Gay syrian men

A gay Syrian man who was brutally tortured by the group that toppled Bashar al-Assad has said he and many other LGBTQ+ Syrians are still celebrating regime change in Syria – despite their fears. When I visited him at his home, I sat in his small room. The scent of jasmine drifted in through the open window, mingling with the aroma of slowly brewing coffee—as if trying to resist time, just like us. This jasmine scent was a companion of my childhood, but it also used to suffocate me.

(The single life is an ‘odd’ life in Syria that brings suspicion, which leads most gay Syrian men and women to marry and make a customary family.) However, as a small respite in his personal diaspora he has found the gay community in Istanbul to be friendly and appreciative of his situation. I have to say this, to write this down. I have to tell it, so you know what it means to be a gay man in Syria. The war in Syria had ruined the hopes and dreams of millions of people, and forcibly displaced over half of the population.

Mahmoud Hassino, a gay Syrian activist and journalist who created the online magazine Mawaleh, notes that regardless of the outcome of the civil war, work needs to be done in the area of civil rights on behalf of all Syrians, not just the LGBTQ community. The scene was full of rainbow confetti, sequins and flesh. I want all of this to be in Syria! It was the first time a Syrian had headlined any major Pride event in the city.

The conversation covered Hassino’s current work with refugees and migrants with disabilities in Germany and the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ individuals in Syria, especially with the risks of religious extremism post-Assad. His worries include the potential for a situation similar to post-Saddam Iraq, where LGBTQ+ Iraqis were severely persecuted. A year-old mobile technician and taxi driver from Aleppo was kept for 23 days in an ice cream factory-turned-detention center, where he was physically and verbally abused. While detained, he witnessed the execution of two prisoners charged with blasphemy, and he feared that would be his fate. That was before his family knew.

Mahmoud Hassino, a gay Syrian activist and journalist who created the online magazine Mawaleh, notes that regardless of the outcome of the civil war, work needs to be done in the area of civil rights on behalf of all Syrians, not just the LGBTQ community. Maher, a Syrian LGBT activist poses for a photo in Beirut. In , Damascus felt a bit more open to Amira. Amira was 24 when she came out to her family.

A gay Syrian man who was brutally tortured by the group that toppled Bashar al-Assad has said he and many other LGBTQ+ Syrians are still celebrating regime change in Syria – despite their fears. .

Over two days in February, Human Rights Watch interviewed 19 gay Syrian men who had taken refuge in Lebanon. (Lesbians are more difficult to find in Syria’s closeted culture.). .