After being arrested and charged with homosexuality in Saudi Arabia, S managed to escape the country.
The man he had sex with, and who set him up for arrest, was according to S, working for the government's security services.
Though this pressure, S managed to blackmail him and secure his pardon, escaping the death penalty (enforced in Saudi Arabia against homosexuals), and being locked up in the home of his lover prior to a prison.
He returned to Syria with psychological issues after believing he was going to be killed. "Haven't you seen what they do?!" S played a video of a public beheading in the streets of Saudi Arabia on his mobile phone.
Now in Istanbul, S works as an escort. He gets money and gifts from "VIP" clients for sleeping with them, and for being there for them when they are in Istanbul. Most of his clients come from the Arabic gulf states; Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, etc. S says he will never take a Saudi after his experiences there.
He survives from the money he makes as an escort and also manages to support several other gay men from Syria, which S says is his duty and responsibility.
S wants to be resettled in another country, and has applied to the UNHCR, although the process is lengthy and resettlement is unlikely.
Alongside governments that outlaw homosexuality in the region, like that of Bashar al-Assad in S's native Syria, ISIS now poses a threat to LGBT people. This image is taken from the top of a building in Istanbul. In areas of Syria under ISIS control S would be thrown to his death from such a place, which ISIS widely publicised in photographs and videos, in recent propoganda material designed to scare and intimidate.
This image is part of a new segment of my ongoing Kütmaan project about LGBT asylum seekers and refugees.
Look out for a feature article on the subject soon, alongside the full image series.
*I have not been able to independently verify the claims S made of his experiences in Saudi Arabia. This account is his personal testimony.
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