US fashion industry boycotts Brunei-owned hotels over Shariah law
US fashion designers as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activists are taking a stand against the leader of Brunei who plans to implement harsh Shariah laws in his country that include, among other acts, the stoning to death of homosexual persons.
On April 22, shoe designer Brian Atwood posted a message on his Instagram account, asking fashion week attendees not to stay at the Principe di Savoia in Milan, Le Meurice in Paris or the Dorchester in London – luxury hotels all owned by the Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah. The sultan controls Brunei Investment Agency, which counts the Dorchester Group as a subsidiary. The Dorchester Group owns The Dorchester Collection, which owns the aforementioned hotels along with the Beverly Hills Hotel and the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles – two favorites for fashion events and press previews.
“Send a clear signal to their owner, the Sultan of Brunei, that stoning people to death for being gay in Brunei is not acceptable,” wrote Atwood.
The Gill Action Fund, a LGBT advocacy group, was scheduled to hold a conference for political donors at the Beverly Hills Hotel from May 1 to 4. In light of the Brunei government’s new penal code, The Gill Action Fund executive director Kirk Fordham said that “Gill Action made the decision earlier today to relocate its conference from the Beverly Hills Hotel to another property.”
Meanwhile, AFP reported that Brunei has postponed its implementation of harsh Islamic punishments, due to come into effect on April 22, which have also earned condemnation from the United Nations and sparked rare criticism at home. No confirmed new date was given for the start of the punishments, which would eventually include flogging, the severing of limbs and death by stoning – but an official told the Brunei Times they would begin “in the very near future”.
The new criminal code brings in execution by stoning as the punishment not only for for gay sex, but also adultery and rape. It also introduces the death penalty for defamation of the Prophet Mohammed, blasphemy and declaring oneself a non-Muslim.
US fashion designers as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activists are taking a stand against the leader of Brunei who plans to implement harsh Shariah laws in his country that include, among other acts, the stoning to death of homosexual persons. On April 22, shoe designer Brian Atwood posted a message on his Instagram account, asking fashion week attendees not to stay at the Principe di Savoia in Milan, Le Meurice in Paris or the Dorchester in London - luxury hotels all owned by the Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah. The sultan controls Brunei Investment Agency, which counts the...
US fashion designers as well as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activists are taking a stand against the leader of Brunei who plans to implement harsh Shariah laws in his country that include, among other acts, the stoning to death of homosexual persons.
On April 22, shoe designer Brian Atwood posted a message on his Instagram account, asking fashion week attendees not to stay at the Principe di Savoia in Milan, Le Meurice in Paris or the Dorchester in London – luxury hotels all owned by the Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah. The sultan controls Brunei Investment Agency, which counts the Dorchester Group as a subsidiary. The Dorchester Group owns The Dorchester Collection, which owns the aforementioned hotels along with the Beverly Hills Hotel and the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles – two favorites for fashion events and press previews.
“Send a clear signal to their owner, the Sultan of Brunei, that stoning people to death for being gay in Brunei is not acceptable,” wrote Atwood.
The Gill Action Fund, a LGBT advocacy group, was scheduled to hold a conference for political donors at the Beverly Hills Hotel from May 1 to 4. In light of the Brunei government’s new penal code, The Gill Action Fund executive director Kirk Fordham said that “Gill Action made the decision earlier today to relocate its conference from the Beverly Hills Hotel to another property.”
Meanwhile, AFP reported that Brunei has postponed its implementation of harsh Islamic punishments, due to come into effect on April 22, which have also earned condemnation from the United Nations and sparked rare criticism at home. No confirmed new date was given for the start of the punishments, which would eventually include flogging, the severing of limbs and death by stoning – but an official told the Brunei Times they would begin “in the very near future”.
The new criminal code brings in execution by stoning as the punishment not only for for gay sex, but also adultery and rape. It also introduces the death penalty for defamation of the Prophet Mohammed, blasphemy and declaring oneself a non-Muslim.
