What's with the recent crackdown on HIV-positive sufferers and homosexuals, asks Gamal Nkrumah "This is not a new crackdown against gays in Egypt. This is a calculated attack on those identified as HIV-positive, those suffering from AIDS," Hossam Bahgat, director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIHR) told Al-Ahram Weekly. "This is the first time that Egyptian individuals in Egypt identified as HIV- positive have been detained. They are regarded as a risk to public health," he added. Bahgat was referring to the arbitrary arrest by police of men suspected of engaging in homosexual acts and convicted for the "habitual practice of debauchery" that hit the headlines this week. Human rights groups, both local and international, are up in arms. The series of arbitrary arrests of suspected homosexuals was sparked last October when two men engaged in an altercation on the streets of Cairo were incarcerated by the Morality Police because one of them confessed to being HIV-positive. The two men were forcibly subjected to forensic anal examinations, presumably to prove that they have had homosexual anal intercourse. In a gross violation of the law, the police used telephone numbers in the arrestees' belongings to contact and arrest some of their acquaintances. The two original arrestees were then dispatched to a Cairo hospital and handcuffed to their hospital beds and only unchained for an hour each day. Human rights activists were enraged and immediately took up their cases. The arrests of suspected homosexuals once again brought into sharp focus the entire question of Egypt's human rights record. Religious freedoms are being advanced in high-profile cases that were publicly debated. Now, the question of convicting those deemed to indulge in homosexual conduct has come under public scrutiny and has engendered much public debate. The Egyptian public is bitterly divided over the controversial issue. While the vast majority of Egyptians condemn homosexual conduct, mainly on religious and moral grounds, there are those that view the issue as one of upholding human rights. While homosexuals are denounced on moral and religious grounds, they should not be subjected to torture on the pretext of "practising debauchery". Furthermore, human rights organisations in the country have long stressed that forcible forensic examinations are not only "spurious medically", but are degrading and amount to torture and gross violation of human rights. Sharia as the principle law of legislation in the country clearly condemns homosexuality as an abomination. However, it is not exactly clear what specific punishment homosexual conduct entails. There are those who claim that homosexuality is punishable by death under Sharia law. Others maintain that homosexuals should be lashed, whipped or fined. While there is no consensus among religious authorities as to the punishment for homosexual conduct, penalising homosexuals and HIV-positive sufferers is "a violation of Egypt's obligations under international human rights law," according to Bahgat. Homosexuality is regarded as a criminal offence in many Muslim nations, and in some countries it is indeed punishable by death, though not in Egypt. Consensual same-sex relationships are a criminal offence under Article 9 (c) of Law 10/1961, dealing with fujur, or debauchery, a euphemism for such acts, invariably punishable by imprisonment. In the case of the two arrestees, they were sentenced to one year. Human rights groups have been pressing for an end to the death penalty for homosexuals in Muslim nations, though in Egypt there are those who, on the contrary, would like to see it introduced. "In Islam, homosexuals are treated as adulterers and fornicators. Adulterers are traditionally punished by stoning, fornicators are whipped 80 lashes," explained Sheikh Emad Effat, a leading mufti of the Dar Al-Iftaa (the authoritative body responsible for issuing religious edicts). "Such punishments, however, have not been meted out for many centuries," he added. "Moreover, the individual concerned must be caught in the act, and there must be four witnesses. Unless, of course, he confesses, but that must not be under duress or torture, otherwise his testimony is invalid," Sheikh Effat stressed. Moderate religious authorities, on the other hand, agree with rights activists that criminalising consensual adult homosexual conduct violates human rights. Punishing homosexuals attracts adverse publicity. Egypt has come under fire from Western diplomats in Cairo and Western governments in general due to this. Then there are those that pull out the tired argument that focussing on such issues is tantamount to gross interference in domestic Egyptian affairs and reflects Western contempt for Egyptian and Muslim cultural sensibilities. But blaming the Western culture, and in many instances Western governments, for introducing and defending gay lifestyles is counter-productive. The social stigma attached to homosexuality, however, remains strong in contemporary Egyptian society. Rights activists stress that it is about time that Egyptians be sensitised to gay rights. "Egypt threatens not just its international reputation but its own population if it responds to the HIV/AIDS epidemic with prison terms instead of prevention and care," warned Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights Programme at the New York-based Human Rights Watch. According to Human Rights Watch, in private correspondence with the Egyptian Public Prosecutor Counsellor Abdel-Meguid Mahmoud Abdel-Meguid, in November and January, the rights organisation expressed "grave concern about the arrests and their consequences" for Egypt's fight against HIV/AIDS. While the arrestees reportedly tested HIV- positive, this is not reason for incarceration, according to Dr Wessam El-Beih at UNAIDS Egypt. "HIV-positive people do not constitute a public threat. It is vital to maintain confidentiality, proper counselling and treatment. Otherwise, AIDS suffers will be forced to go underground which would indeed make them a public threat. AIDS sufferers can lead perfectly normal lives with today's retroviral drugs."
