One young woman from Kuwait, who expressed support for the LGBT community on her Instagram account, managed to hysterically put the authorities in the Arab country.
The atmosphere was tense anyway, after earlier this month the official Twitter account of the US Embassy in Kuwait tweeted in honor of Pride Month.
"All human beings should be treated with respect and fairness. They should be allowed to live without fear, no matter who they are or who they love," US President Joe Biden was quoted as saying.
A picture of the Pride flag was of course added to the tweet.
"All human beings should be treated with respect and dignity and should be able to live without fear no matter who they are or whom they love."
@POTUS is a champion for the human rights of #LGBTQI persons.
# Pride2022 #YouAreIncluded pic.twitter.com/gdPPBDlHZH
- US Embassy Kuwait (@ USEmbassyQ8) June 2, 2022
As expected, the gesture was not well received in Kuwait.
Officials in the country sharply criticized the embassy for "supporting homosexuality" and demanded that this not happen again.
Sources even accused the embassy of violating an art that required diplomats to respect the laws and regulations of the host country.
Furthermore, the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry summoned the relations officer at the embassy to speak in protest.
"Do not respect"
Nevertheless, the tweets were not deleted from the social networks, and the surfers were furious.
A member of parliament in the country even wrote that "this behavior is unacceptable. Foreign embassies must respect Kuwait's public order and its official religion."
Other surfers accused the Americans of "forcing the sick and degenerate culture on our conservative Muslim society."
LGBT rights in the Arab state are very limited. Homosexuality, for example, is prohibited by law and carries a sentence of up to seven years in prison.
In the past year, however, the Constitutional Court has overturned the offense of "imitating the opposite sex," which was used to prosecute transgender people.
In 2007, Parliament amended Article 198 of the Penal Code so that a fine or sentence of up to one year in prison could be imposed on trans people, but the Constitutional Court ruled that the amendment was unconstitutional and repealed it.
Diplomatic for a moment
The incident barely subsided, and very quickly the Kuwaiti authorities encountered further embarrassment.
A Kuwaiti student of animal medicine in London posted a video on Instagram in which she introduced herself as a diplomat who supports LGBT rights.
The activist who jumped the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry, Photo: From the Instagram of Ariam Marfi
"My name is Ariam Marfi and I am a Kuwaiti woman. I believe that all human beings are entitled to basic human rights and a life of security. This is the flag of pride, because even the LGBT are entitled to basic human rights and a life of security.
This is my Kuwaiti diplomatic passport.
I will continue to protect everyone's rights, "the young woman said.
The video apparently disturbed the authorities who received many inquiries, and on Friday the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry issued a statement: "The girl does not belong to the Kuwaiti diplomatic community and is not a Foreign Ministry clerk. His and his family's expired. "
Ariam expressed concern for her safety.
In another story she published she called on her friends to delete the correspondence with her for fear of espionage.
Despite this, she was careful to maintain her sense of humor and mocked the government for ignoring her posts about domestic violence, but issued an official statement because it had declared that all human beings are entitled to live in safety.
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