Senegal police arrest 8 suspected lesbians
Senegal is one of 45 countries where lesbians are persecuted
The country’s anti-gay panic now extends to women, but most of the more than 100 arrestees are men.
Senegal police continued their crackdown on LGBTQ citizens last week with the arrest of eight women on lesbianism charges.
Those arrests came little more than a week after the arrest of Fatou Binetou Guèye, the daughter of prominent anti-LGBT advocate Mame Makhtar Guèye, on suspicion of lesbianism. The lesbianism accusation did not last long for that offspring of a prominent father — the charges of of “acts against nature” have since been retracted, Senego.com reported yesterday.
However, the arrests of eight less prominent women underscore the fact that, while previously spared, lesbians are now just as much a target as gay men, following Senegal’s tightening of the law criminalizing homosexuality in late March.
While 66 countries criminalize homosexuality, only 45 of them impose criminal penalties for both male and female homosexuality, including Senegal.
Under the new law, consensual same-sex relations in Senegal are punishable by 5 to 10 years in prison, with fines of up to 10 million CFA francs—equivalent to 15,000 euros or US $17,688 —with no possibility of a reduced sentence or probation.
The median salary in Senegal in 2021/2022 was 132 euros, according to the survey on household living conditions.
The new law was enacted during an ongoing homophobic panic about LGBTQ citizens of Senegal. During the crackdown, more than 100 people have been arrested. Initially only men were arrested, but police have now begun rounding up lesbians too.
Seneweb reported that the latest series of arrests began when police from the Keur Massar (Rufisque) Investigative Unit detained two suspected lesbians — a 23-year-old housekeeper and her alleged sexual partner, age 31.
This is the same gendarmerie unit that gained notoriety during the arrest of the prominens television host Pape Cheikh Diallo on Feb. 7 for “unnatural acts.”
After police searched the two women’s phones, they found evidence that led them to arrest the other six women, Seneweb said.
Further arrests are expected as part of legal proceedings at the prosecutor’s office in the Pikine-Guédiawaye district near Dakar, Senegal’s capital, Seneweb stated
Risks faced by the accused
As of Wednesday, July 29, the eight women now face a wide range of charges, including “possession and distribution of images or writings contrary to public decency, public insults committed via a computer system, unconditional death threats, threats of violence and assault, acts against nature, pimping, offering or supplying narcotics, inciting minors to debauchery, kidnapping of minors, and failure to possess a health certificate,” according to Seneweb.
Collectively, they are also being prosecuted by the judge of the Second Chamber of the Pikine Guédiawaye Courthouse for criminal conspiracy. If the charges are ultimately upheld by the court, they face the maximum penalty of up to 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine of 10 million CFA francs.
All of the defendants were subjected to serological tests for HIV, which all came back negative, according to Seneweb. Senegalese judicial authorities almost systematically impose these tests in cases of charges for “unnatural acts,” which can lead to charges of “intentional transmission” of HIV.
Those tests are ordered even though it has been scientifically demonstrated that women who have sex exclusively with women, based on current knowledge, have one of the lowest risks of sexual transmission of HIV.
For now, the eight women have not gone to trial and are presumed innocent.
