[grc] Fwd: Inside Tunisia's Shams Rad - the Arab world's 'only gay radio station' - BBC News

[Frieda Werden]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Des Preston <despreston at me.com>
Date: Mon, Jun 18, 2018 at 12:23 AM
Subject: Inside Tunisia's Shams Rad - the Arab world's 'only gay radio
station' - BBC News
To: <wings at wings.org>, <margarettadarcy at gmail.com>



https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-44137901

Inside the Arab world's 'only gay radio station'
Bouhdid Belhedi says his radio station now has 10,000 weekly listeners
across 15 countries

Homosexuality is both illegal and widely considered to be unacceptable in
Tunisia. But since the 2011 revolution, activists have seen that standing
up for their beliefs can result in change. Now LGBT people are gaining
confidence and are coming out of the shadows to push for equal rights.

"I was the first person to annoy people in the media and speak openly about
LGBT issues in Tunisia on air," says Bouhdid Belhedi, director of Shams Rad.

In the Tunisian capital, Tunis, the 25-year-old shows us around an office
space that has been converted into what he calls "the Arab world's first
LGBT radio station".

It is low budget but professional, with enough space for seven
contributors. The corridors are painted in the colours of the LGBT rainbow
flag.

Mr Belhedi says that six months after the station was set up, it has 10,000
listeners each week across 15 countries, and is streamed online and live
via YouTube six days a week.

The station plays music and issues are discussed in depth but LGBT
contributors don't identify themselves as sexually active on air.
[image: Shams Rad staff with their faces blurred] The other people who work
at Shams Rad did not want to be identified

The Dutch embassy in Tunis is partly funding the station and after
international pressure and a legal challenge, the station's parent
organisation, Shams, was officially recognised. This is believed to be the
first time any LGBT group has gained this status in North Africa.

When the station started, Western media attention focused on the abuse Mr
Belhedi was receiving.

People are angry the station exists. Mr Belhedi says he has received 4,700
messages of abuse, including death threats and "even imams calling for me
to be to be killed or beaten up".

He has also been physically assaulted.

Gay and lesbian sex is punishable by up to three years in prison in Tunisia
and it was only last year that the government said it would stop forced
anal examinations for people suspected of homosexuality.

A presidential commission, the Individual Freedoms and Equality Committee,
has recommended that homosexuality be decriminalised, part of a package of
reforms including abolition of the death penalty and greater rights for
women.

A more modest alternative proposed by the committee is the replacement of
prison terms for homosexual activity with a fine.

However, it is unclear whether these proposals have any hope of being
adopted.
[image: Mixing desk] Shams Rad's equipment is low budget but professional

Outside liberal metropolitan circles, the majority of people in Tunisia
follow traditional cultural and religious thinking. Homosexuality is a
taboo and LGBT issues are often dismissed.

"In the mainstream national media, the Arabic words that are normally used
to refer to homosexuals have negative connotations," says Neela Ghoshal,
senior researcher at campaign group Human Rights Watch. "They translate as
pervert or deviant."

"That's what organisations like Shams are trying to change," she says.

And that is why Mr Belhedi says it is important to keep broadcasting. The
station aims to promote "the dignity of LGBT people" and "equality in the
eyes of the law, equal rights and equal treatment," he says.
'Watershed moment'

Tunis hairstylist Abdisslem Ben Othmen, 24, says he listens every day.

He says the station has helped him to "feel stronger" and has made him
confident that he can "live life as a homosexual in private" in Tunisia.

The government says that since the 2011 revolution, people have been free
to express themselves however they like, within the law.

However, the Tunisian Ministry for Human Rights declined the BBC's request
for an interview on the subject of homosexual rights in the country.
[image: Presentational grey line]

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"The revolution was a watershed moment," says Ms Ghoshal. "People stood up
for their rights and saw that they didn't need to suffer in silence."

The picture is still mixed but the climate for LGBT is changing.

While the government at times arbitrarily shuts down LGBT activism, before
the revolution the existence of an LGBT radio station would have been
unthinkable.

"Recently there have been real strides in women's right movements. And
that's encouraged LGBT people to speak out," says Ms Ghoshal.

An LGBT film festival was staged in central Tunis in January 2018.

"It was a success and the government or police didn't interfere," says Ms
Ghoshal.

But she warns that "there could be increased violence against LGBT
activists as their voice gets more prevalent - both trends happen in
parallel".
[image: Shihab al-Din Tlesh, National Council of Imams] Imam Shihab al-Din
Tlesh disapproves of Radio Shams

In the religious world, some are saying that there is a need for
modernisation in attitudes.

Progressive religious scholars recently held a three-day conference on how
religious identity can be squared with freedom of expression in North
Africa.

It was one of the first of its kind.

"I personally think the LGBT discussion has a place in modern Islamic
discourse," says Abeljaleel Salem, a former minister for religious affairs.

Mr Salam, who chaired one of the discussions, says that everyone should
have the liberty to express their identity freely.
'We're not calling for them to be executed'

Within the religious context, this is a progressive standpoint and is not
shared by the traditional majority, whose minds will not be changed easily,
if at all.

"Radio Shams was launched to promote ideas which are morally not acceptable
in Tunisian society," says Shihab al-Din Tlesh from the National Council of
Imams at a mosque in the north of Tunis.

"We're not calling for them to be executed but I think they are ill and
need treatment," he says.

Back in the Shams Rad studio, they say it is too early to tell whether the
station will change policy but the conversation will continue to be
broadcast.

Mr Belhedi is getting less abuse online now than when the station was first
started.

"When current LGBT activists were coming to terms with their identity, they
would often feel isolated, like they were the only person like it in the
world," Ms Ghoshal explains.

"Now in Tunisia, if a young person feels like they are different,
organisations like Shams Rad tell them they are not alone."


Sent from my iPhone
-- 
Frieda Werden, Series Producer
WINGS: Women's International News Gathering Service www.wings.org