Gay Party

Bahrain officials arrested about 200 men as they held a gay party in the island country in the Arabian Gulf.

An Interior Ministry official who asked not to be named, said a group of men were arrested last Thursday for the actions immoral.

Some media reports during this week said the police in a conservative small town,

Muharraq, ambushed a hall full of vanity and the man who revelers drinking wine and smoking using a bong.

"After entering the room, a confidential source said he saw a group of people who wear women's clothes ... and suddenly calling the police patrol, which then surrounded the location and arrest the suspects," according to Al-Ayam newspaper reports on Bahrain.

The men arrested were aged between 18 and 20 years old and mostly come from Arab Gulf countries are believed to come to Bahrain to attend the party in particular. According to the newspaper report.

Officials said there were also a number of foreign nationals who were captured. However, he did not elaborate further about it said, adding that the case has been forwarded to the prosecutor. Local newspapers say, there is a citizen of Syria and Lebanon in the group.

Bahrain is considered as a relatively liberal Gulf state, with alcohol being sold freely in shops, while other Gulf countries only limit it to the hotel.

Bahrain nightlife attract visitors from other Gulf countries, like Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, which connects to Bahrain by road across the country.

Countries in the Gulf Arab ban homosexuality on the grounds it violated Islamic values. Homosexual men in the region are usually arrested and imprisoned for a certain penalty.

"Bahrain relatively more tolerant when compared to the UAE for example, by not allowing it is done in public," said a researcher at the human rights group Amnesty International, Said Boumedouha.

He urged the Bahraini government to free all people detained because of their gender choice.

Meanwhile, according to local newspaper Gulf Daily News, Ramzy al-Jalaleef, Muharraq Provincial officials, demanding stern action against the celebration of space after the incident last week.

"I know these guys have a relationship with the manager of the celebration of space that are convinced that they were holding a birthday party," said Ramzy al-Jalaleef. "But it turns out, as I've heard, they held a wedding for two men."

Jalaleef said there should be a thorough investigation of the events to be held in the city, which he said has 29 mosques and very religious and conservative. In the meantime, officials asked the Attorney Bahrain can not be related statement on this issue.