Dogs in Beit Shabab Village, Lebanon

I’ve been living for a month now in a very tiny village called Qalhat [Qal7at] in northern Lebanon. It is so tiny that it doesn’t have a single veggies store. And we’re talking about a village here, but no veggies stores. Kinda interesting yet frustrating especially for a vegetarian person like me. There are only two mini-markets and no other stores are found. I kid you not. But that’s because right next to this village there’s another village called Fee’ [Fee3] and it has almost everything. And that’s where I buy my veggies from.

Villages get bigger as you go north till you get to Amioun which is kind of a small city with very beautiful buildings and squares. As a bougie urban person like myself, I was happy to finally see some cafes in Amioun.  But I especially loved Afsadeek [3afsadeeq] village because of its many olive trees distributed along its roads. These villages and many more villages constitute what it’s called Koura district, and it is located between Beirut and Tripoli.

A Horse in Palmyra, Syria

When I first moved in to this three-bedrooms apartment, it was so dirty and you can see at each corner a big spider. This apartment is so full of insects that no matter how hard I try to kill them they just keep coming back. So now I am feeding the ants and trying to ignore the spider in my bathroom and the other one in my kitchen hoping they’ll be killing some mosquitoes soon. Me hoping too that the two spiders don’t get married.

A Horse in Palmyra, Syria

During the day the only voices I hear are a hen going mad as he’s clucking, cheeps bleating, and sometimes I hear dogs barking. When I go to the balcony I see four kittens playing with each other and hovering around their mom. Their father is a big black cat and no one pays him any attention. And he’s the only cat who meows.

At night, and if my annoying male neighbors are not laughing or making any noise, you can hear cockroachian hip hop, but mostly you hear dogs barking.

So imagine my life at this village. You can hardly hear any voices but of these animals and insects. The only humans I see are the mini-markets’ owners whom are both women and their husbands, along with my building’s doorkeeper and his lovely wife and children.

I think all this made me watch NAT GEO WILD all day. This amazing channel made me appreciate insects a lot and I am in the process of thinking of a way to get rid of the insects without killing or harming them. But seriously, that’s a lot of effort.

A Camel in Palmyra, Syria

In any case, I’ve been feeding the four kitten for two weeks now. They’ve started to gather when they see me coming and going assuming this is their food time. I am feeding them once every two days because that’s all I can afford right now. The youngest kitten looks like my cat Katyusha, and he’s shy and weak but and I think the food made him now stronger. The mother doesn’t like the dry cat food I buy, she still eats from trash cans.

I am used to feeding cats, it’s not difficult because they cannot harm you nor it is expensive and especially in Syria. In Damascus, I always buy Hana mortadella which costs 1$ and it can feed two cats.

My Sweet Loving katyusha :*

But last night I fed a stray dog and it’s the first time I do that. I am not afraid of tamed dogs obviously, but it’s another case with stray dogs. I have this idea that if they’re scared they might attack you and if they like you they might jump on you transmitting all their diseases. It took me a week to prepare myself to feed a stray dog last night.

I went to the mini-market and bought dogs food; a can of meat. I added veggies, rice, pasta , boiled egg and bread to it and I put them all in a plastic bag. I also prepared a can full of water then I went downstairs.

I saw a female dog eating the cats’ food I left this morning in the other building’s garden. She saw me and tried to escape but I called her to come and eat her food which she did after five minutes of staring at and hovering around me.

I left the bag near her and went back to my building watching. She came and ate most of the food in the bag then took off. A white dog was nearby but he took off too when he saw me.

I read somewhere on the internet that one shouldn’t feed street cats and dogs a lot or else it will be harder for them to find food for themselves later on when you leave.

I am leaving at the end of September and I guess I should be very careful on how to feed the kittens and the dogs. Perhaps once or twice every week. Don’t know.

I am just very happy that I fed the female stray dog last night, perhaps her friends will be coming for food later on, and then I’ll be befriending for the first time in my life a gang of stray dogs.

Who would’ve guessed.

مثليو سوريا: كائنات جنسية أم أكثر؟
بحكم معرفتي بالكثير من المثليين في سوريا، وباعتبار أن هذا  الخبر يتعلق بمجموعة من الناس الذين أعرفهم ولو ليس شخصيا، أود  أن أتحدث عن آخر الغارات التي قامت بها الشرطة على إحدى حفلات المثليين في سوريا، و تحديدا في دمشق. كما أود الاشارة إلى أن ما تناقلته بعض المواقع الناشطة في حقوق المثليين ما هو إلا تضخيم لحقيقة ما حدث، ولو أن ما حدث فعلا ليس بالأمر المقبول على الإطلاق بكافة الأحوال.
قامت السلطات السورية في شهر نيسان الفائت بغارة على إحدى حفلات المثليين التي أقيمت في دمشق، واعتقلت حوالي ثمانية أشخاص فيما سمحت لبقية الموجودين بالانصراف. وفي حديث مع أحد المقربين جدا من منظم الحفلة،علمت أنه تم اعتقال هذه المجموعة من دون غيرها بحجة ارتداء بعض أفرادها للملابس النسائية، وبحجة أن البعض الآخر كان يدخن الحشيشة. طبعا، يجدر بالذكر أنه تم الافراج عن اثنين من المعتقلين لأسباب تتعلق بالواسطة والمال. أما الستة الباقون، فما زالوا في السجن من دون أن يعرف أحد عنهم شيئا على الإطلاق، لكن ترددت بعض الشائعات أنه سيتم اخلاء سبيلهم قريبا لأنهم لم يضبطوا في أوضاع جنسية مخلة.

لكن من جهة أخرى، علينا القول أن الحملات التي رافقت هذه الغارة من قبل المجموعات المدافعة عن المثليين هي حملات مبالغ فيها. فأنا بحكم معرفتي بمئات المثليين في سوريا، لم نسمع عن العديد من هذه الغارات، أو عن غارات للشرطة في الأماكن العامة. لكن الجدير بالذكر أن النفور الاجتماعي من ظهور المثليين في العلن قد ازداد، ومعظم حالات الاعتداء على المثليين يقوم بها أناس من مغايري الجنس أو كارهي المثليين، من جرائم الضرب والسرقة والشتم في العلن والذم وأحيانا القتل. فمن فترة ليست بالبعيدة (حوالي الستة أشهر) قتل شاب مثلي الجنس بعمر التاسعة عشر على يد مجموعة من مغايري الجنس، ممن يقيمون علاقات مع شباب مثليي الجنس بشرط الحفاظ على النسق الاجتماعي المتغاير والذي هو: أحدهما يقوم ب”دور الرجل” والآخر ب”دور المرأة”. وطبعا لم يقبل أهل القتيل بالقدوم لدفنه، ولم يسمحوا لأحد بالصلاة عليه لكونه “شاذ”. كذلك يشهد المثليون في سوريا كثيرا من جرائم الاغتصاب من قبل عدد من “الرجال”، والسرقة، والتجريد من الملابس في بعض الحالات. باختصار: ذل على آخر عيار.

تابعي قراءة المقالة هنا.

Turkish women are incredibly beautiful, it’s kind of scary. And they know it.

I have a workshop to facilitate the day after tomorrow and I am still confused about what exactly I want to say.

Anyalya is so beautiful, it reminded me a bit of Homs, small city, organized buildings, wide streets, except you can see women in the streets.

I’ve seen a lot of mothers in this cafe, maybe because it has a children section. One girl fell and she started shouting in Turkish, she started crying when her mother saw her falling down, I think she was saying: “it hurts! it hurts!”.

I like the waitress. I like Antalya. Thank god we’re not in Istanbul, I hated that city very much. It was designed for tourists, Antalya is tourist- friendly but I love how nobody here speaks English. I am using weird body language to communicate, and people find it amusing. Nice people, people of Antalya.

I hated their airport though, I had a fight with them, their security check is humiliating, and everybody was obsessed about my hat, like I am hiding a bomb there or something. Assholes.

I thought the plane was going to crash, actually I was prepared to die. The captain was funny, the plan would move on and on on the side, and there was a moment when the plane moved fast that I thought this is it, I am going to fall on the sea, I am going to stop breathing as I am falling from the sky and onto the sea. I won’t be able to shout cause the scene is so scary. people are shouting around me. If I ever make it alive in the sea, I thought, I am going to save the children and the baby cat. The cat’s owner is one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen in my life. Dark skin, fair hair, green eyes. Amazing body, but I won’t save her, I am sorry but I am more sympathetic with children and animals than pretty bodies.

I think the Asians at our plane were Japanese, and I was to say to them “Baka”. But a couple of them were whispering about the Hezbolla sign I attached to my backpack. What a turn off.

So yeah, dying, been thinking a lot about death than usual lately. Isn’t amazing, that one of humanity’s biggest fears is death, yet I am fantasizing about it on my way to a nice gathering?

I know why I like death, and why suicide is an interesting concept. I hope I can explain my thoughts about it one day.

I can’t believe I am writing again on this stupid blog.

Anyways, gotta start preparing for my workshop. Jana!

We can buy some of the Armenian nuts you like.

We can sit next to each other on the Sofa.

We can get nervous.

We can allow silence to be so loud.

This is it.

We can turn Valentine into a sacred sin.

Would you break the law with me?

We can wait till we finish our first bottle.

We can forget about your tomorrow and mine.

You can let me start right here and now.

My lips touching yours.

My body longing for yours.

and I cannot believe it.

You’re so beautiful.

You can let me put my arms and legs around you.

Let me kiss you, this hard.

Don’t let go, not yet.

If you’re leaving tomorrow, you’re not leaving me now.

Let me look at you looking at me.

Just keep looking at me.

We can break gays’ weird terminologies.  We can be whoever we want.

Let’s speak our language, women’s language. Resistance.

You could be the woman of my secret dreams.

The Ayrab woman, who knows it all.

Experienced it all:

A different woman in the world.

a queer in the world.

an Ayrab home.

an Ayrab abroad.

My body is striving for your wounds.

Those familiar not so universal wounds.

Let’s make love in this global battlefield.

For Palestine, for Iraq and Afghanistan, for Lebanon and for Golan.

For the blacks, the Latinos and the natives, let’s make love.

Let’s put our guns and rifles aside at this very second

They’re not taking our colored womanhood from us.

Stay inside, and cry with me.

Touch me there, touch me right here.

Your voice, I never told you how much I love your voice.

The voice that speaks. That yells and weeps.

I know you’re not my Valentine.

But could you at least,

and while you’re slowly kissing my mind,

be my Palestine?

another fascinating video from Never Before Campaign

But Katyushas came up with primitive yet creative tactics to survive and protect themselves and their families from the occupiers. They sticked together, and fought back. They tried to survive in a system that does not acknowledge their right to be on their lands, that this land is no longer theirs.

Many Katyushas died as they were fighting the enemy and the system. We call them martyrs.

I found  one of those Katyushas the other night in the street, he is tiny but strong. I brought him home where our bougie cat, Klio, was trying for the past seven days to stick his penis in Katyusha’s ass. Katyushas as fighters, don’t let no bougie or other, to abuse them. Katyusha knew how to fight back and teach bougie cats the difference between a fighter and a conformist. Klio never stopped trying. Katyusha’s battle with the system isn’t over yet, and he knows it’s a long way for liberation, and it won’t be nice.

Katyushas instinctively learned how to resist because only them experienced the oppressive system. and only them know how to defy it.

Katyusha in my house, and I am totally OK with it. hoping another form of Katyusha finds its way to my home soon.

Meet Katyusha

Thanks to @ysalahi, a fellow blogger for suggesting the name Katyusha

Posted in Katyusha, razanisms, resistance ]]> http://razanghazzawi.com/2010/01/16/katyusha-in-my-house/feed/ 5 Anarchist Queer Katyuosha http://razanghazzawi.com/2009/12/31/kolenalaila-from-a-radical-feminist-to-a-liberal-you-suck/ http://razanghazzawi.com/2009/12/31/kolenalaila-from-a-radical-feminist-to-a-liberal-you-suck/#comments Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:34:35 +0000 Razan http://razanghazzawi.com/?p=1886 Continue reading →]]>

Source Belief Net

Ever since my “teenage-hood” days, I followed the assumption that befriending writers, filmmakers, sculptures and those who’re interested in arts and revolutionary books are necessarily people with free minds, and hence, are people who won’t disrespect me as a female or the way I chose to live my life. I was not only wrong, I was also simplistic.

Today, large number of these people who used to be my friends have become/are becoming my enemies, for they, as the masses, they begin their sentences with the same line a lot of sexist people do: “A woman should/shouldn’t be/do bla bla bla….”.

First I want to give you examples of how liberal women and men prove to be sexists as they’re trying to be free from “conservative” values. Some of these people consider themselves feminists, progressives, thinkers, and activists, pro women and LGTBQ rights.

7 Reasons Why I hate “Liberals”, “Seculars”" and “Progressives”:

1-A Syrian filmmaker once told me: “you should have sex, no woman should be virgin, you shouldn’t follow your fathers’ rules, you should be free”. These words were addressed to me at the time I was telling him that I don’t want to have sex with you, I cannot be home late, and I cannot see you everyday.

Freedom to this guy is so simple, his revolution consists of doing exactly the opposite of what the society tells you not to. Women are shackled because they cannot have sex, so they’re free once they do. I am shackled and subjected to my father’s rule if I came home by 10:30, and I am free from my father once I come home at 12, 1, 2, 3 AM.

It’s fine with me if that’s his idea of revolution, but it’s not OK with me to dictate me how should I live my life. It is not OK with me to push me and pressure me onto doing what you think is best for me, for I and only I, know what’s best for me, and your job is to shut up and listen.

It is not OK with me to make me feel like I am a slave to men because I chose to not have sex with you. It is not OK to decide for me when is coming home late and when it isn’t when I am the one who’s OK living with such situation. and it’s certainly not OK with me to listen to you telling me how you like women to be: sexually active and partying with you all night.

It’s really easy not be sexist, homophobic, racist or sectarian: you just have to have good ethics. I really believe that. I think a lot of people push themselves into other people’s business, and once they do, it’s clear that their own voice is more important than those they speak of and about. Think of how the media would change if each journalist would stop talking and bullshitting and start listening to indigenous people’s needs and to their own understanding of their reality.

Another example of liberal bullshit is when 2-A Lebanese filmmaker once told me, that when a woman decides to wear the veil she is by doing so offending him and insulting him, that she is hiding her body from him because she assumes he is an animal. He said that women should dress less because that’s when they show their respect and trust to men. He also said that a woman who wears the veil is a stupid woman, or to put it in his exact words: “with no brains”.

Here to be liberal is to be against religion and religious people.
Notice how liberal minds work: to be liberal is not to be a conservative-assuming not having sex, coming home “early” and being religious, are signs of being a conservative. The conservative to liberals is the person who does the expected, the familiar, the known. “Conservatives” are boring, that is.

It’s very important to notice that it is not the “attitude” the liberals have towards people who don’t adopt liberal values that’s problematic and hypocritical, but the “logic” per se, for it’s the condescending liberal logic that’s producing such condescending attitude.

The 3rd example is when my Lebanese ex-boyfriend told me that I should leave my parents and live with him, if I don’t want to live with him that’s OK, but I should leave my parents. Parents are the worse thing ever happened to children. Children become free once they live alone. The same guy told me a year later that I should have sex with my girlfriend because I should experience sex with females. He kept saying for 20 minutes what I should do. I was clear that I wasn’t comfortable with having sex in hotel rooms and during noon. It is really a weird fucked up feeling when you’re put in a situation that you should explain yourself to people. I was practically defending my right not to have sex when I don’t want to. But to some liberals, sex is the taboo you should seek breaking it, just for the heck of it.

4-A Syrian expatriate once told me that I should not accept my father’s rule of being home at 10:30. He said that I am 29 years old now, I should set my own rules and that I should defy my father. He wouldn’t be on this list and on this post if he stopped talking when I said: “I am OK with it”.

5-A gay female foreigner said to me with a surprise : “you get home by 10:30? you don’t stay late at night on the weekends?” Any woman who does not stay out late at night is considered shackled and subjected to masculine rules to these progressive people. How cool are they, how liberated, and how boring and backward of me, for not staying with her till 3 AM in Damascus. You’re free and cool and part of the advanced progressive global community, if you, like them, follow rules set by the advanced progressive countries.

6-An Arab blogger at the Arab bloggers conference asked me how could a woman like me who’s not veiled supports Hamas and Hezballa. He asked me if I am OK with the Islamic state, I said yes I am [since no one really knows what that is, we just know what the modern Islamic state looks like, and I have a problem with modernity not Islam]. It was a surprise for him, that a woman who is not veiled and who drinks alcohol and supportive of freedom of gender difference and gender rights can also be supportive of Islamic resistance. This blogger doesn’t live in the region, so I guess I can understand why he was so surprised. But still, liberal minds just amaze me with their simplicity.

7-Finale example, a guy kissed me on the mouth out of nowhere, I said no, he left. I was pissed at him when he took off so I told him online that not only you had no right to kiss me with no romantic vibes in the air, but you also left and did not respect my wishes nor take the responsibility of your volunteered actions, with which you invaded my personal space. You came to fuck me and left when you couldn’t. He said: “I have the right to kiss you, and you have the right to refuse”.

What can you possibly say to this guy? Men have the right to kiss women, and women, all they can do is accept or decline this romantic action forced on them. Women are not part of that very decision, to be kissed, they’re just part of fulfilling it or not.

This reminds me of the power implemented in sexual intercourse itself, it’s the penis that enters, and the vagina that receives. This sexual mechanism is reflected in men and women’s attitude towards each other in many ways: dating, relationships, marriage..etc. The man enters a woman’s space, a woman accepts or refuses. Same with sexual harassment, which is my reading to this guy’s action above who kissed me uninvited. This idea of the power implemented in sexual intercourse is to be discussed in some other post.

To me, these are examples of sexist, dictator and fascist Liberalism. A person who believes in social traditions and habits does not respect a woman who drinks, who has an active sex life and who stays out late at night. These liberal people above follow the same logic, some don’t not respect women’s choice to wear the veil and belittle their reason when doing so, some do not respect and acknowledge women’s right not to have sex when they choose not to. Some don’t respect women’s right not to defy masculine rules when they choose not to. To them, to liberals, a woman should follow western, I mean “universal” values of being a free woman: wearing less clothes, drinking alcohol, eating pork, having sex and partying all night long on the weekends.

There are really a lot of examples to liberal bullshit, I will write about Arab liberal politics soon, which won’t be nice at all.

فكرة “كلنا ليلى”

انطلقتْ فكرة “كلنا ليلى” عام 2006 بمبادرة مدوِّنة مصرية باسم “لستُ أدري” بالإضافة الى العديد من المدوّنين في العالم العربي. و تتلخص فكرتها في دعوة المدونين العرب إلى التعبير عن آرائهم ومشاهداتهم فيما يتعلق بوضع المرأة العربية بكل حرية وصراحة، خاصة في ظل التأثير المتصاعد للإعلام الجديد على مجتمعاتنا متمثلاً في المدونات. وقد رأينا ذلك الأثر في الأعوام الماضية حيث اهتمت صحف ووسائل إعلامية عدة بالمبادرة منها الجزيرة والبي بي سي وصحيفة المصري اليوم والدستور وغيرهم . هدفنا من هذه الحملة المساهمة في إثراء الحوار حول حياتنا الإجتماعية العربية وما يتخللها من نجاحات أو إخفاقات. ونؤكد أن الفكرة ليست للترويج لثقافة أو قيم بعينها، ولكنها دعوة لنقد ومراجعة سلوكياتنا اليومية برغبة حقيقية في التغيير. ندعوك للمشاركة معنا سواء كنت ممن يعتقدون أن مجتمعاتنا محافظة إلى حدٍّ كبير، وتُعطي الأفضلية للرجل وتقلل من شأن المرأة وحريتها، أو كنت ممن يؤمنون أن مجتمعاتنا منفتحة وأنها أعطت المرأة نصيبها من الحقوق بما يكفي.

“كلنا ليلى” اليوم

فى عامنا هذا تهتم “كلنا ليلى” بالكشف عن قصص التحدي والتغيير والمحاولة عاشتها ليلى. نهتم أن نعرف رحلة نجاح المرأة في بلادنا، مازاد عليها وما غاب وما نطمح أن تكون عليه أحلامها ومساحتها من الواقع.. ومحاولتها لمستقبل أفضل.

كيفية المشاركة:

المشاركة متاحة ومفتوحة للجميع نساءً ورجالاً، وللجميع مطلق الحرية في إبداء الرأي بأي من وسائل التعبير المتاحة: مقال، فكرة، صورة، تصميم، قصة ، أو أي شكل آخر. ويمكنك كذلك أن تختار بين النشر في مدونتك الخاصة أو النشر في المدونة الرئيسية للحملة. ليست هناك أية قيود سواء على الموضوعات أو الأفكار المطروحة، أو اللغة المستخدمة (رغم تفضيلنا للغة العربية لتكون اللغة الرسمية للمبادرة)، كما يمكن للمشاركة أن تكون مكتوبة أو مسموعة أو مرئية. كل ذلك مرحبٌ به ما دام صاحبه مؤمناً به ومسئولاً بشكل شخصي عن الدفاع عن آرائه أمام وجهات النظر المضادة ومستعداً كذلك لتغييرها إن اقتنع بأوجه القصور فيه.

لمزيد من المعلومات زوروا صفحتنا على الفيسبوك: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=210415019802&ref=mf

متى وكيف ؟

وفي عامها الرابع ستنطلق المبادرة يوم 24 ديسمبروتستمر أسبوعاً فتنتهي يوم 31 ديسمبر، كما أنها وعلى عكس الأعوام الماضية ستشمل 13 دولة عربية ( مصر وفلسطين المحتلة وسوريا والأردن والمغرب والسودان والجزائر وتونس والسعودية والإمارات ولبنان وليبيا والكويت).

اذا اردت الاستفسار عن المزيد، أرجو أن لا تتردد فى ارسال إقتراحاتك أو أسئلتك على البريد الإلكتروني Razan@kolenalaila.com

نرجو منك أيضا إذا أعجبتك الفكرة أن تدعو أصدقاءك من المدونين والمدونات إلى المشاركة، فقط أعد إرسال الدعوة إليهم وضع البانر المرافق للدعوة فى مدونتك والذي ستجدونه في الأسفل.

مشاركة سوريّة مميزّة:

منظمتين فقط وافقتا على دعم والمشاركة في أسبوع كلنا ليلى, منظمة من مصر (مؤسسة المرأة الجديدة) وأخرى من سوريا (نساء سوريا).

روابط وبانرات:

يمكنكم ايضا زيارة موقعنا: http://kolenalaila.com

متابعتنا على تويتر:http://twitter.com/kolenalaila

بانرات أسبوع كلنا ليلى بالعربية والانكليزية (عليك اختيار اللغة): http://kolenalaila.com/banners

Posted in Human Rights, KolenaLaila, sexism, women rights, women who inspire me, ذكوريّات, سوريون من أجل التغيير, سوريّات, عنصرية القوانين العربية تجاه المرأة, عنصرية الشعوب ضدّ المرأة ]]> http://razanghazzawi.com/2009/12/25/%d9%83%d9%84%d9%86%d8%a7-%d9%84%d9%8a%d9%84%d9%89-%d9%81%d9%8a-%d8%b3%d9%88%d8%b1%d9%8a%d8%a7-kolenalaila/feed/ 0 Anarchist Queer KolenaLaila http://razanghazzawi.com/2009/12/21/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-israels-democracy/ http://razanghazzawi.com/2009/12/21/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-israels-democracy/#comments Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:18:21 +0000 Razan http://razanghazzawi.com/?p=1878 ]]>

Posted in Israeli apartheid State, Neocolonialism/Colonialism, Occupation, Occupied Palestine, racisms, resistance, Zionisms ]]> http://razanghazzawi.com/2009/12/21/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-israels-democracy/feed/ 7 Anarchist Queer anna+baltzer+palestine+photo http://razanghazzawi.com/2009/12/11/helem-replies-to-massad-we-are-not-agents-of-the-west/ http://razanghazzawi.com/2009/12/11/helem-replies-to-massad-we-are-not-agents-of-the-west/#comments Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:30:40 +0000 Razan http://razanghazzawi.com/?p=1873 Continue reading →]]> Ghassan Makarem founding member and current Executive Director of Helem replied to Joseph Massad’s interview conducted with him by Reset Doc website. Here’s an extract of the interview:

The real problem with Massad’s interview is the lies, fabrications, and insinuations of being agents of the West against the people in Helem. This is an opinion we have heard many times from Salafists and chauvinists. The contention that homosexuals are agents of the West, that they are “imposing Western values”, and that they belong to the upper classes was also used by Khomeini before rounding up homosexuals and executing them. It is the same justification given to call for the arrest of HIV positive persons in Egypt and elsewhere and to pass a viciously homophobic law in Uganda.

Read the whole article here.