Interview by Miguel Figueroa
Photography by Tareq Sultan
Tareq Sultan would say he just makes his art for himself and his friends as a joke, but I think there’s more to it than that. When he’s not stenciling posters — always quickly taken down by the authorities around Kuwait City — he’s ‘censoring’ magazine covers, a common practice in his country, he says. But in Tareq’s approach to censoring, trashy tabloid celebs are redrawn with beards, and splashed with glitter glue. I caught up with him to find out what gay life is like in the repressed, yet decadent capital.
Miguel: You’re wearing women’s lingerie in your Butthead profile photo. Do you fancy wearing women’s lingerie?
Tareq: I was out with my girl friends and they were all showing off their cleavage. I got envious and wanted to join them in solidarity. The next night I bought a bra and wore it under my unbuttoned shirt. It was New York, so it was no big deal.
I really like the Kiki de Montparnasse store in SoHo. Have you been?
No, but I stayed in a hotel that had a Kiki de Montparnasse intimacy kit, and it was pretty elaborate.
Their lube is the best. You just need a couple of drops and bam!
Really? In Kuwait, I am not so happy with the lube selection.
When I lived in Barcelona, I used to buy this Body Ars lube with anesthesia.
I would try that out if I were to do someone intimidating.
What does your ideal man look like?
Tattoos turn me on. I’m curious to know the history behind them. Even if they have Tinker Bell on their ankle, I’m interested to know why they got it. I’m very into white boys, but I’ve never been with one.
So what’s a gay night like at an Arab bar?
In Beirut, people are dancing and everything, but if you show any type of affection toward a man, a bouncer will come and stop you. If you start grinding with each other or you start to kiss, you are pushed apart. That’s happened to me a couple of times.
And you recently went to a gay night in Dubai. What was that like?
The bar, Sublime, is in the Ibis Hotel. I liked it because it was a bit more lit, and friendlier than in other gay places. I've been to places in Dubai where you have to go through a parking lot entrance, and it’s super smoky and dark. I get a bit claustrophobic.
If alcohol is forbidden in Kuwait, what do you drink?
We get our alcohol through the black market or connections with embassies. There are bars and coffee shops, but the social protocol for showing interest in someone is very restricted. Some guys resort to throwing their phone numbers into a girl’s car window and waving at them.
I would fall in love with somebody who did that to me.
I would too if it happened to me, but sadly, it hasn’t. There is one specific street… Love Street. It’s one long strip, and people just crowd the street, bumper-to-bumper with their radios on, hanging out by the window, waving to girls.
Are there any gay boys there as well?
You find the gays in gardens, apparently.
Apparently?
My friends have heard stories and there have been articles about men caught in cruising areas, but they don’t specify the area. We are always trying to guess where it is. I’ve also heard of men cruising the construction sites. You get a lot of imported construction workers. Egyptians, Indians, Persians… In Kuwait, there is a high percentage of men willing to engage in sexual acts with other men, although they don’t label themselves as gay.
My Kuwaiti girl friend told me that two out of three men in Kuwait are gay. Could that be true?
Oh yeah, for sure. There are plenty of gay men who are married and have children. Some marry as a way to leave their parents house. In a lot of Arab countries, you are supposed to live with your parents until you marry or else you bring shame to the family.
What do you see in this inkblot?
Twin redheads playing patty-cake.
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