Posted on 04/29/2010 2:08:09 AM PDT by Zakeet
Mithly means "the same as me" in Arabic; it is also a respectful way to refer to homosexuals. It is a word that the people behind Mithly magazine would like to see replace the more common "shazz," meaning pervert or deviant in Arabic, or "zemel," an expletive to describe gays in the Moroccan Berber dialect.
Mithly was launched in the Moroccan capital Rabat earlier this month. Even though the magazine has received partial funding from the European Union, it was printed clandestinely and its first 200 issues were distributed under the counter.
In Morocco, as in the rest of the Arab world, homosexuality is a criminal offense, punishable with six months to three years in jail.
"So far the reporting about homosexuals in Morocco has been the monopoly of the mainstream media, most of which describe us as perverts and a menace to society," said a journalist for Mithly who identified himself only as Mourad. "Mithly is a chance for homosexuals to give their side of the story. We wanted to give homosexuals in the Arab world a voice."
Mithly also lays claim to being the first gay magazine to serve the Arab world. Lebanon has had an online magazine for the gay community, Bekhsoos, since 2007.
After Lebanon, Morocco is probably the country most tolerant of gays in the Arab world. Still, according to Kif Kif, a Madrid-based gay rights organization founded by Moroccan Samir Bergachi and also the publisher of Mithly, some 5,000 gay men have served jail sentences in Morocco since the country's independence in 1956.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com ...
You Freepers better not say anything bad about the mithleys, nor call them a shazz, nor question their prayer position, nor chuckle at the author of this article's name, or you'll have to deal with the Kif Kif.
Cheers!
Do they include the young boys that serve the old men in numerous muslim countries?
“zemel,” Rhymes with camel?
Gay rights meet Islam.
Funny how liberals in the USA never attack or criticize the way muslims brutalize and kill gays in those countries. It is always the “evil Christian right” that is the enemy.
For once, I sympathize and agree with Muslims.
WTF?!?!?
That's a bit like Saudi Arabia funding a kiddy porn mag in some western country. (Oh, and I wonder how many in the EU know their tax euros are spent for crap like that?)
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