Homosexuality Legalization in Arab Countries: A Shifting Paradigm or a Wake-up Call

The study reported how the Arab world perceived homosexuality criminalization and decriminalization in opposition or in alignment with approaches determined in the pre and post-colonial eras in different European and American countries. The focus of the article was to explore the foundations of both homosexuality and anti-homosexuality legislation along with the historical background of the homosexuality issue. The study employed a meta-analysis of studies on homosexuality criminalization and decriminalization starting with the colonial period through the modern era. The methodology employed scientific literature in the analysis to make the study representative and not a priori stigmatizing. The analysis revolved around close readings of precolonial and postcolonial documents. The study looked at the historical evidence indicating the impact of imperial history on homosexuality as based on the dataset of 185 countries. The findings of the study underscored that the question of criminalizing or decriminalizing homosexuality in Arab countries remains debatable due to conflicting views of modernity on one hand and religious and cultural constraints on the other hand.