Swiss watchmaker says authorities in Muslim majority nation seized 164 LGBTQ pride-themed watches.
Malaysian authorities have seized watches launched by Swiss firm Swatch to have fun LGBTQ pleasure, the newest incident to boost considerations concerning the rights of sexual minorities within the Muslim-majority nation.
Swatch mentioned on Tuesday that authorities had carried out raids on Swatch shops at 11 purchasing malls on Might 13 and 14, seizing 164 watches price a complete of $14,000.
The Swiss watchmaker, based mostly in Biel/Bienne, launched its line of brightly colored timepieces impressed by the rainbow flag to “have fun the unity and variety that make our society — and Swatch — so sturdy.”
Swatch Group Chief Government Nick Hayek expressed concern concerning the raids, questioning how a message of “peace and love may very well be dangerous”.
“We surprise how the house ministry’s enforcement unit will confiscate the various lovely pure rainbows which are displaying up thousand instances a yr within the sky of Malaysia,” Hayek mentioned in a press release.
Officers from Malaysia’s dwelling affairs ministry mentioned “22 Swatch watches with LGBT parts” had been confiscated at one Swap outlet, in line with a summons discover issued below the Printing Presses and Publications Act of 1984 and cited by the AFP information company.
Swatch mentioned it deliberate to replenish its shares of the watches and proceed to promote them within the Southeast Asian nation.
In a press release posted on Twitter, the Malaysian LGBTQ-rights advocacy group JEJAKA condemned the raid and mentioned it revealed “a deeply unsettling stage of intolerance”.
JEJAKA condemns the current seizure of the Swatch Pleasure Assortment in Malaysia and requires the promotion of variety and acceptance. Learn our official assertion right here: pic.twitter.com/GQIz8F63ro
— JEJAKA 🏳️🌈 (@jejakaorg) May 22, 2023
Dwelling Minister Saifuddin Nasution informed the Related Press information company that he was ready for a full report on the incident earlier than commenting on the matter.
Malaysia, which is about 60 p.c Muslim, criminalises sexual exercise between members of the identical intercourse and prohibits the Malay-Muslim majority from partaking in expressions of gender and sexuality that go in opposition to Islamic teachings.
On Tuesday, two members of parliament from the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Celebration (PAS), the most important single occasion in Malaysia’s parliament, mentioned that LGBTQ folks ought to be categorized as affected by a psychological sickness.
Earlier this month, a senior PAS official known as for an upcoming live performance by British rock band Coldplay to be cancelled in a social media publish that includes an image of frontman Chris Martin holding a rainbow flag.
In October, spiritual police raided an LGBTQ-friendly Halloween occasion in Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown, arresting 20 Muslim males for cross-dressing.
