Saudi Diplomat Wants Asylum--Is Being Gay And Having A Jewish Girlfriend Enough Of A Reason?

Babylon and Beyond has a post about about Gay diplomat in Los Angeles may have a case, but little support in the Arab world

Damage control in the digital age can be a challenge, especially when you're ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia and one of your diplomats just applied for asylum in the United States on the grounds that he's gay and friends with a Jewish woman.

The story of Ali Ahmed Aseeri's plea for protection was originally broken on Saturday by NBC, which quoted e-mails from Aseeri as well as a letter he allegedly posted on an unnamed Saudi website in which he described his country as "backwards" and claimed his life was in danger.

Aseeri, who is secretary of the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles, also threatened to disclose sensitive information about the Saudi Royal family to the U.S. media.

I'm not sure that the threat is going to strengthen his case for asylum, but it will probably ensure a tough time should he end up back in Saudi Arabia.

Let's not forget the case of Mosab Hassan Yousef, who despite his having worked undercover for Israel, was described by the US as "a danger to the security of the United States" and had "engaged in terrorist activity"--and was close to being deported, despite the danger to his life.

Still, it seems that Aseeri may have a case:

The United States does grant asylum to individuals on the basis of belonging to a social group that faces persecution in his or her home country, but the burden of proof lies with the asylum seeker, according to Lory Rosenberg, an expert in refugee and migrant rights at Amnesty International.

Homosexuality "being a crime on the books isn’t enough, but showing you will be sentenced to life or put to hard labor for 10 years, the courts construe excess punishment as rising to the standard of persecution," Rosenberg told Babylon & Beyond.

Rosenberg pointed out similar cases, such as that of the "Saudi swinger," an airline employee who was sentenced to jail for bragging of his sexual exploits on YouTube, could strengthen Aseeri's case.

"He could find examples of excessively harsh treatment for people who deviate from the sexual norms," she said. "Of course, he would also have to explain how he was living in Saudi Arabia all this time being gay."

I don't know, but I would think the fact that he didn't tell anyone at the time may have helped--but according to an article in the Atlantic from 2007, that may not have been the case:

In Saudi Arabia, sodomy is punishable by death...

Though that penalty is seldom applied, just this February a man in the Mecca region was executed for having sex with a boy, among other crimes. (For this reason, the names of most people in this story have been changed.) Ask many Saudis about homosexuality, and they’ll wince with repugnance. “I disapprove,” Rania, a 32-year-old human-resources manager, told me firmly. “Women weren’t meant to be with women, and men aren’t supposed to be with men.”

This legal and public condemnation notwithstanding, the kingdom leaves considerable space for homosexual behavior. As long as gays and lesbians maintain a public front of obeisance to Wahhabist norms, they are left to do what they want in private. Vibrant communities of men who enjoy sex with other men can be found in cosmopolitan cities like Jeddah and Riyadh. They meet in schools, in cafés, in the streets, and on the Internet. “You can be cruised anywhere in Saudi Arabia, any time of the day,” said Radwan, a 42-year-old gay Saudi American who grew up in various Western cities and now lives in Jeddah. “They’re quite shameless about it.” Talal, a Syrian who moved to Riyadh in 2000, calls the Saudi capital a “gay heaven.”

This is surprising enough. But what seems more startling, at least from a Western perspective, is that some of the men having sex with other men don’t consider themselves gay. For many Saudis, the fact that a man has sex with another man has little to do with “gayness.”

I don't know--Aseeri may find that having a Jewish friend may be the stronger argument..

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