Posted 17 March 2007 Image Left: Sultan Qamoos of Oman In a brazen act of censorship the Omani Government has banned all access to GayOman.com and QueerMiddleEast.com. The gay personals sites were popular with Omanis and had thousands of messages. It's difficult to imagine how badly gay life in Muscat, Oman's capital, may be affected now that one of the principal ways of meeting has been halted. It's probable that Oman used western technology purchased from the United States and Europe to censor the internet and deprive its citizens of the freedom to browse they should be entitled to. Ironically there are rumours that Qaboos, the Sultan of Oman, is a closet gay. It's even mentioned in the current Wikipedia article on him. "Qaboos was married in 1976 to his cousin, Kamila, née Sayyida Nawwal bint Tariq (born 1951), daughter of HH Sayyed Tariq bin Taimur al-Said,[4] but the marriage soon ended in divorce. He has no children. Within Oman, the rumor that Qaboos has lived a homosexual lifestyle may, to an unknown degree, have diminished respect for him, both as an observant Muslim, and as a monarch perceived as not taking adequate measures to groom a dynastic successor." Possibly others in Oman's ruling oligarchy have put pressure on Qamoos to demonstrate that he has no sympathy with the country's gay and lesbian minority. Emails from Oman started to arrive a week ago alleging that it was no longer to obtain access to the boards. A week later the continued absence of new postings - which had been running at hundreds a month offered further corobaration. Given that links to the message boards are still appearing at the top of the Google search rankings this seems to prove that the Government has indeed imposed a ban. Gay and Lesbians should respond to this measure by not travelling to the country and asking friends to do the same. Although oil accounts for the majority of Oman's exports, the tourism sector is an increasingly vital one. We ask Gay and Lesbians to show that Oman must pay a price for it's bigotry and censorship. |