What its like to live as a homosexual in a Muslim country - Personal experience [View all]

[agnostic102]

First i want to say that this was my experience till the age of 7-8 living in iran. I grew up and im now married to a lovely american women and i consider my self straight but still have sometimes erotic fantasies about men. Anyway that part is for another day.

My posts are generally geared towards islam muslims and living in iran. I left all religions in my late teens when i was living here in america. I do consider my self an agnostic.

The reason i wanted to write the post was because i see a lot of people having such a hard time understanding that this shooter who could potentially be gay could do such a thing. Have a dating gay app on your phone and then turn around and murder gay people?

The simplistic explanation i can give is just like how you hear these Conservative or christian fundamentalist preach against homosexuality and years later you find out there sleeping with the same sex. Except with muslims the guilt can be even more over bearing. Unlike most religions that speak out against gay people. In islam homosexuality is explicitly banned sharia and qualifies for automatic execution. In fact there are ways you are supposed to execute a gay man. For example dropping a wall on top of them. Sometimes you see the taliban do this.

I wrote in another post that the first hanging in iran i ever saw was of a young teen who was executed for being gay. Generally speaking there is a tremendous amount of homosexuality in muslim countries from the ages of 6 to about 18 or so. This isnt because genetically muslims are just more gay. Its because the males are strictly forbidden to touch, play with, and entract with girls at younger ages.

My story involved another young boy who lived on our street. When our parents were not home we would go to my house and play doctor. At 7 or so you dont have the mental capacity to understand all of it execept for the urges. Because we went to schools and classes that had all males. All our freinds that we played with were all males. And girls were considered dirty and had cooties (this i think at that age is universal) we were only exposed to other boys. I guess the best way to describe it is like gay or straight when your in jail for a long time with the same sex its only natural to engage in sexual behavior with them.

The guilty part was always the sense of deep deep hatred. Because from the very of youngest age the extreme anti homophobia is present. Not just with the larger islamic society but at home as well. The mosques you attend the mullahs or imams routinely speak out against homosexuality. Speak of killing gays and how they have to be put to death. This causes extreme anxiety for a young gay man anywhere (you even see it here in america) but its much more pronounced in islamic countries. You begin to have rage agianst not just your self but larger society. You want to lash out. Some just break down and admit it to there families. Depending where that happens (Pakistan, Afghanistan, some parts of iran) you basically never hear from them agian. Usually a honor killing. The females are usually strangled by the father or an uncle then rapped in a blanket or rug of some kind and buried with little fan fare. The boys are usually hanged if turned over to the public authoritarians or again the brothers uncles cousins will kill him usually by stabbing sometimes shooting if guns are accessible.

In some cases the killing is done by someone who himself is gay but because of extreme guilt and wanting to prove himself participates directly in the executions. In fact many suicide bombers that you generally never know or hear who they are etc.. take that "job" to cleanse themselves of there impurity and hope to gain a place in heaven. This is something that happens in groups like al quida and isis all the time. Because sexual repressiveness is so profound in Muslim culture. The islamic leaders understand this. I mean they cant execute every person who has feelings or urges to have sex. So sex slaves from wars and rapes ESPECIALLY of non muslim women happens without consequence. Because the sex slave is considered an infidel or kaffir. Muslims solders who are married can take sex slaves without technically committing adultery which again is punishable by death. In iran as you get older sexual feelings are less restrictive as long as you do it within the confines of islamic law. In iran for example you get whats called temporary marriages. There basically very short contracts to have sex without getting into trouble because during the time your having sex you are temperory married.