Most Gay Friendly Muslim Countries – Keep Calm and Wander

Most Gay Friendly Muslim Countries - The Nomadic Boys

Being openly gay in the Arab world is certainly not an easy feat! If it doesn’t land you a jail sentence or even a death penalty, the huge stigma attached to it will likely compromise your job prospects, alienate your family, or worse, make you the target of some pretty nasty homophobic violent crimes.

We have travelled extensively around the Middle East as a gay couple and overall had a positive experience. For example, we climbed the world’s tallest building in Dubai, got lost in the rich culture of Jerusalem, wondered around the souks of Tunis, visited stunning mosques in Abu Dhabi and even found a few gay clubs in Beirut. Of course we were always cautious to avoid any public displays of affection and only booked a double bed in hotels we were certain are gay friendly.

In this article, we’ve set out the 5 most gay friendly Arab countries based on our first hand experience and research. To be clear, this relates to the 22 Arab countries around the Middle East and North Africa, which are also member states of the Arab League. They are: Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, Mauritania, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, the Comoro Islands, Iraq, Djibouti, and the United Arab Emirates. This does not include Israel, Turkey and Iran.

The point of this article is to show that outside of the pink comfort zone of the gay friendly countries of the world, there also exist pockets of LGBTQ friendly destinations, even in the more unlikely of places, like in the Arab world!

By Stefan Arestis – Full Story at Keep Calm and Wander

 

Ten Things to Do in Bahrain – Keep Calm and Wander

Bahrain - Keep Calm and Wander

Riches are the first thing that comes to everyone’s mind when most people think of the Arab world. However, I’d like to add here that besides all of its oil reserves, luxury hotels, glittering gold, and everything expensive, I found Bahrain rich in culture, too. Wandering through the following 8 locations like the intrepid tourist that I am, I could sense the wisps of Arabian culture and the evolution of Bahrain to be just as fresh as anyone would think.

Let’s get down to the list of my top 10 things to do in Bahrain, shall we?

1. Say hi to the history at the Bahrain National Museum

Hitting on its cultural fabric, I first managed to visit a museum. Not just any museum, but the most popular and diverse museum of all the museums in Bahrain. Its postmodern building had much in store for me and I was literally dazzled by the type of landscaping that’s been done here. My favorite sights from the museum are the archeological relics from Dilmun Civilization and the temporary exhibits on tales.

By Alain – Full Story at Keep Calm and Wander

Bahrain at Night

Bahrain-Skyline-Manama Alain Last weekend, a colleague and I went to Manama in Bahrain to renew our Saudi visa. I’ve been to Bahrain 4 times already and I stayed 3-4 nights in each visit. There’s nothing much to do in Bahrain, really. You can even explore the whole country in half a day! Manama is called “Saudi Bar” by the local Saudis I know here. When they want to have “fun”, they go to Bahrain. Sure, shopping in Bahrain is great, too! They have shopping malls everywhere!. And oh, even if the shops claim to be on sale, the prices are still bad for your wallet. On our second day in the city, my colleague rented a car and we drove around the city. Traffic was freakin’ terrible and it’s so hard to find a gas station in country whose economy depends on gas! And even the locals don’t know where the nearest gas station is!

By Alain – Full Story at Keep Calm and Wander

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