Here Come the Ladies
A recent story in the Middle East Times focuses on Palestinian lesbians and their unique dual-minority status in Israel. “We are Palestinian, we are women, and we are gay,” is the slogan coined by Aswat, the association campaigning for lesbian Arabs to be accepted in Israeli and Palestinian society, and whose name in English means “voices.”
The gay community in Israel - including gay Arabs/Palestinians - has become highly organized in recent years, including the formation of several women’s groups. There have even been efforts to unite GLBT Jews and Arabs under the same banner to work toward tolerance. Palestinian women face quite a few hurdles, including the status of women in their highly traditional society and the “illness” of being gay.
“Under Islamic law, homosexuality is unlawful, a kind of illness that needs to be treated,” said Sheikh Ibrahim Sarsur, an MP in the Israeli parliament and a member of the movement. “Our Arab society cannot tolerate this phenomenon, to allow it to become an overt part of our daily life,” the lawmaker added.
Read the full article here.
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