"It's not ideal to live in the shadows, but it's not great either to be put in the spotlight", annoys a 32-year-old Bahraini, close to his LGBT + community (lesbians , gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) in this Gulf kingdom, where homosexuality is not officially criminalized.

The young entrepreneur from Manama, who requested anonymity, does not hide his anger against European teams who insist on wearing the rainbow-coloured "One Love" armband, a symbol of LGBT + communities, during the FIFA World Cup. football in Qatar, a country where homosexuality is criminalized.

“We never asked a member of the homosexual community here what he thought of it”, castigates the Bahraini 30-year-old, saying he is “worried” for the future, with the avalanche of homophobic reactions on social networks and in his surroundings.

A few months earlier, he had already been scalded by certain American embassies in the Gulf having hoisted the rainbow flag or published messages on the rights of sexual minorities, in particular in Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

"I don't necessarily hide who I am, but I don't walk around waving a rainbow flag either," quips the young man.

According to him, Western campaigns "harm a lot" to LGBT+ communities in a region that is "very homophobic" but where the authorities and society have become accustomed to turning a blind eye, especially vis-à-vis its citizens and certain expatriates. living in a privileged way.

"No change"

In recent months, the Gulf authorities have taken spectacular decisions, rare for a region where taboo subjects are usually absent from the public space.

As in Qatar last year, Saudi authorities seized rainbow-colored toys this summer in a country where homosexuality is, in theory, punishable by death.

In early June, Kuwait summoned the US Chargé d'Affaires to protest pro-LGBT+ tweets.

In Bahrain, messages of support for the traditional family abounded, with posters showing the image of a father, mother and two children holding a large umbrella shielding them from a rainbow.

In Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, major American productions have been banned from showing because of openly gay characters.

For Saudi researcher Eman Alhussein, "the LGBT+ issue is unlikely to be debated at the local level anytime soon" in the Gulf, despite "the relaxation of certain laws and social restrictions", intended to attract qualified expatriates and foreign investment.

"As many citizens of the Gulf remain conservative, maintaining certain limits is considered crucial to spare all segments of society," observes this specialist in the region.

According to her, it seems unlikely that Western pressure "will produce change, at least in the short term".

"Huge missed opportunity"

The World Cup in Qatar is therefore a "huge missed opportunity" to "concretely" support the rights of the country's sexual minorities and of the entire Arab world, deplores Tarek Zeidan, director of the Lebanese NGO for the defense of LGBT +, Helem, the first in the region, founded in 2001.

"Obviously, we have to have a discussion on human rights, despite the efforts of some to prevent it for cultural or sovereignty reasons", he underlines.

But, according to him, it would have been necessary "to make heard the voice of the people who are really victims of violence" instead of "focusing on the indignation of the West", indulging in noisy positions which "n 'not help'.

The Lebanese activist, who has lived in Qatar in the past, notes "a hardening of positions at both ends of the debate, with LGBT + people being the ones who will suffer".

Tarek Zeidan fears a "very harsh, even fatal backlash" because of "the imposed and unprecedented place" that the subject has taken, homophobic policies having increased in recent months, from Lebanon to Kuwait, passing by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

"The next decade is going to be extremely difficult for LGBT+ people in the region."

© 2022 AFP