ButtyBoy
04-30-2008, 02:38 AM
There goes Kuwait again, repressing in the dubious name of religion. Earlier this month I noted Kuwait's fetish for bans--on women performers, on women holding jobs after 8 p.m., on movies it doesn't like, even on valentine's Day commemorations. Now comes its latest ban: on transvestites. This one is a bit more brutal than a ban. It entails imprisonment and humiliation, too.
A Law Policing Fashions
On Dec. 10, 2007, Kuwait’s National Assembly amended its criminal code to say that "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 one thousand dinars [US$3,500]." According to Human Rights Watch, police began arresting people immediately, netting 14 arrests in December and more in March. Of the people arrested in December, three were reportedly beaten in custody, and one left unconscious. Human Rights Watch spoke to two people arrested on March 14. "One," the New York-based organization reported,
recounted being stopped with a friend at a police checkpoint at 10 a.m. in Kuwait City: "When we reached the checkpoint, we were wearing men’s jackets and sports caps. When [they] asked for our ID cards, they removed our jackets and hats and made us stand with our female clothing to prove we are imitating the appearance of women. [One police officer] hit us on our faces, then insulted us, saying ‘You are an animal, nothing but garbage. You are a cast-off of this society, disgusting.’” Police held them for five days, shaving their heads before releasing them.
Curiously, in the middle of the crackdown in January. the Kuwait Times, an English-language daily in Kuwait, ran a story from Turkey describing how "A unique play in an Ankara theater ended with a standing ovation ... as the little-known actors-transsexuals and gays raising their voice against discrimination-fought back their tears on stage. Their play, "Pink And Grey," put the spotlight on the plight of transsexuals in mainly Muslim Turkey, in the latest initiative of a fledgling but increasingly vocal movement for rights by a community long ostracized and often harassed."
War on "Alien Influences"
The very same edition of the Kuwait Times ran a story quoting the suitably named (and presumably dressed) Faisal Al-Muslim, a member of the Kuwaiti parliament, excoriating human rights groups that "interfere" with Kuwait and reminding Kuwaitis that "alien influences" are impermissible.
To press his point, he reminded anyone with revelry on the mind that permission must be secured to hold parties, even private parties. Al-Muslim is an Islamist with Wahhabi views of Islam and society. This, in what is reputed to be one of the Middle East's less repressive regimes--the regime the United States and 50-odd nations went to war to "liberate" from Saddam Hussein's army in 1991.
"There's No Fun in Islam"
The crackdowns aren't a mystery. "There's no fun in Islam," Iran's late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini once said, albeit while referring to its Shiite derivative. Sunnis rule Kuwait. But Islamists of every stripe are on the rise throughout the Middle East. Governments can choose either to placate them, which means giving in to their moralistic crusades (which cost the government little to nothing, except in reputation), or opposing them, which, judging from Turkey's, Algeria's and Egypt's experiences, only encourages Islamists to press on.
The future doesn't bode well for a more liberal, more reformist view of Islam when even the Middle East's milder autocracies feel compelled to curtsey to theocrats.
Source: http://middleeast.about.com/b/2008/04/01/kuwait-cracks-down-on-transvestites.htm
A Law Policing Fashions
On Dec. 10, 2007, Kuwait’s National Assembly amended its criminal code to say that "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 one thousand dinars [US$3,500]." According to Human Rights Watch, police began arresting people immediately, netting 14 arrests in December and more in March. Of the people arrested in December, three were reportedly beaten in custody, and one left unconscious. Human Rights Watch spoke to two people arrested on March 14. "One," the New York-based organization reported,
recounted being stopped with a friend at a police checkpoint at 10 a.m. in Kuwait City: "When we reached the checkpoint, we were wearing men’s jackets and sports caps. When [they] asked for our ID cards, they removed our jackets and hats and made us stand with our female clothing to prove we are imitating the appearance of women. [One police officer] hit us on our faces, then insulted us, saying ‘You are an animal, nothing but garbage. You are a cast-off of this society, disgusting.’” Police held them for five days, shaving their heads before releasing them.
Curiously, in the middle of the crackdown in January. the Kuwait Times, an English-language daily in Kuwait, ran a story from Turkey describing how "A unique play in an Ankara theater ended with a standing ovation ... as the little-known actors-transsexuals and gays raising their voice against discrimination-fought back their tears on stage. Their play, "Pink And Grey," put the spotlight on the plight of transsexuals in mainly Muslim Turkey, in the latest initiative of a fledgling but increasingly vocal movement for rights by a community long ostracized and often harassed."
War on "Alien Influences"
The very same edition of the Kuwait Times ran a story quoting the suitably named (and presumably dressed) Faisal Al-Muslim, a member of the Kuwaiti parliament, excoriating human rights groups that "interfere" with Kuwait and reminding Kuwaitis that "alien influences" are impermissible.
To press his point, he reminded anyone with revelry on the mind that permission must be secured to hold parties, even private parties. Al-Muslim is an Islamist with Wahhabi views of Islam and society. This, in what is reputed to be one of the Middle East's less repressive regimes--the regime the United States and 50-odd nations went to war to "liberate" from Saddam Hussein's army in 1991.
"There's No Fun in Islam"
The crackdowns aren't a mystery. "There's no fun in Islam," Iran's late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini once said, albeit while referring to its Shiite derivative. Sunnis rule Kuwait. But Islamists of every stripe are on the rise throughout the Middle East. Governments can choose either to placate them, which means giving in to their moralistic crusades (which cost the government little to nothing, except in reputation), or opposing them, which, judging from Turkey's, Algeria's and Egypt's experiences, only encourages Islamists to press on.
The future doesn't bode well for a more liberal, more reformist view of Islam when even the Middle East's milder autocracies feel compelled to curtsey to theocrats.
Source: http://middleeast.about.com/b/2008/04/01/kuwait-cracks-down-on-transvestites.htm