``Habitual passive sodomite takes knee-chest position without shame during examination." —From Principles of Forensic Medicine by staff members of the Forensic & Clinical Toxicology Department. Ain Shams University Faculty of Medicine.

Forensic examinations to prove habitual non-violent anal penetration are inherited from the textbooks of Victorian era medicine[1].

There are no peer-reviewed research that provides sound evidence in that area[2]. Because sodomy was decriminalized in western Europe by the beginning of the 20th century[1]. While countries that still considers such acts criminal are not publishers of sound peer-reviewed research.  read more »

Automatically posted links for November 23rd:  read more »

Since the beginning of Pakistan’s constitutional crisis, I’ve been thinking of potential parallels with Egypt. These remain fairly superficial, since after all the general political and strategic situation is quite different, and arguable opposition politics are more vibrant in Pakistan than they are in Egypt. Still, there are some similarities, notably the central role the issues of judicial independence and constitutional reform are playing, as well as the relationship between the military and executive power, the use of emergency laws, and of course the proposition that “better the devil you know” policies are best for stability.  read more »

Automatically posted links for November 21st:  read more »

Our friend and former Cairo mag contributor G. Willow Wilson has released her graphic novel, Cairo, and NPR interviewed her about it. Here’s the blurb from the book:  read more »

Divisions in Muslim Brotherhood:

THE lowly shoe is considered a degrading weapon in Egypt. To be beaten with a shoe adds insult to injury.

So when Mohamed Mahdi Akef, the Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, the banned Islamist group whose members have frequent encounters with the police, threatened critics with his shoes last year, it was seen as a classic example of an intemperate leader’s inability to control his language.

I have an idea: from now on I shall refer to any journalist obsessed with Arab shoes as Abu Gazma. (And by the way the bizarrely stunted story is crap.)

A few days ago, Human Rights Watch and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights published a report entitled “Prohibited Identities” about the discrimination of the Egyptian governments against those who either wish to identify as something other than the three “revealed” religions (Islam, Christianity, and Judaism) or those who wish to change their religion from Islam to something else.  read more »

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