Senegalese police detained five women accused of violating the
country's anti-gay law, highlighting increased pressure on suspected lesbians
in the deeply conservative West African nation, an activist group said on
Tuesday.
The five women were detained early on Monday morning during a
birthday party at a restaurant in Dakar's Yoff district that has been described
in the Senegalese press as a meeting point for gay men and lesbians, said Ndeye
Kebe, president of the activist group Women's Smile.
The oldest of the suspects, 31-year-old Sene Dieng, is an
assistant director at Women's Smile, the only group in Senegal to advocate for
lesbians' rights.
The five women were expected to appear in court on Tuesday, though
Kebe said they had been unable to afford a lawyer.
Senegal's penal code calls for prison sentences of up to five
years and fines of up to $3 000 for committing "an improper or unnatural
act with a person of the same sex." Since 2008, the Muslim-majority
country has been gripped by what Human Rights Watch describes as an anti-gay
"moral panic," with arrests and mob justice on the rise.
As in other sub-Saharan African countries that enforce laws
criminalising homosexual acts, Senegalese police have primarily targeted gay
men for arrest and extortion, and raids against suspected lesbians are fairly
rare.
Kebe said, however, that suspected lesbians have been under
mounting pressure in the wake of several scandals that have garnered
significant media attention. Earlier this year, for example, a man who
discovered cell-phone footage of his 18-year-old girlfriend kissing another
woman posted it online, Kebe said, forcing the girlfriend to flee the country
when the story spread.
"In Senegal when we talk about homosexuality we are usually
talking about men, and we forget about the women," Kebe said. "But
people are now on the hunt for lesbians."
So far this year, Women's Smile has been made aware of at least 30
women who have been interrogated by police on suspicion of violating Senegal's
anti-gay law, though it is unclear how many were jailed.
Police tipped off
The issue of gay rights in Senegal took centre stage during a
visit from United States President Barack Obama in June. At a joint press
conference in Dakar, Senegalese President Macky Sall openly clashed with Obama
on the issue of whether homosexual acts should be decriminalised, saying Senegal
was "not ready" to take such a step.
Sall insisted that gays in Senegal were only prosecuted if caught
violating the law.
On Tuesday, at least one Senegalese newspaper reported that the
five arrested women had been caught committing homosexual acts in public. Kebe,
who has been in touch with Dieng by phone since the raid, said that allegation
was dubious.
"The women said they were just sitting at a table," Kebe
said. "There were more than 100 people at the bar, and the police went
directly to their table."
She added that she suspected the police had been tipped off,
perhaps by staff at the restaurant familiar with Dieng's work organizing events
for Women's Smile.
Senegalese officials declined to comment on the case prior to the
women's court appearance scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.
- AP
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