June was a watershed month for homosexual rights in the West. The homosexual community in South Asia, especially in India, has been making news as well.
An Egyptian court has jailed 21 men for three years each for practising homosexuality in a retrial after their original sentences were quashed on presidential orders.
The Safra Project is a voluntary resource project based in the UK and aims to conduct research and provide information on issues relating to lesbian, bisexual and transgender women who identify themselves as Muslim, culturally and/or religiously.
I don't know if my grandmother is
dead or alive. I can't remember the last time I saw her. It must have been at
least ten years ago when I was in Pakistan for an extended visit. She was my
only living grandparent and her health was beginning to fail her. Every once in
a while, I think she's probably dead and no one bothered to tell me.
I'm completely out of touch
with my Pakistani life.
At the beginning of the
women’s emancipation struggle among the Muslims of the Indian sub-continent
access to education and the campaign against Purdah were the main points.
The late nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth centuries were
characterized by considerable debate on these issues in the Muslim community,
throughout India. The reform effort by men on behalf of women was sparked by the
considerable progress made by other communities in India and was inspired by
changes taking place in Muslim countries of the Middle East.
History reveals that sexual
oppression of women, in one form or another, exists in every society in the
world. Nevertheless, it has been achieved by different methods, economically,
intellectually, physically and psychologically. The control of women’s bodies,
or in other words physical mutilation, was raised with the rise of
patriarchy.
With the rise of
patriarchy, many customs and traditions were developed. Of these customs and
traditions, many have disappeared or were gradually abandoned, while some
remain.
The second trial of 50 of the "Cairo 52" men continued in Cairo today. The 50 defendants include both those who were acquitted as well as those who were convicted in an earlier trial that ended November 14, 2001.
