After posting my last entry, I can across an interesting article in Atlantic Monthly about homosexuality in another Islamic country, Saudi Arabia, "The Kingdom in the Closet".
It gives a realistic portrait of what being "gay" in the Middle East means...which actually doesn't mean you are gay in the western sense at it all, it just means that you occasionally like to have sex with men. (Even if you are married with children)
For me, the most interesting part of the article was the concept that sex is not necessarily defined in terms of "homosexuality" or "heterosexuality" but rather between "taking pleasure" or "being used for pleasure." Not only is this concept disturbing to me as a woman, but the implications it means in the context of HIV. By viewing sex in terms of power and pleasure, rather than love or compassion, prevention methods of negotiation, faithfulness and trust will be ineffective.
Treatment programs better scale up in the region, because if this attitude continues to prevail there will be a lot of HIV floating around!
If for some reason the link did not work to to:
www.theatlantic.com/doc/200705/gay-saudi-arabia
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