Transgender issues in the Middle East

While there is much debate about the rights of women in the Middle East  and the rights of gay and lesbian people have also begun to attract some attention, consideration of transgender rights is long overdue. 

In a region where gender segregation is widespread and dress codes are sometimes enforced by law, the problems of transgender people are especially acute. When so much of the social structure is based around a clear-cut distinction between male and female, anything that obscures the distinction is viewed as a problem and sometimes even as a threat to the established order.

This is the first in a series of "long read" articles which aim to give a broad but detailed overview of transgender issues in the Middle East. 

The complete series can also be downloaded as a printable 23-page PDF.

• Part 1: Crossing lines
• Part 2: A history of ambiguity
• Part 3: Making the transition
• Part 4: Struggles for recognition

Unspeakable Love

Unspeakable Love: Gay and lesbian life in the Middle East

by Brian Whitaker

New edition, 2011
Expanded and updated
ISBN-10: 0863564836
ISBN-13: 978-0863564833

Available from amazon.com or amazon.co.uk 

Homosexuality is still a taboo subject in the Arab world. While clerics denounce it as a heinous sin, newspapers, reluctant to address it directly, talk cryptically of ‘shameful acts’ and ‘deviant behaviour’. 

Amid the calls for reform in the Middle East, homosexuality is one issue that almost everyone would prefer to ignore. In this absorbing account, Guardian journalist Brian Whitaker calls attention to the voices of men and women struggling with gay identities in societies where they are marginalised and persecuted by the authorities. He paints a disturbing picture of people who live secretive, often fearful lives; of daughters and sons beaten and ostracised by their families or sent to be ‘cured’ by psychiatrists.

Deeply informed and engagingly written, Unspeakable Love reveals that, while repressive prejudices and stereotypes still govern much thinking about homosexuality, there are pockets of change and tolerance. This updated edition includes new material covering developments since the book's first publication.

Brian Whitaker, a former Middle East editor of the Guardian, is also the author of What's Really Wrong with the Middle East, The Birth of Modern Yemen (e-book), and Arabs Without God.