Gay Muslim Teen victim of honor killing

Sept. 9, 2012 - PRLog -- Kuddus aims to stop honor killings of LGBTs

UK- based Global LGBT and Human Rights advocate Omar Kuddus has issued his commentary on a recent tragic occurrence concerning a gay Muslim youth:

A gay Muslim teenager was killed in what's suspected to have been an "honour killing" by his Muslim father and uncle.

Details have only just emerged that a gay teenager has allegedly been killed last month by his Muslim family in an “honour killing”.

This is a heart breaking story.

For they were not satisfied by just disowning their son, they felt compelled to end his life, to maintain “isat” [honour]

There aren't words that seem adequate to convey how terrible this is.

He is being reported to have been killed by his father and uncle in Diyarbakır Turkey.
Apparently the boy’s rich and powerful tribal family tried to cover up the murder, according to local members of the LGBT community.

The boy is only referred to as R.A. 17, had been tormented and physically hurt by his family because their non acceptance of his sexuality before he hid at a friend’s house.
But they hunted him down, and dragged him away.

R.A.’s uncle forcibly removed him from his friend’s house and there was an argument with his father.

Subsequently the father shot his son 14 times before he and his brother callously disposed R.A’s body by the side of the road. This however is not uncommon as unfortunately families quite often refuse to bury their relatives after honour killings, to distant themselves from the shame caused by the deceased.

R.A.’s father and uncle have subsequently been arrested for their alleged role in the murder.

The local LGBT community say that the family had tried to cover the incident up.
“The family wanted to cover up the murder which happened one month ago because they were a rich and powerful tribal family. They wanted the police to hide the incident,”
“We are subjected to violence, but there is no place where we can make a complaint or search for our rights. Police insult and swear at us, doctors make fun of us.”

Turkish LGBT organisations and I have repeatedly stressed that honour killing are under reported not only by the family, community but also by the police who often have a vested interest to do so.

Human Rights Watch have defined "honour killings" as acts of vengeance, usually death, committed by male family members against female family members, who are held to have brought dishonour upon the family and they unfortunately, I feel wrongly refuse to acknowledge that LGBTs also suffer such heinous crimes.

A recent event in July when Seçil Anne, a sex worker, was found dead at her home in Antalya in southwest Turkey, prompted me to act and start a petition addressed to President Abdullah Gul to act against the “systematic violence and discrimination faced by Turkey’s LGBT community”.

I felt that sexual identity and homophobia in modern-day Turkey must be brought to the forefront. In my opinion Families in Turkey want to protect the “reputation” of their name and so rarely this is reported to the authorities who also turn a blind eye.

The petition ends by calling on President Abdullah Gül to “express his disapproval for the murder, to inshore that the culprit are suitably punished, establish laws condemning hate crime, homophobia and honour killings, provide extra protection for victims of hate-crime, and establish laws to prevent violence against gay and transgender citizens”.
The petition can be signed at the Care2 website.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/858/214/693/stop-the-honou...

There is also a facebook page dedicated to stopping LGBT honour killings :

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stop-LGBT-Honour-Killings/...#

"A similar case"

A similar case occurred in July 2008 that had been labelled as Turkey’s first gay honour killing.

Ahmet Yildiz, 26, a physics student who had represented Turkey at an international gay gathering event in San Francisco the previous year was shot leaving a café and was fatally wounded.

"He fell victim to a war between old mentalities and growing civil liberties," Sedef Cakmak, a friend of Yidliz and a member of the gay rights lobby group Lambda, said. "I feel helpless: we are trying to raise awareness of gay rights in this country, but the more visible we become, the more we open ourselves up to this sort of attack."

Unfortunately Yildiz’s father, Yahya who is responsible for the shooting his son five times in front of dozens of witnesses but he has been a fugitive since the incident.

Yildiz’s boyfriend, Ibrahim Can witnesses his lover’s execution and has moved to Germany and become an active gay rights advocate.

He participated in London’s World Pride parade this July, where he told me "Ahmet's murder turned my life upside down. People were evil to us and now I want justice,"

In colloquial Turkish, the word zenne means male belly dancer. It is also the title of a film that explores sexual identity and highlights the deadly case of homophobia in modern-day Turkey.

Turkey is a socially conservative country although when it comes to LGBT issues when compared to other Muslim Middle Eastern nations, it is actually fairly progressive for the region.

However the government has yet to recognize any form of same-sex relationships for LGBTs.

LGBTs are also prohibited from openly serving in Turkey’s military, as according to Article 17 of the health regulations of the Turkish Armed Forces, homosexuality is considered a "psychosexual deviance."

Gay rights activists say the military has long demanded graphic photo and /or video evidence from men asking to be released from military duty.

"In the photograph and the video you have to show your form and your face. Your face has to be clearly identified and another man has to be penetrating,"

When I questioned and made enquiries about this practice a defence ministry spokesman responded:

"I cannot confirm that it definitely did not happen, but we do not have any information that such a thing happened,"

The current policy is for conscripts to prove their homosexuality with a doctor's report from a private or military hospital.

"The evaluation is made based on the medical report”.


The Turkish government is gradually opening up on LGBT issues, but LGBT rights are still not part of law, and there is even less in terms of anti-discriminatory legislation. LGBT communities and vibrant gay scenes have been developing across Turkey in the last two decades, for unlike most of the Arab nations, this relatively secular nation doesn’t condone LGBT official persecution.

This is why it has also become a refuge for LGBT from neighbouring countries, most notably Iran and Iraq.

While the country is “slowly opening up”, my petition says, “many problems remain”.

In a CNN interview Can said:

"I am fighting for the rights of my lover and for all the gays and lesbians and transsexuals in the world and in Turkey. And I want the Turkish government to change the homophobic attitude in Turkey,"

LGBT activists like me are lobbying the Turkish government to have the constitution amended to protect the rights of Turks on the grounds of gender and sexual identity as the Turkish Constitution is currently in the lengthy process of being re-written.

In the west we could not imagine a 17 year old being murdered by their own family for their reputation because their child is gay.

Let us all hope and pray that soon this will also be the case in Turkey and with all Muslim families.

I urge members of the gay community to start protesting and get into the fight for equality. My followers will express their disgust and pledge their support.

But that is not enough, not nearly enough.

Honour Killings must be outlawed by a UN proclamation. Now.