Arab Social Media Playing a Big Role On Helping Gays Like it did in The Spring Revolution

 

 2* Twitter has already had a profound effect in Arab and Muslim worlds. During Iran’s 2009 protest movement democracy activists successfully used the social media site to spread the word about their activities — so much so that the Green Revolution was nicknamed the ‘Twitter Revolution.’

1*Social media, and Twitter in particular, also played an important part during the Arab Spring movement, most notably in Egypt’s successful toppling of dictator Hosni Mubarak and the ongoing fight against religious extremism and the all-powerful army.

3*Now activists in Egypt are using social media again, this time to call attention to rampant homophobia in the country. It’s still unacceptable to talk openly about gay issues in much of the Arab world, including Egypt, and gays are routinely arrested or worse. But Ramy Youssef created a Facebook event to call attention to homophobia and unacceptable homophobic language in the country. And a special Twitter hashtag  #ضد_رهاب_المثلية (‘against homophobia’) was created for 24 hours to spur debate about the issue online.

Activists are also risking their safety to alter homophobic graffiti, like this one that used the term ‘gay’ to insult the police. Now the art reads “homophobia is not revolutionary.”

The fight for acceptance continues.

[Global Voices]