Lebanese band with gay frontman barred from Jordan
Mashrou’ Leila, which refused to open for Tel Aviv-bound Red Hot Chili Peppers four years ago, has Amman concert canceled because its music, stance ‘contradict’ local values
Dov Lieber is a former Times of Israel Arab affairs correspondent.
At the request of church authorities in the Hashemite kingdom, Jordan canceled a concert set for Friday by the popular Lebanese indie band Mashrou’ Leila, which tackles issues of sexuality and politics and whose frontman is openly gay.
The five-member Mashrou’ Leila shot up from the underground music scene in Beirut to fame across the Arab world for its smooth sounds provocative lyrics that tackle issues mainstream Arab artists would not dare to, including gender roles, the sanctity of marriage and religious freedom. Its songs have been called “the soundtrack to the Arab Spring.”
The band was slated to play a large concert in Amman’s Roman Amphitheater on Friday, April 29 — a show that was also to be attended by fans from Israel and the West Bank. But on Monday, it received an official letter from the Department of Antiquities denying its request to use the venue because the performance would “clash with the heritage of the historic site.”
Mashrou’ Leila has performed thrice in the past at the ancient venue, a fact noted in a tweet by the group’s violinist, Haig Papazian.
https://twitter.com/haigpapa/status/725035187210358784
In September 2012, Mashrou’ Leila canceled its opening act for the Chili Peppers‘ concert in Beirut, in protest of the LA group’s forthcoming Tel Aviv performance.
Undeterred, the headliners went on to play the Beirut waterfront, with bass guitarist Flea tweeting, “Can’t believe we got the opportunity to play in Beirut. What a great place. Whooooooo. Hooooooooooooo. Thank you for your beauty Lebanon.”
Four days later, the Chili Peppers wowed 50,000 Israelis at Tel Aviv’s Park Hayarkon.
The Lebanese band announced this week’s Jordan cancellation to its fans in a long Facebook post in Arabic and English on Tuesday.
“We have been unofficially informed that the reason behind this sudden change of heart, few days before the concert day, is the intervention of some authorities. Our understanding is that said authorities have pressured certain political figures and triggered a chain of events that ultimately ended with our authorization being withdrawn,” the post said.
The post also said the band, whose name can be translated into “One Night Project” or “Leila’s Project,” was “unofficially” banned from playing anywhere in Jordan due to its “political and religious beliefs and endorsement of gender equality and sexual freedom.”
The unmentioned source of pressure described by the band in its Facebook post is the local Jordanian Church, according to a report in the online Jordanian magazine 7iber.
The head organizer of the event, Amal Hammoudeh, told 7iber that the Amman Governate cited the “church’s objection” to the concert, though she did not mention the denomination of the church. Jordan, whose population is around three percent Christian, is home to many types of churches, the largest being Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic.
Church officials, according to the report, took specific aim at the band’s song “Djin.”
The director of the Catholic Center for Studies and Media, Father Rifat Bader, told 7iber that the song “takes the holiest religious symbols from the Christian faith and uses them in an immoral context.”
‘Drown my liver in gin / in the name of the father and the son’
(One verse of the song, which rhymes nicely in Arabic, translates into English as “Drown my liver in gin / in the name of the father and the son.”)
According to the report, Bader later clarified to the authorities in Amman who contacted him that his “problem is not simply in one line in a song but in the entire concert.” The director called the band’s songs “immoral” and representative of “a cultural decline at odds with the values of Jordanian society.”
Jordanian MP Bassam al-Batoush echoed the stance of the church, and called for the group to be banned because it “calls for revolution” and promotes “satanic” ideas, according the Jordanian news site Jo24.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSnJJv_cBDw
The governor of the Amman district, Khalid Abu Zeid, told Jo24 that the band would not perform in the capital because it violates the “values, customs and traditions of Jordanian society.”
In response to the statement by Amman’s governor, the drummer of the band, Carl Gerges, told 7iber, “We are talking about things that concern us and we are expressing ourselves; we are not trying to insult anyone.
“I don’t understand what he is thinking,” he continued, “but we are going to try even harder to make our voices heard and we aren’t going to stop.”
A 2015 US State Department report on human rights found that while Jordan is one of the few Middle Eastern countries to decriminalize homosexuality, discrimination is still widespread.
‘We are going to try even harder to make our voices heard and we aren’t going to stop’
While consensual same-sex sexual conduct is not illegal, societal discrimination against LGBTQ persons was prevalent, and LGBTQ persons were targets of abuse, said the report.
It went on to say that activists reported discrimination in housing, employment, education, and access to public services. Some LGBTQ individuals reported reluctance to engage the legal system due to fear their sexual orientation or gender identity would either provoke hostile reactions from police or disadvantage them in court. Activists reported that most LGBTQ individuals were closeted and fearful of their sexual identity being disclosed.
A 2015 Pew Research poll found 97% of Jordanians still reject homosexuality.
