Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people living in Lebanon may face discrimination and legal difficulties not experienced by non-LGBT residents, although they have more freedom than in other parts of the Arab world. Various courts have ruled that Article 534 of the Lebanese Penal Code, which prohibits having sexual relations that "contradict the laws of nature", should not be used to arrest LGBT people. Nonetheless, the law is still being used to harass and persecute LGBT people through occasional police arrests, in which detainees are sometimes subject to intrusive physical examinations.
Hind Hussain Mohammed or Nariman Hussein Murad, more commonly known by her stage name Hind Rostom, was an Egyptian actress and is considered one of the icons in the Egyptian cinema, as she was mainly known for her sensual roles. Her physical appearance earned her the name Marilyn Monroe of the east. Hind Rostom starred in more than 80 movies in her career.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the Syrian Arab Republic have limited legal rights. Article 520 of the penal code of 1949 prohibits "carnal relations against the order of nature", punishable with a prison sentence of up to three years.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) people in Yemen face severe challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Same-sex sexual activity is punishable by death; this law is applied to both men and women. Members of the LGBT community additionally face stigmatization and homophobic violence among the broader population.
Tawakkol Abdel-Salam Khalid Karman is a Yemeni Nobel Laureate, journalist, politician, and human rights activist. She leads the group "Women Journalists Without Chains," which she co-founded in 2005. She became the international public face of the 2011 Yemeni uprising that was part of the Arab Spring uprisings. In 2011, she was reportedly called the "Iron Woman" and "Mother of the Revolution" by some Yemenis. She is a co-recipient of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first Yemeni, the first Arab woman, and the second Muslim woman to win a Nobel Prize.
Ramziya Abbas Al-Eryani or al-Iryani was a pioneering Yemeni novelist, writer, diplomat and feminist. She was also the niece of the former president Abdul Rahman Al-Eryani.
Human rights in Iraqi Kurdistan refer to the human rights issue in the autonomous area of Kurdistan Region.
Yemeni hip hop is a Yemeni music style and cultural movement related to rap and hip hop culture. It has influences from American hip hop and also from traditional music from the region. It is usually considered to have emerged from mid-2000s and reached its consolidation by 2009 when the first public concert was held in the French Cultural Institute. Although it has a variety of themes, there was an intense production of political songs by the Yemeni Revolution.
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 five 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.
Loujain al-Hathloul is a Saudi women's rights activist, a social media figure, and political prisoner. She has been arrested on several occasions for defying the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia. In May 2018, she and several prominent women's rights activists were kidnapped in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and deported to Saudi Arabia where they were charged with "attempting to destabilise the kingdom." Her ex-husband, Saudi stand-up comedian Fahad al-Butairi, had also been forcibly returned from Jordan to the Kingdom and was under arrest.
Amal Basha is a Yemeni women's rights activist, chair of the Sisters' Arab Forum for Human Rights (SAF). As the chair of SAF, she "defends the rights of women, prisoners and refugees, and fights for more political freedoms."
Hind bint al-Nuʿmān, also known as al-Ḥurqah, was a pre-Islamic Arab poet. There is some historiographical debate, going back to the Middle Ages, over precisely what her names were, with corresponding debates over whether some of the bearers of these names were different people or not. An example of a poet-princess, she has been read as a key figure in pre-Islamic poetry.
Alaa Al-Eryani is a filmmaker, photographer, writer, and feminist activist from Yemen.
Sarah Hegazi, also spelled Hegazy or Higazy, was an Egyptian socialist, writer, and lesbian activist. She was arrested, imprisoned and tortured in Egypt for three months after flying a rainbow flag at a Mashrou' Leila concert in 2017 in Cairo. Hegazi, who lived with PTSD resulting from the prison torture she had experienced in Egypt, was granted asylum in Canada, living there until her suicide.
Hind bint Abd al-Razzaq Huwayl al-Mutayri is a Saudi poet, writer and academic. She was born and raised in Taif, and it is where she received her education. She obtained a degree in the Arabic Language from King Saud University (1995) and a Ph.D. in Arabic Literature and Criticism from the Department of Arabic Language and Literature. She has participated in events, poetry slams, and readings both locally and internationally. She is also a member of Riyadh Literary Club and has two poetry collections and several critical and literary works.
Ahmed Abd Al Rahman Al Moulami (1917-2004) was a Yemeni writer, born in Utmah, in the Dhamar Governorate, currently. He was a member of the Poetry Society of the Arab Writers Union in Syria, and a member of the Yemeni Writers Union. He received his first education in his village. He memorized the linguistic and jurisprudential text and then moved to Irian village, and learn from its scholars, then moved to Sana’a, where he attended the science and literature councils. He served as ambassador of Yemen to Egypt, then ambassador of Yemen to the State of Ethiopia. He was politically active in opposing hukm al'ayima and supported the revolutionaries, which exposed him to imprisonment twice for eight years and had to flee to Egypt for a period until the declaration of the establishment of the Republic of Yemen in 1962 and the outbreak of the North Yemen Civil War.
Hind Shalabi, was a Tunisian researcher in Qur’anic sciences. She was a professor of interpretation at Ez-Zitouna University. She was given the nickname – "the owner of the Shalabi outfit", which is a description given by the scholar Mohamed Chedly Ennaifer since she was the first Tunisian to wear the hijab and storm the university walls with it.
Sareh Mansouri, often identified by her birth name Zahra Seddiqi Hamedani, is an Iranian LGBTQI+ activist who was arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on 27 October 2021 while illegally crossing into Turkey to seek asylum. After suffering maltreatment during her initial period of imprisonment, additional charges were made against her and on 4 September 2022, she was sentenced to death for 'Corruption on Earth'. The sentencing and imprisonment has been widely condemned by the international community as the charges seem to stem solely from her activism and identity.
