What Would Happen To The 200 Gays Arrested in Bahrain?

Last week as it was posted here (adamfoxie*blog) there were around 200 gay men arrested in Bahrain.
At first look it is strange that Bahrain that is known as one of the more tolerant Muslim nations in the Middle East, and has recently undergone a period of political liberalization and the criminal code is silent on private, non-commercial acts of sodomy between consenting adults. Would start arresting gays in mass numbers.


The law allows homosexuality and it is not criminalized in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Traditional religious mores view homosexuality and cross-dressing as signs of immorality, which may impact how the legal system deals with LGBT-rights. Law enforcement agents and the courts have broad discretionary powers to issue fines and or jail time for any activities deemed to be in violation of traditional morality.


The answer to those arrests is that Bahranians will look away, as long as homosexual men will keep it secret under cover. It's kind of America in the early 70's. I haven't mentioned women because it's a little easier for them, but still not accepted openly.


If one looks at the classifieds there  one will see ads for men looking for men. In that regards you can see that is more tolerant that other Arab states. Bahrain is small and it has a big slave..no I mean work force from the outside. Lots of Filipinos make their living there and are able to help their families back home. 


This particular incident happened at a place that had been rented for a birthday party, which is one of the better excuses to have a large amount of men together. Women are not allowed to congregate with men generally; so having so many men together would not bring any suspicions.  But the point is that it did happen. Now we need to find out what does it mean for the gay population there.


As a Matter of Global politics, One hopes that other nations particularly the United States, which has pull with the government will talk to the officials there and ask them to be lenient with those 200 people. We will see how this incident is handled by the authorities and we will be able to see wether those arrests were done by the local community which wont have much of a negative impact looking at the big picture as far as human rights are concern. Or were done  and condone by the government in an effort to crack down on gays.


 I think that as events in Egypt unfold in favor of the people there, other arab con tries would have to take a second look of how human rights are handled. We will be looking to see what happens to the Bahrain's 200

adamfoxie*