Bekhsoos is an online magazine “covering topics related to (homo)sexuality in the Arab world”. Founded by the Lebanese group Meem, a support community for lesbians, bisexuals, queers, questioning women, and transgender persons, Bekhsoos was recently relaunched and will publish weekly from now on.

“Bekhsoos” means “concerning…”, and is a reference to the changing topic of each issue. As well as news articles and opinion pieces, Bekhsoos includes poetry, fiction, and personal stories that focus on queer and transgender identities in the Arab world. It also plans more investigative reports.

Nadz, one of the editors, explains the relaunch:

This is the new Bekhsoos. We’re back after almost a whole year of no publishing (the last issue we put out was in December 2008). So what’s different? For one thing, we’ve decided to publish weekly. […] Bekhsoos.com started out as a replacement for a “real” print magazine. We knew we probably couldn’t manage printing a magazine because we’d need lots of money to purchase a publishing license, do the printing, and it wouldn’t fit too well with Meem’s underground nature. At the time (exactly 2 years ago), Bekhsoos online was a replacement. Today, and with the way information sharing has evolved, it is clear to me that Bekhsoos actually belongs online. That’s where young LGBTs in Lebanon are looking for information, connections, and support. So it’s up to us to provide the information quickly, accurately, and consistently.

Nadz continues:

The age of “wow, gay groups in Lebanon, that alone is impressive” is over. It’s not impressive anymore. Now is the time for us to become engaged with our own societies, to think analytically, to advance politically, to understand the truth about oppression, to create, to research, to be proactive, to write, to write, to write! The LGBT community has always had a strong online presence – way before people were calling it “ICT [information and communication technologies] 4 social change” and “social networking.” That’s because we had no other choice. So we built websites and chatrooms on mIRC. Then we became bloggers. Then we came out on MySpace and started groups and causes on Facebook. Then we started a YouTube channel. Now, we’re tweeting. And guess what? The world is now moving into our side of the playground. And when media moves online, they’re coming to where we are strong and numerous and unafraid. They’re coming to where the younger generations are. And no, of course, this side is not the best because it leaves out the older generations, it leaves out the people who can’t afford internet or computers, it leaves out my mother. But they are on the course to getting there. It’s getting more affordable, more Arabicized, and more widespread. The Middle East is adding 500,000 internet users a month. That’s 6 million a year. If the queer community is everywhere online, then the internet users are bound to bump into us somewhere. They’re bound to listen to what we have to say.

A recent Bekhsoos article was called “5 Reasons Health Care for Lesbians in Lebanon is at Stake”:

Lesbians and bisexual women are alienated from the health care system in Lebanon. Barriers to medical care that lesbians face can cause poorer mental and physical health. […] Heterosexism and homophobia are endemic in Lebanon. “Coming Out” to your physician, even though essential, might be challenging. […] Lack of any adequate training of health care providers about lesbian health issues. The absence of formal education about homosexuality in medical school and residency training leads to an alarming lack of understanding of health issues relevant to homosexuals. Misconceptions and dogmas about homosexuality are prevalent in Lebanon. […] Some physicians still believe homosexuality is a mental disorder even 15 years after the World Health Organization has removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses.

What does “Blank Noise” mean? The project’s blog explains:

Blank: no form, no meaning.
Noise: heightens, builds, breaks form.
Blank Noise put together are two words that contradict themselves.
We experience eve teasing daily. It is a sexual violation but we ignore it. At the same time, we structure our lives to avoid the occurrence of it – by ‘dressing decently’, ‘coming back home on time’, etc, thereby making unwanted rules for ourselves and not recognizing ourselves as citizens.
This daily silent experience of street sexual harassment is what comes closest to the term blank noise.

Blank Noise started as a final year student project by art student Jasmeen Patheja in 2003, and was a personal response to street sexual harassment, which many Indians, male and female, accept as normal or try to ignore. The project initially focused on small workshops, but has since developed into a network of groups around India, who use street interventions, public art and blogging to explore the issue of harassment.

WHAT IS EVE TEASING?

Thumbprints indicate what people consider eve-teasing in these polls

Blank Noise groups around the country have used opinion polls to highlight the issue of harassment:

There have been innumerable debates on the blog in the past over what exactly constitutes ’street sexual violence’ [...]There are questions about what constitutes a lecherous look- and the ones who experience it will argue saying ‘it’s obvious. we just know!’ This is precisely the kind of discussion we want to further on the streets itself. More than for facts figures and statistics we attempt to use the form of an opinion poll to start discussions. The opinion poll also becomes a ’safe’ way for people to testify and admit what they have seen or experienced.

2007: Namita Sharma's Tea Stall (Gariahat, Kolkata) welcomed Blank Noise poll

I NEVER ASK FOR IT

In 2008, on March 8 (International Women’s Day) Blank Noise held a series of street interventions around India under the banner I Never Ask For It:

Action Hero: n. a woman who has dealt with street sexual harassment by confronting it. Her final response might have been to choose to ignore the harassment, but she will have chosen to do so, not failed to notice it. [...] The Blank Noise street action challenges you to be an Action Hero. Participants are requested to come wearing a garment they wore when they were sexually harassed. By doing so, they are actively taking a stand that reads ‘I never ask for it’.

This action was followed up by another, in which women were invited to send an item of clothing:

Do you really think you ‘asked for it’ when you experienced street sexual harassment? How often have you found yourself blaming the pair of jeans, the salwar kameez, the skirt, the t-shirt? Do you really think it is your fault when you are violated? Do you really think you deserve to be humiliated? Do you really think that it is only certain kind of clothes that result in women experiencing street sexual harassment?

We say NO. We say there is no such thing as ‘asking for it’ and we need you to prove that for us/ yourself.

How? Send in one garment you wore when you experienced ‘eve teasing’. Your garment is your truth, your witness, your evidence, your memory. [...] What next? We propose to install these clothes on the streets of your city and collectively challenge the notion that women ask to be sexually violated.

TO HIT BACK OR NOT TO HIT BACK

Blank Noise recently initiated a discussion about self-defence:

chilly powder. bamboo stick. baygon spray. toy gun. body spray. big bag. eyes. elbow. steel scale. nails. confidence. rings. pens. pepper spray. paper cutter. pencil. angry look. mouth. hand. fists. feet. elbows. sharp pencils. teeth. handbag. comb. body spray. stilettos. fat psychology book. cell phone. cerebrum. swagger. attitude. mobile phone. books. files. bag. crossed arms. conversation. pens. pins. sewing pins. breath spray. bunch of keys. hair pin. blank noise pamphlet on section 354. dupatta. crossed arms. staring at the ground. scowling. talking on cell phone. not making eye contact.

These are just some of the “weapons” used by women to make themselves feel safer in public spaces. Most of the objects listed above are not weapons in the conventional sense. However these are used by a number of women all over the world to give them some sense of security. […] Violent self defense should definitely not be the primary response to the problem of sexual harassment, but should it be a response at all?

BLANK NOISE GUY

Earlier this year Blank Noise set up a blog for men called Blank Noise Guy:

Blank Noise is terribly interested in men!
The Blank Noise Guy blog is in its first phase, asking men/boys to respond to street sexual harassment. send us your thoughts on street sexual harassment. write to us if you’ve seen it and are feeling thoughtful about how you responded, or even if you engaged with it or caused it (knowingly or unknowingly).

Lebanon

Last year Rami Zurayk wrote a post about the poorest area of Lebanon:

Akkar is the poorest district of Lebanon: a recent UNDP report found that 63% of the families are deprived and face serious poverty. Located in the extreme north of the country, Akkar is an agricultural district, with an estimated rural population of 80%, the highest in Lebanon. […] Akkar was under quasi-feudal rule till recent times, and the current social and economic relations are still heavily impregnated with this history. [...] This has resulted in tremendous social and economic inequality: Akkar has, according to the UNDP, the highest level of inequality in Lebanon. The Lebanese state bears much responsibility for this situation: public investments in basic infrastructure and services such as health and education but also in agricultural development and small industries have been minimal. Poverty and inequality lead to extremism and to political violence. Major investments are immediately required in the basic sectors, such as health and education, but also in the productive sectors, such as agriculture, in order to help the poor construct sustainable livelihoods.

Bahrain

Poverty does not come to mind when one thinks of the Gulf countries, but in some there are huge differences in living standards amongst citizens. Khalid writes from Bahrain [translated from Arabic]:

It may be that, on average, there is no extreme poverty in Bahrain, by the criterion of living on less than one dollar a day – although extreme caution is needed regarding this criterion, which concerns the poor of Africa in particular, and those who sleep on the ground and cover themselves with the sky… Nevertheless, there are Bahrainis living on less than $5 a day! People who get 50 dinars [$132] of [government] assistance! And there are those who live in the Kingdom of Bahrain not on dollars or dinars, but on the charity of good people – because they have lost their identity papers proving they are Bahraini citizens!
What is the meaning of a decent life that is guaranteed to citizens by the constitution?!

Morocco

Duncan is a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco, and at the beginning of this year he wrote about his impressions of poverty in the region he is working in:

Different communities and groups of people have different ideas about what it means to be poor. In the United States, the poverty line is something like $18,000 per year, which works out to about $50 a day. Worldwide, a person is considered impoverished if he/she lives on $1 per day or less. Here in my community, the people are mostly somewhere in between those two figures. It’s harder to measure people’s wealth here, as most are self-employed farmers whose product is not sold, but consumed within the house. Some men work outside of the community in bigger cities and have a salary, but not much of that money makes it back here. The main source of income generation is herding sheep and goats and selling them when they get big. […] In my communities, no one (that I’ve seen) is dying of hunger. It may just be bread, but I believe that people can always feed themselves. There are some health problems due to malnutrition, but not severe. Water borne illnesses are a problem, but nothing like other parts of the third world. Living in a mountainous, sparsely populated place means that most water is coming from springs without facing too much threat of contamination. As there is little access (and people don’t take advantage of what is available to them) to health care, infant and maternal health is a problem, but I don’t believe that infant/maternal mortality rates are as high as other places. What I’m trying to say is that life in my community is hard and people are impoverished, but there are other parts of the world where it’s much worse. Getting by on subsistence agriculture and herding doesn’t provide a lot of surplus, but people do have enough to get by.

However, in a post earlier this year, Cabalamuse expressed a more pessimistic view:

While frolicking tourists sunbathe on beaches and dine in swanky resorts, while a few thousand elite Moroccans are living high on the hog, millions of malnourished, destitute, and sallow Moroccans in remote rural areas scratch the dirt for survival and take shelter in dwellings so sparsely furnished and poorly built that they look like caves. In this post-apocalyptic diorama, they sleep swallowed in whatever clothes and blankets they own to avoid freezing to death; they cook in tin cans; their women bleed to death giving birth; their children die of diseases the modern world thought eradicated; their men are despondent; weather permitting, they trek over xeric dirt roads and down jarring mountain slopes for countless hours and miles to reach a paved road. They share this country with us, but they live a different reality. The only sign of a government they see in their regions is a tattered flag whipped by the wind.

For more on poverty in Morocco see this post.

Egypt

Nevertheless, the development initiatives that are taking place around the region give hope to some. In Egypt, Lozah recently visited some youth centres in Aswan that are participating in an initiative encouraging girls and women to utilise traditionally male-dominated spaces:

As the taxi was speeding down the incredibly bumpy alley, I looked around me trying to picture the youth centre that would eventually appear among all this rubble. One flat tire later, we finally made it to the centre, which was really just a very run-down two-story building. I stepped into the centre to be enthusiastically greeted by a group of girls and women, and the director of the centre Hagg Sayed. They proceeded to tell me about the work they’d been doing to get girls more involved in centre activities, and to get women more involved in centre governance. […] These youth centres offer children a much-needed safe space to just be kids, a place where they can run around and play and engage in constructive activities. But these centres have long been non-inclusive of girls, largely due to societal perceptions. The idea of the youth centre as a place unsuitable for girls is deeply entrenched in the community (and probably across the country) and many parents were worried about their daughters’ reputations if they were to become involved in centre activities. That’s why prior to implementing the initiative itself, it was important to first build trust with the local community. […] Gradually, opinions and perceptions changed.

The next step was to get the girls involved in sports. […] Today girls are credited with winning numerous trophies in soccer, weight-lifting, and table tennis among others. Furthermore, the once sceptical male members of the centre today attend all the girls’ tournaments, enthusiastically cheering them from the sidelines. Talking to the girls, it was impossible not to notice how proud they were. […] To see firsthand the changes that have occurred in these communities was truly inspiring. This isn’t to say that everything is now perfect there. Keep in mind that these are some of the poorest villages in Aswan, some of the poorest in Egypt. These villages face a whole host of problems related to poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, lack of healthcare, lack of clean water, pollution, and other problems that are common to most Egyptian villages. These children are deprived of a lot of things and so many of their rights are violated. But this initiative has managed to make things a little bit better by fulfilling a very important right: at least now, these girls aren’t deprived of their right to a childhood.

This post discusses women’s role in Egypt’s development.

Morocco

Duncan is a Peace Corps volunteer working on a water infrastructure project in Morocco, and he has written some personal reflections on attitudes towards HIV/AIDS in the rural area he is working in. He believes, while the prevalence of HIV in Morocco is low among the general population, HIV/AIDS could prove to be a great public health risk to the country as a whole:

There are a number of factors that make the country vulnerable to the disease becoming wide spread.

First is ignorance about the disease. Speaking generally, people don’t know what it is. If people have heard of it they know no specifics and what they know might very well be wrong. They don’t know how it is transmitted. People say that the disease is transmitted by sharing toothbrushes, going to the hammam (public bath), and by being breathed on. I’ve never heard someone say that sex is a mode of transmission for the disease.

Second is that cultural boundaries that discourage honest discussion of the topic. This is a very religious society where appearing pure is very important to fitting into one’s community. So this makes it difficult to bring up such important issues as condom use.

Third (seemingly contradicting the previous issue) is the prevalence of prostitution in the country. This is particularly the case for my province, Khenifra, which is known for its prostitution. I’ve heard that the province has three of the four biggest prostitutions towns in the country. One of these centers is very close to me and I know that men from my village visit prostitutes there. They’ve told me. Compounding this problem is the fact that many of the sex workers in these prostitution centers come from out of town. I believe these places could easily become spreading points for the disease.

In sum, it’s a topic that people are ashamed to talk about and no one knows anything about.

Read more about Moroccan attitudes to HIV/AIDS in this post.

Sudan

Last year Bahraini blogger Suad attended a workshop in Cairo to raise awareness about AIDS, and she later wrote the story of Aisha, a Sudanese woman who contracted the virus through a blood transfusion. Aisha describes the process of falling ill, and how she finally discovered what was happening [translated from Arabic]:

After a few months I lost a lot of weight and it was accompanied by other symptoms like persistent diarrhoea, fatigue, fever, and inability to sleep. Once again I was taken to a laboratory for analysis of my blood, and this time the result came back in an envelope sealed with red wax. The doctor told my husband the truth about my illness, but my husband was not open with me about the matter; all he said was that it was an illness like blood pressure or diabetes, and that we would not be able to enjoy marital relations.

Then my husband took me to another doctor, who opened the envelope in front of me and told me that I had AIDS. I was stunned, and didn’t have time even to cry from the terrible shock. I’m infected with AIDS?? Since when, and how? The doctor replied, “Ask yourself. Do you remember what you have been doing that this deadly disease was transmitted to you?” In this way the doctor simply marked me as a prostitute without knowing anything about me. I told him that I was a married woman, and had never had any illicit relations outside marriage. At that point my mother and my husband came into the doctor’s room, and the doctor directed his anger at my husband, accusing him of giving me the disease. I felt really angry with my husband, and began to attack and rebuke him while crying. He tried to defend himself, but I didn’t want to listen to him. In the meantime my mother was hugging me. From that day, my relations and those of my family with my husband soured; fingers of accusation were pointed at him until the results of the tests came, showing that my husband and children were free of the disease. I apologised to my husband, and then realised that the disease had been transmitted to me by way of blood given to me in the hospital.

Yemen

Yemen has addressed HIV/AIDS in its national development agenda, but in a post last year, Omar Barsawad wrote that much needs to be done:

Even if Yemen is much more ahead of its Arab neighbors in tackling HIV/AIDS, it’s still a long way from making facilities and medication easily available and accessible to those afflicted. HIV/AIDS testing facilities are available in all major medical centers and labs. But, it’s when one has tested positive that the problem starts; it then becomes extremely difficult for the afflicted. At the moment, HIV/AIDS infected people have to travel and go all the way to Sana’a, Yemen’s capital city, for them to have their CD4 cell count and viral load tested; it’s only by having these tests, that a patient can be properly treated and medicines can be suitably prescribed. [...] For HIV/AIDS medication too, patients have to travel, regularly (every 3 or so months) to Sana’a to receive the medicines; they are not available in other Yemeni medical centers or pharmacies. One can only imagine how difficult and exhausting this can be for the already mentally strained, HIV/AIDS afflicted person and the people around him. It costs much money traveling all the way to Sana’a; and food and accommodation cost even much more. [...] And though, compared to two or so years ago, many people now are aware of HIV/AIDS – most simply don’t understand the disease; and some people still consider it disgraceful and shameful for one to be afflicted by HIV/AIDS.

Egypt

However, it seems that steps are being made to destigmatise the disease in some countries in the region. The Egypt Guy recently had his first HIV test at a government lab:

To my amazement, the way I was received by the doctors prior to the actual testing was pretty welcoming. I found that they didn’t ask for a name, but rather for a pseudonym and a birthdate to be my identity there. Then, I was sent to a counselor whose job was to give simple information about AIDS and HIV. The guy didn’t show any signs of disrespect for the fact that I’m going to check if I have HIV, which was astonishing. I heard that until very recently AIDS was seen as such a taboo even by doctors. And after the counseling session they gave me a few condoms and lubricants, and three booklets with information about AIDS, and then I went to have the test. I’ll go get the results next Sunday, hopefully it’ll be negative, wish me luck!!

Oh, I also didn’t pay a penny for any of that.

It was a very nice experience that I didn’t expect to have at a government lab, and I’m happy my country is having a more liberal approach to sexually transmitted diseases and is actually propagating against the whole stigma that’s associated with them, especially HIV and AIDS.

You can read about an initiative by Egyptian bloggers to destigmatise HIV/AIDS here.