Groundbreaking Lebanese band Mashrou’ Leila rocks London's Scala with their 100th gig

Last night I finally saw this groundbreaking Lebanese band Mashrou’ Leila live in London. It was their 100th ever gig, and it was awesome.

I was first introduced to the band a year or so ago by a friend of mine who is a big-big fan of theirs. Since then I keep an eye on Mashrou’ Leila. More I read about them, more I listen to their music, more I like them. But it was not until last night that I saw them live. The gig was in London’s Scala club, popular with students and indie crowd. What a great time I had.

They sing about love, life, important social and human rights issues, including LGBT related. I didn’t feel that I don’t know the language of their songs, because I could feel the music, the rhythms, emotions, sincerity, bravery. It’s as if they played in Armenian or English. Everything was so familiar, so close to my heart, so understandable. I was totally taken away by their music and performance, and left the gig recharged.

Btw, there is Armenian violinist in the band - Haig Papazian. He is currently studying in London at Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. Haig was on stage in transparent black top. What a talented cute guy he is. In fact, all of his bandmates are. Brave, intelligent, talented and cute.

They appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine’s Middle East edition.

Below are just few media headlines about the band:

The Guardian: Mashrou' Leila: the Lebanese band changing the tune of Arab politics
BBC: The band out to occupy Arab pop
Reuters: Gay Lebanese singer with 'Freddie Mercury' edge fronts band

Hamed Sinno, openly gay vocalist of the band, was on a cover of Tetu, prominent gay magazine in France.







Hamed made into The Independent’s PINK LIST 2013 as one of the most influential international LGBT names:

The lead singer in the Lebanese band Mashrou’ Leila appeared on the cover of the French gay lifestyle magazine Têtu, and encourages his LGBT fans “to forge for themselves a sense of belonging to the region, in spite of the incredible repressing they have to live through.” 

*FYI: band's FB page; Twitter

Bekhsoos: "A personal queer look at the Armenian Genocide"

A queer Arab magazine Bekhsoos posted a correspondence between two gay Armenian Lebanese women sharing their very personal outlook at the Armenian Genocide:

Dear Sarag,

When I first realized I was queer, it wasn’t anything shocking for me as I was always the minority of some other minority.

My first cause ever was the Armenian genocide and I held on to it like someone holds on to their dear life. The idea that another group wanted to erase something very essential in my being and eradicate it was enough for me to want to resist.

It’s not easy to know that someone wants you to no longer exist.

So when I look around now and I think of the homophobia and the people who want to eradicate us because for them we are a disease, it’s not something new. When I think of all the gendercide and how a lot of our societies break women and burry their existence in petty beliefs, it’s not something new.

I am a queer Armenian Lebanese woman; a half-breed to add to that and this is the essence of my survival. For 95 years our people have been screaming for justice and we will keep on shouting and screaming even when the dearest feminists shout back but who cars about this now? How is it relevant to our cause?

I want to tell you how relevant it is. It is relevant because it is my cause and I am a feminist and it’s a human cause.

It is relevant because its Darfur and Gaza, it is relevant because when we got here we were thrown in camps and orphanages and built our lives from rubbles, it is relevant because women were raped and killed and children sold, it is relevant because justice has not been restored. And you know, when justice is not restored the whole order of your world crumbles. You ask me why I still want them to utter words or recognition? Because I want to be in peace, I want to believe in the good order of the universe, I want to know that the good prevails that there is hope. This is why I fight as a feminist, this is why I fight as a queer, it is why I choose these battles where small victories fuel me with hope

and I think of bigger ones.

Imagine you had 5 more years, only five years to prove that you’ve been raped and beaten, your land stolen. You had five years and you show humanity proof and ask for justice to be made and you know that once those five years go by, humanity’s corrupt system will erase your trauma from its history and move on. You are silenced and mute and your rapist still wandering out there. What would you do? We have 5 more years and then it’s the centenary and after that according to international laws our cause is a lost one. Wonderful example to give to states like Israel, practicing apartheid.

Love,

Shant

___________________

Dear Shant,

You already know, I relate to everything said in your e-mail.

I have always been a part of a minority, ever since I was born.

As I discovered more and more about myself, I became a minority of a minority and it has always been a struggle.

A struggle mainly for my rights. For my rights as an Armenian living in Lebanon, as a Woman, and as a Queer.

A struggle for belonging.. I was born in Lebanon but let’s face it, do I really belong here? It doesn’t really feel like it since I have always been pointed out as The Armenian among the Lebanese. It doesn’t really feel like it since el 3arabeh taba3 el arman mkassar, since we have a different culture and different traditions.

The next question would be. Do I belong in Armenia? Here… This breaks my heart. I don’t even belong in Armenia, because I am only a tourist there. A tourist that doesn’t even speak the same language as the Armenians there.

I have heard so much about Armenians since I was in school by my teachers, my parents, and my grandmothers. I have heard so many stories about my own family, about my own grandfather and my great grandfather and grandmother.

What do I do with all that? Get over it? Let it go?

It’s impossible…

It has become a part of me. A part of my core being.

It is in the blood.

What I find messed up is how countries like The United States or the European union use the Genocide as some joker card against Turkey. They don’t care about the recognition, they hold on to that card so that they can have political stances and gains. The U.S. gets to have army bases and fly into Iraq from over Turkey and the E.U. uses it to stop Turkey from getting in its sphere. And our history relies on their twisted politics.

We fight every day for our rights as queers. We want justice, we want acknowledgement.

We get frustrated and irritated. We go insane when we hear about all the queers and transgendered people that have been murdered.

All this blood spilled… Who could really get over it? Who could really accept it in the first place?

Hate, denial of our existence and their desire to annihilate us…

It’s something none of us should shut up about.

The Armenian cause is so close to all the other causes we believe in and fight for.

You don’t have to necessarily be an Armenian to feel this… You just have to be human.

And there is a big difference between human and “human”.

Love,

Sarag

First ever gay Arabic book Bareed Mista3jil goes international

Change.org reports that the first ever gay Arabic book Bareed Mista3jil, published in Lebanon, will be touring California in December. "Members of MEEM [activist and support group for Lebanese LBTQ women] have already toured Palestine, Jordan, Turkey, Denmark, Belgium, France, and Armenia, making the book's release a truly international event."

Bareed Mista3jil, meaning express mail, isn't just the first queer Lebanese book ever published -- it's also the first queer Arabic book, period, to be published

A compilation of anonymous personal narratives from Lebanese LBTQ women of all social classes and religions, Bareed Mista3jil addresses coming out, religion, family, emigration, abuse, and activism. MEEM, an activist and support group for Lebanese LBTQ women, publicly released the book at the Al Madina Theater in Beirut last May, attracting an audience of 400 people.

MEEM organizer Shant (who declined to give her full name) described the book as a big step for Lebanese LGBTs.

"We can actually talk about our experiences and show that they touch more than just the lesbian community," she said.

Shant reports a lot of positive feedback for the book, which is sold at Virgin Megastores in Lebanon, and MEEM is already planning a fourth reprint to keep up with demand.

It's not surprising that the first queer Arabic book debuted in Beirut, given that Lebanon is known for having a relatively free press (compared with other Arab nations) and a liberal capital city. However, queer activists in Lebanon still have their work cut out for them. Homosexuality is sometimes punished under a law banning "sexual acts against nature," so coming out is not always safe or even possible (hence the anonymity of Bareed Mista3jil's writers).

"Some [queer women] are very out with friends and family and closeted at work; some [are] out at work [but] closeted to families. There isn't the notion of 100 percent out," said Shant.

MEEM is now campaigning to overturn 534, the Lebanese law used to punish homosexuality, and maintains a monthly e-magazine, Bekhsoos.

Armenian American reporter Lara Setrakian of ABC News about gay scene in Saudi Arabia and across Middle East

Armenian American reporter Lara Setrakian, "a one-woman ABC news bureau in Dubai", posted an extensive report on gay scene in Saudi Arabia and across Middle East:

Saudi Gay Scene: 'Forbidden, but I can't Help It'
Across the Middle East, Many Struggle With the Stigma of Homosexuality

[...] Homosexuality is illegal in Saudi Arabia, but the charge calls for four witnesses to make a case. Arrests by the religious police are far more arbitrary. In a recent case they apprehended one man at a Jeddah shopping mall, suspecting he was gay from his tight jeans and fitted shirt.

"I've been invited to private parties for gay men in Jeddah, but I never go because I know what would happen if we were caught," Samir told ABC News.

"Unless it's a VIP house -- if the party is at the home of one of the princes or one of the sheiks then you're protected."

In Saudi Arabia, where men and women are strictly separated, there is some space for gay life. Gay men can go cruising -- a term for picking up partners -- and socialize in male-only sections of cafes and restaurants. In line with sex-segregated social norms, gay lovers can often spend intimate time together without arousing suspicion.

But gays and lesbians in Saudi Arabia still need to accommodate the pressures of public life, in some cases pairing off to accommodate a freer lifestyle.

"There is a gay group of girls in Saudi looking for gay men to marry. It's the perfect solution," says Samir, adding that he wouldn't mind a lesbian wife of his own. [...]

More...

Online Freedom but With Entrapment Risks
Gay Web Sites Blocked in Many Arab Countries
U.S. Government Has Been Quiet About Gay Crackdown in Iraq
Small Space for Gay Pride

Beirut: underground gay community and shift in sexual attitudes in Lebanon

Two excellent reports by Worldfocus special correspondent Kristen Gillespie.

In this first video report, she talks about changing sexual attitudes in Lebanon, and in particular Beirut:

"From the Arab world’s first gay rights demonstration to wild parties to a new graphic magazine, sexual attitudes are changing in Beirut. For a country once known more for wars, car bombs and political assasinations, Lebanon is assuming a new identity."



Her second report is about Beirut's undergound gay community:

"It’s Friday night at a bar on a side street in Gemayze.

Two young women sitting at the end of the bar discreetly hold hands. The female DJ wears a T-shirt that reads, “My boyfriend is out of town.” Everyone in the bar is female. In the underground gay community, Friday nights at this particular bar is known to be ladies’ night. The gay scene in Beirut, says one woman while sipping her drink, “is big, but people aren’t open about it. You have to know where to go.”

The woman, 33, lives at home, but her parents don’t know that she is a lesbian. For now, they don’t have to. For younger people looking to date casually, it’s not difficult to meet people, have fun and stay in the closet.

But for homosexual couples looking to have a serious relationship — or children — the choice often boils down to staying in Lebanon and compromising, or moving abroad. I ask if it bothers her that she can’t be “out” with her partner. “What I want is to live with my partner and have a family. But realistically, I wouldn’t be able to have children and give them a good life here.” It upsets her that she would have to leave the country to do that. “We’re not there yet,” she says about Lebanon.

As it gets later, the music gets louder, the drinks keep coming and the narrow bar fills up. Another woman, 32 years old, sees me taking notes and comes over to chat. She echoes the sentiments of the first woman, emphasizing that she will remain in the closet. Her parents ”will never know” about her, even as they pressure her to get married. She is unsure how things will turn out for her.

The bar hosted at least a couple of dozen women that night, most of whom probably live at home with their parents. While Beirut is the most gay-friendly city in the Arab world, it is still a conservative society where gay couples are not socially accepted.

Homosexuals are at the beginning of a struggle for rights in Lebanon. It is one that will set an example for the rest of the Arab world."