Why I can’t participate in the Middle East WEF

Sunday, 16 March 2008 | posted by Matt_BC

I got the same excited phone call a few days ago from my boss that I got last October, when he told me I had to apply for some British Council thing that was called ‘the Road to Davos.' This time though, it was for the Road to Sharm el Sheik; a gathering of hundreds of young activists in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, to get together like we did in Guilford, and send some people off to Egypt for the Middle East World Economic Forum.

I read the follow up email, with the application pack. Scotland had two places, and if I applied, I would pretty much be going. I sat back from the computer... I knew that this time would come, when I would have to choose between my beliefs and my future. I knew I couldn't participate in the event held in Dubai.

Being gay in Dubai is a crime. Being raped in Dubai is a crime. There was a fifteen year old Swiss-French boy on holiday in Dubai with his family last year. He was abducted and raped by three men, one of whom the state knew was HIV positive. The Emirates authorities never informed the boy or his parents of this for months afterward, disallowing lifesaving treatment of PEP, Post Exposure Prophylaxis, which if began within 72 hours of possible exposure to the HIV virus can stop you becoming infected. When the boy's family tried to get the authorities to prosecute the men, they threatened the boy with jail for ‘engaging in homosexual activity.'

His mother, writing on the website she set up to bring attention to the case, www.boycottdubai.com, now feels the case has been resolved.

Yet when I was sitting at the computer, my mouse hovering over the application form, I couldn't help but wonder if Dubai had really changed since that case; and I don't think so. The law criminalising gay people still exists.

I then though about whether or not I could put that to one side and focus on the WEF in Egypt, but the same type of thing entered my mind. Egypt has recently been cracking down on HIV positive people, jailing many for having the disease.

I asked some people for advice, and they told me that often it is better to participate and to raise your point than to boycott. But if I were to participate, would I be allowed to say what I really felt? Would I be quietly told that I shouldn't stand up and criticize the UAE government as horrific violators of Human Rights inside Dubai; would I be told in Egypt that I should keep my feelings on their policy towards HIV+ people to myself?

By participating I would be legitimizing the country that the forum was held in, because in illiberal countries the forum would have to be approved by the government. It was different in January. In Guilford and in Davos, I would not have been breaking any laws or putting myself or others in danger by criticizing those countries and their policies; in Dubai and Sharm el Sheik, I wouldn't be so sure.

Which is why I couldn't participate in the Middle East WEF. I made life long friends from Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Palestine and Dubai at the Guilford forum, and I hope they most of all can understand the fact that in the region, LGBT people suffer horrendous discrimination and violence. HIV+ people can be arrested and die in jail from being refused treatment. Teenage rape victims can be threatened with prosecution. And it is something that I just couldn't stay silent on, no matter where I was.

- Nick