Indian Gays and Lesbians: Pushed Back into the Closet.
Walid , 29, research scholar was not so fortunate. His family never tried to understand his point of view. His father told him bluntly that if he spoke about homosexuality again he would stab him. The Supreme Court judgment has only hardened their stand and they have already begun to send him we-told-you-so feelers.
“My father told me clearly that he would rather have me dead than have me a homosexual. He said our religion is against it and that was enough”, says Walid.
Friday Wrestlers of Dubai
But the wrestling has never stopped and it has been going on since the last 40 odd years in this forgotten corner in Dubai. It is the only source of entertainment and release for these migrant laborers from the Indian sub-continent. There are no tourists here and the other well-healed Dubai migrants are surprised that such a gladiatorial event occurs in their swanky city.
But Dubai has a way of concealing as it has a way of making an ostentatious show. The migrant laborers, who built all that is new in Dubai- the skyscrapers, the malls, the chimerical islands off the coast- live their invisible lives here unknown, unsung and often exploited.