Whitaker - Unspeakable love: gay and lesbian life in the Middle East

BRIAN WHITAKER was Middle East editor at the Guardian for seven years and is currently an editor for the newspapers Comment is Free website. He is the author of Whats Really Wrong with the Middle East (Saqi Books, 2009). His website, www.al-bab.com, is devoted to Arab culture and politics. Unspeakable Love was shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award in 2006.

A compelling read. It captures with detail and with disturbing accuracy the difficulties and dangers facing lesbians and gay men across the Middle East. It helps us to understand the social pressure, the sense of isolation, the anxiety and fear and trauma. And through it all we glimpse also the possibility of hope, of remarkable courage, and perhaps even in the longer term the chance of a more open and accepting society. Lord (Chris) Smith, former UK Secretary of State for Culture

It is high time this issue was brought out of the closet once and for all, and afforded a frank and honest discussion. Brian Whitakers humane, sophisticated, and deeply rewarding book, Unspeakable Love, does exactly that. Ali al-Ahmed, Saudi reform advocate and director of the Gulf Institute, Washington

Brian Whitaker has given us a moving analysis of the hidden lives of Arab homosexuals. This genuinely groundbreaking investigation reveals a side of Arab and Muslim culture shrouded by the strictest taboos. Arab societies can no longer contain their cultural, religious, ethnic or sexual diversity within their traditional patriarchal definitions of the public sphere. Anyone interested in reform in the Arab world must read this book. Mai Yamani, author of Cradle of Islam: The Hijaz and the Quest for an Arabian Identity

I enjoyed and learnt much from Brian Whitakers book, which is excellent. It was inspirational to me on the challenges to international law, and the uses of nationalism to suppress dissent within countries. Fred Halliday

This is an important, timely book, and lucid to boot a must-read for anyone who believes in human rights. Rabih Alameddine, author of Koolaids and I, the Divine: A Novel in First Chapters

One major barrier to a broader acceptance of homosexuality is dogma. Whitakers book tackles the theological arguments in detail, exploring the thorny issue of whether Islam actually forbids gay love or whether social attitudes are the problem. Al-Ahram Weekly

Wise and compassionate Guardian

An extremely well-researched and well-written text that allows us an insight into the lifestyle of the gay and lesbian community in the Middle East educates, informs and engages the reader from the outset to the last page. Sable Magazine

Veteran Middle East journalist Brian Whitakers groundbreaking book tackles the still taboo issue of homosexuality in the Arab world, the first in any language to do so. Time Out Beirut

Clearly and engagingly written gives a good picture of the situation of gay men in Arab countries Arabist.com

A valuable introduction to the difficulties of being homosexual in the Arab world Gay City News

Never before has such a comprehensive study of gay civil rights been published Whitaker organizes this book expertly information is easily accessible and meticulously footnoted The Middle East Gay Journal

[An] informative primer on the complex historical, religious, social and legal status of same-sex acts and identities in the Middle East an illuminating book on an important topic Publishers Weekly

Boldly delves into one of the biggest taboos in modern Muslim societies with subtlety and sensitivity, addressing both Arab reformers and interested Western readers. The book provides fascinating insights into the lives of ordinary gays and lesbians, and how society views and treats them. Globe and Mail

Strong, condensed, world-weary portrait infused with hope Kirkus Reviews

With all the reams of Western paper devoted to the study of the Middle East, remarkably little has been said about the status of gay men and lesbians in Arab and Islamic cultures and religious texts. UK journalist Whitaker builds an important first bridge across this gap. Out

If the great appeal of this book lies in Whitakers reportage, it is also valuable politically because it challenges the current climate of political relativism that wants to see homophobia as a religious or cultural issue rather than a political one. Whitaker argues for the universality of sexual rights and for liberty in the Middle East, and against the fashion of apologising for its illiberal climate. Democratiya

D EPARTURE GATE, Damascus airport: a young Arab man in jeans, T-shirt and the latest style of trainers is leaving on a flight to London. He passes through final security checks, puts down his bag, takes something out and fiddles furtively in a corner. No, he is not preparing to hijack the plane; he is putting rings in his ears. When he arrives in London the tiny gold rings will become a fashion statement that is un-remarkable and shocks no one, but back home in Damascus its different. Arab men, real Arab men, do not wear jewellery in their ears.

This is one small example of the double life that Arabs, especially the younger ones, increasingly lead of a growing gap between the requirements of society and life as it is actually lived, between keeping up appearances in the name of tradition or respectability and the things people do in private or when away from home.

For many, the pretence of complying with the rules is no more than a minor irritation. Men who like earrings can put them in or take them out at will, but sometimes its more complicated. Arab society usually expects women to be virgins when they marry. That doesnt stop them having sex with boyfriends but it means that when the time comes to marry many of them will have an operation to restore their virginity and with it their respectability. There is no medical solution, however, when a boy grows up too feminine for the expectations of a macho culture. When he is mocked for his girlish mannerisms but can do nothing to control them, when his family beat him and ostracise him and accuse him of bringing shame upon their household, the result is despair and sometimes tragedy.

This book was inspired if that is the right word by an event in 2001 when Egyptian police raided the Queen Boat, a floating night club on the River Nile which was frequented by men attracted to other men. Several dozen were arrested on the boat or later. The arrests, the resulting trial, and the attendant publicity in the Egyptian press (much of it highly fanciful) wrecked numerous lives, all in the name of moral rectitude. It was one of the few recent occasions when homosexuality has attracted widespread public attention from the Arab media.