Afdhere Jama | |
---|---|
Born | 1980 Somalia |
Nationality | American |
Occupation(s) | Writer, Filmmaker |
Notable work | Illegal Citizens: Queer Lives in the Muslim World (2008) |
Afdhere Jama (born 1980) is an American writer and filmmaker of Somali origin.
Jama was born and raised in Somalia. He moved to America when he was a teenager. Between the years 2000 and 2010, he was the editor of Huriyah. Jama identifies as queer and Muslim. [1]
In June 2016, after a shooting in Orlando, an article Jama had written in 2014 about LGBT Muslims was shared on social media. [2]
Jama was the editor in chief of Huriyah [3] (Arabic : حرية, [note 1] "freedom"), an LGBT Muslim magazine published between the years 2000 and 2010. [4] It was based in San Francisco, California. Huriyah used the slogan "Queer Muslim Magazine".
The magazine was first published in Arabic and launched in English in 2002, with a focus on both LGBT and Muslim issues in politics, arts, and spirituality. [5] It had a major interview every month, conducted by Jama, including of Daayiee Abdullah and Faisal Alam.
In 2006 Jama stated, "My main difference with the majority of Muslims is the belief that a Jewish homeland is an important progress for all of us, especially one in their ancestral land of Israel". He continued, "Muslims in the United States must decide whether they see groups like Hamas and Hizbullah as legitimate resistance or the cause of Muslim troubles in the region". [6]
Within the Muslim world, sentiment towards LGBTQ people varies and has varied between societies and individual Muslims, but is contemporarily negative. While colloquial and in many cases de facto official acceptance of at least some homosexual behavior was commonplace in pre-modern periods, later developments, starting from the 19th century, have created a generally hostile environment for LGBTQ people. Most Muslim-majority countries have opposed moves to advance LGBTQ rights and recognition at the United Nations (UN), including within the UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council.
Queer is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or are not cisgender. Originally meaning 'strange' or 'peculiar', queer came to be used pejoratively against LGBT people in the late 19th century. From the late 1980s, queer activists began to reclaim the word as a neutral or positive self-description.
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Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Tunisia face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Both male and female kinds of same-sex sexual activity are illegal in the country. According to the United States Department of State's 2018 report on human rights in Tunisia, "authorities occasionally use [the anti-sodomy law] to detain and question persons about their sexual activities and orientation, reportedly at times based on appearance alone."
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Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Somalia face severe challenges not experienced by non-LGBTQ residents. Consensual same-sex sexual activity is illegal for both men and women. In areas controlled by al-Shabab, and in Jubaland, capital punishment is imposed for such sexual activity. In other areas, where Sharia does not apply, the civil law code specifies prison sentences of up to three years as penalty. LGBT people are regularly prosecuted by the government and additionally face stigmatization among the broader population. Stigmatization and criminalisation of homosexuality in Somalia occur in a legal and cultural context where 99% of the population follow Islam as their religion, while the country has had an unstable government and has been subjected to a civil war for decades.
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Helem is the first LGBTQIA+ rights non-governmental organization in the Arab world, founded in Beirut, Lebanon, in 2001. Its mission is to lead a non-violent struggle for the liberation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and other persons with non-conforming sexualities and/or gender identities (LGBTQIA+) in Lebanon and the MENA region from all sorts of violations of their individual and collective civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights. Helem’s name was also an acronym in Arabic that stood for “Lebanese protection for the LGBT community”.
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Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people generally have limited or highly restrictive rights in most parts of the Middle East, and are open to hostility in others. Sex between men is illegal in 9 of the 18 countries that make up the region. It is punishable by death in four of these 18 countries. The rights and freedoms of LGBT citizens are strongly influenced by the prevailing cultural traditions and religious mores of people living in the region – particularly Islam.
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