World Wide Wave

18 Mar 2013

United Arab Emirates: It starts with a whisper (and a UNHRC seat)

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“With the UAE being given the chair of the [UN] Human Rights Council, they’ve been less and less public about arresting gays…So far this year, I haven’t seen any arrests…maybe they are re-thinking their policies,” says Abdullah, a founding member of the organisation LGBTR in UAE.

But he still hears about unreported LGBT rights. “The whole LGBT thing, they view it as a western invention, as a western decadence kind if thing. I know for a fact that they have offered forced hormone treatment to ‘cure the gay out of you’.”

Abdullah goes on to describe more specific circumstances:

“There was a party, a gay wedding mock party…they arrested a bunch of people and said that the men would be given forced hormone treatments or –if they don’t want to– they’ll be given harsher sentenced. But the United States stepped in and a bunch other countries and human rights organisations stepped in and then they fell back on the statement, they didn’t follow through.”

There is an underground scene, but Abdullah tells W3JOY he is still afraid. “You never know if someone’s going to be OK with it, you never know if someone’s going to do something stupid, hurt you, you never know if someone’s going to so you’re always looking over your shoulder.”

Still, there is hope:

“The younger generation, they are more accepting….that’s what we’re trying to do with our videos, get the younger generation involved…We are trying to give the younger generation a voice so they are not so hopeless.

What does Abdullah want to tell his fellow Emirati citizens?

“We are Emirati citizens as well, we are products of society…we are individuals. We have aspirations. We have hopes. We have dreams. We are members of your society whether you like it or not.”

“I want our community to speak up and join the movement…it starts with a whisper and turns into a ripple.”

Read more and listen to the interview on W3JOY’s UAE webpage.