Pakistani men gay

In Pakistan, where homosexuality is outlawed, an underground gay culture emerges.

Mawaan Rizwan investigates the struggle for sexual expression. Pakistan, one of the most homophobic nations on earth, nonetheless has a highly vibrant gay subculture, particularly in the Arabian Sea metropolis of Karachi, despite the official censure of a. Returning for a visit as an openly gay man, Mawaan Rizwan asks what it is like to be gay in Pakistan and finds a struggling but exciting and diverse underground LGBTQ community.

In a three-part diary, he told us his thoughts and feelings – and experience of fleeing Afghanistan for neighbouring Pakistan as he tries to make it to the West. Stating the case of a gay couple caught by police, Wajid tells Equal Times that the only way to avoid serious danger is for homosexuals in Pakistan to pretend to be transgender, as this is more socially accepted. A professor, Sinaan asked Daily Xtra to change his name to protect his safety and job security.

These two extremes are nowhere as evident as in the LGBT experience. Pakistan is an extremely patriarchal, macho culture, with a strict understanding of gender expression and behaviour. Stay connected, and tell a friend. This is because Pakistan is a homosocial society, as Sinaan puts it, meaning that men can only go out in public or socialize with men, women with women.

You must be super masculine. Some gay men describe Pakistan as a paradise, where sex is always available, especially with men who identify as heterosexual. In Pakistan it was extremely easy for the man to find macho, straight men to have sex with, Sinaan explains, but in Canada, this is not the case. Muhammad Moiz says different economic groups use different methods to meet. Lower-class men tend to meet in cruising areas such as parks, bridges or other public spaces, though they are increasingly gaining access to online social and cruising sites too, such as Manjam and Grindr.

Male sex workers, known as maalshiyas, who mainly service other men, still tend to frequent the parks, bridges and cruising areas. Middle- and upper-class men generally prefer to meet online, especially on Facebook. Despite the ease with which many men hook up with each other for sex, most also describe a more threatening side to life in Pakistan, tempered with beatings, rejection and sometimes even death.

Pakistan, one of the most

Rather, it is discrimination, police blackmail and brutality, and their own families that are the greatest threat to gay men. Some gay men are able to come out to their families and friends. His mother begged him not to tell others, but he did. G, a traditional dancer and son of an imam, says his father would literally kill him if he came out. G asked that we publish only his initial. S recalls two friends who tried to come out to their families.

In Lahore last year, gay men had someone to fear besides their own families. A serial killer began targeting gay men through one of the gay social networking sites, killing three men between March and April S married at 16 years old, his wife was Now 25, he has four children and lives a double life. While there have been rumours and suspicions from family members, both his and hers, his wife firmly believes that he is straight.

But whenever she leaves the house for a few days to visit her mother, he invites over his boyfriends and cooks for them. Yet he still faces discrimination whenever he is publicly perceived as a gay man. For some gay men, they are pressured into marriage in order to preserve the honour of their sisters. This is heightened for some by the perception that many of the more liberal, educated, middle- and upper- class gay men are also agnostic or atheist.

In a theocracy, for all practical purposes, like Pakistan, this is considered apostasy, which can be tantamount to a death sentence either by legal means or through mob justice. As Ali puts it, gay men in Pakistan just want to live their lives in the relative peace of invisibility. Subscribe Now.