Reconceptualising and contextualising sexual rights in the MENA region: beyond LGBTQI categories

ABSTRACT

In recent years, LGBTQI rights have become central to debates around international development, human rights, refugee protection, and diversity. Yet research and experience in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) reveals significant problems with LGBTQI as a way of identifying individuals who do not conform to heterosexual and binary gender norms, in order to support their rights. In this article, we draw on experience of working to advance gender and sexual rights to illustrate the shortcomings of LGBTQI identity categories, and use findings from the Centre for Transnational Development and Collaboration’s (CTDC) four-year programme of research into LGBTQI rights in the MENA region to support our argument further. This research identified major problems in policies and debates on the rights of individuals whose sexual orientation and/or gender identity differs from the norm. In response to this, CTDC has developed a tool to address rights in programme development and advocacy, using a new approach, Sexual Practice and Gender Performance (SPGP), for work in the MENA region.

Ces dernières années, les droits des personnes LGBTQI ont pris une place centrale dans les débats portant sur le développement international, les droits de l’homme, la protection des réfugiés et la diversité. Cependant, les recherches menées dans la région Moyen-Orient et Afrique du Nord (MOAN) et les expériences émanant de cette région mettent en évidence des problèmes considérables avec les catégories LGBTQI comme moyen d’identifier les individus non conformes aux normes de genre hétérosexuelles et binaires, afin de les aider à faire respecter leurs droits. Dans cet article, nous nous inspirons des expériences du travail visant à faire valoir les droits sexuels et de genre pour illustrer les carences des catégories d’identité LGBTQI, et nous exploitons les conclusions d’un programme de recherche de quatre ans mené par CTDC sur les droits des personnes LGBTQI dans la région MOAN pour appuyer nos arguments. Ces recherches ont mis en évidence d’importants problèmes au niveau des politiques et des débats sur les droits des individus dont l’orientation sexuelle et/ou l’identité de genre diffèrent de la norme. En réponse à cela, CTDC a élaboré un outil permettant d’aborder les droits dans le cadre de l’élaboration des programmes et des activités de plaidoyer, ce à l’aide d’une nouvelle approche, Sexual Practice and Gender Performance (SPGP), pour le travail mené dans la région MOAN.

En años recientes, los derechos de las personas lgbtqi han cobrado una importancia fundamental en los debates relativos al desarrollo internacional, los derechos humanos, la protección de los refugiados y la diversidad. Sin embargo, las investigaciones y las vivencias que tuvieron lugar en Medio Oriente y el Norte de África (mena) dan cuenta de la existencia de problemas significativos en torno a la etiqueta lgbtqi en tanto manera de identificar a quienes no se ajustan a las normas heterosexuales o a interpretaciones binarias del género, en un contexto de promoción de sus derechos. En el presente artículo aprovechamos la experiencia que hemos acumulado trabajando en la promoción de los derechos sexuales y de género para ilustrar las limitaciones que conllevan las categorías de identidad lgbtqi; asimismo, para apuntalar nuestro argumento incorporamos las conclusiones obtenidas a partir de la aplicación del programa investigativo sobre los derechos lgbtqi en la región de mena, realizado durante cuatro años por ctdc. La investigación identificó varios problemas importantes en las políticas y los debates acerca de los derechos de aquellos individuos cuya orientación sexual y/o identidad de género se aparta de la norma. En respuesta a los problemas detectados, ctdc creó una herramienta que puede ser aplicada en la planeación de programas y actividades de incidencia, mediante el uso de un enfoque innovador en el trabajo emprendido en la región de mena, esto es, Sexual Practice and Gender Performance (spgp).

KEYWORDS:

• Sexuality
• gender
• MENA region
• refugees
• LGBTQI
• advocacy

Notes on contributors

Nof Nasser-Eddin is Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Centre for Transnational Development and Collaboration. Postal address: CTDC, 1 Gough Square, London EC4A 3DE, UK. Email: [email protected]

Nour Abu-Assab is Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Centre for Transnational Development and Collaboration.

Aydan Greatrick is a Projects Assistant at the Centre for Transnational Development and Collaboration.

Notes

1 For more information, see www.ctdc.org (last checked 8 January 2018).

2 For further information and more detailed insights into this work, please see the range of reports and publications we have produced: Abu-Assab (2017a and b), Abu-Assab et al. (2017), Abu-Assab and Nasser-Eddin (2015), and Greatrick (2017).

3 All quotations from research participants are used anonymously to ensure their safety.

4 In the MENA region, homosexuality was criminalised through British and French colonisation of the region. Anglo and Franco civil codes were copied into mandates and colonies of France and Britain. Such laws that are still implemented in some countries in the MENA region include the law that allows rapists to get away with rape if they offer marriage to their victims, as well as honour killing laws.

5 This experience holds true for non-normative people living as refugees and displaced people, but also true in host communities. Focusing on the experience of non-normative people in the refugee communities only potentially undermines the potential for broader collaboration between rights groups and the overall empowerment of communities in the location where refugees are currently, and in the wider countries and the Middle East region. Consequently, we think all work with these communities in displaced contexts should target and support marginalised members of the host community too.