Egypt, ‘one of the world’s biggest jailers of gay men’

Widespread official persecution of LGBTI people continues in Egypt, as described  in this excerpt from a Public Radio International article:

In much of the Middle East, it’s getting more dangerous to be gay

Just after it became known in June that the attacker of Orlando’s Pulse nightclub had pledged allegiance to ISIS, Egypt’s foreign ministry immediately moved to condemn the attack on a US gay bar.

“Egypt stands next to the American people in these difficult times, offering sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wishing the injured a speedy recovery,” the ministry said.

Yet the statement didn’t acknowledge that Pulse was a gay club, and that many of the victims were members of the LGBTQ community.

Three days [after the Pulse nightclub massacre on June 12], a court in Cairo sentenced two 18-year-olds to three years in prison on charges of “debauchery”: The young men were apprehended through government surveillance of social media dating apps for gay men, according to court records.

It’s no surprise to gay Egyptians, say community leaders. In fact, they say Egypt has become one of the world’s biggest jailers of gay men, with as many as 500 behind bars on “morals” charges — and the crackdown is escalating.

[Editor’s note: The New York Times estimates the number of arrests as “at least 250.”. It states, “Since the 2013 military intervention that established former Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as the country’s ruler, at least 250 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people have been arrested in a quiet crackdown that has shattered what had been an increasingly vibrant and visible community. Through a campaign of online surveillance and entrapment, arrests and the closing of gay-friendly businesses, the police have driven gay and transgender people back underground and, in many cases, out of the country.”]

“Most of the gay people in Egypt are even not out to their families — they are living in fear, not living their lives,” said Yousef Rizik, who at 18 is one of Egypt’s youngest gay leaders and among the few willing to speak openly about the wave of repression against the community.

“If you have money and you are just being secretly gay and not an activist, then you are fine but if you are poor with no connections and openly gay, then you are definitely in prison,” he added.

Activists say the current wave of arrests started in October 2015, as Egyptian security services extended their crackdown from Islamist groups to civil society organizations. [Editor’s note: That phrasing defines dozens of earlier arrests as occurring before “the current wave.”]

The situation is being echoed in a number of countries in the region, they add.

“Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait have all rushed to condemn the crime in Orlando labeling it terrorism while insisting Islam has nothing to do with it,” said a spokesman for Mesahat, an LGBT service organization operating in Egypt and Sudan.

“These same governments keep arresting and torturing gay people and are putting them in jail. Meanwhile they are sponsoring a religious discourse that feeds homophobia.”

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…  gay people in the region say widespread condemnation of homosexuality came about only in the 1980s, when the rise of the global LGBT rights movement coincided with the expansion of ultraconservative Wahhabism sponsored by Saudi Arabia.

Activities and relationships that were considered normal 30 years ago are now described as haram, an Islamic term to describe religiously prohibited behavior like eating pork or consuming alcohol. Homosexuality is now frequently condemned as a “Western” vice and a threat to Arab and Islamic culture.

“Wahhabi attitudes spread to Egypt and took over a more enlightened, liberated Islam,” said Ahmed Hafez, an Egyptian analyst with the Human Rights Campaign, a Washington, DC-based LGBT advocacy group.

“Now the police in Egypt are targeting gay people to show the public that they are on the side of morality and are doing a good job in fighting debauchery, as a distraction to hide their failures in the crackdown on terrorism or drug trafficking,” he added. …

For more information, read:

• The full PRI article,  “In much of the Middle East, it’s getting more dangerous to be gay.”
• The New York Times article “Gay and Transgender Egyptians, Harassed and Entrapped, Are Driven Underground.”

Related articles about Egypt:

• Don’t harm gays, Egyptian religious leader says (July 2016, 76crimes.com)
• Why such silence in Egypt amid anti-LGBTI crackdown? أيضًا بالعربية  (April 2016, 76crimes.com)
• Egypt crackdown targets human rights defenders (March 2016, 76crimes.com)
• 20 LGBTI-related arrests in Egypt, Indonesia (September 2015, 76crimes.com)
• Egypt’s LGBTI crackdown continues; what can be done? (March 2015, 76crimes.com)
• Slew of arrests in Egypt (November 2014, 76crimes.com)
• Egypt: 8 imprisoned on anti-gay charges, 23 for protest (November 2014, 76crimes.com)
• 8 jailed on homosexuality charges in Morocco, Egypt (October 2014, 76crimes.com)
• Political tactics underlie Egypt’s ‘gay wedding’ arrests (September 2014, 76crimes.com)
• Crackdown on LGBT Egyptians: Why now? (May 2014, 76crimes.com)
• Another 10 anti-gay arrests in Egypt (November 2013, 76crimes.com)
• Seeking public approval, Egyptian police arrest 14 for gay sex (October 2013, 76crimes.com)