Gay rights are not recognized in Saudi Arabia and homosexuality is a serious crime punishable by death। However, there exists an underground gay community। The treatment of homosexuals has prompted criticism from international human rights organizations, but the government defends its actions as being mandated by Islam and not by a secular institution।Criminal codeIn 1928, the Saudi judicial board advised Muslim judges to look for guidance in two books by the Hanbalite jurist Mar'I ibn Yusuf al-Karmi al Maqdisi (d.1033/1624). Liwat (sodomy) is to be "treated like fornication, and must be punished in the same way. If muhsan (married, or within a legal concubinage) and free, one must be stoned to death, while a free bachelor must be whipped 100 lashes and banished for a year." Sodomy is thus proven either by the perpetrator confessing four times or by the testimony of four trustworthy Muslim men. If there are less than four witnesses, or one of them is not upright, they are all to be chastised with 80 lashes for slander.All sexual activity outside of a traditional heterosexual marriage (adultery) is a crime, some of these crimes carry death penalty. As none of the criminal code is written down, the precise punishment for being convicted of homosexuality or sodomy varies and can range from the somewhat benign punishnments (i.e. imprisonment, fines, whippings or, if a forigner, expulsion) or more serious punishment such as being sent to a mental institution for some form of treatment, forced amputation or public execution. Foreigners should not expect their nationality to grant them immunity from the local law. Furthermore with the exception of commercial law, most of the legal code is unwritten and left up to the discretion of the Islamic judges.It is difficult to determine how often the more harsh punishments for homosexuality are used. In the 1986, the United Nations Human Freedom Index, stated that Saudi government did not recognize the "personal right to homosexuality between consenting adults, and that the death penalty was used against thousands of "sexual deviants." Controversy within the United Nations over including homosexuality as a legal right in which to judge nations caused it to be buried under the vague category of privacy.The authoritarian legal system and conservative nature of Saudi Arabia, means that international human rights organizations must rely on translated reports from the Saudi governemnt or a handful of young wealthy Saudi citizens. International protests from human rights organizations, prompted some Saudi officials within the Saudi Arabian embassy in Washington D.C. to imply that their kingdom will only use the death penalty when some one has convicted of child molestation, murder or engaging in anything deemed to be a form of political advocacy.In 2000 the Saudi government reported that it had sentenced nine Saudi men to extensive prison terms with lashing for engaging in cross-dressing and homosexual relations. That same year the government executed three Yemeni male workers for homosexuality and child molestation.In April 2005, the government convicted over a hundred men of homosexuality, but none were sentenced to be executed. All those men were given prison sentences with flogging because they were at a private party that was either a same-sex wedding ceremony or a birthday party. Yet, not long after a gay foreign couple was sentenced to death for homosexuality and allegedly killing a man who was blackmailing them for homosexuality.In May 2005, the government arrested 92 men for homosexuality. It is unknown what happen to these men. Likewise, on November 7th, 2005 Riyadh police raided what the Saudi press called a "beauty contest for gay men" at al-Qatif. What became of the five men arrested for organizing the event, is not known.Right to privacyNo right to privacy exists. The government can, with a court order, search homes, vehicles, places of business and intercept private communications. People living in the kingdom should assume that communications can be seized by the government for evidence in a criminal trial.CensorshipThe Saudi government censors all forms of communications for themes deemed to be offensive to the royal family or Islam. This includes all newspapers, magazines, comic books, advertisements, film, television broadcasts, Internet and all video or computer software that is sold in the kingdom. Satellite television is illegal, although the ban is often ignored.Since the 1990s, Saudi newspapers have been permitted to make occasional reference to homosexuals, often in terms of criminal law or the number of people infected with AIDS in the kingdom. However, homosexuality, much like Judaism is often spoken of in negative terms as form of western decadence.A publication, television station, film, song, internet website, etc. that endorses gay rights will be banned or blocked for its "un-Islamic" themes. The Saudi government has frequently blocked Internet users in the kingdom from accessing web pages that deal with LGBT political or social issues, even if they are not pornographic. These blocks are sometimes temporarly removed due to international criticism.In 2001 a Saudi teacher and playwright named Muhammad Al-Suhaimi, was charged with promoting homosexuality and after a trial was sentenced to prison. In 2006 he was given a pardon and allowed to resume teaching.Civil Rights lawsSaudi Arabia has no laws against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. An employer is free to discriminate against a gay employee or subject them to blackmail. The exit and entry paperwork does not ask people about their sexual orientation, as it does their nationality, religion and marital status. No same-sex marriage, domestic partnership or civil union has any legal standing in the nation and may be used as evidence to initiate criminal proceedings.Saudi citizens & AIDS/HIVBy law, every Saudi citizen that is infected with HIV or AIDS is entitled to free medical care, protection of their privacy and employment opportunities. The government has produced Arabic language educational material on how the disease is spread and since the 1980s Abdullah al-Hokail, a Saudi doctor who specializes in the pandemic, has been allowed to air Arabic language public service announcements on television about the disease and how it is spread.Yet, most hospitals will not treat patients who are infected, and many schools and hospitals are reluctant to distribute government information about the disease, because of the strong taboos and stigma that are attached to how the virus can be spread.In the late 1990s the Saudi government began to slowly step up a public education campaign about AIDS-HIV. It started to recognize World AIDS Day, and the Arabic and English daily newspapers were permitted to run articles and opinions that expressed the need for more education about the disease and more compassion for those people infected. The number of people living in the kingdom who were infected was a closely guarded secret, as the official policy was often that the disease was not a serious problem in a kingdom because Saudis followed the principles of traditional Islamic morality.In 2003 the government announced that it knew of 6,787 cases, and in 2004 the official number rose to 7,808. The government statistics claim that most of the registered cases are foreign males who contracted the disease through "forbidden" sexual relations.In June 2006, the Ministry of Health publically admitted that more than 10,000 Saudi citizens were either infected with HIV or had full blown AIDS. Yet some public health experts feel that the government is still hiding the true stastics, which may be as high as 80,000 people, witho about a fourth of them people expatriates.In December 2006 the Arab News ran an editoral that called for greated public awarness of how the virus is spread and more compassion for those people infected.It was this same year that a Saudi citizen named Rami al-Harithi revealed that he had become infected with HIV while having surgery and has become an official proponent of education and showing compassion to those people infected .Saudi Princess Alia bint Abdullah has been involved in the Saudi AIDS Society, which was permitted in December 2006 to hold a public charity art auction followed by a discussion on how the disease was impacting the kingdom that included two Saudis living with HIV. The event was organzied with the help of the Saudi National Program for Combating AIDS which is chaired by Dr. Sana Filimban.In January 2007 a Saudi economics professor at King Abdul Aziz University was permitted to conduct of survey of a handful of Saudi University students on their level of education about the pandemic .While much of the work on AIDS-HIV education has been supported by members of the Saudi royal family or medical doctors, there is an attempt to gain permission to create some independent AIDS societies, one of which is called Al-Husna Society, that would work on helping people infected with the disease find employment, education families and work to fight the prejudice that faces people infected .Foreigners living in Saudi and AIDS/HIVForeigners are required to demonstrate that they are not infected with the virus before they can enter the country, and are required to get a test to renew the residency permit. Any foreigner that is discovered to be infected will be deported to the country of origin as soon as they are deemed fit to travel.Foreigners are not given access to any AIDS medications and while awaiting deportation may be segregated (or imprisoned) from the rest of society .Saudi LGBT communityMany expatriates may initially feel that social customs and laws encourage homosexuality. Women/families are generally kept separate from single men as much as possible, and dating is generally seen as being taboo, if not immoral. An opposite sex couples may be harassed if they demonstrate affection in public and it is not uncommon to see heterosexual men expressing affection toward each other in public, i.e. kissing or holding hands.The practice of men holding hands, or kissing, in public is a social custom in parts of the Middle East and Asia and is a symbol of friendship and not homosexuality . Also given the limited access to women, and the dangers in having an unmarried woman get pregnant, there is a degree of unspoken of situational homosexuality or bisexuality that may exist among young men.Bars and nightclubs are illegal. Movie theatres are also illegal, although they may be permitted to exist on an Aramco compound. Private parties are permitted but they often unofficially segregated by national origin, sex, or language in order to reduce the risk of being raided by the police or the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. Officially, much of the outdoors public entertainment comes from sports, shopping malls, restaurants, and cafes .The Internet makes it theoretically possible for LGBT people living in the kingdom to meet other LGBT, but the government has strict censorship polices with the Internet, aside from the normal dangers that can occur by meeting some one you met online .LGBT PoliticsOnly the underground Green Party of Saudi Arabia has endorsed the LGBT human rights movement and called for greater public openness about sexual orientation and gender identity issues. No public organization, club or society would be allowed to endorse LGBT human rights or even act as a social network for LGBT people in the kingdom.
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