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Isn't hand holding of men quite common in the Arabic world, and actually affection in general? That's been my experience. It's nice. Weirdly the west has the connotation that two men kissing or holding hands would make them homosexual rather than just expressing friendship or platonic love.
Thats definitely what I've seen but had never looked it up. Interesting isn't it? Something really nice about men being able to express their affection for each other physically without feeling self conscious. Unless they're gay of course, in which case, off to prison you go it seems.
Stonehedge-
It's more complicated than that. Some cultures have a similar hypocritical homophobia/misogyny/women-as-chattels culture to Ancient Greece (which was absolutely not a haven for gay men). With women a restricted "commodity", with an almost exclusively male public social culture, with platonic male relationships lionised and unspoken but widely understood rules about what is permissible, what isn't, in the less platonic relationships.
Back when the Taleban were conquering Afghanistan the first time, there were some interesting articles to read about relationships between Taleban fighters. One detail I remember is that there was a fashion for wearing plastic sandals that were slightly too small for the feet, because the way the straps dug into the flesh was considered attractive. And they weren't wearing them to attract women.
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I saw that in Kabul...men holding hands in the cinema queue.
itsbruce
nick_h.
Isn't hand holding of men quite common in the Arabic world, and actually affection in general? That's been my experience. It's nice. Weirdly the west has the connotation that two men kissing or holding hands would make them homosexual rather than just expressing friendship or platonic love.
Old but relevant: https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/weekinreview/why-arab-men-hold-hands.html