New Dark Age Alert! Malawi Court Convicts Gay Couple of Gross Indecency and Unnatural Acts
Photo: Times Online
TIMES ONLINE: A court in Malawi yesterday convicted a gay couple of gross indecency and unnatural acts in a case that has highlighted the persecution of homosexuals in Africa and drawn international condemnation.

Steven Monjeza, 26, and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20, who will be sentenced tomorrow, face at least a decade behind bars. They were arrested in December after testing Malawi’s anti-gay laws with a public “engagement ceremony” before a wedding planned for this year.

The action outraged authorities in the deeply conservative country, one of the poorest in Africa. The men have been in prison ever since, despite an international campaign for their release and reports of maltreatment.

Judge Nyakwawa Usiwa-Usiwa, sitting in the old colonial capital of Blantyre, convicted both men of engaging in gay sex, which he said was “against the order of nature”. The couple’s lawyer argued that their actions had not victimised anyone.

“Unlike in a rape case, there was no complainant or victim in this case,” he said. “Here are two consenting adults doing their thing in private. Nobody will be threatened or offended if they are released into society.”

That argument fell on deaf ears in a country in which gays are now in hiding. Large crowds have jeered and pilloried the men on each occasion that they have been brought to court. At a previous court appearance Mr Chimbalanga, who was sick with malaria, was forced to return to the court room to mop up his vomit. >>> Jonathan Clayton, Johannesburg | Wednesday, May 19, 2010

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We Have Been Beaten in Jail, Say First Openly Gay Couple in Malawi
Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga performed a public engagement ceremony. Photograph: Times Online
TIMES ONLINE: Since they became the first openly gay couple in Malawi to be engaged, Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza have been arrested, put in prison and charged with offences that could lead to a 14-year jail sentence.

Between true love and gay martyrdom, however, is the brutal reality of life in a Malawi prison. Yesterday, in their first interview since being jailed, the pair claimed that they had been beaten in prison, and demanded to go to court to prove their innocence.

While Mr Chimbalanga, 20, who dresses as a woman, spoke defiantly of his love for the man he plans to marry, Mr Monjeza, 22, said that he was “drunk” when they met and was considering ending their engagement. The couple, who denied three charges of unnatural practices between males and gross indecency, performed a public engagement ceremony in front of 500 onlookers last weekend. They were arrested two days later.

With gay rights campaigners warning that the case marks a new wave of homophobia in Africa, the pair have been held since then at Chichiri prison in Blantyre, where the warders appear bemused by the level of hysteria surrounding their charges.

In an interview with The Times at the weekend, Mr Chimbalanga — visibly more at ease than Mr Monjeza, who appeared confused and disorientated — said: “I love my husband and laws should not prohibit love.” >>> Raphael Tenthani in Malawi and Valentine Low | Monday, January 04, 2010

2 Women in Sudan Sentenced for Wearing Pants
LOS ANGELES TIMES: The ruling comes weeks after a similar case caused an uproar.

Khartoum, Sudan - Two Sudanese women Thursday were sentenced to 20 lashes and fined for committing an act of indecency by wearing trousers, weeks after a similar case sparked worldwide controversy.

The two women were arrested at the same party as Lubna Hussein, a former journalist who was also charged with wearing trousers and publicized her case as part of a campaign against Sudan's public-order laws.

Judge Hassan Mohamed Ali sentenced each woman to 20 lashes and a $110 fine in a Khartoum courtroom. >>> Reuters | Friday, October 23, 2009

Kuwaiti Islamist: Homosexuals Should Be Tortured in Public Squares

Taliban Shave Men for Listening to Music in Buner
DAWN: PESHAWAR: Taliban militants in Buner district shaved the heads and moustaches of four Pakistani men as punishment for listening to music, one of the men said Sunday.

The Taliban have also warned people against shaving their beards. Here a barber stands by a ‘do not shave’ warning written by militants in the front window of his shop in Buner—AFP. Photo courtesy of Dawn
Although Taliban and local officials said the fighters retreated from Buner by Saturday, local members of the movement remain. Residents said many fighters were still present in the hilly outskirts of the district.

In one incident late Saturday, Taliban hardliners shaved the heads and moustaches of four men for listening to music, a young man from Buner told AFP by telephone, requesting not to be identified.

‘I was with three other friends in my car, listening to music when armed Taliban stopped us and, after smashing cassettes and the cassette player, they shaved half our heads and moustaches,’ he said.

‘The Taliban also beat us and asked us not to listen to music ever again,’ said the terrified man. >>> | Sunday, April 26, 2009

Algeria: Christian Sentenced for Carrying Bible
COMPASS DIRECT NEWS: Police pressure convert to return to Islam during ‘illegal’ five-day detention.

ALGIERS, Algeria, May 9 – An Algerian Christian detained five days for carrying a Bible and personal Bible study books was handed a 300-euro (US$460) fine and a one-year suspended prison sentence last week, an Algerian church leader said.

Last Tuesday (April 29) a court in Djilfa, 150 miles south of Algiers, charged the 33-year-old Muslim convert to Christianity with “printing, storing and distributing” illegal religious material. A written copy of the verdict has yet to be issued.

The Protestant, who requested anonymity for security reasons, told fellow Christians in his home city of Tiaret that police pressured him to return to Islam while in custody.

The conviction is the latest in a wave of detentions and court cases against Algeria’s Protestants and Catholics. Since January police and provincial officials have ordered the closure of up to half of the country’s 50 estimated Protestant congregations.

Officials in several instances have cited a February 2006 law governing the worship of non-Muslims. Clarified by subsequent decrees in 2007, the law restricts most religious meetings to approved places of worship and forbids any attempt to “shake the faith of a Muslim.” Algeria: Christian Sentenced for Carrying Bible >>> | May 10, 2008

Hat tip: Dhimmi Watch

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