Gay pakistani
Gay Pakistan: Where sex is available and relationships are difficult
But life can be even more tough for gay women. Expressions of female sexuality are shunned in the universal sphere, even among heterosexuals. So how do gay women make their lives work?
In Lahore, twenty-something lesbian couple Beena and Fatima hold come up with an inventive way to stay together.
Beena, although not publicly "out", says she is optimistic about the future. "I think we'll hold a marriage of convenience. I comprehend some gay guys and maybe we'll do a deal so we set in money together and they possess one portion of the house and we'll have another portion. We may as well undertake that."
Fatima, who contributes to an invitation-only online gay help group, believes it's only "a matter of time" before Pakistan begins to debate gay rights openly, and people declare their homosexuality with pride.
"You can't stay in the closet forever. You have to arrive out. It's inevitable," she says.
Beena is less hopeful.
"Gay rights in America came after women had basic rights. You don't see that in Pakistan. You are not allowed a diffe
“Homosexuality is very ordinary in Pakistan,” Sinaan tells me as the Muslim ring to prayer rings out along the streets of Islamabad. “But homosexuality is mostly done by straight guys.”
A professor, Sinaan asked Daily Xtra to transform his name to protect his security and job security.
Pakistan is a society of contrasts: a land of fundamentalist Islam, Osama bin Laden’s hideout, and terrorist attacks, where children are gunned down going to school or accused of blasphemy and sentenced to death. Yet it’s also a land where secular, liberal, fresh adults socialize by drinking whisky and smoking weed, where you can detect used lesbian erotica or buy a dildo on the black market.
These two extremes are nowhere as evident as in the LGBT experience.
Pakistan is an extremely patriarchal, macho culture, with a strict understanding of gender expression and behaviour. Ironically, it’s that culture that enables same-sex relationships to flourish, as long as the participants are discreet.
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Mohammed faced death threats, an unwanted marriage, homelessness & depression but now he is free
Mohammed (pseudonym) was studying in the UK and pressured into a heterosexual marriage by his family. He fled this marriage and could not return to his homeland of Pakistan after his family threatened to kill him. He came to the Peter Tatchell Foundation just under one year ago, seeking our help with his asylum claim. We are delighted to announce that in early 2019 he was finally granted refugee status by the Home Office. We are confident to have been able to help Mohammed secure a place of safety in the UK and to share his story below.
London, UK – 15 April 2019
See Mohammed’s statement below:
I am from a very conservative family in Pakistan and when my mother passed away, my father threw me out of the property. My maternal uncle and aunt looked after me; I was only 15 and found a job whilst studying. I was attracted to men and tried to fight it, as I thought it was unnatural and worst of all, frowned upon by God. I struggled with my sexuality all the moment and I was hating myself.
In 2010 I came to the UK to further my studies, but even here I was st
Court criticises tribunals over Pakistani asylum gay claim
Criticisms of successive tribunals in the immigration system hold been made by the Inner House in a decision allowing the appeal of a Pakistani gentleman who claimed that he would be persecuted in his home country because he was gay.
Lord Drummond Young, Lady Clark of Calton and Lord Malcolm allowed the appeal of “AR” from an Upper Tribunal judge who affirmed the First-tier Tribunal in holding that AR had failed to establish his sexuality, due to inconsistencies in his evidence and the doubtful authenticity of supporting documentation.
It was the third time AR's case had reached the Upper Tribunal. On the first occasion, a decision in his favour had been reversed when the Upper Tribunal held the Place Office's submissions had not been properly considered; on the second, an adverse decision had been reversed on the ground that evidence for AR had not been.
AR's evidence that he had always been gay was supported by what purported to be a police record of his detention in Pakistan following an allegation of sodomy, and a local newspaper report of the same matter. There was documentation supporting his membership of a gay