Asian nation set to punish homosexual sex with death
“Brunei Darussalam is a sovereign Islamic and fully independent country and, like all other independent countries, enforces its own rule of law,” the statement said.
Matthew Woolfe, the founder of The Brunei Project, a human rights organization, says that the reasons for the laws being implemented are not clear, but the economy could be one of them.
“In Brunei, the economy is starting to decline, and has been declining for some time now, so it could possibly be a way of further strengthening the government’s grip on power,” he says.
And although this move seems likely to damage the faltering economy further, Woolfe says that it might be part of a strategy to shift away from Western countries toward the Islamic world.
“There is a push to attract more in the way of Islamic investment in the country and also Islamic tourism, so certainly this can be seen as possibly appealing to those markets for investment in the country,” Woolfe says.
New life in Canada
In Canada, exiles Shahrani and Zain are quickly settling in to their new life and their now open sexuality.
Zain says that she was “always angry” in Brunei, because “I was always surrounded by religious conservatives.” But things are different now.
“It’s very refreshing actually, I’ve been much happier, living this three to four months here, than I have ever been in my entire life back there,” Zain says. “I was just scared being my true self there, fear is not a problem here.”
Shahrani also says that Vancouver has been an eye opener for someone used to hiding his sexuality.
“Vancouver is very, very different from other Western cities that I’ve been to,” Shahrani says. “Gay men just hold hands in the supermarket, they kiss, it’s OK. That’s why they don’t need gay bars; all the bars are gay. It’s great.”
Shahrani is now hoping to inspire other Bruneians who are thinking about leaving.
“If you feel like you’re in danger, I made it out, you can too,” he says. “I don’t think Brunei can change anytime soon, and I don’t want them to wait for that to happen, I don’t want my country to be responsible for the death of my friends.”