last we heard he was deported, he can no longer come back to the UAE, and lives in France.”

The mix of tolerance and discrimination across the Middle East creates little opportunity for a cohesive gay rights movement. Moreover, the local take on homosexuality is out of line with the Western norm, a notion of being gay as a recognized minority group.

“The phrase ‘to be is not to do’ is how I explain it,” said Luongo of homosexuality in the Arab world. In other words, being gay is an act, not an identity. When gay pride does emerge, it is associated with the West, and an invading cultural colonialism. The pushback on any budding gay rights movements will likely continue, part of ongoing discrimination against homosexuals in the Middle East. There, gays will continue their negotiated lifestyle, knowing that they live and love under scrutiny.

*Name changed to protect identity

Learning about ‘alternative’ sexualities through time is often a murky business, beset with the prejudices and right-leaning morals of almost every culture in history. And when you’re looking as far back as ancient Egypt, the task becomes infinitely harder. This makes the Petrie Museum’s latest endeavour all the more impressive, as it falls in line with LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) Month, a UK-wide event running throughout February.

Like lesbian or gay history in general, you’ll have to do more than scratch at the museum’s surface to get a sniff of alternative sexualities in Egypt. ‘Beyond Isis and Osiris: Alternative Sexualities in Ancient Egypt’ is a recondite retrospective of gay and lesbian life, shown via 14 artefacts. Organiser John J. Johnson is hardly surprised at the lack of conspicuous gay iconography millennia ago: “That there is an ‘official’ somewhat censorious attitude towards homosexual acts in Pharaonic Egyptian culture is difficult to deny…The twenty-seventh declaration of the Book of the Dead is a confirmation by the deceased that he did not have homosexual relations.”

Yet Mr Johnson argues that this suppression proves homosexual activity occured in ancient Egypt – and there is no lack of museum evidence to back his claim. A stela of Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti shows the heretic king in a wholly effeminate light, suggesting some sort of hermaphroditic aspect to his heretic worship of Aten, the sun-disk. The Tale of Horus and Seth, a papyrus fragment, describes how the two gods “lay down together. At night, Seth let his member become stiff and he inserted it between the thighs of Horus…”

The Classical Period is also explored in the trail, including the alleged romance of Alexander the Great and Hephaestion. Emperor Hadrian, one of Rome’s greatest leaders, was supposedly embroiled in a love affair with a young man called Antinous: a bronze coin of the former and marble statue of the latter prove handy insights into the tale.

The trail is part of a wider series of events and lectures run by University College London this month, which has already featured Andrew Lear’s fascinating views on Greek pederasty. And Mr Johnson claims the Petrie Museum is the perfect venue for such a trail, as “Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie was particularly keen, in his excavation of settlement areas, to reveal the truth of the ancient Egyptians’ day-to-day lives rather than uncovering the art treasures and funerary artefacts sought by his contemporaries.” Catch the LGBT Trail throughout February.

The tens of millions of Arabic-speaking users of Microsoft’s popular Bing search engine have a problem. When it comes to searching for gay rights in Egypt, breast-feeding information in Algeria or sex advice in Jordan, they are out of luck. Bing is censoring search results in the Arab-speaking world, according to a prominent American research organization. The ban applies to search results in both Arabic and English found using Bing’s Arab portal.

A partial list of banned terms is shown above. But here’s the big problem… all the evidence points to Microsoft voluntarily censoring their search engine. No Arab countries asked them to censor search results. According to the Open Net Institute:

Microsoft’s explanation as to why some search keywords return few or no results is that “[s]ometimes websites are deliberately excluded from the results page to remove inappropriate content as determined by local practice, law, or regulation.” It is unclear, however, whether Bing’s keyword filtering in the Arab countries is an initiative from Microsoft, or whether any or all of the Arab states have asked Microsoft to comply with local censorship practices or laws.

It is interesting that Microsoft’s implementation of this type of wholesale social content censorship for the entire “Arabian countries” region is in fact not being practiced by many of the Arab government censors themselves. That is, although political filtering is widespread in the MENA region, social filtering, including keyword filtering, is not practiced by all countries in MENA. ONI 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 testing and research found no evidence of social content filtering (e.g., sex, nudity, and homosexuality) at the national level in countries such as Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Libya.

Meanwhile, MIT’s Technology Review parsed the Open Net report and found something very interesting. It seems that Microsoft is obsessed with the gays:

ONI performed the study by testing the search terms inside the countries. Banned words include “sex,” ” “intercourse,” “breast,” “nude,” and many more in both the English and Arabic language. The investigators also made a curious discovery: Bing engineers remembered to bar ordinary Arabs from searching for the word “penis” but not for the word “vagina.” But they left no stone unturned when it came to blocking words that might lead to sites having to do with homosexuality.

Local portal of Bings in nearly all countries or languages allow users to choose whether to use “safe search” or not. Arabic has the dubious distinction of being the only language in which users are forced to use a “nanny filter.”

Among other Arabic-speaking countries, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon and Libya do not require search engine filtering at the national level. So, it seems, Microsoft threw internet users in those country under the bridge in order to please Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Andy Greenberg notes that Microsoft is hypocritically a member of the Global Network Initative, which fights against censorship around the world. So why the embrace of sweeping web search censorship? Unlike rivals Google and Yahoo, Microsoft is a prolific pay-software producer with extensive sales in hyperconservative Arab countries. Despite piracy being endemic in the greater Middle East, Microsoft still makes a pretty penny there.

So what is a Bing-loving Egyptian to do when he wants to search for porn? Well, Microsoft strangely decided to filter based on domain destination rather than IP address… the regular US-based Bing page still provides sexxay search results to anyone in the Arab-speaking world who opens it.

Being Gay and African have for long been considered taboo in many African countries. Even in present day emotions runs high when it comes to homosexuality and in the past week attempts on the lives of homosexuals in Africa have been reported yet again. Having travelled to some of these intolerant countries I must say I enjoyed the diversity of people, cultures and stunning fauna and flora but in the same breath found the festering fear, hatred and concealed homophobia disturbing. I have always researched the country I am to visit stance on homosexuality to prepare myself for any potential problems I may encounter – an essential task for any gay traveler. Anyone planning on visiting Africa here is a brief breakdown of homophobia on the continent and also asks the question: Are you prepared to die because of what you are?

First with the good news, African countries where homosexuality is legal for both Gays and Lesbians are South Africa, Rwanda (for now), Réunion, Madagascar, Republic of Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Côte dl’voire, Cape Verde and Benin. Queerly, in some African countries homosexuality between two men are illegal but lesbianism is not. Therefore, for all our dykes out there it’s safe to visit Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Swaziland. Evidently two women engaging in sexual acts are far less “unnatural” and more palatable in these countries which led me to infer that these laws were drafted by chauvinistic heterosexual bigots harboring sexual fantasies about threesomes with a lesbian couples and repressing their own flaming homosexual desires.

In some African countries homosexuality is illegal but not strictly enforced. In these countries being gay is unlawful but would not necessarily see you end up in jail or fined. Mozambique, Namibia, Lesotho, Seychelles, Mauritius, Comoros, Angola and Mali are such countries. Even though these countries don’t strictly enforce these laws it by no means suggest that gay travelers should take unnecessary chances or risks, best be cautious and discreet. In other African countries these laws are enforced and the penalties are less harsh, in a few the maximum prison sentences are up to 3 years. These countries include Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Guinea, Liberia, Burundi and Botswana.

African countries best to avoid on your travels where the prison sentences are more than 5 years are Libya (up to 5 years), Gambia (up to 14 years), Nigeria (up to 14 years), Senegal (up to 5 years), Cameroon (up to 5 years), Djibouti (up to 12 years), Eritrea (up to 10 years), Ethiopia (up to 5 years), Kenya (up to 14 years), Zambia (up to 15 years) and Zimbabwe (up to 10 years). In these countries the reality of imprisonment are very real especially for their citizens. How these nations believe that homosexuals will be rehabilitated of their sexual preference in prison boggles the mind. Yet each year homosexuals go to jail and each year the fear grows.

Life imprisonment and the death penalty for the “crime” of homosexuality are still enforced in Africa. It’s frightening that the sentence of life imprisonment is still upheld in Tanzania and Uganda. Even more horrifying is the fact that in Sudan, Mauritania and Somalia the death penalty for homosexuality are still a legitimate sentence and enforced. These 5 African countries must be the worst offenders of human rights abuses towards homosexuals in Africa. However, Uganda tops my top 10 list of worst offenders. Not only is life imprisonment not enough now they also want to enforce the death penalty. As many know Uganda has an Anti-Homosexuality Bill which they hope to pass in their parliament. This bill has also been called the Genocide Bill as effectively it calls for the eradication of all homosexuals and HIV+ people in Uganda. Should this bill pass the consequences are dire and many people will die because they are gay.

Africa still has a long road ahead moving from a dark continent of intolerance and homophobia to a continent of peace and unity; Slowly but surely countries are enlightened and its people’s eyes are opened to new possibilities and a brighter futures. Luckily, I live in one such country on the southernmost tip of Africa. Being a South African I can’t honestly say I am proud of our neighboring fellow Africans. I don’t approve of their ancient laws and practices victimizing and persecuting my fellow gay brothers and sisters. I don’t condone the silence of the international community when human rights abuses occur in Mother Africa. Change does not happen overnight and neither can it succeed in silence. So there you have a breakdown of homophobia on the African continent. Should you be travelling to any of these countries be safe and be warned.

This is one from my one and only visit to Egypt. I was walking along the street from the ship towards the town. There were several shops where people were selling their wares. One leather shop had two nice looking guys who were working there. One asked if I wanted to come in and look around. He wasn’t bad looking so I went in and looked around. There were actually several nice looking jackets. He said there are some others upstairs if you would like to look. Already he had rubbed up against me several times. We went upstairs and he showed me several jackets and asked if I would like to try one on. So I said yes.

Well he helped me put in on and when he was behind me he rubbed his crotch against my ass. At first I thought well maybe this was an accident. When I tried on the next one and the same thing happened I knew that he was after something. When he was helping me with another one I brushed my hand against the front of his pants. I could feel that he was either getting hard or was already hard. So I kind of casually rubbed my hand against the front of his pants some more and yes he was hard. He asked me if I liked what I felt and I said yes it feels very nice. He said that he could not do anything just then as his boss was due back, but asked if I could return either later that night, or the next morning around 10 as he would be alone with the other guy who was working with him then. I said I would return in the morning. But he let me feel his hard cock through his pants. It felt like it may be a big one – but you know that when it is hidden it is not really possible to be sure, especially when it was just feeling, not stroking it or grasping it through the cloth.

I went back at the mentioned time the next morning. He was working with his friend. He came up to me and said lets look at the coats upstairs. We went up and he then said that it would cost money if I wanted to do anything. I said, well I guess I will go. He is like, what do you mean. Yesterday you said you would like to do something. I said yeah I would, but I am not going to pay for it. He said come on just $40 dollars. I said no way, and started to walk towards the stairs. Ok he goes, how about $25? I said I am not paying anything. Please I just need to make some money he says. I told him I did not have that much money on me. Well how much do you have? I said only about $10. (Well that was partly true as I had $10 in one pocket!) Ok then he said just give me the $10. I still did not want to pay and I kind of hesitated.

Finally he said please just $10. So I said ok. We went to a part of the upstairs where no one who came up the stairs would be able to see us. I asked what we were going to do. He said you can either suck me or I will fuck you. Well that was an easy decision as I have told you before the only one who fucks me is someone who I have a lot of feelings for, and this guy was not one of those. So I told him to drop his pants, but he said no we just can take it out and you can suck it. I said at least undo the button and give me some room to work. So he did, but would not pull them down at all, just the button and zipper down and spread the jeans open. I was somewhat disappointed when his dick popped out – he had no underwear on. It was not as big as I had expected. So I started to suck on it, running my tongue under his foreskin and sliding the whole thing in my mouth. It was about 5 ½ inches long, and not too thick. I played with his balls, and tried to suck them, but he said – no just the cock and hurry before someone calls. Real romantic right?

So I said okay, but let me know when you are going to come, as I will not swallow. He said where am I going to come? I said I do not know, but it will not be in my mouth. He said ok I can come on the carpet. So I went back and really started to suck, playing with his nuts as I took the cock into my mouth. Soon he said oh yeah I am almost there. So I took his dick out of my mouth and jerked him about three times and he shot off. Not a big load, but fun to watch it shot. He shook his dick, cleaned up the come and said thanks. He did not even feel me or anything. I was so hard and said can you do anything for me. But he said no as his boss was due back. I asked about later, but he said no as the boss would be there all day. Oh well at least I had had some fun, even if I did not get off.

Hans had been attracted to Arab men for as long as he could remember. He always fantasized about what it would be like to serve one of those handsome masculine Arab men. Unfortunately Hans lived in a small village in Holland were not many Arabs were living, and so he decided to go on a trip to Cairo, all by himself, to explore sex with Arab men. Hans had never been in an Arab country before so when he arrived in Egypt he had no idea what to expect, when to expect it, and who to expect it from.. As soon as Hans arrived at his hotel a handsome staff member approached Hans and said: ‘My name is Mohammed. I will carry your luagage to your room. Would you follow me please?’. Hans felt drawn to the handsome Arab straight away and appearantly the feeling was mutual because as soon as they entered the hotel room Mohammed shamelessly revealed a HUGE Arab Monster cock. ‘You’re gonna be my slave bitch. Undress yourself, hurry up gay!’

It was only a matter of minutes before Hans found himself bound, gagged, blindfolded and being raped by Mohammed’s fist-thick Arab cock. After Mohammed dumped his first gigantic cumload in Hans’s whoreass he started to abuse Hans even more violently. ‘Did you think that I was done with you, sissy boy?’. Hans was about to answer that question when he felt how Mohammed rammed his big fist up Hans’s cum-filled boybutt. When Mohammed pulled back his Arab fist from Hans’s ass again he commanded Hans to lick the cum of his fist. ‘Lick my Arab cum bitch, eat it’. While Hans was eating the cum from Mohammed’s fist he felt Mohammed’s hard Arab horse cock entering his raped asshole again. Mohammed fucked Hans even harder and deeper this time and just before Mohammed filled Hans’s ass with a second cumload he pulled Hans’s head towards him by his hair and whispered in his ear: ‘I hope you’ll enjoy your stay in Cairo. I will be visiting your room every day and you better make damned sure that you will be here for me’.

More..

A crackdown in Egypt destroyed a vibrant gay community and sparked a worldwide protest.

For “security reasons,” New York police ordered the crowd of 30 or so demonstrators to move away from the steps in front of the gray, concrete building where the Egyptian consulate is housed. On that early May weekend the New York demonstrators in Washington, London, Toronto, Montreal, Paris, and Berlin were marching in front of Egyptian consulates and embassies. The protests, organized by Amnesty International and Al Fatiha, a gay and lesbian Muslim organization, marked the second anniversary of an Egyptian police raid on a floating disco on the Nile, the Queen Boat, frequented by gay men. The May 11, 2001 early morning raid resulted in the arrest and subsequent trial of 52 men suspected of being gay.

The Queen Boat incident won international attention, thanks to outside pressure, including that of Amnesty International activists. Even Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak took note.

Less well known, however, is that ever since the Queen Boat affair, Egyptian authorities have mounted a sustained attack against gay men and what was once an emerging gay community. “The raid marked the beginning of a two-year public campaign of harassment, intimidation, and detention of those perceived to be gay,” said Michael Heflin, director of AIUSA’s OUTfront Program. “Beyond those originally arrested, scores have faced police surveillance, entrapment, drawn out trials, and long periods of detention. Some were rejected by their friends and family, lost their jobs, or were tortured. All were subjected to profound public humiliation, often in the Egyptian media.”

Just back from Egypt, where he spent three months documenting the abuse of gay men, Scott Long of Human Rights Watch took the megaphone and told a chilling story of how the police tortured and killed one young gay man and then, in a transparent attempt to make the death look like a suicide, threw his body off a building.

There are no hard figures, but Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch estimate that in the past two years, police have arrested up to 200 men for “debauchery,” the official codeword for homosexuality. Not all meet such a horrible ending as torture and death, but it is fair to say that most of their lives are shredded by the stigma of being gay in Egypt.

At the rally, I picked up a sign in red, hand-drawn letters, saying “Stop Torture.” The group walked in a circle as a woman with a pink triangle on her black T-shirt led us in chants she shouted through a megaphone. I used both hands to direct my sign toward the men in suits and women in head scarves who peered from the consulate offices on the second and third floors of the consulate.

As I walked, I thought of “Ahmad,” one of many young gay Egyptian men I met while on assignment in Egypt for three weeks last December.

Ahmad worked at his family business on the outskirts of Cairo, hauling and selling coal. He came from a very conservative family. His mother and three sisters cover their heads with the traditional Muslim scarves. His brother studied at Cairo’s premier Muslim university. Ahmad himself prays five times a day.

And yet he was not torn between his religion and his sexuality. He had found a way, as many spiritual people of any faith do, to bridge the gap between the teachings of his religion and his sexual identity. What Ahmad struggled with was not religion, but loneliness and fear.

There was a time, he told me, when he had been able to escape the strict bounds of his family life and go into Cairo to be in the company of men like himself. He recalled visiting the Queen Boat, before it was raided. It was “incredible” he said, as was the sense of community. There were private parties so large “you would have thought all of Cairo was gay.”

These were havens for Ahmad not because, as Egyptian authorities have said, they featured public sex and devil-worshiping. These were havens because gay men could come together and meet and socialize and even talk about building their own movement, making their own place in Egyptian society—something that the government might well have found more threatening than devil-worship.

But in the past two years, all of that has essentially vanished.

Today, Ahmad lives in near-isolation from other gay men, fearing that if he is found out, he will be arrested, his family shamed, and his life ruined. He is lonely enough that he risks the occasional walk along segments of the Nile where gay men still dare to venture in hope of finding one another.

But, he told me, he feels gay life is over in Egypt. He has no hopes of ever finding anyone to love. He dreams of leaving the country, but cannot afford it. And so he is stuck in Egypt and trapped by fear and loneliness.

That is why I went to the New York rally, and that is why it is so important that we tell the Egyptian government that what it is doing is intolerable. It is especially important for Americans to speak out because Cairo receives Washington’s second largest foreign aid package. We need to tell our own representatives that it is unacceptable to continue to support a government that practices such blatant human rights violations against gay men. But there is more we as Americans, and as gay people, can and must do. Many of my fellow gay Arabs come to this country specifically for the freedom to be gay, something they would never have at home. Yet I know that many of my fellow gay Arabs have been made unwelcome by gay Americans since September 11 cast suspicion on all Arabs. That must stop.

I know also that this is a difficult time for every Arab in the United States. We’ve all lived in fear and under suspicion since Sept. 11. But my fellow Arabs must stop trying to tell gay and lesbian members of our community that this is not the time for gay issues. Now more than ever is the time for fair-minded Arabs in America to embrace their gay and lesbian members and to stop forcing us into a lie of invisibility.

And we in America who are gay and who are Arab have a responsibility to speak up and to counter the worst of all lies spread by our enemies both here and abroad: that we as gay Arabs do not exist.

Egypt

Ahlan-Egypt
8, el-Gorfa el-Togareya Street, Mansheya
Alexandria, Egypt
Tel: +20 3 4830138; mobile +20 18 5166579
email: info@ahlan-egypt.com

Schools in Luxor and Alexandria

Arabic Language Institute (ALI)
The American University in Cairo

Full contact details here.

Summer and full-year intensives. Modern Standard and Egyptian colloquial at all levels.

Arabic Language School
Situated in downtown Cairo

Full contact details here.

Intensive short courses in Modern Standard and Egyptian colloquial Arabic.

Delta University
Demiatta International Road Delta Academy
Al-Mansoura, Egypt

email: klacey@binghamton.edu; tgomaa@binghamton.edu

Fajr Center for Arabic Language
Branches in Nasr City, Dokki and Ma’adi districts of Cairo.

email: info@fajr.com
Full contact details here.

Classical Arabic – various courses

Hedayet Institute
24 Road 107, Hadayek El Maadi
Cairo, Egypt

Tel: +202 5272190; +202 3583915
info@hedayetinstitute.com

Serves students visiting from abroad and the larger expatriate community in Egypt.

International Language Institute
PO Box 13 Embaba
4 Mahmoud Azmi Street
Madinet El Sahafeyeen
Cairo 12411, Egypt

Tel: +202 346 3087
email: ili@arabicegypt.com
Working hours: (Sunday to Thursday 9.00 am till 4.00 pm (GMT +2 hours)

Summer and full-year courses. Modern Standard and Egyptian colloquial.

IQRA Institute
Cairo
Tel: +201 011 68111
cairo@iqrainstitute.com

Languages Abroad
School in Mohandiseen district of Cairo

Contact via website

Jordan

CIEE Arabic Language Programme
Amman, Jordan

Contact via website

For students who already have a solid foundation in Modern Standard Arabic and seek to attain proficiency in the language.

CIEE Intensive summer Arabic programme
Amman, Jordan

Contact via website

For students who have a strong interest in developing a solid foundation in Modern Standard Arabic and seek to begin or accelerate their language proficiency

IQRA Institute
Amman

Contact via website

Languages Abroad
School in Amman

Contact via website

SIT Study Abroad (World Learning)
Amman, Jordan

Contact via website

Summer intensive field-based Arabic language immersion programme

University of Jordan Language Centre
University of Jordan
Amman 11942-Jordan

Tel: +962 6 5355000 ext. 23701, 23707
email: lancen@ju.edu.jo

A six-level intensive programme in Modern Standard for speakers of other languages: beginners (two levels), pre-intermediate, intermediate, upper-intermediate, and advanced.

Kuwait

Arabic Language Unit (Kuwait University)
PO Box 2575
Kuwait City 13026
Al Asimah
Tel: +965 481 0325

Year-long programme in Modern Standard. Number of places is limited.

AWARE Centre
PO Box 1613, Safat
Kuwait 13017

Tel: +965 533 5280
email : info@aware.com.kw

Lebanon

Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies
American University of Beirut
PO Box 11-0236 / CAMES
Riad El-Solh / Beirut 1107 2020
Lebanon
Tel: +961 1 350 000 Ext. 3845
email: cames@aub.edu.lb

Summer programme at six levels.

IQRA Institute
Beirut
Tallat Alkhayat, Beirut, Lebanon.
2044-6805 Beirut
PO Box: 113/5086
Tel: +961 368 4376
email: beirut@iqrainstitute.com

Saifi Institute
Chawkatly (Valli &Valli) Building, 3rd floor
Saifi – Charles Helou Ave.
Beirut, Lebanon
Tel: +961 1 560738; mobile: +961 70 832099
email: kifak@saifiarabic.com

Specialises in teaching Lebanese Arabic dialect and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) to non-native speakers working, studying, visiting Beirut

Morocco

Al Akhawayn University
Arabic and North African Studies Program (ARANAS)
School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane
PO Box 104 Hassan II Avenue
Ifrane 53000, Morocco

Tel: +212 535 86 20 12
email: arabic@aui.ma

AmeriSpan
School in Fez

Contact via website

The Arabic Language Institute in Fez
B.P. 2136
Fez 30000
Morocco

Tel: +212 35 62 48 50
email: info@alif-fes.com

Three and six-week courses in all levels of Modern Standard Arabic and colloquial Moroccan Arabic throughout the year.

The Arabic School of Morocco
6, Rue Arabie Saoudite, Avenue Hassan II
Temara Centre – 12000
Morocco

Tel : + 212 19 37 90 38
email : info@arabicschoolmorocco.com

Dar Loughat
Place Moulay Mehdi 8, Rue M’hammed Benaboud
Tétouan, 93000, Morocco

Tel: +212 66 66 8 77 88
email: info@cclc-morocco.org

Courses in Modern Standard Arabic (written and spoken) plus Morccan colloquial

EasyGo Languages
School in Fez

Contact via website

Intensive Arabic Studies Programme (Tangier)
King Fahd Advanced School of Translation
Abdelmalek Essadi University

Modern Standard (at intermediate level), with elementary and intermediate Moroccan colloquial.

Languages Abroad
Schools in Fez and Rabat

Contact via website

Languages in Action
Schools in Fez and Tetouan

Contact via website

Oasis Language School
Bd My Rachid, 75
Ouarzazate 45 000
Morocco

Tel: +212 224 885155

Qalam wa Lawh
3 Ave. Ahmed Balafrej
Souissi, Rabat
Morocco

Tel: + 212 537 75 57 90
email: arabic@qalamcenter.com

Three levels of Modern Standard Arabic and colloquial Moroccan Arabic.

Sprachcaffe
Rabat – Souissi district

Contact via website

Subul Assalam Centre for the Arabic Language
Meknes way, Lotissement Al Hadika, Lot no.Q4/008
Fez, Morocco.

Tel: +212 5 35 63 18 62
email: info@sacalfez.com

Syria

Arabesk Studies in Damascus

Contact via website

Arabic Teaching Institute for Foreigners [Damascus]
Villat Sharqiyah, al-Mazza
Damascus, Syria
PO Box 9340

Tel: +963 11 613 2646; 613 3151
email: arabicinstitute@mail.sy

Beginning and intermediate classes in Modern Standard.

French Institute
Institut Francais d’Etudes Arabes Damas (IFEAD)
PO Box 344, Damascus, Syria

Contact via website

Modern Standard and Syrian colloquial. Intensive summer courses.

IQRA Institute
Palestine St.
Damascus, Syria

Tel: +963 9 366 6239
email: damas@iqrainstitute.com

IRAMES Group
Muhajerin 63, Afeef,
Sheik Muhiddin Bin Arabi
PO Box 36320
Damascus, Syria

Tel: +963 11 33 25 056; +963 11 334 14 25; mobile 093 520 480
email: maxos@hmaxos.com;hmaxos@yahoo.com; hmaxos@gmail.com; hmaxos@hotmail.com

Arabic language and cultural studies – cultural immersion programme. Spoken and written Arabic.

To Learn Arabic
Maher Alenezi
PO Box 31811
Damascus, Syria

Tel: +963 9 4444 0884
email: info@tolearnarabic.com

Tunisia

Bourguiba Institute of Modern Languages
47 Avenue de la Liberté
1002 Tunis

Tel: +216 71 832 418; +216 71 832 923
email: iblv@iblv.rnu.tn

Intensive summer courses and non-intensive courses the rest of the year. See review.

Learn Arabic in Tunisia
(Languages In Action)
School based in Sousse

Contact via website

Yemen

Badr Language Institute
PO Box 58049
Tarim, Hadramaut, Yemen
Tel: +967 5 418 370

Classical Arabic in a traditional Islamic environment

British Yemeni Arabic Institute
PO Box 16204
24 Hadda Street, Sana’a, Yemen
Phone/fax: 967 1 417 527
email: allardyce@y.net.ye

Center for Arabic Language and Eastern Studies (CALES)
Mahmood Basha Street
PO Box 15201
Sana’a, Yemen

Tel/fax: (967) 1-222275
email: cales@ust.edu or info@calesyemen.com

Languages Abroad
School in central Sana’a

Contact via website

Modern American Language Institute (MALI)
PO Box 11727
Sana’a, Yemen

Tel:: +967 1 441 036 (Saturdays to Wednesdays, 6 am. to 3:30 pm GMT)
email: admin@arabicinyemen.com

Saba Institute
Saila, next to the Mahdi mosque
PO Box 5481
Sana’a, Yemen
Tel: +967 1 273 200; mobile: +967 733 068714
email: contact@saba-institute.com

Sana’a Institute for the Arabic Language

PO Box 5734
Sana’a, Yemen

Tel: +967 1 284 330
email: info@sialyemen.com

Standard Arabic, Yemeni colloquial, specialist courses (e.g. medical, political Arabic), Arabic for Muslims, summer courses, calligraphy.

Yemen College of Middle Eastern Studies

PO Box 3671
Sana’a, Republic of Yemen

Tel: +967 1 270 200
email: PAL@ycmes.org

All levels of Modern Standard and Yemeni colloquial.

Yemen Institute for Arabic Language
PO Box 26023,
60 Street,
Sana’a, Yemen

Tel: +967-1-403204
Mobile:+967 777 499 474
YIAL Facebook group
email: info@yialarabic.com; yialarabic@gmail.com

Nine levels ranging from beginner to advanced. Written work from textbooks make up 50% of the programme, while lectures, other materials, and periodic activities account for the rest.

The Assyrians have a long history dating back to biblical times. The rise of Assyria, a kingdom in northern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) began around 1350 BC. At its height (730-650 BC), the Assyrian empire controlled the Middle East from the Gulf to Egypt, but it collapsed in 612 BC.

Today, there are about two million Assyrians living in Iraq, 700,000 in Syria, 400,000 in the USA and about 500,000 in the rest of the world.

They have their own language and alphabet.

They are almost all Christians: Chaldean church 45%, Syriac Orthodox 26%, Church of the East 19%, Syrian Catholic 4%, others 6%. See list of Assyrian religious links.

The Berbers lived in north Africa long before the arrival of the Arabs, and their culture probably dates back more than 4,000 years. Berber states known as Mauritania and Numidia existed in classical times.

Between the 11th and 13th centuries, two great Berber dynasties – the Almoravids and the Almohads – controlled large parts of Spain, as well as north-west Africa.

Today, there are substantial Berber populations in Morocco and Algeria, plus smaller numbers in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. In Morocco, about 40% acknowledge a Berber identity, though many more have Berber ancestry.

Berbers are identified primarily by language but also by traditional customs and culture – such as the distinctive music and dances.

There is a tendency in Morocco to regard the Berbers as backward, partly because their culture is strongest in the less-developed rural areas. Many of the children in these regions drop out of school because they are taught in what, to them, is a foreign language – Arabic. The language barrier often remains a problem throughout adult life, especially when dealing with officialdom.

Berber is not officially recognised in Morocco, though French (the old colonial language) is. There was some pressure in 1996, when the constitution was being revised, to have Berber recognised. There are a few Berber programmes on television – mainly as a token gesture. For more about this see the Berber manifesto.

Linguistically, Berber belongs to the Afro-Asiatic group, and has many dialects. The three main dialects used in Morocco are Tachelhit, Tamazight and Tarifit. Collectively, they are known as “shilha” in Arabic.

*

Tachelhit (sometimes known as “soussi” or “cleuh”) is spoken in south-west Morocco, in an area between Ifni in the south, Agadir in the north and Marrakech and the Draa/Sous valleys in the east.
*

Tamazight is spoken in the Middle Atlas, between Taza, Khemisset, Azilal and Errachidia.
*

Tarifit (or Rifia) is spoken in the Rif area of northern Morocco.

Berber is basically a spoken language, though there have been (and still are) attempts to gain acceptance for a written form. A Berber alphabet, probably derived from the ancient Punic script, has existed for around 2,500 years.