LGBT+ magazine responds to MP Tahboub

Lifestyle

Published: 2017-08-02 16:54

Last Updated: 2024-03-28 20:37


Cover of May/June 2016 issue of MyKali magazine
Cover of May/June 2016 issue of MyKali magazine

In an open letter to MP Dima Tahboub, MyKali responded to claims that she had gotten the LGBT+ magazine shut down earlier this week. The letter, dated August 1st, addresses misconceptions about the magazine, media responses to its existence, and the state of media and censorship in Jordan, as well as LGBT+ people in the country and region.

It reads as such:

“Your Excellency, MP Dima Tahboub,

We would like to use this chance to formally introduce ourselves; we are the MyKali family.

MyKali is an unofficial, collective blog - or, as we’d like to occasionally refer to it, a magazine - that showcases works of writers, photographers, bloggers, and artists who come from all walks of life throughout the MENA region. It includes a number of Jordanian citizens who are concerned with topics of human rights, social justice, and feminism. Naturally, the LGBT+ community (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and other labels) belongs under these umbrellas. Contrary to what some sources would have you believe, we are not a source of political news. We do not publish reports related to internal or external policy of the Kingdom. In fact, our material usually showcases diversity, starting with music and art and branching out to questions of gender and minorities.

Accordingly, we at MyKali treat all human rights issues with the same gravity, and hope that this ongoing work reaps positive results for the different segments of Jordanian society, including the LGBT+ community. In addition to expressing our views on this medium, we perform our national duties such as voting, paying taxes and electricity bills. We work boring day jobs, spend some time with our families, complain about the weather and traffic, just like all other Jordanians.

As a woman representing the Islamic Action Front (of the Muslim Brotherhood), your position is vital for all women on a private and public scale. Taking that into consideration, it is one of your responsibilities to respect the opinions of other members of Jordanian society, especially when they do not align with your own. Jordan is globally classified as one of the most restrictive countries in terms of free speech, and that status continues to worsen. In 2017, Jordan is number 138 on the World Press Freedom Index. Instead of creating more space for open and diverse dialogue in Jordan and the region, the Jordan Media Commission contributes to this deterioration, playing into the tornado of “gotcha journalism” and controversial media, the media that tasks itself with creating political schisms and emotionally-charged campaigns against all who disagree with it.

As for your valiant efforts to block MyKali, we feel it might be of interest to your Excellency that the magazine was already blocked in Jordan on 14 June of 2016, as a result of incitement by media that creates strife. At the time, we did not release any statements discussing the incident and opted against creating an international media storm. Now, after the storm found its way to us, we welcome the opportunity to clarify this one truth; your recent efforts have had absolutely no impact on our magazine.

As we have already witnessed, public defamation of the LGBT+ community affects public safety and order, as it incites physical violence against vulnerable Jordanians. Since we all strive for a Jordan that is safe for everyone - one that follows rule of law, equality, and pluralism - we believe that we must, as Jordanians, begin to work towards living and letting live, flourishing and letting others flourish, accept others and be accepted for our differences.

A democratic system has provided you with space in Parliament to defend that in which you believe, and those who elected you. All we ask is providing all Jordanians with the same space to express their beliefs. We are all individuals with differences (much like humans in any other efficient, functioning society), and must therefore have the freedom to express those differences regardless of their nature. Diversity creates a more powerful society, not a weaker one.

In conclusion, we hope your presence in Parliament contributes to a better and safer Jordan. A Jordan without extremism.

Our best regards,

The MyKali Family.”

MP Tahboub has recently been waging a very public battle against the LGBT+ community in Jordan, with attacks spread out across Twitter, various media, and even Parliament, describing them as “bats of the night” who “have no place” in Jordan.