Tunisia: LGBT online radio undaunted by 5,000 threats
The newly launched online radio service of Tunisia’s LGBT rights group Shams (“sun” in Arabic) continues, undaunted by threats and attempts to shut it down.
Thanks to ILGA’s LGBulleTIn for this news:
LGBT online radio continues broadcasts despite threats
In the last weeks of 2017, the Tunisian LGBT rights group Shams made headlines worldwide as it launched what was reported to be one of the first online radios dedicated to rainbow communities in the Arab world.
Since its first broadcast on December 19, however, Shams Rad has resisted numerous challenges and attempts to shut it down: “(We) received more than five thousand death threats, plus threats to burn our radio headquarters,” said Shams’ president Mounir Baatour.
A complaint was also filed against the human rights group by the Secretary General of the National Union Council of Imams, who claimed that the launch of the radio station “constitutes an imminent danger for our values and our religious and social identity”. Soon after that, rumours about an imminent shutdown began circulating, and were later dismissed by a spokesperson of the Ministry of Interior.
Despite these challenges, the station persisted: “There is nothing out there that talks about the LGBTQ community honestly,” Bouhdid Belhedi, the executive director of Shams, told Thomson Reuters. “This gives people a way to defend our community, and we need this for Tunisia and the Middle East.”
Related articles:
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- 2 arrests in Tunisia; protests block anal tests (December 2016, 76crimes.com)
- U.N. panel to Tunisia: Stop forced anal exams
- Tunisia: Protests against anal exam, sodomy sentence (September 2015)
- Tunisia: Teen gets 4-month sentence for homosexuality
- Tunisian police make LGBT arrests based on Facebook
- Q. Can Tunisia’s only queer shelter be saved? A. Yes
- Tunisian filmmaker, student jailed on gay-sex charges (March 2017, 76crimes.com)
- Tunisia: 2 months in jail for 2 men for behaving like women (March 2017, 76crimes.com)
- 2 young Tunisians sentenced to 8 months for gay sex (March 2017, 76crimes.com)
- New coalition in Tunisia fights for LGBTQI rights (February 2017, 76crimes.com)
- Tunisian judge jails trans woman pending indecency trial (January 2017, 76crimes.com)
- Jan. 6 trial in Tunisia for being gay on the street (December 2016, 76crimes.com)
- Tunisian police arrest and humiliate trans youth (November 2016, 76crimes.com)
- Amid democratic reforms, deeper troubles for LGBT Tunisians (October 2016, 76crimes.com)
- Homophobic attack on LGBTI rights defender in Tunisia (August 2016, 76crimes.com)
- Tunisia: Attack targets LGBTQ activist from Shams
- Appeal for an end to anti-LGBT campaign in Tunisia
- Human rights advocates decry 3-year sentences in Tunisia (December 2015, 76crimes.com)
- Tunisia: Death threats against LGBT activists (December 2015, 76crimes.com)
- Tunisian LGBT rights group under attack (December 2015, 76crimes.com)
- Tunisian justice minister seeks repeal of gay sex ban
- Tunisia: Protests against anal exam, sodomy sentence (September 2015, 76crimes.com)
Good for them, stand up to hatred and bigotry, but there is always a price to pay to defend one’s own or beliefs. I hope people could just accept we all are different, have different taste in personalities, looks, foods, and the most important of all sexuality. Who wants to live in a cookie cutter society where all are alike in every aspect. Even apples have different looks and flavors. 🙂
Standing up may be a good idea…Yet. They must possess a force in protection of which too stand against evil that will surely be on their horizon!
All the respect for the people who stand up for equality and freedom of expression! The fact that so many death-threats were received show that standing up to ignorance and religious oppression is needed! Freedom of people to love who they want to love is more needed then anything! Love and compassion is the most important thing in the world!