People of diverse sexual orientations in Bangladesh face persecution from religious and state laws, as well as from society and family. In a Muslim-majority country, members of the LGBTQ community live as an invisible minority.<\/p>\n
In this state, openly expressing one’s sexual identity is a source of fear. People with diverse sexual orientations, such as gay, bisexual, lesbian, and transgender individuals, are subjected to calls for violence under laws derived from Islamic Sharia, the Quran, Ijma, and Qiyas. Added to this are religious fundamentalist, extremist, and radical groups who, in the name of religion and Islam, kill people with different identities.<\/p>\n
Even those who speak out in support of the rights of people with diverse sexual orientations are labeled as kafir, Jews, or Christians by these followers of the religion of Islam, whom the author describes as sinful, sexually immoral, and fanatical followers of the Prophet Muhammad. They also consider it permissible to kill them.<\/p>\n
\nThe editor of the gay rights magazine Roopbaan<\/em>, Xulhaz Mannan, and his friend Mahbub Tonoy were murdered. Before their killings, when LGBTQ people attempted to organize a “Rainbow” gathering during the Pohela Boishakh (Bengali New Year) celebrations, police arrested four gay individuals from the Faculty of Fine Arts area of the University of Dhaka. The state itself is therefore directly involved in human rights violations.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
There is no environment in Bangladesh where meaningful steps can be taken in support of LGBTQ rights. Although religious clerics regard gay and bisexual identities as crimes, incidents of child sexual abuse continue to occur in religious seminaries (madrasas) day after day. Simply by invoking religion, these religious “sodomite” Muslims escape accountability.<\/p>\n
\nWhile reciting stories from the Quran about the so-called heavenly reward of 72 virgins and the ecstasy of group sex, they chant “Allahu Akbar” in the name of Allah and fill young boys with dreams of establishing Quranic law by penetrating their anuses.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Homosexuality is not a crime. One adult man may love another man and engage in a sexual relationship with him. The same may be true for one woman loving another woman. Likewise, a person may love both men and women. Love has no boundaries. Merely invoking the religion of Islam, Sharia law, or the Quran\u2014a book which the author characterizes as a record of the Prophet Muhammad’s sexual scandals\u2014can never, in this modern age, control human rights. To ensure every person’s sexual freedom, such walls of religion must be broken down. The so-called religion of Islam, the Quran, Sharia law, and the belief in Allah’s genderless heavenly brothel and its fanciful stories must be erased, along with all irreligion committed in the name of religion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
People of diverse sexual orientations in Bangladesh face persecution from religious and state laws, as well as from society and family. In a Muslim-majority country, members of the LGBTQ community live as an invisible minority. In this state, openly expressing one’s sexual identity is a source of fear. People with diverse sexual orientations, such as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":3790,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,190],"tags":[209,211,207,208,210],"class_list":["post-3789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atheism","category-free-thought-opinions","tag-freedom-of-expression","tag-human-dignity","tag-lgbtq-rights","tag-sexual-orientation","tag-sharia-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phahinalam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phahinalam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phahinalam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phahinalam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phahinalam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3789"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/phahinalam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3791,"href":"https:\/\/phahinalam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3789\/revisions\/3791"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phahinalam.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phahinalam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phahinalam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phahinalam.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}