Egypt: Query response on
the situation and treatmentof the LGBTQI+ community
August 2023 (COI between 1st January 2020 and 31st July 2023)

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2

Content
A. Explanatory Note ................................................................................................................................. 5
B. List of Sources....................................................................................................................................... 6
I.

Background Information ........................................................................................................9II.

Legal Framework ................................................................................................................. 11a.

Legislation ...................................................................................................................................... 11i.

Constitution ................................................................................................................................... 11ii.

Criminal code ................................................................................................................................. 11iii.

Other relevant legislation affecting LGBTQI+ persons................................................................... 19b.

Implementation ............................................................................................................................. 30i.

Arrests ............................................................................................................................................ 30

1.

Entrapment .................................................................................................................................... 40

2.

Mistreatment in Investigations ...................................................................................................... 52ii.

Treatment in detention facilities ................................................................................................... 67

iii.

Prosecutions and convictions under laws that are deployed against the LGBTQI+ community ... 81

III.

Treatment by State Actors.................................................................................................... 94a.

Public statements by government officials.................................................................................... 94

b. Homophobia and transphobia in government institutions (incl. state-owned media, within thepolice, in the prison service, in the judiciary, in the public health service, in schools) .......................... 96c.

Harassment and violence............................................................................................................. 114

d.

Discrimination .............................................................................................................................. 126

i.

Access to state-owned housing ................................................................................................... 126

ii.

Access to public health services................................................................................................... 127

1.

Access to gender affirming surgery and legal gender recognition for transgender persons ...... 131

i.

Access to state employment (e.g. civil service) ........................................................................... 139

ii.

Access to public education .......................................................................................................... 139

IV.

Societal Attitudes Towards LGBTQI+ Individuals ................................................................. 140

a.

Representation in media and social media.................................................................................. 147
3

b.

Representation by influential cultural and religious figures........................................................ 154

c.

Impact of societal norms on state attitudes ................................................................................ 161

V.

Treatment by Non-State Actors .......................................................................................... 163
a.

Violence ....................................................................................................................................... 163b.

Discrimination .............................................................................................................................. 170

i.

Access to housing......................................................................................................................... 170

ii.

Access to work ............................................................................................................................. 171

VI.

Treatment of LGBTQI+ Organizations and Human Rights Defenders .................................... 173a.

Government recognition of LGBTQI+ NGOs ................................................................................ 174b.

State treatment of LGBTQI+ activists or those supporting their case or those perceived as such
176

VII.

Availability of State Protection ........................................................................................... 179a.

Investigation and prosecution of crimes against LGBTQI+ individuals ........................................ 179b.

Fear of reporting to authorities ................................................................................................... 188

4

A. Explanatory Note
Background
This report presents Country of Origin Information (COI) on Egypt focusing on issues identified to be of
relevance in refugee status determination for Egyptian nationals of the LGBTQI+ community.
The COI presented in this report is illustrative but not exhaustive of the information available in the
public domain, nor is it determinative of any individual human rights or asylum claim. All sources are
publicly available and a direct hyperlink has been provided.
A list of sources and databases consulted is also provided in this report, to enable users to conduct
further research and source assessments. Research concentrated on events that took place between 1st
January 2020 and 31st July 2023. All sources included in this report were accessed between May andmid-August 2023.

Disclaimer
This document is intended to be used as a tool to help to identify relevant COI and the COI referred to inthis report can be considered by decision makers in assessing asylum applications and appeals. While westrive to be as comprehensive as possible, no amount of research can ever provide an exhaustive pictureof the situation. It is therefore important to note that the absence of information should not be taken as
evidence that an issue, incident or violation does not exist. This report is also not a substitute forindividualised case-specific research and therefore this document should not be submitted in isolation
as evidence to refugee decision-making authorities. Whilst every attempt has been made to ensure
accuracy, the authors accept no responsibility for any errors included in this report.

5B. List of Sources
Not all of the sources listed here have been consulted for each issue addressed in the report. Additionalsources to those individually listed were consulted via database searches. This non-exhaustive list isintended to assist in further case-specific research. To find out more about an organisation, view the‘About us’ tab of a source’s website.
Databases
Asylos’s Research Notes [subscription only]
EUAA COI Portal
European Country of Origin Information Network (ECOI)
Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada – Responses to Information Requests
Relief Web
UNHCR Refworld
Media
African Arguments
All Africa
Al Jazeera
Edge Media Network
Equal Eyes
Global Gayz
The GuardianInter Press Service
The New Humanitarian (Africa)
Reuters
Pink News
Sources
76 Crimes
Afro Barometer
African Centre for International Law and Accountability
Africa Center for Strategic Studies
African Human Rights Coalition
African Studies Centre Leiden
Amnesty International (Egypt)
The Alliance of Queer Egyptian Organizations
The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI)
Article 19
Bedayaa
Bertelsmann Stiftung – BTI Transformation Index
Cairo Institute for Human Rights
6

CIVICUS
Civil Rights Defenders
EASO’s list of sources in its report ‘Researching the situation of lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons (LGBT)in countries or origin’
Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms
Egyptian Forum for Human Rights (EFHR)
Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
Equal Rights Trust
EuroMed Rights
Freedom House (Egypt)
Frontline Defenders
Global Action for Trans Equality (GATE)
Human Dignity Trust (Egypt)
Human Rights Watch (Egypt)
Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa
International Bar Association
International Centre for Prison Studies
International Commission of Jurists
International Federation for Human Rights (Africa)
International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA)ILGA Database
International Service for Human Rights
InterPride
Kaleidoscope Trust
Middle East Institute (MEI)The National Council for Human Rights (NCHR)
Organization for Refuge, Asylum & Migration (ORAM)
Out Right International
Project on Middle East Democracy (Pomed) (Egypt)
Sexual Rights Initiative
United Nations Committee Against Torture
United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women
United Nations Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity
United Nations News Centre
United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) (Egypt)
United Nations Secretary General reports
United Nations Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate
standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context
United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions
United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights

7United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinionand expression
United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to education
United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders
United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment
United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women, its causes and consequences
United Nations Women
United States Department of State (Annual human rights reports)

8

I.

Background Information

In a dispatch released by Human Rights Watch in March 2020, it was reported that:“The Egyptian government is refusing to recognize the existence of lesbian, gay, bisexual, andtransgender (LGBT) people, flouting its responsibility to protect the rights of everyone”.1
The article elaborated that: “On March 12, during its third Universal Periodic Review (UPR), where
members of the United Nations Human Rights Council weigh in on countries’ human rights records,
Egypt rejected recommendations by several states to end arrests and discrimination based on sexual
orientation and gender identity. Additionally, Egypt responded that it “does not recognize the terms
mentioned in this recommendation,” denying the existence of sexual orientation and gender identity”.2
In December 2020, the European Parliament published a resolution on the deteriorating human rights
situation in Egypt, noting that it: “[…] deplores once again and in the strongest possible terms thecontinuing and intensifying crackdown on fundamental rights and on […] lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people, political opponents, including their family members, civilsociety organisations and minorities, solely in response to their exercise of their fundamental freedoms
or their expression of dissent, by state authorities and security forces in Egypt”.3
The latest edition of The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association’s (ILGAWorld) “Our Identities under Arrest” report, released in December 2021, stated that:[…] a clear State-backed policy of targeting of persons based on their SOGIE [sexual orientation, gender
identity, and gender expression] through provisions against public indecency, sex work, adultery, rape andothers is at play, though social attitudes, a vocal religious sector, the need for political scapegoating
during times of instability and a hostile media landscape all interact in myriad ways.29 […]29 EIPR, The Trap: Punishing sexual difference in Egypt (2017); OHCHR, UA EGY 17/2017 (2017); “The Policies ofSuppressing Sexual Rights in Egypt”, The Legal Agenda, 2 February 2018; “Rights of LGBTQ People in Egypt: Between
State, Society, and de facto Criminalisation”, in: ILGA World, State-Sponsored Homophobia 13th edition (2019), 520522; “"Clean the Streets of Faggots"” Digital Targeting of LGBT People by Middle East/North Africa Governments”,
4
Human Rights Watch, 4 August 2021.

1

Human Rights Watch, Egypt’s Denial of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity: Ignoring LGBT Rights Endangers
People in Time of COVID-19, 20 March 20202
Human Rights Watch, Egypt’s Denial of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity: Ignoring LGBT Rights Endangers
People in Time of COVID-19, 20 March 20203
European Parliament, Joint motion for a resolution on the deteriorating situation of human rights in Egypt, inparticular the case of the activists of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), 16 December 2020
4
International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), Our Identities Under Arrest: A
global overview on the enforcement of laws criminalising consensual same-sex sexual acts between adults anddiverse gender expressions, 15 December 2021, p. 126

9In March 2022, Afsaneh Rigot, a senior researcher on technology and human rights at ARTICLE 19, withthe support of ARTICLE 19 and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society and the Cyberlaw
Clinic at Harvard University, released a report on the role of digital evidence in the persecution of LGBTQ
people in Egypt, as well as Lebanon and Tunisia. The findings are based on case file analysis andinterviews conducted between March 2020 and November 2020 with attorneys/lawyers and a caseworker, all of whom had worked on LGBTQ issues as a prominent aspect of their professional careers.
On Egypt, the report stated:
In Egypt, the criminalisation of queerness is framed as a campaign against sex work. Broadly interpreted
laws and extensive judicial support have allowed for continuous and targeted prosecution of LGBTQ
individuals, as well as those suspected of engaging in gender nonconformist behaviors.117 Colonial-era
criminal laws have been retained, but have been reframed and further evolved in recent years, creating acatch-all framework which is used in prosecution”.
The primary law used to prosecute queer people is Law No. 10/1961 on Combating of Prostitution, which
repeatedly uses the phrase “debauchery or prostitution” to describe perceived criminal behavior.
Egyptian judges have routinely interpreted the term “debauchery” in this statute—in Arabic, fujur(‫—)ال فجور‬to be a synonym for homosexuality, or, more generally, queerness.118 As one interviewee putit, “The prostitution law was made for fighting sex workers, including men and women... The Egyptian
government .... translates this legislation [to apply only to] male ‘sex workers’”119. […]117 Sexuality, Development and Non-Conformist Desire in the Arab World: Case of Lebanon and Egypt
118 Long, S., 2004. IN A TIME OF TORTURE - The Assualt on Justice in Egypt’s Crackdown on Homosexual Conduct.
[ebook] Human Rights Watch,. Available at: <https://www.hrw.org/report/2004/02/29/time-torture/assault-justiceegypts-crackdown-homosexual-conduct> [Accessed 30 October 2021]. Text of law available here:
https://eipr.org/sites/default/files/reports/pdf/law_no.101961_.pdf
5119 EL3

The same report wrote that: “The Egyptian interviewees affirmed that the most targeted persons in the
LGBTQ community are trans people and queer cis men”. 6
In April 2022, the Freedom Initiative and the Egyptian Front for Human Rights released a report on
sexual violence in detention in Egypt between 2015 and 2022, based on information provided by
victims, their families, case documents, witnesses to instances of victimisation, and on documentations
with lawyers and human rights organisations. The report highlighted that that LGBTQ+ individuals
experience sexual abuse and violence in police stations and that: “Officers, according to an interview
conducted with a human rights lawyer, call on the detainees to perform a variety of daily tasks, referringto them only as ‘khawalat’, faggots”. 7

5Afsaneh Rigot, Digital Crime Scenes: The Role of Digital Evidence in the Persecution of LGBTQ People in Egypt,
Lebanon, and Tunisia, 7 March 2022, pp. 36-37
6
Afsaneh Rigot, Digital Crime Scenes: The Role of Digital Evidence in the Persecution of LGBTQ People in Egypt,
Lebanon, and Tunisia, 7 March 2022, p. 48
7
The Freedom Initiative and Egyptian Front for Human Rights, No One is Safe: Sexual Violence Throughout the Life
Cycle of Detention in Egypt: 2015-2022, 7 April 2022, p. 18

10

In October 2022, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), in the run up to COP27, statedthat “the severity of repression in the country is arguably unrivaled in Egypt’s modern history, with all
democratic gains of the 2011 revolution rolled back. Vulnerable groups, including the LGBTQI+
community, continue to be targeted by state authorities”.8

II.

Legal Frameworka. Legislationi.

Constitution

The 2022 Bertelsmann Stiftung’s Transformation Index (BTI) country report on Egypt, published in
February 2022, stated that: “The 2014 constitution in theory grants equal rights to all citizens without
discrimination (Art. 9). In reality, however, civil liberties are systematically repressed. Women continue
to struggle to be granted equal rights, as do citizens who in one way or the other do not comply with theimage of the “normal Egyptian,” such as “homosexuals, transgender persons, atheists, Shi’ite Muslims or
Bahai”.9
Amnesty International reported on Egypt’s National Human Rights Strategy (NHRS) in a report publishedin September 2022. It stated that:
The NHRS claims that the "right to personal freedom" and "right to privacy" are safeguarded in theConstitution and the national laws185, and that the state guarantees fair compensation for those whohave been assaulted.186 But in practice, violations of the rights to privacy continue unabated against
LGBTI individuals. […]185 SSCHR, NHRS - The Republic of Egypt 2021-2026 (previously cited), p21-22; p42-43
186 SSCHR, NHRS - The Republic of Egypt 2021-2026 (previously cited), p24; p4210

ii.

Criminal code

An article by the African Human Rights Media Network in March 2020 on the repression and arrests of
LGBTIQ+ persons in Egypt, speaking of a report produced by the Legal Aid Project for Bedayaa
Organization [Note that most data appears to be from 2019], wrote the following with regards torelevant legislation:
Egypt prosecutes LGBTIQ+ persons despite the absence of an explicit law against same-sex intimacy. The
Legal Aid Project explained:

8

The Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), Egypt: Germany should press Sisi government to desist in
authoritarian practices at odds with country’s role as COP27 host, 21 October 2022
9
Bertelsmann Stiftung, BTI 2022 Country Report: Egypt, 23 February 2022, p. 12
10
Amnesty International, Egypt: “Disconnected from reality”: Egypt’s National Human Rights Strategy covers up
human rights crisis, 21 September 2022, p. 35

11

“In most trials, Law 10/1961 on combating prostitution is used, particularly Article 9(c). The main
charges used in trials based on this law are debauchery, which it refers to habitual practice of
debauchery, publicizing an invitation to induce debauchery, and incitement to debauchery.
“Although homosexuality is not considered a crime per se in Egypt, it is de facto illegal under Law
10/1961 on combating prostitution. In addition to debauchery, LGBTIQ+ people may be accusedof joining groups that directly undermine the Egyptian government. In these cases, LGBTIQ+
people are treated as a ‘cult’ or a ‘group’ that threatens the stability of the country; this has also
been treated as a matter of national security at times.
“According to this law, defendants receive sentences not less than three months and up to three
years, but in reality, some cases could receive up to six years. Allies who support to the queer
movement in Egypt can also be charged under the provisions of this law.”
Trans people are often swept up in “debauchery” prosecutions. The Legal Aid Project reported:“As for gender/sexual reassignment process in Egypt, there is no official law that criminalizes nor
allows it; however, trans individuals often get arrested under the debauchery law.
“Although the existence of bylaws in the Egyptian Medical Syndicate with a special committee toreview/approve transitioning cases, code of ethics in the syndicate the committee only allows sex
reassignment surgeries for those who were born as both sexes, known as intersex.
“Furthermore the system that was put by the medical syndicate is often not functional which
11
leaves trans individuals without any legal or medical recognition.”

In May 2020, BBC News published an article on the Egyptian actor, Hisham Selim, speaking out insupport of his transgender son. The article wrote that: “Although homosexuality is not explicitly
criminalised under Egyptian law, LGBT people are periodically subjected to crackdowns and arrests on
the grounds of "debauchery"”.12
Bedayaa, an LGBTIQ+ rights organization, released a statement in June 2020 after the death by suicideof activist Sarah Hegazy, noting that: “Despite the lack of an explicit statute, the Egyptian statecriminalizes consensual same-sex relations; courts usually use Law 10/1961 on combating prostitution
and debauchery”.13
Human Rights Watch noted in a September 2020 article that: “While Egyptian law does not explicitly
criminalize consensual same-sex conduct, authorities routinely resort to vague “debauchery” and“morality” laws to prosecute people suspected of same-sex conduct or for being gay or transgender”.14
The ILGA World’s December 2020 update to its state-sponsored homophobia global overview noted that“countries such as Egypt […] have no legislation explicitly criminalising same-sex acts, but are listed here
due to the widespread use of other laws in targeting LGBT individuals”.15 The report further stated thefollowing:
11

The African Human Rights Media Network, “Repression in Egypt: 92 LGBTIQ+ arrests last year,” 8 March 2020
BBC News, Hisham Selim, famed Egyptian actor, praised over transgender son, 10 May 202013
Bedayaa Organization, Tons of Oppressions Resulted in PRIDE, 18 June 2020
14
Human Rights Watch, Egypt: Gang Rape Witnesses Arrested, Smeared: Personal Data Used in Abusive
Prosecutions, 11 September 2020
15
International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), State-Sponsored Homophobia:
1212There is no law that explicitly criminalises same-sex sexual activity in Egypt. However, Law No. 10/1961 on
the Combating of Prostitution is selectively used to target individuals of diverse sexual orientations andgender identities. The main charges brought include “habitual practice of debauchery” (Article 9-c),“publicising an invitation to induce debauchery” (Article 14), and “incitement to debauchery” (Article 1).
While these articles provide for a maximum of three years imprisonment, Bedayaa, a local NGO, notedthat some cases could receive up to six years.13
A draft law to increase the minimum prison sentence for these offences to seven years has advanced to
the Parliament’s Legislative and Constitutional Committee.14 […]13 “Repression in Egypt: 92 LGBTIQ+ arrests last year”, Rights Africa, 8 March 2020.
16
14 ILGA World: Lucas Ram n Mendos, State Sponsored Homophobia 2019 (Geneva; ILGA, March 2019), 522.

An article in Slate by Afsaneh Rigot in December 2020 noted the following:
Egypt has a long history of prosecuting the LGBTQ community. Though Egyptian law does not directly
prohibit “homosexuality,” a complex legal infrastructure of interpretations and precedents has allowed
for continuous and targeted prosecution of LGBTQ individuals. […]Egyptian authorities use a number of laws to prosecute LGBTQ individuals for activities online and offline.
Up until about March 2020, the main article of law used has been Article 9(c) of the 1961 law on
Combating of Prostitution, which calls for the sentencing of “Whoever habitually engages in debaucheryor prostitution.” As a habitual act is hard to prove, courts have often relied on digital evidence from dating
apps, chats, and photos or videos found on individuals’ devices. In these cases, the charges were generallyof the crime of incitement or publicity of debauchery, according to Article 14(a). These cases were tried in
the misdemeanor courts, and convictions carried sentences of around three months to three years with a17maximum fine of 300 Egyptian pounds (about U.S.$19).

A report by EuroMed in May 2021 on women’s rights in the digital world in the MENA stated that:
Egypt […] does not have a law regulating sexual conduct or gender expression. However, the regime
routinely criminalises and persecutes LGBTIQ+ people using several Penal Code provisions, such as Article
178,24 which punishes anyone who distributes materials, including photographs, which violate ‘public
morals’, or provisions from the 2018 cybercrime law pertaining to public morality, family values, anddecency. A prosecution using Article 178 could result in imprisonment for up to two years and a fine of up
to 10,000 Egyptian pounds (US $566). […]24. An English translation of the penal code is available here:
18
https:/www.unodc.org/res/cld/document/criminal_code_of_egypt_english_html/ Egypt_Criminal_Code_English.pdf

Global Legislation Overview Update – 2020 Updated Edition, December 2020, p. 113
16
International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), State-Sponsored Homophobia:
Global Legislation Overview Update – 2020 Updated Edition, December 2020, p. 115
17Slate, Egypt’s Dangerous New Strategy for Criminalizing Queerness, 30 December 2020
18
EuroMed Rights, Spaces of Violence and Resistance: Women’s Rights in the Digital World: The Scenario in the
MENA Region, May 2021, p. 11

13

In the July 2021 Egyptian state’s response to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women’s (CEDAW) list of issues and questions in relation to its combined eighth to tenth
periodic reports, it was stated that:
100. Under Egyptian criminal law, there are no places of detention specific to transgender persons. In
accordance with the applicable international guidelines, there is a complete separation between men andwomen. If an inmate claims to be transgender, or if a doctor is unable to determine their gender, theOffice of the Public Prosecutor is contacted for a forensic examination to ascertain the person’s genderand accordingly have them sent to a men’s or women’s prison. An appropriate independent location is
19
identified in view of their circumstances so that they can be protected from harassment.

The Sexual Rights Database by the Sexual Rights Initiative had the following relevant information withregards to sexual rights in Egypt, last updated in November 2021:
Article 2 of the 2014 Constitution declares the principles of Islamic Sharia to be the main source oflegislation. […]The law in Egypt criminalizes the acts of selling and buying sex, as well as many other offences
surrounding those acts. There is a distinction between ‘simple’ and ‘habitual’ crimes in Egyptian law. In
order to be established as ‘habitual,’ a crime must have been committed at least twice within a three year
period. Prostitution is a ‘habitual crime,’ pointing to the fact that is the person that the law seeks tocriminalize as opposed to the acts (Human Rights Watch, Laws Affecting Male Homosexual Conduct inEgypt). […]Whilst consenting sex between people of the same sex in private is not illegal under Egyptian law, various
provisions of the Penal Code and the Law on the Combating of Prostitution in relation to indecency,
corruption of morals and debauchery are used to arrest and charge men suspected of engaging in sex
20with other men (International Gay and Lesbian Association, State-Sponsored Homophobia 2020).

In 2021, Bedayaa Organization released a report answering FAQs on the situation for LGBTQI people in
Egypt. It wrote that:
Security campaigns led by the Interior Ministry typically target gay men and trans-women, whose arrest islater followed by charging them with habitual debauchery. […]In practice the criminal charges that can be brought up against a person under the law 10/1961 are:
 Inciting debauchery.
 Practicing habitual debauchery in exchange for money.
 Promoting and advertising debauchery online using social media.
 Practicing debauchery in exchange for money.
 Running a brothel and pimping out individuals to commit debauchery.
 Public advertising for debauchery using “suspicious” body language and signs.
19

UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Eightieth session - 18 October–12
November 2021 - Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under article 18 of the Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women - Replies of Egypt to the list of issues and questions inrelation to its combined eighth to tenth periodic reports, 7 July 2021, p. 22
20
Sexual Rights Initiative, Sexual Rights Database: Egypt, last updated 11 November 2021

14

The arrested person/s can be sentenced for each charge separately and receive an accumulative sentence
for each criminal offense. Generally, the minimum jail time is 3 months, and the maximum is 3 years, but
in practice under the criminal procedure law articles 02/304, which states that if the accused is facing
multiple crimes that are all connected, it will all count as only one crime.
The judges give out only one sentence in most of the cases. […]With this fact, the Egyptian authorities does not only target gay men and trans women, but also bisexual
men, intersex, and gender non-conforming individuals. To put it plainly, it persecutes what appears as
contradicting to social norms.
There are no legal articles that criminalize same sex act between women, although they are under the riskof facing law 10/1961 […]. Even though lesbian, bisexual, and queer women do not face the same legal
discrimination other groups face, they face different forms of social and family violence e.g., corrective
therapy, forced marriage, marital rape, forced confinement inside homes and deprivation from education,
work and travel. […]The Egyptian state prosecutes LGBTI persons despite the absence of an explicit legal statute. In mosttrials, law 10/1961 9 on the Combating of Prostitution and Debauchery is used, that sentenced thedefendants to imprisonment for a period not less than one year and not more than three years, and a fine
between 100 and 300 LE in the Egyptian administration and between 1000 and 3000 Lira in the Syrian
administration. Even though this law was issued during the Syrian-Egyptian unity period (22nd of February
1958 and amended on 28th of September 1961) to only combat “sex working” among men and women,
and it does not have any clear articles that criminalize homosexuality nor promoting of homosexuality. In
Later judicial implementation of the law, the judges started interpreting the word (Debauchery) in the law
as a synonym to male homosexuality. […]In February 2019, the Speaker of the House of Representatives “Ali Abdel Aal” passed a new proposal to
the legislative committee in the Egyptian Parliament to be discussed, this proposal contained new legal
definition for prostitution and debauchery, as well as setting new punishments under the law, from one to
five years13 and a fine of 5000 EGP to 50000 EGP. Even though the on- going discussion about the law
10/1961 and the new law proposals, it is yet to be amended or replaced, the trials continue to use law
10/1961. […]9 https://www.refworld.org/docid/5492d8784.html
10 https://egyptianstreets.com/2017/09/26/seven-arrested-for-raising-rainbow-flag-during-mashrou-leila-concert/
11 https://tinyurl.com/usc7ya6 (Arabic content) [...]
21‫ ل عام د�ال جد ل ة�ال رذ وم ار سة وال فجور ال ف سق ا ا م كاف حة ق ان ون وع�ش م ن ص‬2019 13

In January 2022, Malak El-Kashif, an LGBT+ human rights defender, wrote an article on transgenderpolicy in Egypt for the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. The article stated that: “As an Egyptian
transgender woman, I can make it clear that we do not have the protections that the media claims that
we have. […] Furthermore, with a legislative vacuum regarding the civil rights of transgender people, wecannot file lawsuits against anyone who commits crimes against us. Instead, we can be detained under
the counter-debauchery articles of law No. 10 of 1961, which is used to punish homosexual men andtransgender women”.22

21

Bedayaa Organization, 10 FAQs about LGBTIQs situation in Egypt, 2021, pp. 3-5
The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, Transgender Policy in Egypt: Murder by Medical Bureaucracy, 18
January 2022
22

15

Afsaneh Rigot’s March 2022 report on the role of digital evidence in the persecution of LGBTQ people in
Egypt, as well as Lebanon and Tunisia, gave the following summary on the legal framework in Egypt:Currently in Egypt, the main provision used to prosecute those deemed as LGBTQ is Article 9(c) of Law No.
10/1961, on the Combating of Prostitution. It provides for up to three years in prison and/or fines foranyone who “habitually engages in debauchery or prostitution.” The statute does not offer a definition for
debauchery. As noted, Egyptian courts typically equate debauchery with same-sex practice among men.
This is based on prior decisions of the Court of Cassation which established the definition of debaucheryas “a man offering himself sexually to other men.”122 Lower courts have adopted this definition without
scrutiny or additional further analysis.
The statute also fails to offer any definition of “habitually,” leaving interpretation to the courts.123124
The Court of Cassation subsequently required that, to meet the element of habituality, the accused musthave engaged in “indiscriminate” sexual acts for three years preceding arrest, in addition to the incident
that triggered the arrest.125 Judges in Misdemeanors and Appeal courts have relied on this precedent toacquit defendants from debauchery charges or reduce their sentences. However, the requirement of
habituality has also failed to protect many LGBTQ defendants, as even when the threshold of three years’
activity can be shown, the definition of “indiscriminate” is left to the discretion of the presiding judge andis often interpreted so broadly as to be meaningless. […]LGBTQ people in Egypt are also prosecuted under other provisions of Law No. 10/1961, another aspect of
the Combating of Prostitution framework, including for accessory crimes like incitement to or publicizingof debauchery. Article (1)(a) provides for prison terms of up to three years and/or fines for “Whoever
incites a person, be they male or female, to engage in debauchery or in prostitution, or assists in this or
facilitates it,” and Article 14 provides similar penalties for publicizing or drawing attention to debauchery.
[…]
122 Long, S., 2004. IN A TIME OF TORTURE - The Assualt on Justice in Egypt’s Crackdown on Homosexual Conduct.
[ebook] Human Rights Watch,. Available at: <https://www.hrw.org/report/2004/02/29/time-torture/assault-justiceegypts-crackdown-homosexual-conduct> [Accessed 30 October 2021].
123 Sexuality, Development and Non-conforming Desire in the Arab World: The Case of Lebanon and Egypt
124 There is some insight into the limits of discretion on the notion of “habituality” based on prominent definitions ofthese offences as laid out throughout different judgements of the Egyptian Court of Cassation. On this, EIPR’s analysis
shows that: EIPR page 37
23
125 Ibid

A March 2022 research piece on sodomy laws in Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, and Tunisia in the Contemporary
Review of Genocide and Political Violence (CRG Review) stated that: “The Egyptian law is not based on
Islamic jurisprudence, but rather civil law passed in 2017 that bans “scandalous acts,” “debauchery or“prostitution” (Raghavan 2020) to persecute sexual minorities, enforcing the law to highlight the controlof the state”.24

23

Afsaneh Rigot, Digital Crime Scenes: The Role of Digital Evidence in the Persecution of LGBTQ People in Egypt,
Lebanon, and Tunisia, 7 March 2022, pp. 37-39
24
Contemporary Review of Genocide and Political Violence (CRG Review), Persecution and Control: A Comparative
Look at the Sodomy Laws in Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, and Tunisia, 19 March 2022

16

In July 2022, the Guardian reported on calls for the UN to move COP27 from Egypt due to concerns for
LGBTQ+ persons in the country, writing that: “While same-sex relationships aren’t explicitly banned in
Egypt, the country’s security forces have used laws designed to protect against public “debauchery” toharass, arrest, imprison and even torture LGBTQ people, according to human rights groups”.25
A joint NGO submission for the review of Egypt by the Human Rights Committee in January 2023,
published by Committee for Justice (CFJ), DIGNITY, the Egyptian Front for Human Rights (EFHR), theEgyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), EgyptWide for Human Rights, EuroMed Rights, theInternational Service for Human Rights (ISHR), REDRESS, and Women's International League for Peaceand Freedom (WILPF), stated that:In 2002, the [CEDAW] Committee noted “the criminalization of some behaviours such as thosecharacterized as “debauchery”. It recommended “the State party should ensure that articles 17 and 26 of
the Covenant are strictly upheld, and should refrain from penalizing private sexual relations between
consenting adults.”
The State response [in November 2020] referred to article 167 of its fifth national report which denied thecriminalization of consensual same-sex relations and stated that the legislative structure to combat
prostitution, sexual exploitation and trafficking did not criminalize same sex sexual relations. Contrary to
the State’s response, cases of targeting LGBTQ+ individuals are still taking place in Egypt especially byusing the internet to entrap and arrest them. […]Egyptian police, prosecution and courts persecute homosexuality, transgender women’s identities andconsensual same-sex acts between men or men and trans women under provisions of Egypt’s Law no.
10/1961 on Combating Prostitution (most notably, the vague and overbroad crime of “habitual
26
debauchery”, among others).

At the end of January 2023, BBC News published an article on its research into online entrapment ofLGBT persons in Egypt by police, part of its work towards an investigative documentary, stating that:“There is no explicit law against homosexuality in Egypt, but our investigation has found that the crimeof "debauchery" - a sex work law - is being used to criminalise the LGBT community”.27
In February 2023, Human Rights Watch published a research report into digital targeting and its offline
consequences for LGBT people in the Middle East and North Africa, based overall on 120 interviews,
including with LGBT people affected by digital targeting, and expert representatives, including lawyers
and digital rights professionals. On the Egyptian legal context, the report stated the following:
Egypt does not explicitly criminalize same-sex relations. However, several Egyptian laws restrict the rights
to freedom of expression and privacy. These overbroad laws that target LGBT people in discriminatoryand disproportionate ways include several penal code provisions that criminalize acts of “public
indecency,” “inciting debauchery,” and the possession or distribution of materials deemed to violate

25

The Guardian, UN urged to move Cop27 from Egypt over ‘LGBTQ+ torture’, 15 July 2022
Committee for Justice (CFJ) et al., Joint NGO submission for the review of Egypt by the Human Rights Committee:
137th session (27 February to 24 March 2023), 30 January 2023, p. 7
27
BBC News, How Egyptian police hunt LGBT people on dating apps, 30 January 2023
26

17

“public decency.” The law does not define “public decency” or “debauchery,” and it does not specify what
acts are punishable.230
The Penal Code provisions commonly used to target LGBT people and their supporters are:
 Article 178, which punishes anyone who trades or distributes materials, including photos, that
violate “public morals” with up to two years in prison and a fine up to 10,000 Egyptian pounds(US$566).231
 Article 269 bis, which punishes anyone found to incite a passerby with “signals or words tocommit indecency” with imprisonment for up to one month and heightened penalties for repeat
offenders.232
 Article 278, which punishes anyone who publicly commits “a scandalous act against virtue” withdetention for up to one year or a fine of up to 300 pounds (US$17).233
Article 9 of the Law 10/1961 on the Combating of Prostitution punishes anyone who “habitually engages
in debauchery or prostitution” or who offers, owns, or manages establishments for the purpose of suchactivities, with up to three years in prison and a fine of up to 300 pounds (US$17). Article 14 of the samelaw punishes “incitement to debauchery” with up to three years in prison and a fine of 100 pounds(US$5).234 Since the late 1990s, law enforcement authorities and courts have generally broadlyinterpreted the "debauchery” law to apply to consensual same-sex conduct between men.235 […]230 “Egypt: Spate of ‘Morality’ Prosecutions of Women,” Human Rights Watch news release.
231
An
Englishtranslation
of
the
penal
code
is
available
here:
chromeextension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://sherloc.unodc.org/cld/uploads/res/document/criminal_code_of_egypt_english_html/Egypt_Criminal_Code_English.pdf, p. 76 (accessed July 4, 2022).
232 Ibid., p. 139.
233 Ibid., p. 140.
234 Law 10/1961 on the Combating of Prostitution, http://www.refworld.org/docid/5492d8784.html (accessed July 4,2022).
235 Human Rights Watch, In a Time of Torture: The Assault on Justice in Egypt’s Crackdown on Homosexual Conduct,
28(New York: Human Rights Watch, 2004), https://www.hrw.org/reports/2004/egypt0304/egypt0304.pdf.

In early March 2023, the UN Human Rights Committee published a summary record of the 3958th
meeting, held in February 2023, in which the fifth periodic report of Egypt was considered. In response
to concerns voiced that “Act No. 10 of 1961 was used criminalize homosexual and transgender persons
and that people were subject to stigmatization, harassment, violence and discrimination because of
their sexual orientation or gender identity by private individuals and State agents, including law
enforcement personnel,”29 a representative from Egypt stated that “[r]egarding homosexuality, relations
between consenting adults in private were not criminalized”.30

28

Human Rights Watch, “All This Terror Because of a Photo”: Digital Targeting and Its Offline Consequences forLGBT People in the Middle East and North Africa, 21 February 2023, pp. 96-97
29
UN Human Rights Committee, 137th session, Summary record of the 3958th meeting*: Held at the Palais Wilson,
Geneva, on Tuesday, 28 February 2023, at 3 p.m. - Consideration of reports submitted by States parties underarticle 40 of the Covenant - Fifth periodic report of Egypt, 6 March 2023, p. 4
30
UN Human Rights Committee, 137th session, Summary record of the 3958th meeting*: Held at the Palais Wilson,
Geneva, on Tuesday, 28 February 2023, at 3 p.m. - Consideration of reports submitted by States parties underarticle 40 of the Covenant - Fifth periodic report of Egypt, 6 March 2023, p. 5

18

The US Department of State (USDOS) published its annual report on human rights practices in Egypt inMarch 2023, covering developments in 2022. It wrote that: “While the law does not explicitly criminalize
consensual same-sex sexual activity, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+)
persons were arrested and prosecuted on charges including ‘debauchery’, prostitution, and ‘violating
family values,’ for which the law imposes prison sentences of up to 10 years in prison, significant fines,
or both. This results in de facto criminalization of same-sex conduct and identity”.31
In March 2023, Freedom House released its annual Freedom in the World 2023 report, coveringdevelopments in 2022. For Egypt, it similarly stated that: “While same-sex sexual conduct is not
explicitly banned, people suspected of such activity can be charged with prostitution or “debauchery”.32
The same statement was written in the 2022 and 2021 annual reports.33
In April 2023, the UN Human Rights Committee published its concluding observations on the fifth
periodic report of Egypt, in which it stated that: “The Committee is concerned that vague provisions on“habitual debauchery” under Act No. 10 of 1961 on combating prostitution are used to prosecute
persons due to their sexual orientation or gender identity, and in some cases to subject them to forced
anal examinations (arts. 2, 3, 7, 17 and 26)”.34
The ILGA World’s Database page for Egypt stated that: “In January 2022, a member of the Constitutionaland Legislative Affairs Committee in the Senate reportedly submitted to a proposal to the legislative
council to add a number of articles to the Penal Code to "prohibit and criminalize homosexuality". A
month later, it was reported that another MP had drafted a bill for consideration which would explicitly
criminalise consensual same-sex activity, as well as the "promotion of homosexuality"”.35

iii.

Other relevant legislation affecting LGBTQI+ persons

The May 2020 BBC News article about the Egyptian actor, Hisham Selim, speaking out in support of histransgender son, stated that: “Although transitioning is legal in Egypt, the process is long and complex. It
involves medical tests, psychological treatment and approval from both doctors and religious clerics”.36
An article in Slate by Afsaneh Rigot in December 2020 on the increasing persecution of LGBTQI+ peoplein Egypt using cybercrime and online morality laws noted the following information on the changing useof courts to prosecute LGBTQ-related cases:

31

USDOS, 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 20 March 2023
Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2023: Egypt, March 2023
33
Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2022: Egypt, 24 February 2022; Freedom House, Freedom in the World
2021: Egypt, 3 March 2021
34
UN Human Rights Committee, Concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of Egypt, 14 April 2023, p. 2
35International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), ILGA World Database: Egypt
page, undated [last accessed 30 June 2023]
36
BBC News, Hisham Selim, famed Egyptian actor, praised over transgender son, 10 May 2020
32

19

Over the past few years, Egyptian prosecutors have started increasingly relying on the gathering of digital
evidence to prosecute LGBTQ people through online dating app entrapments or evidence from people’s
devices. However, as of this year, prosecutors are moving LGBTQ cases to the economic courts of Egypt,which are known for prosecuting online “moral” crimes. The result is that sentences, charges, and fines
are being doubled. […]Starting in March, LGBTQ-prosecuting cases started being tried in the economic courts. The courts are
optimizing how to turn private interactions and communication, deemed queer, into a certified sentence.
The shift for these cases seems to be linked to challenges prosecutors faced from meticulous NGOs anddefense attorneys. Thanks to their efforts, crimes of “advertising,” “publicising,” or “habitually practicing”
debauchery have become harder to prove. Sharif (a pseudonym I’m using for his protection), one of themain defense lawyers working on these cases, told me, “The accused get acquitted often simply because
according to the debauchery law, you have to add a sense of publicity into a conversation.” But theseconversations are clearly private—there is no “publicity.” With challenges to clumsily gathered digital
evidence, defense lawyers have garnered more reduced sentences and acquittals in recent years.
“The public prosecutor started take note that if [they] lose debauchery cases because of lack of ‘publicity,’
they may be able to use articles from the new laws, to mix it with the debauchery law. [Then] they canprosecute people and actually win the case or get a [higher] sentence out of the court,” Sharif explained.
By trying these cases in the economic courts, they not only increase chances of convictions but arebringing more charges and with higher sentences. […]The laws under which these cases are tried in the economic courts are vague and broadly applied: Article
76 of the Telecommunication Regulation Law criminalises the “misuse of telecommunications,” andArticle 25 of the cybercrime law criminalizes the use of technology to “infringe on any family principles orvalues in Egyptian society.”
The most dangerous of the laws is that “family values” law. “An article like [that is] so flexible and open tointerpretation that no individual will have an understanding of it to prevent doing that crime,” Sharif told
me. These laws are not only very broad—they lack interpretations from higher courts. This has allowed
for judicial power to not just apply the laws but also to define them.
Starting in March, police, prosecutors, and courts aligned for this new pattern of arrests and prosecutions.
“[Before March] the police didn’t really know to note that the person had violated the cybercrime law. …
They would just follow the same old rhythm. They would just write debauchery [charges],” Sharif told me.
“But, after March, police officers took note of the change and started writing that the person also violated
the cybercrime law in [the] police report. … It is much easier for the prosecutor to send it to the economic
courts because … there’s more guarantee to get a sentence that he wants.” […]The sentences that accompany these new convictions are significant. “While debauchery law cases usually
had around a 400 Egyptian pound fine [about one week’s worth of groceries for an average family], andthree to six months imprisonment if they were sentenced … the new law has a minimum fine of 50,000
EGP and maximum 100,000 EGP, and the minimum sentences are usually two years … so it’s a very big
jump,” Sharif pointed out. This is echoed by the other caseworkers and lawyers I’ve spoken to as well as
by court files: same interrogations, same investigations, higher charges and higher fines.
And things are getting worse. On Sept. 1, the Egyptian government released the executive list for the
cybercrime law. Prior to this, lawyers had been able to use a lack of a definitions and procedures as partof their defense. However, the executive list now codifies a broad range of elements that are chargeable
digital offenses. It also provides the courts with power to bring in technical experts to certify the digital
evidence presented.
In the misdemeanor courts, challenging unverified and clumsy evidence-gathering was a possibility. This
will be very difficult now for defense lawyers. Sharif said the court brings in a “specialized cyber person,20

an engineer sometimes, that comes and checks the phone, checks the conversation, checks the data andchecks the IP [addresses], checks everything, and gives a detailed technical report to the court.” They arevery serious about confirming convictions and standardizing their methods.
The picture is dire. Right now, increased digital reliance is unavoidable, and the courts are adapting. In mytime researching arrests and prosecutions of LGBTQ groups, I have never seen another country with such
37
a robust system of prosecutions—and now it’s being further optimized.

At the beginning of 2021, Bedayaa Organization produced its annual report covering events relevant to
its legal aid programme from January to December 2020. It reported on the cybercrime law and theeconomic courts in Egypt:
I. Cybercrime Law and Economic Courts
Early on in 2020, and In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Egyptian General Prosecutor announced that
the Cybercrime Law (no. 175 for the year 2018) will be intensively employed starting March 2020.
Prosecutors also started to use another new charge in SOGlESC-based prosecutions which is “the misuseof communication devices” that is present in the Telecommunication Regulation Law (no. 10 for the year2010).
Due to these vague charges that are used in the Cybercrime Law such as “violating family values andprinciples in the Egyptian society”, there is an uncertainty status with regards to the extent to which theapplication of that law will affect SOGlESC-based prosecutions.
That could practically be used to prosecute persons who commit any online behaviour that the Statedeems as a violation of “Egyptian family values” such as the famous case of the TikTok girls.
As a result of these developments, cases started to get redirected to economic courts—the courts with
exclusive jurisdiction over cases that are based on these charges.
This presented a dramatic shift from the traditional use of the debauchery article in prosecutions of
LGBTQ+ individuals in criminal courts.
The early signs of the employment of these new charges in SOGlESC-based prosecutions are very mixed.
Two different cases in front of economic courts received acquittals in the first degree however, in an
unexpected turn of events, one of these cases received a two-year sentence after the prosecution
appealed the first-degree sentence.
A third case, in which four gay men were arrested from a coHee shop in Alexandria, is currently pending
trial in an economic court.
The Cybercrime Law has significantly higher fines as convicted persons can receive fines as high as
300,000 Egyptian pounds.
In addition to the high fine, LGBTQ+ individuals who are prosecuted in this new setting can also receive up
to a 3-year prison sentence.
The courts themselves are still trying to adapt to this new and very broad jurisdiction, especially as the38
executive regulations for the Cybercrime Law have been just released in September 2020.

Similarly, in February 2021, ILGA World stated that: “A report has highlighted how the introduction of
the new Cybercrime Law in Egypt has “introduced a dramatic shift from the traditional use of thedebauchery article in prosecutions of LGBTQ+ individuals in criminal courts””.39
37
38

Slate, Egypt’s Dangerous New Strategy for Criminalizing Queerness, 30 December 2020
Bedayaa Organization, Legal Aid – Annual Report: 2020, 2021, p. 2

21

In March 2021, a joint statement from Kirsti Kauppi, Ambassador of Finland to the UN, on behalf ofthirty-one UN member states at the 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council denouncing thehuman rights situation in Egypt, stated that “we are deeply concerned about the application of terrorism
legislation against human rights activists, LGBTI persons, journalists, politicians and lawyers”.40
A June 2021 France 24 article on the challenges of a transgender woman in Egypt wrote that: “Egyptian
law "does not recognise transgender people", said one of the founding members of rights group
Bedayaa, which advocates for the LGBTQ+ community”.41
The Sexual Rights Database by the Sexual Rights Initiative, last updated in November 2021, noted thefollowing: “Article 24 of the Medical Code of Conduct & Ethics states that doctors have the right torefuse medical services to any patient from the beginning or stop treatment based on personal or
professionals reasons, so long as it is not an emergency (Independent SRHR expert, Egypt)”.42
In November 2021, Nora Noralla, an Egyptian human rights researcher, published an article for
OpenGlobalRights on the discriminatory system for transgender people in Egypt and the death of Ezz
Eldin, a 26-year-old transgender man, in August of that year. The article also gave an overview andtimeline of the complexly connected legal, medical, and religious framework around gender recognition
and gender affirmation surgery:
August 26 should have been a day of celebration for Ezz Eldin, a 26-year-old transgender man, but it
ended in tragedy. He bled to death after he was prematurely discharged following a gender-affirmation
surgery in an underground clinic, transgender activists told Human Rights Watch.
Ezz Eldin, who also went by Ahmed Fares, need not have died, and what should have been a life-affirming
surgery instead became a life-threatening procedure in an unauthorized clinic. A dysfunctional,
discriminatory system left him with no surgical alternative. This is the situation for transgender people in
Egypt who are denied access to appropriate health care under a government that discriminates againstthem and withholds legal gender recognition.
His desperate attempts to get the care he needed arose, in part, due to discord between religious andmedical authorities. The impasse originated almost two decades ago and revolves around the extent at
which religious authorities should have a say in medical matters. It is based on a fatwa, or religious edict,that permitted medical intervention only for intersex people, who are born with characteristics that varyfrom what is considered typical for female or male bodies.
Transgender individuals, whose gender differs from the sex they were assigned at birth, were disqualified.
This confusing, contradictory, and discriminatory policy has left transgender people in Egypt with very few
choices—if they want surgery, unregulated and often unsafe clinics are the only options.
39

International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), The week in LGBTI news: 19-25
February 2021, 26 February 2021
40
Ambassador Kirsti Kauppi, Finland, et al., 46th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council: General
Debate Item 4: Human Rights Situations that require the Council’s attention - Joint Statement on Egypt, 12 March
2021, p. 1
41
France 24, Transgender woman battles for 'dignity' in conservative Egypt, 2 June 2021
42
Sexual Rights Initiative, Sexual Rights Database: Egypt, last updated 11 November 2021

22

In 2003, Egypt’s Health Ministry established a review committee within the Medical Syndicate for people
wanting “sex reassignment surgery.” However, the volunteer committee met irregularly, had no legal
authority, and was required to include a representative from Egypt’s Islamic oversight body, Dar Al Ifta.
This led to the anomalous situation of a religious authority participating in medical policy, based on theirunderstanding of religion, not science. In accordance with the fatwa, Dar Al Ifta drew a distinction
between “sex change,” referring to gender affirming surgery for transgender people, and “sexreassignment,” referring to surgery for people with intersex characteristics.
Medical authorities were reluctant to refer transgender patients to surgery, out of deference for theirreligious counterparts. In 2003, the Medical Syndicate amended the Medical Code of Ethics to ban doctors
from performing surgery on transgender patients to further please the religious authorities, who believedthat sex reassigment sugries should only be allowed for intersex indvidiuals [sic].
Doctors who perform such surgery risk a professional liability, and legal repercussions under article 244 of
Egypt’s Penal Code. In several documented cases, prosecutors and judges punished doctors who had
performed these operations under the guise of causing a “permanent disability” to transgender patients.
This caused a spike in the cost of gender-affirming care, as fewer doctors were willing to take this risk.
According to several transgender people we talked to, gender-affirming surgeries could cost anywherefrom 7,000 EGP (445 USD) to 25,000 EGP (1,560 USD).
Notwithstanding these barriers, the Medical Syndicate indicated in 2013 that it was willing to consider
individual transgender applicants under certain onerous conditions, including two years of psychiatricobservation. This was to demonstrate to the religious authorities that the applicant tried to resolve theissue through psychiatric treatment but to no effect. But even this narrow window was closed underpressure from Dar Al Ifta in 2014.
In 2017, religious and medical representatives appeared to have resolved their differences by agreeingthat the religious authorities would have the final say. However, the committee remained
so dysfunctional that it asked the government to dissolve it and transfer responsibility for handling cases
to the Health Ministry or Justice Ministry.
In a landmark 2016 case, a transgender man requested legal gender recognition from the state, but anadministrative court denied his request, based on the aforementioned fatwa, and after the Forensic
Medical Authority said that “the plaintiff underwent a sex change operation and not a sex reassignmentone.” Thus, the plaintiff violated the Shari’a principles, which only allows surgeries for intersex
individuals.
The court added that parliament should “issue laws to regulate the matter and to clear the confusion
about the process, on the condition that the new laws would be compatible with Islamic Shari’a.” and that“the medical syndicate is a body only responsible to look after the welfare of its members and is not in aposition to review requests for sex reassignment surgeries.”
This ruling highlighted the negative impact of having religious authorities determine the health care needsof transgender people, a task for which they are wholly unqualified. […]Egypt’s legislative and executive branches should carry out urgent reforms to create a legal gender43
recognition system recognized by all government departments.

The latest edition of ILGA World's “Our Identities under Arrest” report, released in December 2021,
stated that:

43

OpenGlobalRights, A discriminatory system killed a transgender man in Egypt, 10 November 2021

23

There is no law that explicitly criminalises consensual same-sex sexual activity in Egypt. However, Law No.
10/1961 on the Combating of Prostitution is selectively used to target individuals of diverse sexual
orientations and gender identities. The main charges brought against suspects include “habitual practiceof debauchery” (Article 9-c), “publicising an invitation to induce debauchery” (Article 14), and “incitement
to debauchery” (Article 1). While these articles provide for a maximum of three years imprisonment,
Bedayaa, a local NGO, noted that some cases could receive up to six years.26
A draft law to increase the minimum prison sentence for these offences to seven years has advanced to
the Parliament’s Legislative and Constitutional Committee.27 Further, the Egyptian Dar Al Iftaa (Islamic
advisory body to the government) issued a series of fatwas (legal opinions) in 2020, including one
condemning homosexuality and outlining the need for medical intervention (i.e., “conversion
therapies”).28 […]26 “Repression in Egypt: 92 LGBTIQ+ arrests last year”, Rights Africa, 8 March 2020.
27 ILGA World: Lucas Ram n Mendos, ellyn Botha, Rafael Carrano Lelis, Enrique L pez de la Pe a, Ilia Savelev andDaron Tan, State-Sponsored Homophobia: Global Legislation Overview Update (2020), 522.
28 “‫“ال جد اثار وال غ ف ران وال شذوذ االن تحار ن ال رصي ل إلف تاء م ت تال ية ف تاوى ث الث ال وط ن دن يا ى ل ع ال زي د‬[More on Dunya Al-Watan Three consecutive fatwas of the Egyptian fatwa on suicide, homosexuality, and forgiveness44
sparked controversy], Alwatan Voice, 22 June 2020.]

Bedayaa Organization’s 2021 report answering FAQs on the situation for LGBTQI people in Egypt wrotethat:
In 2018 the Egyptian Parliament passed the new cybercrime law number 175/2018 14 this law contained
several vague articles that lacks a clear legal definition, which open room to use against LGBTI persons, forexample, article 25 of the law states that anyone who violate the principles and values of the Egyptianfamily and the Egyptian society is to be punished by jail time of at least six months and a fine of minimum
50000 EGP and maximum 100000 EGP. This kind of vague language is a huge risk for any member of the
LGBTI community who tries to have any kind of activity on the social media and the internet in Egypt.
It is worth mentioning that article 178 from the penal code (4)15 is used in some cases. This article statesthat whoever publishes, or shows, or prints advertising material or symbolic signs or brochures orphotographs that violate public morals is to be punished with a maximum of two years jail time and with afine of minimum 5000 EGP and maximum 10000 EGP. […]14 https://www.loc.gov/law/foreign-news/article/egypt-president-ratifies-anti-cybercrime-law/45
15 https://www.refworld.org/docid/3f827fc44.html

Afsaneh Rigot’s March 2022 report on the role of digital evidence in the persecution of LGBTQ people in
Egypt, as well as Lebanon and Tunisia, wrote in detail on the increased use of cyber laws affecting
LGBTQI+ persons:44

International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), Our Identities Under Arrest: A
global overview on the enforcement of laws criminalising consensual same-sex sexual acts between adults anddiverse gender expressions, 15 December 2021, pp. 125-126
45
Bedayaa Organization, 10 FAQs about LGBTIQs situation in Egypt, 2021, p. 6

24

Due to increased reliance on digital evidence as a component of prosecution, there is a corresponding
increase in the use of cyber laws to persecute queerness. Among the three countries, Egypt is the mostaccustomed to using cyber laws in cases involving LGBTQ persons and groups, and infrastructure to
support the use of cyber laws for these purposes is in place. […]While this research was underway, there was a pronounced increase in the use of cyber laws in the typeof cases being studied. Specifically, Article 76 of the Telecommunication Regulation Law, which
criminalizes the “misuse of telecommunications,”168 and Article 25 of the cybercrime law, which
criminalizes the use of technology to “infringe on any family principles or values in Egyptian society.”169[…]
When the Egyptian Economic Courts were created in 2008, they were endowed with jurisdiction overfinancial laws, including the 2003 Telecommunication Regulation Law; in 2019, jurisdiction over Egypt’s
2018 Anti-Cyber and Information Technology Crimes Law (known as the “cybercrime law”)171 was added
by decree.172 With this addition, the economic courts began exercising influence over public life bypolicing online “morality” and reinforcing digital surveillance. Advocates for the queer community
predicted this law would be weaponized against them, with one interviewee noting that: “cybercrime
legislation authorities have the tools and ability to watch the internet; they can search and haunt the gays
through dating apps like Grindr, WhosHere, and even on Facebook.” 173 Another said in respect tocybercrime legislation that, “I think that [this] new security approach, or policing approach, is going to sortof erase the previous approach that was used in Egypt against LGBT groups.”174 […]By September of 2020, a significant percentage of LGBTQ cases involving digital evidence were beingtransferred to the economic courts. Transfers were generally accomplished through the addition of
charges under Article 76 of the Telecommunication Regulation Law, criminalizing the “misuse of
telecommunications,”177 and Article 25 of the cybercrime law, criminalizing the use of technology to“infringe on any family principles or values in Egyptian society.”178 This shift enabled police andprosecutors to optimize their use of digital evidence in the pursuit of more stringent sentences. Based on
the comments of the lawyer interviewed, it is possible to bring debauchery and prostitution law charges
before the Economic court and therefore combined charges. […]Lawyers working on these cases outline the complexity that comes with the breadth and vagueness of thecybercrime charges. There is consensus that the most dangerous of the laws is Article 25 of thecybercrimes law:“[this law] doesn’t have any elements to it. Every crime has an element, like the elements that areunderstood, elements that are clear, not only for the lawyer but for the person because if you want tocriminalize something you need to make it clear for the individual so they wouldn’t commit the crime, but
an article like violating family values and social traditions and so on, it’s so vague and so flexible and open
to interpretation that no individual will have an understanding of it to prevent doing that crime. And this is
an issue even for the defendant because how do you defend something that doesn’t have aninterpretation?”187
The lack of specificity in these laws amounts to a delegation of authority from the legislature to thecourts, and affords the courts and prosecutors tabula rasa to avoid pro-defendant precedent on
debauchery laws put before the Court of Cessation. […]In particular, the interviewee observed that there is “a very big jump” on the severity of sentences, as thecybercrime law provides higher fines and longer prison terms:“If we look at the Law No 10/1961 we’ll see that article number 9-c that is related to practice and habitualdebauchery says that the person is to be punished for a minimum of 3 months and the maximum of 3
years or a fine does not go over 300 Egyptian pounds and probation of the same time that person receives.
The new law, Law No. 175, Article 25 [of the cybercrime law], the punishment is at least 6 months—here25

we see a 3-month increase in the jail time punishment—and the fine does not go lower than 50 thousand
Egyptian pounds and maximum of 100 [thousand] Egyptian pounds...”190
Furthermore, the overall structure of these laws is not just defined by longer prison terms, but by theoverall lack of options for punishment except for those of prison terms, where “under the new law there is
no probation, so it is just jail time.”191 […]168 Article19.org. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.article19.org/data/files/medialibrary/37966/Egypttelecoms-report---English.pdf> [Accessed 22 December 2021]. (In this English translation it is translated as“illegitimate means to conduct telecommunication correspondence”
http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/research/Egypt/Egypt%20Telecommunication%20Regulation%20Law.pdf yet holds thesame interpretation)
169 Cyrilla.org. 2021. Law No. 175 of 2018 on Anti-Cybercrimes and Information Technology Crimes • Page 2 •CYRILLA:
GlobalDigitalRightsLaw.
[online]Availableat:<https://cyrilla.org/en/document/eonsr41300kx0jqeipsvbcsor?page=2> [Accessed 22 December 2021]. […]171 Ibid‫ال ساب ع ال يوم‬. 2021. ‫ت صدي ق ب عد ت صادي ةاال ق ال حاك م ق ان ون ن ص�ش ن ن‬
‫ ال ر س ية ب ال ج ي دة ه�ش ون ال ي‬- ‫ال يوم‬‫ ال ساب ع‬172 [online] Available at: <https://www.youm7.com/story/2019/8/13/%D9%86%D9%86%D8%B4%D8%B1%D9%86%D8%B5-%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%88%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AD%D8%A7%D9%83%D9%85%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D9%82%D8%AA%D8%B5%D8%A7%D8%AF%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A8%D8%B9%D8%AF%D8%AA%D8%B5%D8%AF%D9%8A%D9%82-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%A6%D9%8A%D8%B3%D9%88%D9%86%D8%B4%D8%B1%D9%87%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AC%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%AF%D8%A9/4374050> [Accessed 22 December 2021].
173 EL3
174 EL4 […]176 EL4
177 Article19.org. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.article19.org/data/files/medialibrary/37966/Egypttelecoms-report---English.pdf> [Accessed 22 December 2021]. (In this English translation it is translated as“illegitimate means to conduct telecommunication correspondence”
http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/research/Egypt/Egypt%20Telecommunication%20Regulation%20Law.pdf yet holds thesame interpretation)
178 Cyrilla.org. 2021. Law No. 175 of 2018 on Anti-Cybercrimes and Information Technology Crimes • Page 2 •CYRILLA:
GlobalDigitalRightsLaw.
[online]Availableat:<https://cyrilla.org/en/document/eonsr41300kx0jqeipsvbcsor?page=2> [Accessed 22 December 2021]. […]187 EL2 […]190 EL6
46
191 EL6

The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2021, published in April 2022, wrote
that: “The law allows for conducting forced anal exams in cases of “debauchery”.47
The New Arab published an article in July 2022 on the lack of gender-affirming health care in Middle East
nations, including Egypt. It wrote that:46

Afsaneh Rigot, Digital Crime Scenes: The Role of Digital Evidence in the Persecution of LGBTQ People in Egypt,
Lebanon, and Tunisia, 7 March 2022, pp. 50-52, 54-55
47
USDOS, 2021 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 12 April 2022

26

The already marginalised transgender communities of the Middle East have seen their rights dwindle evenfurther in the past several years, as an alarming number of Arab Middle Eastern countries have passed
laws restricting or banning their access to gender-affirming health care and legal gender recognition. […]Egypt led the region in cracking down on transgender people: In 2003, the country’s medical syndicate
amended its code of ethics and added article 43, which banned doctors from providing any sex-change
treatments.
These legal changes are often driven by conservative religious narratives and the façade of protecting thevalues of society –and resisting the West. […]In Egypt, article 43 stipulated that sex-change medical interventions shall only be allowed after a full
chromosome map to ensure that the person has a “biological need” to receive that medical treatment.
It also mandates that gender-affirming health care will be made available only after receiving approval
from a sex reassignment committee.
The committee was established in 2003 to review applications from those who wish to receive genderaffirming health care and included a representative of Al-Azhar – Egypt’s highest religious authority – toensure that every case is medically compatible with Sharia.
Violation of this amendment placed doctors under professional and criminal liability […]. […]Furthermore, legal gender recognition is out of the question, as courts often rely on Sharia to make their
judgment on the matter and employ medical opinions to verify whether the person truly has intersex
characteristics or not. […]"The mismatch between their gender identity and their ID papers makes them an easy target for vicepolice," says Maryam Chaine, a Cairo-based lawyer. […]Currently, the Egyptian parliament, together with the medical syndicate, is discussing new medical liability
law. One can be hopeful that this new law will remove the discriminatory ban that the current code of48
ethics has enacted on transgender bodies since 2003.

For a COI brief report on the situation of LGBT persons in Egypt by the Danish Immigration Service,
published in September 2022, an online meeting was conducted with an analyst at Human Rights Watch
in July of the same year. The meeting minutes, listed in the annex of the report, noted the following withregards to the law:
1. Several Egyptian laws restrict the right to privacy and freedom of expression. Among these vague andbroad laws, which are also used to target LGBT people in discriminatory and disproportionate ways, arepenal code provisions that criminalize public indecency, inciting debauchery and the possession or
distribution of material violating public decency. The law does not clearly define public decency,
debauchery or the acts that are punished.
2. Article 9 of Law 10 of 1961 on the Combating of Prostitution punishes anyone who habitually engages
in debauchery or prostitution or who offers, owns or manages establishments for the purposes of suchactivities with up to three years of prison and a fine of 300 Egyptian pounds. Article 14 of the same law
punishes the incitement to debauchery. Those are the laws primarily used by law enforcement authorities
and courts against LGBT people and they have generally stretched the interpretation of the incitement todebauchery and debauchery to apply to consensual same sex conduct between men.
3. Other penal code provisions that are used are article 178 of Law No. 58 of 1937, which punishes anyone
who trades or distributes material including photographs that violate public morals with imprisonment of48

The New Arab, The Middle East has an anti-transgender bills problem, 22 July 2022

27

up to two years and a fine of 10.000 Egyptian pounds. Additionally, article 269 punishes anyone who isfound to incite others to commit indecency or adultery with imprisonment of up to one month. Article
278 of the same law punishes anyone who publicly commits a scandalous act against pudency withdetention of up to one year and a fine of 300 Egyptian pounds.
4. Recently the cybercrimes law has been used as well in LGBT cases. Law No. 175 of 2018 restricts online
content undermining public morals or family values in articles 26 and 25, and article 27, which criminalizes
the use of the internet to commit any other criminalized offense such as those mentioned in the penal
code. Those articles punish individuals by up to six months in prison and a fine between 50.000 and
100.000 pounds. Those crimes are primarily punished in economic courts, which were established in Egypt
in 2008. The jurisdiction includes violations of the 2018 cybercrime laws. Thus, a combination of, thepenal code laws and laws on cybercrime are used to target LGBT people. […]6. Usually the laws are combined. In the first instance, individuals are referred to court based on penal
code provisions such as the debauchery laws. If the case has any online content, it can be transferred to49
the economic court where the cybercrime law is invoked.

The same meeting minutes recorded the following on legal gender recognition:
17. In Egypt, there is a distinction between ‘sex change’ referring to gender affirming surgery fortransgender people and ‘sex reassignment’ for intersex individuals. An individual who undergoes a sex
change operation is not qualified for legal gender recognition, while individuals who undergo a sex
reassignment surgery are allowed to change their name and gender.
18. Since 2003, a review committee under Egypt’s Ministry of Health comprising medical authorities andreligious leaders (a representative from Egypt’s Islamic oversight body Dar el-Ifta) has made decisions
about whether an individual can obtain a sex change or a sex reassignment procedure and whether they
can obtain legal gender recognition at all. In 2003, the medical code of ethics was amended resulting indoctors being banned from performing surgery on transgender patients. Since then, individuals who want
to receive legal recognition of their new sex from the state have been continuously denied, because thereis the mentioned distinction between sex change and sex reassignment. There have been a few cases
where transgender individuals could obtain a legal gender recognition, but it was based on proclaiming asex reassignment surgery and not a sex change surgery.
50
19. […] There has been no reform on legal gender recognition.

In February 2023, Human Rights Watch’s research report into digital targeting and its offline
consequences for LGBT people in the Middle East and North Africa, stated the following in reference tothe Egyptian legal context:
The 2018 cybercrime law (Law No. 175/2018)236 restricts online content deemed to undermine “family
values” (article 25) or “public morals” (article 26). Article 27 criminalizes the use of the internet to“commit any other criminalized offense,” including those in the Penal Code.237 Content that conflicts
with the principles or family values of Egyptian society or the sanctity of private life is criminalized andpunishable by up to six months in prison and a fine of between 50,000 (US$1600) and 100,000 pounds
49

The Danish Immigration Service, Country of Origin (COI) Brief Report – Egypt: Situation of LGBT persons,September 2022, pp. 19-20
50
The Danish Immigration Service, Country of Origin (COI) Brief Report – Egypt: Situation of LGBT persons,September 2022, p. 22

28

($US3200).238 Economic courts, which were established in Egypt in 2008 and consist of appeals courts
judges, have jurisdiction over violations of the 2018 cybercrime law.239
Egypt’s cybercrime law requires internet service providers to collect and store customer usage data for
180 days. That includes data that enables user identification, and data related to all user activities,
including phone calls and text messages, websites visited, and applications used on smartphones andcomputers. The National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority can also issue an administrativedecision obliging telecommunications companies to save “other data” without specifying what kind.240
[…]
236
Law
No. 175
of 2018
RegardingAnti-Cyber
andInformation
Technology
Crimes,http://ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/ELECTRONIC/108464/134088/F1331903941/175-2018.pdf (accessed July 1, 2022).
237 Ibid.
238 Ibid.
239 “Egypt: Spate of ‘Morality’ Prosecutions of Women,” Human Rights Watch news release.
240 “Abuse of Cybercrime Measures Taints UN Talks,” Human Rights Watch news release, May 5, 2021,
51
https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/05/05/abuse-cybercrime-measures-taints-un-talks.

In February 2023, a report on banning the LGBT community from appearing in the Egyptian media waspublished by the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE). It stated the following:
The Press and Media Regulation Law No. 180 of 2018 gives the SCMR [Supreme Council for Media
Regulation] the right to regulate the media in order to guarantee the protection of press and media
freedom by ensuring that media outlets and press institutions adhere to the standards, principles andethics of the profession, as well as the requirements of national security. This allows the SCMR to ban the
publication or the broadcast of any content that it may deem violating the profession and its ethics orthreatening the national security. […]The decisions issued by the SCMR are administrative[8] and can be appealed in accordance with Article 97of the constitution, which states: “Litigation is a safeguarded right guaranteed to all. The state shall bring
together the litigating parties, and work towards speedy judgment in cases. It is forbidden to grant any act
or administrative decision immunity from judicial oversight.” So, the constitution allows persons who
have the capacity and the interest to challenge administrative decisions before the State Council.
Although the litigation process may appear to be a solution, it requires time and physical, mental andmaterial effort, and may pose a security risk to the appellant, given that the disclosure of affiliation to theLGBT community is a crime punishable by the Egyptian authorities. […]8 Mostafa Shawqy, Q&A on the SCMR’s gag order in the 57357 Hospital case, AFTE, published in 2018, last visited in
52
August 2022; https://afteegypt.org/advocacy/position-papers/2018/07/16/15556-afteegypt.html

The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2022, published in March 2023, stated
that: “The government has the authority to deport LGBTQI+ foreigners or bar their entry to thecountry”.53
51

Human Rights Watch, “All This Terror Because of a Photo”: Digital Targeting and Its Offline Consequences forLGBT People in the Middle East and North Africa, 21 February 2023, pp. 97-98
52
Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE), “They have no presence!” - On banning the LGBT
community from appearing in the Egyptian media, 23 February 2023
53
USDOS, 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 20 March 2023

29

b. Implementationi.

Arrests

2020
Human Rights Watch released an article in September 2020 on the August 2020 arrest of witnesses to agang rape in 2014. The article wrote that:
Egyptian security agencies in late August 2020 arbitrarily arrested a man and three women who were
witnesses to a high-profile gang rape case from 2014 that recently came to light, Human Rights Watch
said today. Security also arrested two of the witnesses’ acquaintances.
The prosecutor general ordered the release of three of the six on August 31 but is pressing charges
against all of them for violating laws on “morality” and “debauchery” that are vague, discriminatory, andopen to abuse. Pro-government media have subjected them to a coordinated smear campaign […].
The authorities had encouraged witnesses of the rape to come forward, which they did in early August.
They now stand accused of consensual same-sex sexual conduct, “inciting debauchery,” personal druguse, and “misuse of social media,” a charge frequently used against peaceful government critics. […]Activists connected to feminist and LGBT communities in Egypt said they fear a wider crackdown as
security forces use content that they obtain from the confiscated devices to identify others. […]Four activists said that the authorities arbitrarily arrested at least two other people, who areacquaintances of the witnesses. One was allegedly a man who was visiting one of the American-Egyptian
woman witnesses when security officials came to arrest her. Security forces unlawfully searched theman’s phone and used photos they found to allege that he has engaged in same-sex conduct as a basis tokeep him in custody. Prosecutors renewed his detention, and he could face charges under Egypt’s“debauchery” laws. […]Security forces also arrested a well-known party organizer who was involved in organizing the 2014 party
at the Fairmont Hotel during which the gang rape occurred, although the person with knowledge of thecase said the rape survivor did not accuse him of any wrongdoing. Pro-government websites said he wasarrested on August 28 in a North Coast resort village. Several websites published his name and private
information in the smear campaign based on his perceived sexual orientation.
Security forces have been holding the two men in al-Tagamoa First Police Station, east of Cairo. […]As of September 2, at least three of those arbitrarily detained remain in custody, including a woman
witness, the party organizer, and the man whom the authorities are alleging has engaged in same-sex
54
conduct.

At the beginning of October 2020, Human Rights Watch released a report on the arrest, abuse, andtorture of LGBT people in Egypt by security forces. The report found:54

Human Rights Watch, Egypt: Gang Rape Witnesses Arrested, Smeared: Personal Data Used in Abusive
Prosecutions, 11 September 202030

Egyptian police and National Security Agency officers arbitrarily arrest lesbian, gay, bisexual, andtransgender (LGBT) people and detain them in inhuman conditions, systematically subject them to illtreatment including torture, and often incite fellow inmates to abuse them, Human Rights Watch said
today. […]In late August, Egyptian security forces, likely from the National Security Agency, arrested two men who
witnessed a high-profile gang rape in Cairo’s Fairmont Nile City Hotel in 2014 and were to give evidence
about the case. Officers unlawfully searched the men’s phones while holding them incommunicado at alTagamoa First Police Station, east of Cairo, for several days, and used photos they found to allege thatthey had engaged in same-sex conduct, to keep them in custody. Judges renewed their detention several
55
times […]. The two men could face charges under Egypt’s “debauchery” laws. […].

The ILGA World December 2020 update to its state-sponsored homophobia global overview noted thefollowing:
In recent years there have been numerous cases of arrests and detention for “debauchery” or othercharges widely understood to target LGBT individuals.16 […] In September 2020, there were reports ofinvestigations being carried out on two women who announced that they had married each other.20 […]16 “ ‫ ال دق ي ل ـ ال ح لة من‬.. ‫س ال شذوذ ل ار س تھ شاب ح ب‬‫ م قاب ل ال ج ن ي‬300 ‫"دوال ر‬, Al-Khaleej News, 18 October 2019;‫س ال شذوذ ل ار س تھ شاب‬
‫ن‬
‫ج‬
‫ال‬
‫ل‬
‫قاب‬
‫م‬
‫غ‬
‫بال‬
‫م‬
‫یة‬
‫مال‬
‫عجوزة‬‫ ب ال‬4"‫ي‬‫س ال شذوذ ل ار س تھ شاب ح ب‬
‫ ب ال عجوزة مال یة م بال غ م قاب ل ال ج ن ي‬4" ;2019 Al-Khaleej News, 18 October,"‫ال ح لة من‬‫ ال دق ي ل ـ‬.. ‫س ال شذوذ ل ار س تھ شاب ح ب‬‫ م قاب ل ال ج ن ي‬300 ‫; "دوال ر‬2019 Al-Khaleej 365, 14 November,"‫ ب ك فال ة‬1000‫ ج ن یھ‬..‫; "ب ال ج زیة ال شذوذ ب ار سة م ت ھم شاب س ب یل ا الء‬2019 Al-Khaleej News, 10 November,"‫“ ا ام‬Repression in‫ز‬Egypt: 92 LGBTIQ+ arrests last year”, Rights Africa, 8 March 2020; " ‫ ال عجوزة ق ي‬.. ‫ال شذوذ ل ار س تھ شاب ح ب‬‫س‬‫"مال یة م بال غ م قاب ل ال ج ن ي‬, Al- Khaleej News, 30 September 2019; “‫ال شذوذ ل ار سة ب ال یوی ـ ـ ج ال ت ھم احالة‬‫ز‬‫“ل ل حاك ة ن رص مدی نة ق ال ج ن س‬, Youm7, 13 October 2020. […]‫ز‬20 2020 Shasha, 10 September,”‫; ”م رص ق ي م ث ل یا ال زواج ف تات ی ز ا الن ب شأن جد د ت طور‬2020 haberni, 856
September,”‫ م رص‬..‫ م ث ل یا ف تات ی ز زوا ج ب عد ق ضائ ي اجراء‬- ‫” صور‬2021
The annual report of Bedayaa Organization, published in 2021 and covering events relevant to its legal
aid programme for LBGTQI+ persons in Egypt from January to December 2020, reported that in thistimeframe, it had documented 21 cases, 25 arrested persons, 20 adjudicated cases, and 1 caseawaiting.57 It also stated the following with regards to the arrest of foreigners on the grounds of sexual
orientation and gender identity:
II. Targeting of Foreigners
Out of the 25 people that were arrested in 2020, a staggering 16% were foreigners. Despite therestrictions imposed by the Egyptian government due to the COVID-19 pandemic which led to a significant

55

Human Rights Watch, Egypt: Security Forces Abuse, Torture LGBT People - Arbitrary Arrests, Discrimination,
Entrapment, Privacy Violations, 1 October 2020
56
International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), State-Sponsored Homophobia:
Global Legislation Overview Update – 2020 Updated Edition, December 2020, p. 115
57
Bedayaa Organization, Legal Aid – Annual Report: 2020, 2021, p. 1

31

decrease in the total number of arrested persons in 2020, four people of different nationalities werearrested during the year. Three out of the four were entrapped by the police which is an alarming
indicator which shows that police officials are intentionally targeting foreigners visiting or living in Egypt.
In a year that witnessed a huge drop in tourism revenues due to the global pandemic, the arrest andprosecution of four foreigners for debauchery sends a clear message that the Egyptian government is notbacking down in its crackdown on SOGIESC [sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression andsex characteristics] rights even it is going to affect the country’s interest in boosting tourism. It also showsthe extent to which the government is not being held accountable for its violations of SOGIESC rights, notjust with Egyptian nationals but also with foreigners in Egypt.
In January, a transgender Cypriot tourist was entrapped and arrested from the hotel she was staying in.
[…]
Later in April, a Chilean man was arrested after being entrapped by the police. He received a fine and wasdeported. A US citizen was also entrapped and arrested in April. […] In September, a British citizen was
58
arrested and charged with debauchery, but the charges were later dropped.

The 2021 Human Rights Watch World Report, covering events of 2020 and published in January 2021,
wrote on Egypt that: “Egypt continued to arbitrarily arrest and detain people based on their sexual
orientation or gender identity and subjected them to torture and ill-treatment in detention, including
forced anal examinations. […] In March, during its third Universal Periodic Review at the UN Human
Rights Council, Egypt rejected recommendations by several states to end arrests and discrimination
based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Egypt responded that it “does not recognize the terms
mentioned in this recommendation””.59
A Human Rights Watch update on the ‘Fairmont’ case in February 2021 noted that one of the witnesses
who had been detained, “Nazli arim, 28, said she was accused of “promoting homosexuality” because
she had a “rainbow flag filter on her profile picture” on social media”.60
The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2020, published in March 2021, wrote
that: “There were reports of arrests and harassment of LGBTI individuals”.61
A letter in June 2021 to the Egyptian authorities by Amnesty International and sixty-three otherorganisations stated that: “The authorities have also used morality and debauchery laws to arbitrarily
arrest, detain and prosecute survivors and witnesses of sexual and other gender-based violence, womensocial media influencers, and LGBTQI+ people and activists”.62
The latest edition of ILGA World's “Our Identities under Arrest” report, released in December 2021,
stated that:58

Bedayaa Organization, Legal Aid – Annual Report: 2020, 2021, pp. 2-3
Human Rights Watch, World Report 2021: Events of 2020, 13 January 2021, p. 215
60
Human Rights Watch, Justice Stalled in Egypt’s ‘Fairmont’ Rape Case, 8 February 2021
61
USDOS, 2020 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 30 March 2021
62
Amnesty International et al., Egypt: President should act to unshackle freedoms, 1 June 2021, p. 2
59

32

Examples of Enforcement […]In August or September 2020, a young man accompanied a female friend to a police station in Cairo. She
had been arrested in 2014 as part of an investigation into a party at Cairo’s Fairmont hotel. It wasreported that another woman was drugged and raped by several men in the hotel room that night andthe young man’s friend was being sought to give input as a witness. He voluntarily accompanied her tothe police station and had no connection to the 2014 incident as he was only 14 at the time. However,once there, police arbitrarily detained him as well as another man who was at the party. Both weresearched and their phones taken away. Police found private photos and detained both for allegedly
engaging in homosexual conduct. […]In November 2020 a group of five gay and trans individuals in Cairo were arrested and charged with“habitual debauchery” for being vocal on social media. One of the accused was under 18 and sentenced
to one year in prison in May 2021, while three others received nine years, and the fifth was given 12
years’ imprisonment.75
On 4 December 2020 an Egyptian publication shared the story of a young man who had been detained
and investigated by the General Administration for the Protection of Morals in the Social Security Sector
in Alexandria. He had made social media posts stating that he would participate in same-sex sexual
activity in exchange for money. The Montazah Public Prosecution Office in Alexandria ordered his
detention for four days during the investigation, but it is not clear what occurred thereafter.77 […]In February 2021, in Alexandria, a man was charged by officials from the Protection of Morals in the Social
Security Sector with “promoting the practice of immoral acts on the Internet and the practice of
debauchery”, with seven other men allegedly implicated in the accused’s confession.79 It is not clear if
this is the same case as the one reported in December 2020.
In May 2021 a man in Cairo was detained for smoking hashish but later also charged with debauchery. He
was acquitted, but at the time of publication the prosecution had appealed that decision.80
Two other men were also arbitrarily arrested in May 2021 in Cairo, but they were acquitted of theirdebauchery charges the following month.81
From 8 May 2021 onward it was reported in several international news outlets that two Israeli trans men
had been denied entry into Egypt where they had come to spend a holiday, on account of their passports
not matching their appearance and gender expression.82 Border officials detained them temporarily andmocked them, but it is not clear whether this was the result of any State policy on identity documentationand legal gender recognition (either directly or indirectly), or rather a case of personal prejudice by theofficials involved.
And as of 21 May 2021, a trans woman from Cyprus was being held under house arrest in Cyprus forallegedly “promoting and inciting immorality on the Internet” and “insult and scandal of the Egyptian
people". Arrested and detained in Egypt in January 2020, the accused is said to have been raped andassaulted repeatedly by prison officials and the male inmates with whom she was housed, leading her torequire corrective surgery back in Cyprus. In early 2021 she was deported from Egypt back to her homecountry, but per a bilateral agreement between both States, the sentence meted out against her by
Egyptian courts must be completed, despite no such criminalising law having legal effect in Cyprus.83 […]A group of four gay and trans individuals were arrested in July 2021 and charged with debauchery, but at
the time of publication no further details have been made available on this case.85 […]75 Information supplied by Bedayaa. […]77 [A young man was arrested for practicing homosexuality in Alexandria], 05A young man was imprisoned on
charges of exposing himself to perversion on Facebook], Al Masry Al Youm [ ” ‫ل ار سة ن ف س ه رض ب ت ه ة شاب ح ب‬33‫ىل ال شذوذ‬‫ “ ب وك ف‬December 2020]. ;“ ‫س ال شذوذ ل ار س ت ه شاب ىل ب ضال ق‬‫م رص ا ل| ب اإل س ك ندري ة ال ج ن ي‬
Ahlmasr News, 24 January 2021 […]79 2021 Egypt: Accused of homosexuality implicates 7 businessmen in his network], Al Madenah News, 15 February [‫ز‬”‫ م رص‬:‫ ي ورط ب ال شذوذ م ت هم‬7 ‫“ ش ب ك ت ه ق ي ا ا رجا‬80 Information supplied by Bedayaa.
81 Ibid.
82 “Israeli transgender couple said refused entry to Egypt at border crossing”, Times of Israel, 08 May 2021; “Transmen mocked and denied entry to Egypt by border guards because they 'do not look female'”, Pink News, 09 May
2021.
83 “
:
–
...” [Tina
Liasi asks to be released: "I have medical issues due to my rapes"], Politis, 04 April 2021; “” [The trans convict is at home with a bracelet], Philenews, 25 May 2021. […]63
85 Ibid.

The 2021 report by Bedayaa Organization answering FAQs on the situation for LGBTQI people in Egypt
wrote that:
There is a dedicated police department (Public Morality Police) that is affiliated with the Ministry ofInterior that is commissioned to arresting whoever not fitting with Egyptian society norms namely sex
workers ‘females and males’, gay men, trans women and any reported non-normative sexual activities
even if it is in private places, this unit investigate all cases under the law 10/1961. […]The cases files show the most common methods of arresting LGBTI persons are:
Entrapment through dating applications on smart phones, where the police officers create fake accounts
and pretend to be gay persons who are interested to meet for a date. When the LGBTI individual shows
up at the meeting point, he/she get arrested. We noticed from examining the screenshots attached withthe cases files, that the people speaking on behalf of the police always express their intention to pay
money in foreign currency as a temptation to the users of these apps. We also noticed that the person
speaking on behalf of the police always arrange the meetings in a public location e.g., public garden or
just in the streets, so it would be easier to arrest them once they show up for the meeting. Once they arearrested, the police search the phones and print out all the conversations on the dating apps to use as“solo” evidence to prosecute the case further in the criminal courts or economical courts.
Sometimes the police tries to strike a deal with the accused, as they offer him/her to not prosecute thecase if he/she cooperated and hand over other LGBTI individuals.
On the other hand, the awareness campaigns conducted by the NGOs working on LGBTI issues, thewarning messages that the dating apps send to its users about digital security and how to avoid online
entrapment, and the new security features like the change of the application icon and not displaying
notifications undermined the online entrapment method, but did not erase it, as there is still aremarkable number of the LGBTI persons who got arrested through entrapment.
Sweeping meeting spots like some squares, streets, or coffee shops that the LGBTI community members
often meet at. The police raid spots and randomly arrest people and then search them for anything thatwill indict that they do have sex e.g., condoms, lubes, and pictures to make a case against them and ifthey do not find anything, they would just claim that the arrested person was using seductive acts andsigns to seduce people into committing debauchery.
63

International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), Our Identities Under Arrest: A
global overview on the enforcement of laws criminalising consensual same-sex sexual acts between adults anddiverse gender expressions, 15 December 2021, pp. 131-132

34

The less common method for the police to use is to arrest from homes or hotel rooms. In the case of
making an arrest from a hotel, they would move based on reporting they receive via someone who works
in the hotel stating that there is a guest who looks “suspicious”. In the case of making an arrest from ahome, most likely they receive a report from neighbours. […][…] hotel employees and neighbours usually report to police any individuals who look, act, or announce
his/her affiliation to LGBTI community.
Many cases have been documented for LGBTI persons who announced publicly his/her orientation, they
have been subjected to social and family violence26 or arrests in case of someone report the case topolice.
On the other hand, those who are arrested from the streets—in circumstances of protests,
demonstrations, and on the background of state of emergency situations—police officer inspect theirhandsets to validate their political identity; if the inspection results in disclosing evidence of LGBTI
affiliation; he/she will be arrested based on law 10/1961. […]26 https://raseef22.com/article/1072422-well-leave-you-a-nice-memento-on-your-pretty-face-how-hate-messages64
and- threats-forced-a-gay-man-to-flee-egypt2022
The 2022 BTI country report on Egypt, covering the period 1 February 2019 to 31 January 2021 andpublished in February 2022, stated that: “During the period under review, hundreds of bloggers andsocial media users have been detained for comments criticizing the ruling elite, sharing atheist views or
defending homosexuality, among other issues”.65
The report further commented that: “[the regime] excludes anyone who differs from or disagrees withthe propagated ideals, as reflected in the numerous detentions on grounds of morality, sexuality or
religious belief during the period under review”.66
Afsaneh Rigot’s March 2022 report on the role of digital evidence in the persecution of LGBTQ people in
Egypt (as well as Lebanon and Tunisia) noted that:
Data from NGOs can be used to show that the scope of the problem is broader than the number of arrests
can show. Bedayaa, a pro-LGBTQ NGO active in Egypt and Sudan, has reported and worked on 65 court
cases and 92 arrests in Egypt in 2019,44 and 21 cases in 2020 at the time of data collection in that same
year.45 Arrests have not stopped during the COVID-19 lockdowns, though they have slowed down
temporarily due to restrictions and reduced movement. […]The Egyptian interviewees affirmed that the most targeted persons in the LGBTQ community are transpeople and queer cis men […].
In all three countries, another reason for which trans women are often highly at risk in these situations
are the issues of documents and ID cards not being updated to match their gender identity. This
discrepancy can lead to further harassment, and put the trans woman at greater risk of arrest. Those with
64

Bedayaa Organization, 10 FAQs about LGBTIQs situation in Egypt, 2021, pp. 7-8, 12
Bertelsmann Stiftung, BTI 2022 Country Report: Egypt, 23 February 2022, p. 10
66
Bertelsmann Stiftung, BTI 2022 Country Report: Egypt, 23 February 2022, p. 32
65

35

updated IDs and papers to match their gender identity experience lowered risks, according to theinterviewees. […]The Egyptian Criminal Procedure Law—in particular Article 30—allows police officers to detain or arrest
individuals without a prior warrant from the Public Prosecutor Office in cases of flagrante delicto. Theinterviews and prior consultations with NGOs, such as Bedayaa,213 provided evidence that police officers
will fabricate “flagrante delicto” scenarios when writing their reports to ensure the lawfulness of thearrest procedures. These include accusations that the defendant had been trying to “seduce men” onpublic streets with suspicious acts and signals. […]Arrests haven’t stopped during the COVID-19 lockdowns, though they have slowed down temporarily due
to restrictions and reduced movement: “There were lots of cases with fake accounts that were created by
the police and this still continues to this day.”403 Because official numbers are not available and manycases go unreported to overworked NGOs, these numbers are unlikely to present a full overview of the
problem. […]44 Rights Africa – Equal Rights, One Voice!. 2020. Repression in Egypt: 92 LGBTIQ+ arrests last year. [online] Available
at: <https:// rightsafrica.com/2020/03/08/repression-in-egypt-92-lgbtiq-arrests-last-year/ > [Accessed 30 October2021].
45 Bedayaa, Legal Aid Annual Review 2020 (privately provided to author) […]213 These are on-going conversations team relevant team since 2019 […]67
403 EL2

The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2021, published in April 2022, wrote
that: “According to a LGBTQI+ rights organization 2020 annual report issued in January, authorities
arrested 25 LGBTQI+ individuals in 2020”.68
The meeting minutes with a Human Rights Watch analyst, published in the September 2022 COI briefreport on the situation of LGBT persons in Egypt by the Danish Immigration Service, noted that:
During the Covid-19 pandemic, HRW expected that arbitrary arrests and prosecutions would decline
because LGBT people are usually rounded up on the streets, but instead the online targeting became theprimary way the authorities used to prosecute LGBT people. Usually people from lower socio-economic
backgrounds were targeted but there has also been cases of individuals with connections and social status69
being targeted.”

The minutes further wrote that: “Morality charges usually stay on an individual’s record for up to three
years, which prohibits them from traveling and from accessing basic services, and it may subject them toadditional arbitrary arrests and discrimination.70

67

Afsaneh Rigot, Digital Crime Scenes: The Role of Digital Evidence in the Persecution of LGBTQ People in Egypt,
Lebanon, and Tunisia, 7 March 2022, pp. 21, 48, 60, 88
68
USDOS, 2021 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 12 April 2022
69
The Danish Immigration Service, Country of Origin (COI) Brief Report – Egypt: Situation of LGBT persons,September 2022, p. 21
70
The Danish Immigration Service, Country of Origin (COI) Brief Report – Egypt: Situation of LGBT persons,September 2022, p. 21

36

Rainbow Egypt, a LGBTQIA+ advocacy and protection organisation in Egypt, posted on their Facebook
page in November 2022 a summary of violations that had taken place between September 2021 and
September 2022, noting that in January 2022 there was the “detention of a male for having gay sex for 2
years and 5000 EGP compensation”; in February 2022 there was an “arrest of a man and a woman forhaving gay sex with sex toys”; in May 2022 “a Drag queen [was] arrested for having gay sex”; in June
2022 a “group of people [were] arrested in a private apartment for having gay sex”; and in September
2022 a “group of 3 people [were] arrested in a private apartment for having gay sex” and “2 guys [were]arrested for having gat [sic] sex”.71
The U Government’s Human Rights and Democracy Report for 2021, published in December 2022,
stated that: “Campaigners reported that the LGBT+ community continued to be under constant risk ofarrest on charges of debauchery, immorality or blasphemy”.72
January – May 2023
The joint NGO submission for the review of Egypt by the Human Rights Committee, published in January2023 by the Committee for Justice (CFJ) and eight other organisations, stated that: “This rise inprosecution of real or perceived sexual and gender differences in Egypt is characterized by periodic
State and media induced moral panics surrounding group arrests on grounds of “debauchery” every few
months since 2013”.73
The February 2023 Human Rights Watch report into digital targeting and its offline consequences forLGBT people in the Middle East and North Africa stated the following with regards to arrests in Egypt:
In Egypt, government digital targeting has led to arbitrary arrests and prosecution of LGBT people andtheir custodial torture and ill-treatment. […]On January 15, 2020, Tina, a 34-year-old trans woman sex worker from Cyprus, was in Egypt for workwhen police arrested her after her client told the police that he found her on the internet. She wasdetained for 13 months at the Nasr City police station and convicted for “inciting debauchery” based on
photos and chats that police found when they searched her phone.174 Human Rights Watch’s review ofthe police report and court files in Tina’s case confirmed that this private information was the only
evidence presented in her case. Tina said:
At 10:30 p.m., on the last night before my flight back to Cyprus, I had an appointment with adiplomat who was my client. He arrived with his driver to the hotel. The police outside the hotel
stopped us because of the car’s tinted windows. They asked for our passports and the diplomat
refused. I had to give them mine, which was a passport I do not currently use, because it says I
am male. The police asked the diplomat if I was his girlfriend or his wife. He said that he found71

Rainbow Egypt, Facebook post - Highlights of 1 year (from September 2021 to September 2022), 30 November
2022
72
UK Government and UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Human Rights & Democracy: The 2021
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Report, 9 December 2022, p. 50
73
Committee for Justice (CFJ) et al., Joint NGO submission for the review of Egypt by the Human Rights Committee:
137th session (27 February to 24 March 2023), 30 January 2023, p. 737

me on the internet. Then they put us both in a minibus and took us to the Giza police station.175[…]
Martin, a 39-year-old gay man from Chile, was working in Egypt as a Spanish teacher when he wasarrested in February 2020.
My only problem is that I had Grindr on my phone. It was a Sunday, and I was at the supermarket
in Dokki, where I was living. Suddenly, a man I did not know approached me, called me by myname, and said, “We are going to the police station.” He forcibly took my phone and demanded I
opened it. He asked for my passport, which I did not have, so they handcuffed me, put me in aminibus, and drove to my apartment. I got my passport, and I was surprised that police officers
took everything valuable from my apartment: iPad, TV, and laptop. They also never returned myphone.178
At the Dokki police station, Martin said no one spoke English and he did not know the reason for his
arrest. He stayed at the police station overnight, until his court hearing the next morning, at which he wasconvicted of “inciting debauchery” and sentenced to a fine of 400 pounds (US$25) and deportation to
Chile.
Human Rights Watch reviewed the police report and court files in Martin’s case, which indicated that thepresence of the Grindr app on his phone was the basis for his conviction. The police report also
highlighted that Egypt’s Intelligence Agency received information that he was meeting men on Grindr tohave sex with them, which Martin denied. Martin told Human Rights Watch that he believed the Chilean
embassy’s intervention was the only reason he was released.179 […]In August 2020, the Egyptian National Security Agency arrested four witnesses to a high-profile 2014 gangrape in Cairo’s Fairmont Hotel (known as the Fairmont case), along with two of their acquaintances,
weeks after independent women’s rights activists exposed the incident online. The authorities accusedtwo of the witnesses, Seif Bedour and Ahmed Ganzoury, of consensual same-sex sexual conduct and“inciting debauchery,” based solely on private photos from their phones.180 […]Nour, the 31-year-old gender non-binary person from Zagazig, Egypt, […] who uses they/them pronouns,
was arrested by police on the street, due to their gender expression, on September 18, 2021. At theAbdeen police station, officers searched Nour’s phone, found a photo of them wearing women’s clothing
and makeup, and detained them for 10 days on the basis of this photo. […]75 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Ayman, December 8, 2021. […]174 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Tina, September 15, 2021.
175 Ibid. […]178 Human Rights Watch interview with Martin, October 2, 2021.
179 Ibid.
180 “Egypt: Gang Rape Witnesses Arrested, Smeared,” Human Rights Watch news release.
181 Rasha Younes, “Egypt Detains Men for Alleged Sexual Orientation, Alongside Alleged Rapists,” Human Rights
Watch dispatch.
182 Ibid.
183 “Egypt: Gang Rape Witnesses Arrested, Smeared,” Human Rights Watch news release.
184 Rasha Younes, “Justice Stalled in Egypt’s ‘Fairmont’ Rape Case,” Human Rights Watch dispatch.

74

In early March 2023, the UN Human Rights Committee published a summary record of the 3958th
meeting, held in February 2023, in which the fifth periodic report of Egypt was considered. Concerns
74

Human Rights Watch, “All This Terror Because of a Photo”: Digital Targeting and Its Offline Consequences forLGBT People in the Middle East and North Africa, 21 February 2023, pp. 13, 25-26, 28, 73, 75, 81

38

were raised that: “The Committee had been informed of cases in which homosexual and transgenderpersons had been arbitrarily detained and subjected to invasive, unjustified medical examinations that
could amount to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment under article 7 of the Covenant”.75
A couple of days later, the UN Human Rights Committee published a summary record of the 3959th
meeting, held in March 2023, in which the fifth periodic report of Egypt was further considered.
Concerns were raised that referred to the following incident: “The case involving the arrest of the 28
men – reportedly solely on grounds of debauchery rather than the possession of drugs or pornography –constituted the biggest mass arrest linked to sexual orientation in Egypt in the last 20 years. The
Committee had received information that those persons had been subjected to forced anal
examinations, which constituted torture and was therefore banned under the Covenant,”76 in responseto an Egyptian state representative stating that “the case that had been reported concerning the allegedharassment of 28 persons because of their sexual orientation had actually involved a group of persons
who had gathered to sell drugs. The police had been called to the scene and the disturbance had later
escalated when some of the suspects had begun brandishing bladed weapons”.77
The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2022, published in March 2023, wrote
that: “While the law does not explicitly criminalize consensual same-sex sexual activity, lesbian, gay,bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) persons were arrested and prosecuted on charges
including “debauchery,” prostitution, and “violating family values,” for which the law imposes prison
sentences of up to 10 years in prison, significant fines, or both. […] According to a local rights group,
there were more than 250 reports of such arrests since 2013”.78
Pink News reported in March 2023 on entrapment through Grindr in Egypt, stating that:
Darius (not their real name), an LGBTQ+ person from Port Said, told PinkNews they’ve stopped walking inthe streets out of fear and are desperately looking for a way to escape the country.
“Me and my friends got a voice note that said 28 gay people were arrested by police and then forced tocall their friends so they could get arrested too,” they explained.
“A couple of months ago, one of our friends was found dead. I’m not safe at all.”According to Darius, police are taking people’s phones for “evidence” then calling the names in theircontact lists to see if they are LGBTQ+.
They were also informed that their name was on a long list of people who were being tracked by thepolice.
75

UN Human Rights Committee, 137th session, Summary record of the 3958th meeting*: Held at the Palais Wilson,
Geneva, on Tuesday, 28 February 2023, at 3 p.m. - Consideration of reports submitted by States parties underarticle 40 of the Covenant - Fifth periodic report of Egypt, 6 March 2023, p. 4
76
UN Human Rights Committee, 137th session, Summary record of the 3959th meeting: Held at the Palais Wilson,
Geneva, on Wednesday, 1 March 2023, at 10 a.m. - Consideration of reports submitted by States parties underarticle 40 of the Covenant (continued) - Fifth periodic report of Egypt (continued), 8 March 2023, pp. 8-9
77
UN Human Rights Committee, 137th session, Summary record of the 3959th meeting: Held at the Palais Wilson,
Geneva, on Wednesday, 1 March 2023, at 10 a.m. - Consideration of reports submitted by States parties underarticle 40 of the Covenant (continued) - Fifth periodic report of Egypt (continued), 8 March 2023, p. 2
78
USDOS, 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 20 March 2023

39

“I don’t leave my house unless someone will take me with a car,” Darius adds.
79“I’m really worried that if I leave the house, I’m going to get slaughtered like a chicken.”In March 2023, Amnesty International released its annual 2022/23 report on the state of the world’s
human rights, reporting on Egypt that: “Authorities continued to target individuals based on their real or
perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. In April, security forces arrested four men and two
transgender women at a mall in Cairo and briefly detained them solely on the grounds of their gender
identity and their actual or perceived sexual orientation”.80
Freedom House’s annual report for Egypt, released in March 2023, stated that: “While same-sex sexual
conduct is not explicitly banned, people suspected of such activity can be charged with prostitution or“debauchery.” The police regularly arrest people on such charges”.81 Similar statements were written in
the 2022 and 2021 annual reports.82

1. Entrapment
2020
The Alliance of Queer Egyptian Organizations (AQEO) posted a statement regarding the outcome of the
Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on Egypt on their Facebook page in March 2020, writing that: “Driven
by patriarchal norms and personal ideologies, [Egyptian] State actors entrap gay men and trans-women,
and judiciary system hands down penalties with maximum sentences”.83
The Human Rights Watch article in September 2020 on the August 2020 arrest of witnesses to a gangrape in 2014 wrote that:
Egyptian security agencies in late August 2020 arbitrarily arrested a man and three women who were
witnesses to a high-profile gang rape case from 2014 that recently came to light, Human Rights Watch
said today. Security also arrested two of the witnesses’ acquaintances.
The prosecutor general ordered the release of three of the six on August 31 but is pressing charges
against all of them for violating laws on “morality” and “debauchery” that are vague, discriminatory, andopen to abuse. Pro-government media have subjected them to a coordinated smear campaign […].

79

Pink News, Grindr sends every user in Egypt warning about police tricking and arresting queer men, 23 March2023
80
Amnesty International, Annual Report 2022/23: The State of the World's Human Rights - Egypt 2022, 27 March2023
81
Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2023: Egypt, March 2023
82
Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2022: Egypt, 24 February 2022; Freedom House, Freedom in the World
2021: Egypt, 3 March 2021.
83
Alliance of Queer Egyptian Organizations (AQEO), Facebook post - Statement regarding the Universal Periodic
Review Outcome – Egypt, 15 March 2020

40

The authorities had encouraged witnesses of the rape to come forward, which they did in early August.
They now stand accused of consensual same-sex sexual conduct, “inciting debauchery,” personal druguse, and “misuse of social media,” a charge frequently used against peaceful government critics. […]Activists connected to feminist and LGBT communities in Egypt said they fear a wider crackdown as
84
security forces use content that they obtain from the confiscated devices to identify others.

The October 2020 Human Rights Watch report on the arrest, abuse, and torture of LGBT people in Egypt
by security forces noted that: “Security forces routinely pick people off the streets based solely on theirgender expression, entrap them through social networking sites and dating applications, and unlawfully
search their phones. Prosecutors use this content to justify prolonged detentions as they rubber-stamp
police reports and bring unjustified prosecutions against them”.85
The article in Slate by Afsaneh Rigot in December 2020 on the increasing persecution of LGBTQI+ peoplein Egypt using cybercrime and online morality laws recounted the following entrapment arrest:
Earlier this year, Adel went on Grindr to surf and meet other queer people in town. (Adel is a pseudonym
I’m using for his protection.) Adel eventually set a date with someone he had been talking to. The datearrived at his house—but it wasn’t whom he had been talking to. This wasn’t a date; it was entrapment.
Adel was met by officers who arrested him for debauchery and digital crimes, using his chats on the app
as reason for the arrest.
He was charged with “debauchery crimes” as well as cybercrimes and telecommunication crimes for thechats he’d had on Grindr and other apps with a “police consultant,” and for other pieces of evidence
discovered on his person and devices. His case is being heard in the Egyptian economic courts and is86
indicative of a worrying change in how the Egyptian government targets the queer community.

The ILGA World December 2020 update to its state-sponsored homophobia global overview noted that:“Law enforcement reportedly used online entrapment extensively to lure gay men, and allegedly
subjected them to forced anal examinations while in custody.17 […] 17 “Egypt: Security Forces Abuse, TortureLGBT People”, Human Rights Watch, 1 October 2020; ”Egypt Detains Men for Alleged Sexual Orientation, Alongside Alleged
87
Rapists”, Africa Must Change, 2 November 2020”.

2021
The 2021 annual report of Bedayaa Organization, covering events relevant to its legal aid programmefrom January to December 2020, reported on the targeting of LGBTQI+ foreigners:
II. Targeting of Foreigners
84

Human Rights Watch, Egypt: Gang Rape Witnesses Arrested, Smeared: Personal Data Used in Abusive
Prosecutions, 11 September 2020
85
Human Rights Watch, Egypt: Security Forces Abuse, Torture LGBT People - Arbitrary Arrests, Discrimination,
Entrapment, Privacy Violations, 1 October 2020
86
Slate, Egypt’s Dangerous New Strategy for Criminalizing Queerness, 30 December 202087
International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), State-Sponsored Homophobia:
Global Legislation Overview Update – 2020 Updated Edition, December 2020, p. 115

41

Out of the 25 people that were arrested in 2020, a staggering 16% were foreigners. Despite therestrictions imposed by the Egyptian government due to the COVID-19 pandemic which led to a significant
decrease in the total number of arrested persons in 2020, four people of different nationalities werearrested during the year. Three out of the four were entrapped by the police which is an alarming
indicator which shows that police officials are intentionally targeting foreigners visiting or living in Egypt.
[…]
In January, a transgender Cypriot tourist was entrapped and arrested from the hotel she was staying in.
She later received a 3-year prison sentence in addition to 3-year probation on the charge of incitement
and promotion of debauchery. Later in March, her appeal was rejected; the Egyptian authorities did not
acknowledge her transgender status and did not assign her to a women’s detention facility as her official
documents stated that she was male. Instead, she was kept in solitary confinement in a small room insidea police station for over a year with no access to sunlight until she was extradited to Cyprus where she willcontinue to serve her sentence.
Later in April, a Chilean man was arrested after being entrapped by the police. He received a fine and wasdeported. A US citizen was also entrapped and arrested in April. He was acquitted in the first-degree trial
in the economic court but then the court’s decision was appealed by the prosecution and the seconddegree court sentenced him in absentia to two years in prison. In September, a British citizen was
88arrested and charged with debauchery, but the charges were later dropped.

The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2020, published in March 2021, wrote
that: “Rights groups and activists reported harassment by police, including physical assault and forced
payment of bribes to provide information concerning other LGBTI individuals or to avoid arrest. […]There were reports that authorities used social media, dating websites, and cell phone apps to entrap
persons they suspected of being gay or transgender, a method LGBTI advocates described as especiallyeffective as LGBTI-friendly public spaces had largely closed in recent years”.89
A report by EuroMed in May 2021 on women’s rights in the digital world in the MENA stated that “inEgypt there have been examples of technology being used by agents of the State to facilitate
persecution of LGBTIQ+ people. LGBTIQ+ campaigners have noted that since 2013, the Egyptian police
have used technology, specifically gay dating apps, to track users, gather photographic evidence of‘obscenity’, and arrange fake meetings”.90
The U Government’s Human Rights and Democracy Report for 2020, published in July 2021, stated
that: “Egyptian lawyers reported that LGBT+ people remained subject to arrest on charges of‘debauchery’ or ‘inciting debauchery’, sometimes following the use of social media traps by theauthorities”.91

88

Bedayaa Organization, Legal Aid – Annual Report: 2020, 2021, p. 3
USDOS, 2020 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 30 March 2021
90
EuroMed Rights, Spaces of Violence and Resistance: Women’s Rights in the Digital World: The Scenario in the
MENA Region, May 2021, p. 11
91
UK Government and UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Human Rights & Democracy: The 2020
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Report, 8 July 2021, p. 44
8942

Rasha Younes, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, wrote in an article for The Conversationalist in
August 2021 that:
When I was documenting the systematic torture of LGBT people in Egypt’s prisons, the targeting pattern
was unmistakable: Egyptian authorities relied on digital evidence to track down, arrest, and prosecute
LGBT people. People who had been detained told me that police officers, unable to find “evidence” whensearching their phones at the time of arrest, downloaded same-sex dating apps on their phones anduploaded pornographic photos to justify keeping them in detention. The cases I documented suggest a
policy coordinated by the Egyptian government online and offline, to persecute LGBT people. One police
officer told a man I interviewed that his entrapment and arrest were part of an operation to “clean the92
streets of faggots.”

The latest edition of ILGA World's “Our Identities under Arrest” report, released in December 2021,
stated that:
Police and other authorities have demonstrated a common tactic of using online entrapment, raiding of
known “gay hangouts”, and illegally seizing and searching cell phones for incriminating content, in orderto justify the arbitrary detention of suspects. […]Examples of Enforcement […]In December 2020 a man was entrapped by police in Cairo and sentenced to three years’ imprisonmentfor “debauchery”. In January 2021 an appeal saw his sentence reduced to one year.76 […]A man in Cairo was entrapped by police in January 2021 and sentenced the following month to six years’
imprisonment on charges of “habitual debauchery” and “incitement to debauchery”. An appeal failed andhe was made to pay the trial costs.78 […]In July 2021 a man in Cairo was entrapped by police online and charged with “habitual debauchery”,
though he was later found innocent and released.84 […]76 Information supplied by Bedayaa. […]78 Information supplied by Bedayaa. […]93
84 Information supplied by Bedayaa.

The 2021 report by Bedayaa Organization answering FAQs on the situation for LGBTQI people in Egypt
wrote that:
The cases files show the most common methods of arresting LGBTI persons are:
Entrapment through dating applications on smart phones, where the police officers create fake accounts
and pretend to be gay persons who are interested to meet for a date. When the LGBTI individual shows
up at the meeting point, he/she get arrested. We noticed from examining the screenshots attached withthe cases files, that the people speaking on behalf of the police always express their intention to pay
money in foreign currency as a temptation to the users of these apps. We also noticed that the person
92

The Conversationalist, ‘Clean the streets of faggots’: governments in the Middle East & North Africa target LGBT
people via social media, 4 August 2021
93
International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), Our Identities Under Arrest: A
global overview on the enforcement of laws criminalising consensual same-sex sexual acts between adults anddiverse gender expressions, 15 December 2021, pp. 126, 131-132

43

speaking on behalf of the police always arrange the meetings in a public location e.g., public garden or
just in the streets, so it would be easier to arrest them once they show up for the meeting. Once they arearrested, the police search the phones and print out all the conversations on the dating apps to use as“solo” evidence to prosecute the case further in the criminal courts or economical courts.
Sometimes the police tries to strike a deal with the accused, as they offer him/her to not prosecute thecase if he/she cooperated and hand over other LGBTI individuals.
On the other hand, the awareness campaigns conducted by the NGOs working on LGBTI issues, thewarning messages that the dating apps send to its users about digital security and how to avoid online
entrapment, and the new security features like the change of the application icon and not displaying
notifications undermined the online entrapment method, but did not erase it, as there is still a94
remarkable number of the LGBTI persons who got arrested through entrapment.

2022
Afsaneh Rigot’s March 2022 report on the role of digital evidence in the persecution of LGBTQ people in
Egypt (as well as Lebanon and Tunisia) noted that:In Egypt, the NGO Bedayaa reported that in 2019, street arrests represented 69.11% of reported
cases,341 but in 2020 that number fell to 27%, with entrapment cases rising to 47%.342 This is potentiallylinked to COVID regulations. Interviews confirmed that Egyptian police indeed perform similar street-level
physical surveillance, if in combination with other modes of targeting: “they target gay hot spots, likeplaces where for people usually meet and hang out... They just randomly arrest people based on theirlooks and then they search their phones and if they find anything on the phone they use it as evidence tobuild the case further.”343 Egyptian police may also use a more sophisticated version of street-leveltargeting, surveilling individuals who frequent specific locations known to be queer and assembling
information over time: “This coffee shop was known to be a gay meeting spot and they did monitor thiscoffee shop and they monitored a lot of people who would go and sit at this coffee shop.” However, thisinterviewee explained that this method “is very rare.” 344 […]While the street-level physical surveillance method is less common in Egypt, more common is a related
mode of targeting: the use of informants who work with the police to provide information on people andknown meeting spots for LGBTQ community members. Informants are either paid and/or are members of
the community who have been coerced and intimidated into working with the police to avoid outing orother repercussions.
On the basis of information gathered from informants, police select both places and individuals totarget.345 Sometimes this is done as a ride-along: “a secret informant who works with the police and goesout with them on patrol [...] points out people that he knows are homosexuals.”346
Frequently, informant-based arrests have no legal basis, as Egyptian law only permits officers to conduct
an arrest in cases of flagrante delicto. Regardless, case files demonstrate that police officers often use
language to indicate the existence of flagrante delicto, often incitement (persuasion or seduction) of
debauchery according to section (a) of Article (14) of Law 10/1961 in writing their reports. Interviewees
stated this method is used especially if digital evidence is not found on individuals -- police look to arrestand find and frame a case after the arrest: “[if] they don’t find anything they rely on the informant’s word

94

Bedayaa Organization, 10 FAQs about LGBTIQs situation in Egypt, 2021, p. 7

44

and the accusation that the individual was doing erotic movements in the streets and trying to seduce thepublic into practicing debauchery with him.” 348 […]In Egypt, police entrapment methods are guided by the General Directorate for Protecting Public
Morality,387 and are conducted through the Public Morality Investigation Unit. 388 […]Entrapment methods continue to be one of the more prevalent strategies used to target queer people in
Egypt, and may be considered particularly destructive as authorities have weaponized the very tools
which queer persons in high risk situations have come to rely upon as a means of building and maintaining
personal relationships. […]Entrapment is among the easiest methods for Egyptian law enforcement to target and arrest persons in
the LGBTQ community. One lawyer said that, “it’s easier for them, the police, to just make some fakeaccounts on dating apps and just entrap people and that’s it, instead of going out and making aneffort.”404 The police are not engaging in targeted surveillance of individuals per se, but are rather
seeking to entrap as many persons as possible, and then narrowing down the search when theopportunities arise, with one interviewee saying,“Egyptian authorities do not surveil current individuals but rather surveil online dating websites known tohost homosexuals who are looking for sexual relations, [because] some articles from the new cybercrime
law can be used to prosecute the users of these websites like the articles regarding the protection of family
values.”405
The case files and interviews can be used to show how this method of entrapment is applied not only to
websites but often, even predominantly, on mobile devices. “So there is a ‘great’ unit in Egypt we call themorality police. And in that unit there is the job of being online to target people on Grindr[...] and thenWhatsApp.”406. […]In some instances, another secret informant is “commissioned” to assemble digital evidence such as
conversations and photos. The informants fake romantic or sexual interest in the individuals, engenderinga sexually explicit or otherwise queer-leaning conversation that, when printed, will provide all theevidence needed for the charge. The informant then sets a specific meeting point where the arrest is
conducted. […]Whether police are actually conducting searches through the informants, or are performing thesesearches themselves and then altering the documentation, is an open question. […] As one of the lawyers
explained, the actual or pretextual use of informants is an issue of procedural legality: “What they always
use to try to avoid the illegality of the arrest under criminal procedure law is that they say a secret
informant... They always use that line in almost 95% of the cases.”413 The interviewee couldn’t be surewhether such informants existed, because the prosecution claimed, “they can’t give [the identity of] thesecret informant to be in the court and in the investigation they can’t release his name for his own
safety.”414
When an informant is used, the police can sidestep warrant requirements. If asked how digital evidence
was obtained, “They would say that [it was] ‘based on our intelligence resources’. [...] Not only for LGBT
cases, for any case that would require an arrest warrant.”415 Informants are also understood to give thepolice additional room to maneuver, “As per the criminal procedure law, a police officer can disguise
himself, and go undercover to find out about a crime but he can’t seduce someone into doing thecrime.”416
Rarely are defense attorneys able to document that the police themselves have engaged in entrapment.
An interviewee observed how “In one of the cases [..] the police officer did say, “I started talking to theperson.” And you [could] see that in the screenshots he [had] added that the person was saying, “no,” andthis is illegal under the law because now [the police officer] was actually seducing him to commit a45

crime.”417 Where informants are actually involved, interviews also noted that coerced or paid informants
are very common. […]Because entrapment and monitoring cases usually involve online activity on messaging apps and social
media (often privately), more charges are being brought under the new cybercrime laws, meaning thecases are then heard in the Economic Courts. “So the last case [...] same method, he was entrapped online
on Grindr and then he was arrested from his home and was charged under the cybercrime law anddebauchery law, and was moved to the economic court.”419 The interviewees agreed that entrapment
cases all now go to the Economic Courts, meaning not only more charges, but also higher sentences. […]342 Bedayaa, Legal Aid Annual Review 2020
https://mail.article19.org/service/home/~/?auth=co&loc=en_GB&id=193565&part=2343 EL2344 EL2 […]346 EL1 […]348 EL1 […]387 Hamid 2017: 11
388 Ibid: 8 […]404 EL6405 EL5406 EL4 […]413 EL6
414 EL6
415 EL4416 EL6
417 EL6 […]95
419 EL2

The meeting minutes with a Human Rights Watch analyst, published in the September 2022 COI briefreport on the situation of LGBT persons in Egypt by the Danish Immigration Service, noted the following
with regards to entrapment:
8. An example of online evidence used against LGBT persons could be a man telling another man “I likeyou” which is used in court as incriminating evidence to prosecute. The evidence comes from searches ofindividuals’ phones or entrapment on social media where many law enforcement officers create fakesame sex profiles on Grindr and other applications through which they entrap LGBT people by for instancegetting them to confess that, “they are gay”. Sometimes, the law enforcement officer would ask, “howmuch would you charge”, and if the LGBT individual do not reject payment for sex, this would be used as
evidence against the person by accusing him of habitually practicing debauchery and promoting
96
indecency.

The April 2022 report on sexual violence in detention in Egypt between 2015 and 2022 by the Freedom
Initiative and the Egyptian Front for Human Rights found the following information:
95

Afsaneh Rigot, Digital Crime Scenes: The Role of Digital Evidence in the Persecution of LGBTQ People in Egypt,
Lebanon, and Tunisia, 7 March 2022, pp. 79-80, 86, 88, 90-93
96
The Danish Immigration Service, Country of Origin (COI) Brief Report – Egypt: Situation of LGBT persons,September 2022, p. 20

46

In an interview conducted with a human rights lawyer, she spoke about an incident she consulted on
involving a gay man in Egypt.12 Khaled was going to meet a man he had met over Grindr, a social
networking app for people from the LGBTQ+ community.12 At his date’s house, he realized he was being
entrapped and that his date was a police officer luring him to arrest him. Khaled was beaten by police
officers, verbally assaulted, and raped with a finger that one of the officers inserted in his anus. A
researcher working on the LGBTQ+ community in Egypt confirmed that entrapment through apps such as
Grindr has become a common means of targeting sexual minorities in Egypt. […]Sarah,26 a trans woman, was going to meet a date off Grindr before she realized she was entrapped. She
found a police car waiting for her and an officer opposite her arrested her and escorted her to the police
station. She stayed in the police station for three months. […]Class can also play a significant role in the extent to which one endures sexual violence in Egypt.
According to a human rights lawyer, after being entrapped on Grindr and abused during the process ofarrest, by the time a gay man made it to the police station authorities had realized that the detainee
belonged to a prominent, wealthy family in Egypt. The types of sexual violence that other members of the
LGBTQ+ community endured were not levied against him. […]12 Based on case number A586 […]97
26 Based on case number A644

The July 2022 Guardian article on calls for the UN to move COP27 from Egypt wrote that:Rasha Younes, a Middle East and North Africa LGBTQ rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, said it is
not uncommon for security forces to drag people from the streets solely based on their gender expression
or to entrap them through dating apps or social media by pretending to be romantically interested inthem, only to then arrest them, throw them in prison and encourage other inmates to abuse them.
“The evidence we’ve collected on entrapment suggested a coordinated policy by Egyptian authorities totarget LGBT people,” Younes said. “Anyone going to Cop27 should be concerned and should takeprecautions, particularly with their online activity. But of course we are even more concerned for people
98
who live in Egypt already.”

January – May 2023
The 2023 Human Rights Watch World Report, covering events of 2022 and published in January 2023,
stated that:
Authorities in Egypt have undermined lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people’s right toprivacy with digital targeting, namely entrapment on social media and dating applications, online
harassment and “outing,” online extortion, monitoring social media, and reliance on illegitimately
obtained digital evidence in prosecutions. Human Rights Watch documented cases where security forces
have used digital targeting, based on “debauchery” provisions and the Cybercrime Law, to entrap LGBT97

The Freedom Initiative and Egyptian Front for Human Rights, No One is Safe: Sexual Violence Throughout the Life
Cycle of Detention in Egypt: 2015-2022, 7 April 2022, pp. 16, 19, 32
98
The Guardian, UN urged to move Cop27 from Egypt over ‘LGBTQ+ torture’, 15 July 202247

people, arbitrarily arrest and detain them based on digital evidence found on their personal devices, and99
ill-treat them in police custody.

The joint NGO submission for the review of Egypt by the Human Rights Committee, published in January2023 by the Committee for Justice (CFJ) and eight other organisations, stated that:In 2002, the [CEDAW] Committee noted “the criminalization of some behaviours such as thosecharacterized as “debauchery”. It recommended “the State party should ensure that articles 17 and 26 of
the Covenant are strictly upheld, and should refrain from penalizing private sexual relations between
consenting adults.”
The State response [in November 2020] referred to article 167 of its fifth national report which denied thecriminalization of consensual same-sex relations and stated that the legislative structure to combat
prostitution, sexual exploitation and trafficking did not criminalize same sex sexual relations. Contrary to
the State’s response, cases of targeting LGBTQ+ individuals are still taking place in Egypt especially by100
using the internet to entrap and arrest them.

The January 2023 BBC News article on the online entrapment of LGBT persons in Egypt by police statedthat:
In Egypt, homosexuality is highly stigmatised, and there have long been allegations that police are huntingLGBT people online. Now BBC News has seen evidence of how the authorities are using dating and social
apps to do this.
All victims' names have been changed
Having grown up in Egypt, I am aware of the pervasive homophobia that permeates every part of its
society. But friends there tell me that the atmosphere has recently become far more brutal, and thetactics for tracking down LGBT people more sophisticated. […]Transcripts submitted in police arrest reports show how officers are posing online to seek out - and insome cases allegedly fabricate evidence against - LGBT people looking for dates online.
They reveal how the police initiate text conversations with their targets. […]In one text conversation between an undercover police officer and someone using the social networking
and dating app WhosHere, the officer appears to be pressuring the app user to meet up in person - that
person was later arrested.
Police: Have you slept with men before?
App user: Yes
Police: How about we meet?
App user: But I live with mom and dad
Police: Come on dear, don't be shy, we can meet in public and then go to my flat.
There are more examples which are too explicit to publish.
It is extremely difficult for LGBT people to openly meet potential dates in public in Egypt, so dating apps
are a popular way to do that. But just using the apps - regardless of your sexuality - can be grounds forarrest based on the incitement of debauchery or public morality laws in Egypt.

99

Human Rights Watch, World Report 2023: Events of 2022, 12 January 2023, p. 196
Committee for Justice (CFJ) et al., Joint NGO submission for the review of Egypt by the Human Rights
Committee: 137th session (27 February to 24 March 2023), 30 January 2023, p. 7
100

48

It is not just Egyptians who are being targeted. In one transcript, police describe identifying a foreigner,
who we are calling Matt, on the popular gay dating app Grindr. A police informant then engaged Matt inconversation, and - the transcript says - Matt "admitted his perversion, his willingness to engage indebauchery for free, and sent pictures of himself and his body".
Matt told the BBC that he was subsequently arrested, charged with "debauchery", and eventuallydeported.
In some of the transcripts, the police appear to be trying to pressure people who seem to be simply
seeking dates or new friendships into agreeing to sex for money. Legal experts in Egypt tell us that proving
there has been an exchange of money, or an offer of one, can give the authorities the ammunition theyneed to take a case to court. […]Three other people told us the police forced or falsified confessions related to their cases, too.
Laith was jailed for three months for "habitual debauchery", reduced to a month on appeal. Laith says thepolice also tried to get him to inform on other gay people he knew of.
"[The policeman] said: 'I can fabricate a whole story about you if you don't give me names.'"
The Egyptian government has spoken publicly about its use of online surveillance to target what it
described as "homosexual gatherings".
In 2020, Ahmed Taher, former assistant to the Minister of Interior for Internet Crimes and Human
Trafficking, told the newspaper Ahl Masr: "We recruited police in the virtual world to uncover the massesof group sex parties, homosexual gatherings." […]The WhosHere app was referenced in nearly every police transcript the BBC has had access to.
Cyber privacy experts told us that WhosHere seems to have specific vulnerabilities, allowing hackers to
scrape information about its users - such as location - on a large scale. […]It was only after the BBC formally approached WhosHere that the app changed its settings, removing the"seeking same sex" selection, which could put people at risk of identification.
WhosHere disputes the BBC's findings about vulnerabilities and say that they have a robust history ofaddressing problems when raised. And that they do not operate any specific service for the LGBT
community in Egypt.
Grindr, also used as an app by police and criminals to find LGBT people in Egypt said: "We work
extensively with Egyptian LGBTQ activists, international human rights advocates, and safety-focused101
technologists to best serve our users in the region."

The February 2023 Human Rights Watch report into digital targeting and its offline consequences forLGBT people in the Middle East and North Africa gave the following information about entrapment in
Egypt:In Egypt, the security forces, including Morality Police and National Security Agency officers, are a leading
culprit in the entrapment of LGBT people […]. […]I was cha ng with a man on Grindr while si ng in the caf . We agreed to meet at the caf , butinstead of the man I was expecting, five police officers in civilian attire walked in at about 9
p.m.... They [police officers] had a rope in the [police] car and threatened to hang me with it if I
did not open my phone. They found private photos of me with long hair and other photos with a
man and turned it into a case of debauchery and indecency.
— Ayman, 23-year-old gay man from Egypt, December 8, 2021 […]101

BBC News, How Egyptian police hunt LGBT people on dating apps, 30 January 2023

49

Maamoun, a 24-year-old gay man from Egypt, described an instance in February 2021 when he suspected
police officers had used Grindr to entrap him:
Around 2 p.m., I went to a coffee shop in Central Cairo. Someone called Al-Khalidi texted me on
Grindr, he said he was from the Gulf. It was not until later that I realized it was an ambush. I
should have known better as his accent was fake and forced. I also tried to speak with him in
English and received no response. He refused to send other photos and refused to have a video
call with me. He also insisted that I give him my number so we could chat on WhatsApp. He
immediately asked me to agree on a price in exchange for sex. I said that I did not care as long as
it was a good time. We talked over WhatsApp, and he sent me his location, which was around a
five-minute walking distance. I felt something was strange as I walked to the location. I called him
when I arrived, and he said that he would meet me downstairs. I said I preferred to go to him so
we would not be in the street, but he refused. I called an Uber immediately so I could leave.62
According to an Egyptian lawyer, security forces in Egypt who entrap LGBT people frequently pressure
them to agree to a sum of money in exchange for sex to build a case against them.63
As Maamoun was crossing the street, he said, a police officer grabbed his arm, then four men in civilian
attire cornered and handcuffed him. […]Human Rights Watch reviewed the police report in Maamoun’s case, which stated that he “regularly
engaged in same-sex relations in exchange for money,” based on Grindr and WhatsApp chats found on his
phone. […]Ayman, a 23-year-old gay man from Egypt, said he was entrapped on Grindr and arrested by police while
he was out with three of his friends at a caf in Cairo, on November 17, 2020.
I was cha ng with a man on Grindr while si ng in the caf . We agreed to meet at the caf , butinstead of the man I was expecting, five police officers in civilian attire walked in at about 9 p.m.
They handcuffed [all four of] us and took us to the Smouha Police Department (morality unit) intheir police car and beat us there while calling us names like “faggot,” “whore,” “son of a bitch.”
They [police officers] had a rope in the [police] car and threatened to hang me with it if I did notopen my phone. They found private photos of me with long hair and other photos with a man
and turned it into a case of debauchery and indecency. They found chats on my phone byaccessing my Grindr, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger. They accused us of running an online
sex business for profit, turning it into a case for economic court. They threatened us, that theywould add photos on our phones to incriminate us further, but I don’t know if they did that or
not because we haven’t seen our phones since.68 […]After five hours at the Smouha police station, police transferred Ayman and his friends to Bab Sharqi
detention center, where they spent a month. […]After four days of being detained in Bab Sharqi, Ayman and his friends were presented before a judge,
who extended their pretrial detention for 15 days. After their new lawyer, whom their families appointed,
appealed, the judge reduced their pretrial detention to seven days. When they returned to court a week
later, a different judge sentenced them to two years in prison for “debauchery” and “indecency.” […]On appeal, Ayman and his friends were found innocent, but their case was transferred to the economic
court. He said the economic court charges included “soliciting debauchery” and “conducting sexualbusiness deals online,” based on the police report reviewed by Human Rights Watch.
On December 27, 2021, Ayman and his friends were acquitted.75 […]62 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Maamoun, October 28, 2021.
63 Human Rights Watch phone interview with an Egyptian lawyer, September 18, 2021. […]68 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Ayman, December 8, 2021. […]50

75 Ibid.

102

The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2022, published in March 2023, wrote
that: “Rights groups and activists reported harassment by police, including physical assault and forced
payment of bribes to provide information concerning other LGBTQI+ individuals or to avoid arrest. There
were reports that authorities used social media, dating websites, and mobile phone apps to entrap
persons they suspected of being gay or transgender, a method that LGBTQI+ advocates described as
especially effective since public spaces friendly to LGBTQI+ persons largely had been closed in recent
years”.103 The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2021, published in April 2022,
stated the same.104
The Pink News article in March 2023 on entrapment through Grindr in Egypt stated that:
Darius (not their real name), an LGBTQ+ person from Port Said, told PinkNews they’ve stopped walking inthe streets out of fear and are desperately looking for a way to escape the country.
“Me and my friends got a voice note that said 28 gay people were arrested by police and then forced tocall their friends so they could get arrested too,” they explained.
“A couple of months ago, one of our friends was found dead. I’m not safe at all.”According to Darius, police are taking people’s phones for “evidence” then calling the names in theircontact lists to see if they are LGBTQ+.
They were also informed that their name was on a long list of people who were being tracked by thepolice.
“I don’t leave my house unless someone will take me with a car,” Darius adds.
105“I’m really worried that if I leave the house, I’m going to get slaughtered like a chicken.”In March 2023, Al Jazeera reported on the Grindr app warning Egypt users of police-run accounts,
stating that:
A popular gay social networking application has said that it is issuing a warning to its users in Egypt, as
police impersonate community members to target LGBTQ+ individuals.
Users in Egypt will see the following warning appear in Arabic and English when they open the app: “Wehave been alerted that Egyptian police is actively making arrests of gay, bi, and trans people on digitalplatforms. They are using fake accounts and have also taken over accounts from real community
members who have already been arrested and had their phones taken. Please take extra caution online
and offline, including with accounts that may have seemed legitimate in the past.” […]The warning to users comes after rights groups and media have reported how authorities in the wider
106
region are increasingly taking to digital platforms to crack down on the LGBTQ+ community.
102

Human Rights Watch, “All This Terror Because of a Photo”: Digital Targeting and Its Offline Consequences forLGBT People in the Middle East and North Africa, 21 February 2023, pp. 16, 25-26, 28-30,
103
USDOS, 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 20 March 2023
104
USDOS, 2021 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 12 April 2022
105
Pink News, Grindr sends every user in Egypt warning about police tricking and arresting queer men, 23 March
2023
106
Al Jazeera, LGBTQ+ dating app Grindr warns Egypt users of police-run accounts, 25 March 2023

51

In April 2023, the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) wrote in its Briefing Notes
for the Information Centre for Asylum and Migration that: “A US dating app for LGBTIQ people has
warned its users in Egypt to be careful about sharing personal information and arranging meetings. The
company said the warning was due to an increase in attempts by Egyptian security authorities to arrest
LGBTIQ people using hacked or falsified profiles”.107

2. Mistreatment in Investigations
2020
The statement released by Bedayaa Organization in June 2020 after the death by suicide of activist
Sarah Hegazy noted that: “LGBTIQ persons are frequently subjected to a wide range of violations during
the interrogation and investigation phases including torture, sexual and physical assault, coerced anal
examination and bullying in detention places”.108
The September 2020 Human Rights Watch article on the August 2020 arrest of witnesses to a gang rapein 2014 wrote that:
Egyptian security agencies in late August 2020 arbitrarily arrested a man and three women who were
witnesses to a high-profile gang rape case from 2014 that recently came to light, Human Rights Watch
said today. Security also arrested two of the witnesses’ acquaintances.
The prosecutor general ordered the release of three of the six on August 31 but is pressing charges
against all of them for violating laws on “morality” and “debauchery” that are vague, discriminatory, andopen to abuse. Pro-government media have subjected them to a coordinated smear campaign […].
Four activists said that the authorities arbitrarily arrested at least two other people, who areacquaintances of the witnesses. One was allegedly a man who was visiting one of the American-Egyptian
woman witnesses when security officials came to arrest her. Security forces unlawfully searched theman’s phone and used photos they found to allege that he has engaged in same-sex conduct as a basis tokeep him in custody. Prosecutors renewed his detention, and he could face charges under Egypt’s“debauchery” laws. […]Security forces also arrested a well-known party organizer who was involved in organizing the 2014 party
at the Fairmont Hotel during which the gang rape occurred, although the person with knowledge of thecase said the rape survivor did not accuse him of any wrongdoing. Pro-government websites said he wasarrested on August 28 in a North Coast resort village. Several websites published his name and private
information in the smear campaign based on his perceived sexual orientation.
Security forces have been holding the two men in al-Tagamoa First Police Station, east of Cairo.
Authorities have not allowed any family visits for the two since their arrest, a person with knowledge ofthe case said. Lawyers were reportedly able to attend the prosecution interrogations with the two men,but not see them privately. […]107

The German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), Briefing Notes: Group 62 – Information Centre
for Asylum and Migration, 17 April 2023
108
Bedayaa Organization, Tons of Oppressions Resulted in PRIDE, 18 June 202052

As of September 2, at least three of those arbitrarily detained remain in custody, including a woman
witness, the party organizer, and the man whom the authorities are alleging has engaged in same-sex
conduct.
The statement said that prosecutors ordered the detainees to be tested by the forensic labs for drugs andtwo of them to undergo physical examinations.
Two activists said that authorities subjected the two detained men to forced anal examinations, apractice denounced by African and international human rights bodies, which Egyptian authorities
routinely carry out to seek “proof” of same-sex conduct. […]Smear Campaign
After their arrest, videos and photos showing scenes of some of the detained witnesses’ private lives havebeen leaked online. One video shows several women and a man who appear to be drunk, and othervideos show intimate behavior. Activists said they believe that security forces leaked the photos andvideos to smear and intimidate the witnesses.
The Office of the Prosecutor General said in its August 31 statement that all mobile phones of the people
detained were sent to the “Technical Support Administration” in the Interior Ministry to “retrieve all its
contents and recover any deleted content and retrieve all conversations made on the communications
apps.” One activist, who spoke with some of the released witnesses, said that the National Security
Agency had searched the phones and laptops of the witnesses at the time of arrest and “took whatever
they could find.”Since August 31, pro-government websites and journalists have published reports that stigmatize the rape
survivor, witnesses, and activists involved in the case. Some government-affiliated media websites
are reframing the gang rape as a “group sex party” and alleging that security investigations revealed “thebiggest network of homosexuality.” One pro-government journalist, who is also a lawyer, said in a nowremoved Facebook post that she submitted a complaint to the prosecutor general about several activists
whom she accused of fabricating the rape allegations to “tarnish Egypt’s image” and to “spread109
homosexuality.”

The October 2020 Human Rights Watch report on the arrest, abuse, and torture of LGBT people in Egypt
by security forces noted that:
In late August, Egyptian security forces, likely from the National Security Agency, arrested two men who
witnessed a high-profile gang rape in Cairo’s Fairmont Nile City Hotel in 2014 and were to give evidence
about the case. Officers unlawfully searched the men’s phones while holding them incommunicado at alTagamoa First Police Station, east of Cairo, for several days, and used photos they found to allege thatthey had engaged in same-sex conduct, to keep them in custody. Judges renewed their detention several
times, and prosecutors subjected them to forced anal examinations, a practice which Egyptian authorities
routinely carry out to seek “proof” of same-sex conduct, despite it being denounced as abusive and in
110
violation of international law. The two men could face charges under Egypt’s “debauchery” laws.

A Human Rights Watch article, released in November 2020, added updates to the case of the witnesses
to the 2014 gang rape arrested for their perceived sexual orientation:
109

Human Rights Watch, Egypt: Gang Rape Witnesses Arrested, Smeared: Personal Data Used in Abusive
Prosecutions, 11 September 2020
110
Human Rights Watch, Egypt: Security Forces Abuse, Torture LGBT People - Arbitrary Arrests, Discrimination,
Entrapment, Privacy Violations, 1 October 2020

53

They remain in jail more than two months later, after judges renewed their pretrial detention three times
in hearings they were not allowed to attend.
Authorities kept them for several weeks in a police station in east Cairo, permitting only one family visit.
On October 14, they were transferred to al-Nahda prison, where they are currently detained in the same
cell as the suspected Fairmont rapists.
According to the men’s families, prison guards forcibly shaved their heads, and prosecutors ordered them111
to undergo drug testing and forced anal exams […].

2021
At the beginning of 2021, Bedayaa Organization produced its annual report covering events relevant to
its legal aid programme from January to December 2020. It reported 6 cases of forced anal examinationsin that timeframe.112 It also noted that:
In January, a transgender Cypriot tourist was entrapped and arrested from the hotel she was staying in.
She later received a 3-year prison sentence in addition to 3-year probation on the charge of incitement
and promotion of debauchery. Later in March, her appeal was rejected; the Egyptian authorities did not
acknowledge her transgender status and did not assign her to a women’s detention facility as her official
documents stated that she was male. Instead, she was kept in solitary confinement in a small room insidea police station for over a year with no access to sunlight until she was extradited to Cyprus where she will113
continue to serve her sentence.

The 2021 Human Rights Watch World Report, covering events of 2020 and published in January 2021,
wrote on Egypt that: “Egypt continued to arbitrarily arrest and detain people based on their sexual
orientation or gender identity and subjected them to torture and ill-treatment in detention, including
forced anal examinations”.114
Similarly, a January 2021 open letter to the European Union and its member states on Egypt, signed by
twelve organisations including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the World Organisation
Against Torture (OMCT), stated that: “The authorities […] continued to arrest members of the LGBTI
community because of their sexual orientation and to forcibly subject them to torture and degrading
treatment including "anal tests" and "sex determination tests" […]”.115
The U Government’s Human Rights and Democracy Report for 2020, published in July 2021, stated
that: “Egyptian lawyers reported that LGBT+ people remained subject to arrest on charges of111

Human Rights Watch, Egypt Detains Men for Alleged Sexual Orientation, Alongside Alleged Rapists, 2 November
2020
112
Bedayaa Organization, Legal Aid – Annual Report: 2020, 2021, p. 1
113
Bedayaa Organization, Legal Aid – Annual Report: 2020, 2021, p. 3
114
Human Rights Watch, World Report 2021: Events of 2020, 13 January 2021, p. 215
115
Human Rights Watch et al., Open letter to the European Union and its Member States on Egypt, 21 January
2021

54

‘debauchery’ or ‘inciting debauchery’, sometimes following the use of social media traps by theauthorities. Forced anal examinations were also reported”.116
The latest edition of ILGA World's “Our Identities under Arrest” report, released in December 2021,
stated that:
Police and other authorities have demonstrated a common tactic of using online entrapment, raiding of
known “gay hangouts”, and illegally seizing and searching cell phones for incriminating content, in orderto justify the arbitrary detention of suspects. Once the accused are in custody, physical and psychologicalviolence, and sexual assault are also reportedly common, and legal procedures remain opaque to makeaccess to justice difficult. It is thus often impossible to parse where the delineation between
criminalisation and simple prejudice on the part of individual State actors lies, given the nebulous ways inwhich laws can and have been interpreted to include SOGIE identities and activities. […]Examples of Enforcement […]In August or September 2020, a young man accompanied a female friend to a police station in Cairo. She
had been arrested in 2014 as part of an investigation into a party at Cairo’s Fairmont hotel. It wasreported that another woman was drugged and raped by several men in the hotel room that night andthe young man’s friend was being sought to give input as a witness. He voluntarily accompanied her tothe police station and had no connection to the 2014 incident as he was only 14 at the time. However,once there, police arbitrarily detained him as well as another man who was at the party. Both weresearched and their phones taken away. Police found private photos and detained both for allegedly
engaging in homosexual conduct. They remained in jail for more than two months, as judges renewed
their detention orders three times, being transferred on 14 October to al-Nahda Prison where guards
shaved their heads, subjected them to anal examinations and housed them with the suspected party
rapists. It is unclear whether the men were later released.74 […]74 This entry has been redacted for the safety of those in involved. For more information, please contact ILGA
117
World.

The 2021 report by Bedayaa Organization answering FAQs on the situation for LGBTQI people in Egypt
wrote that:
There is a dedicated police department (Public Morality Police) that is affiliated with the Ministry ofInterior that is commissioned to arresting whoever not fitting with Egyptian society norms namely sex
workers ‘females and males’, gay men, trans women and any reported non-normative sexual activities
even if it is in private places, this unit investigate all cases under the law 10/1961. The “investigations” areoften short and depends on the methods of the arrests.
The cases files show the most common methods of arresting LGBTI persons are:
Entrapment through dating applications on smart phones, where the police officers create fake accounts
and pretend to be gay persons who are interested to meet for a date. When the LGBTI individual shows116

UK Government and UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Human Rights & Democracy: The 2020
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Report, 8 July 2021, p. 44
117
International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), Our Identities Under Arrest: A
global overview on the enforcement of laws criminalising consensual same-sex sexual acts between adults anddiverse gender expressions, 15 December 2021, pp. 126, 321

55

up at the meeting point, he/she get arrested. We noticed from examining the screenshots attached withthe cases files, that the people speaking on behalf of the police always express their intention to pay
money in foreign currency as a temptation to the users of these apps. We also noticed that the person
speaking on behalf of the police always arrange the meetings in a public location e.g., public garden or
just in the streets, so it would be easier to arrest them once they show up for the meeting. Once they arearrested, the police search the phones and print out all the conversations on the dating apps to use as“solo” evidence to prosecute the case further in the criminal courts or economical courts.
Sometimes the police tries to strike a deal with the accused, as they offer him/her to not prosecute thecase if he/she cooperated and hand over other LGBTI individuals.
On the other hand, the awareness campaigns conducted by the NGOs working on LGBTI issues, thewarning messages that the dating apps send to its users about digital security and how to avoid online
entrapment, and the new security features like the change of the application icon and not displaying
notifications undermined the online entrapment method, but did not erase it, as there is still aremarkable number of the LGBTI persons who got arrested through entrapment.
Sweeping meeting spots like some squares, streets, or coffee shops that the LGBTI community members
often meet at. The police raid spots and randomly arrest people and then search them for anything thatwill indict that they do have sex e.g., condoms, lubes, and pictures to make a case against them and ifthey do not find anything, they would just claim that the arrested person was using seductive acts andsigns to seduce people into committing debauchery. […]Egyptian police do not understand the different between a transgender woman and a homosexual man,as such they view every transgender woman as a gay man who is dressed up as a woman to seduce men
into debauchery for money, and view any gathering of Trans women in one flat as a hideout for
prostitution. In other cases, the neighbours would attack transgender women in their flats and when thetransgender women would call the police, the police would arrest them instead of the neighbours for thereason mentioned above.
Sadly, some judges do not care about the legality of the arrest procedures and the seriousness of theevidence and just settle for using female clothes and makeup as evidence of committing prostitution anddebauchery without understanding that these evidences are nothing but important tools for trans women
to use to live as a woman within the society. Other legal issues that face transgender persons is the lack ofcommunication channels within the different executive branches and ministries inside the state; thisoften leads to being arrested, even though they would have governmental medical reports from theministry of health stating that they are having gender identity disorder, but the Ministry of Interior does118
not acknowledge these kinds of reports.

2022
Afsaneh Rigot’s March 2022 report on the role of digital evidence in the persecution of LGBTQ people in
Egypt (as well as Lebanon and Tunisia) noted the following:
The Egyptian interviewees affirmed that the most targeted persons in the LGBTQ community are transpeople and queer cis men, and sentencing is always harsh due to the, “pictures and them looking like awoman and so on, the anal examination, and of course the provocative pictures that they usually attachwith the police report”160. […]118

Bedayaa Organization, 10 FAQs about LGBTIQs situation in Egypt, 2021, pp. 7-8, 14

56

As digital evidence is central to the prosecution of LGBTQ people in Egypt, Tunisia, and Lebanon, illegal
access to devices is central to the gathering of that evidence. All 21 interviews, across all three
jurisdictions, confirmed this. […]Digital evidence is gathered through traditional policing and investigation tactics: patrols, informants,
interrogations, forced device checks, and so on. […]Some interviewees suggested that more advanced digital search methods are used. […] Anotherinterviewee in Egypt refers to specific assigned personnel who are enlisted if all other methods of forcing
access to digital devices fail: “But if this all fails then it’s up to the expert, he’s the one responsible for
opening it. How does he open it exactly, this is like not very... it’s out of the court records.”283 One
interviewee suggested these tools existed, but were rarely employed in this context: “In Egypt they don’t
act like the FBI. It’s easier than that. They just interrogate sources, [they force] people to open the mobile.
They have the tools, but they use that for important cases” like political ones.284 […]The issue of fabricated, or planted, evidence by Egyptian police and investigators has been an ongoingchallenge documented by human rights organizations.314 In the context of cases against LGBTQ people,
this seems to be an accepted norm in policing and courts. […]160 EL2 […]283 EL6
284 EL3 […]314 Human Rights Watch. 2021. Egypt: Security Forces Abuse, Torture LGBT People. [online] Available at:<https://www.hrw. org/news/2020/10/01/egypt-security-forces-abuse-torture-lgbt-people> [Accessed 22 December2021]. and Human Rights Watch. 2021. Egypt: Security Forces Abuse, Torture LGBT People. [online] Available at:<https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/10/01/ egypt-security-forces-abuse-torture-lgbt-people> [Accessed 22 December
1192021].

The article in April 2022 by Nora Noralla at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy on challenges fortransgender people in the Middle East and North Africa, based on interviews conducted withtransgender people in 2021, wrote on Egypt: “In detention, transgender people are often placed in cells
that do not correspond to their gender identity, and are subjected to ill-treatment that can amount totorture, including sexual violence by security forces and other detainees, being confined in solitary cells
for extended periods, and forced anal examinations”.120
The April 2022 report on sexual violence in detention in Egypt between 2015 and 2022 by the Freedom
Initiative and the Egyptian Front for Human Rights found the following information on sexual violence
faced by LGBTQ+ individuals in police stations, at National Security Agency sites, and in prisons:
In Police Stations […]We also found at least seven instances of anal examinations of gay men and a trans woman. At least oneof these detainees was a minor. […]At National Security Agency (NSA) Sites […]119

Afsaneh Rigot, Digital Crime Scenes: The Role of Digital Evidence in the Persecution of LGBTQ People in Egypt,
Lebanon, and Tunisia, 7 March 2022, pp. 48, 66, 68, 70, 75
120
The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, Tough Territory for Transgender People in the Middle East and North
Africa, 7 April 2022

57

Notably missing here are documentations of cases of sexual violence against members of the LGBTQ+
community. While we do not claim that none have occurred in NSA sites, as we do document one incidentof an anal examination against a trans man, the NSA interfaces most commonly with political detainees.
Members of the LGBTQ+ community are most often held under criminal cases and therefore notenmeshed within the NSA’s ecosystem. […]In Prisons […]We also documented instance of anal examinations of a trans man and a trans woman. Upon entry, aprison officer called for their medical examination, and they were transferred to a hospital in Cairo. Bothdetainees reportedly endured anal examinations by the presiding physicians. These examinations, while
not requested by either the prosecutor’s office or prison authorities directly, were conducted in what theydescribed as a very demeaning way that amounted to sexual violence.61 […]Findings […]The sexualized nature of violence was evident even in supposedly routine or medicalized examinations or
searches: gay men, for instance, were subject to unnecessary anal examinations, a form of rape. […]61 Based on case number A123

121

The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2021, published in April 2022, wrote
that: “Rights groups reported that authorities, including the Forensic Medical Authority, conducted
forced anal examinations, which rights groups indicated primarily targeted LGBTQI+ individuals. The law
allows for conducting forced anal exams in cases of “debauchery””.122 The report further noted that:“According to a LGBTQI+ rights organization 2020 annual report issued in January, authorities arrested
25 LGBTQI+ individuals in 2020 and conducted forced anal exams on six persons”.123
In May 2022, the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) and the Committee for Justice (CFJ)
called for the African Commission to issue public statements condemning the violations detainees in
Egypt face, stating that: “In Al-Qanater female prison, [women] face torture and gender-based violencein custody with impunity, including humiliating vaginal searches, sexual harassment, and also forced
genital examinations for transgender women”.124
The meeting minutes with a Human Rights Watch analyst, published in the September 2022 COI briefreport on the situation of LGBT persons in Egypt by the Danish Immigration Service, note the following
with regards to the implementation of the law and investigations:
5. It is primarily the incitement to debauchery and debauchery laws and the public indecency laws thatare used against LGBT persons. They are invoked when individuals are found to defy gender roles orgender conformity - including if they are suspected of being gay or transgender. The accusations are
based on either content of phones discovered during arbitrary phone searches or the individual’s
121

The Freedom Initiative and Egyptian Front for Human Rights, No One is Safe: Sexual Violence Throughout theLife Cycle of Detention in Egypt: 2015-2022, 7 April 2022, pp. 19, 23, 25, 31
122
USDOS, 2021 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 12 April 2022
123
USDOS, 2021 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 12 April 2022
124
The International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) and the Committee for Justice (CFJ), Egypt must take thenecessary steps to improve prison conditions, 17 May 2022

58

appearance. Egyptian authorities round up suspected gay men or transgender individuals on the street or
target them online. Usually, the cybercrime laws are invoked if individuals have posted something onlinethat is perceived to violate public decency, or if they have content on their phone such as selfies, photos,
chats on Grindr or even the mere presence of the application Grindr. Any same sex dating app on one’s
phone is also used to incriminate the person under either cybercrime laws or incitement to debaucherylaws. […]
7. Usually photos are used against individuals as evidence in LGBT cases. Photos of individuals themselves
or photos of them with others perceived as a same-sex couple. Other examples are presence of
applications on phones, a Facebook post, a rainbow flag filter on a Facebook profile etc. There have beencases of online extortion in the sense that individuals have coerced LGBT people into having sex and thenreported the act or blackmailed them by threatening to report it to the authorities.
8. An example of online evidence used against LGBT persons could be a man telling another man “I likeyou” which is used in court as incriminating evidence to prosecute. The evidence comes from searches ofindividuals’ phones or entrapment on social media where many law enforcement officers create fakesame sex profiles on Grindr and other applications through which they entrap LGBT people by for instancegetting them to confess that, “they are gay”. Sometimes, the law enforcement officer would ask, “howmuch would you charge”, and if the LGBT individual do not reject payment for sex, this would be used as
evidence against the person by accusing him of habitually practicing debauchery and promoting
125
indecency.

The minutes further noted that: “In 2021 and 2022, HRW has documented cases of torture of LGBT
individuals such as severe and repeated beatings and sexual violence in police custody, forced analexams and virginity tests against men and women. HRW has also documented verbal abuse, extracted
forced confessions, systematic denial of medical care and legal counsel and an increase in prosecution
for alleged same sex conduct since 2017 and precipitating for 2021 and 2022”.126
January – May 2023
The 2023 Human Rights Watch World Report, covering events of 2022 and published in January 2023,
stated that:
Authorities in Egypt have undermined lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people’s right toprivacy with digital targeting, namely entrapment on social media and dating applications, online
harassment and “outing,” online extortion, monitoring social media, and reliance on illegitimately
obtained digital evidence in prosecutions. Human Rights Watch documented cases where security forces
have used digital targeting, based on “debauchery” provisions and the Cybercrime Law, to entrap LGBT
people, arbitrarily arrest and detain them based on digital evidence found on their personal devices, and127
ill-treat them in police custody.

125

The Danish Immigration Service, Country of Origin (COI) Brief Report – Egypt: Situation of LGBT persons,September 2022, pp. 19-20
126
The Danish Immigration Service, Country of Origin (COI) Brief Report – Egypt: Situation of LGBT persons,September 2022, p. 21
127
Human Rights Watch, World Report 2023: Events of 2022, 12 January 2023, p. 196

59

The joint NGO submission for the review of Egypt by the Human Rights Committee, published in January2023 by the Committee for Justice (CFJ) and eight other organisations, stated that:Contrary to the State’s response, cases of targeting LGBTQ+ individuals are still taking place in Egypt
especially by using the internet to entrap and arrest them. The arrests of LGBTQ+ individuals are often rifewith instances of sexualized and gendered violence. […]Egyptian police, prosecution and courts persecute homosexuality, transgender women’s identities andconsensual same-sex acts between men or men and trans women under provisions of Egypt’s Law no.
10/1961 on Combating Prostitution (most notably, the vague and overbroad crime of “habitualdebauchery”, among others). A central feature of this persecution is forced anal examinations, performedby the Justice Ministry’s Forensic Medical Authority (FMA) upon referral from the prosecution, against
individuals accused of “habitual debauchery”. […]This rise in prosecution of real or perceived sexual and gender differences in Egypt is characterized byperiodic State and media induced moral panics surrounding group arrests on grounds of “debauchery”
every few months since 2013. Other forms of torture and ill-treatment also precipitate from such arrests,
including verbal threats and insults, beatings, threats of sexual violence, and incitement of other intimatesto abuse the individual. […]Increasingly EIPR [Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights] has documented the use of forced examinations
extends beyond charges of “habitual debauchery” under law 10/1961. […] Moreover, the referral ofindividuals to the Forensic Medical Authority (FMA) for forced anal examinations continues to this day. In
the 12 months between September 2021 and September 2022, EIPR documented 18 cases using charges
of “habitual debauchery” against 37 individuals. In some of these cases, referral of defendants by theprosecution to the FMA for forced anal examinations were documented. […]NGOs documented - from the period of 2015 to 2022 - 655 incidents of sexual violence conducted by
security personnel against 544 victims including […] 30 members of the LGBTQ community […]. Sexual
based violence is rife in Egyptian detention facilities, and in particular in National Security Agency sites,
where authorities use gender and surrounding social norms to increase victims’ pain and suffering. No
type or demographic is spared, with attacks recorded against women, men, children, trans and non-binary
persons. Attacks take on different forms, purposes, and targets—in some cases embodying an expressionof personal or state power, while in others being a means of punishment and in others still a means to
extract a confession. Physical attacks are often accompanied by verbal abuses who use slurs or references
to honor, modesty, and chastity to increase the psychological and social impact of the victim. Thesesexualized attacks are not the result of a small group of “bad apple” perpetrators, they are systematic.
Most detainees reporting instances of sexual violence experienced the same lifecycle of violations—beginning with psychological and physical torture through threats, sexual harassment, virginity tests for
women, anal examination for gay men, beating, electric shocks, sexual assaults and rape, and trumped-up
128
charges relating to the victims’ exercise of the rights of opinion, expression, or assembly.

The February 2023 Human Rights Watch report into digital targeting and its offline consequences forLGBT people in the Middle East and North Africa stated the following: “Authorities in Egypt subjected a128

Committee for Justice (CFJ) et al., Joint NGO submission for the review of Egypt by the Human Rights
Committee: 137th session (27 February to 24 March 2023), 30 January 2023, pp. 7-8, 10-1160

17-year-old transgender girl to a forced anal exam. […] The Egyptian Medical Syndicate has taken no
steps to prevent doctors from conducting these degrading and abusive exams”.129
The same report also noted the following cases:
Maamoun, a 24-year-old gay man from Egypt, described an instance in February 2021 when he suspected
police officers had used Grindr to entrap him […]. […]Maamoun said the police officers then took him to the Abbasiya police station, where he waited on thefloor in a dirty room with no ventilation until 1 a.m. During this time, he said police officers verbally
abused him and insulted him based on his sexual orientation. He was denied a phone call to a lawyer orfamily member and was not provided with food or water. Furthermore, although an officer allowed him
to take his HIV medication that night, the police withheld his treatment for the rest of his detention.
Police officers also took his phone, wallet, and personal belongings. Eventually, they forced him to sign apolice report using his fingerprint, without giving him the chance to read it.65 […]At 1:30 a.m., Maamoun was transferred to the Qasr El-Nil police station, where he was placed in solitaryconfinement due to his HIV status, he said. At 8 a.m., police took Maamoun to Abdeen Court, where hesaid he was held in insanitary conditions until his interrogation:
The prosecutor asked me if I had a lawyer. I said I did not, so they appointed me a lawyer to bepresent during the interrogation. [The lawyer] told me not to worry and asked me whichapplications I had on my phone. I said Grindr and Facebook. He asked for my Facebook password,
and I gave it to him so that he could access my account and delete content that could be usedagainst me. He asked me if I had money, and I gave him my employer’s number. He also asked
for my parents’ number. I refused at first, but he assured me that he would not tell them about
the incident. The lawyer then told me that he called my employer, who told him that he did notknow me. I felt like my life was over, like everything I had built was destroyed. I could not believethat all this degradation and hate I was experiencing was only because I am gay.66
According to Maamoun, at the public prosecutor’s office, the prosecutor interrogated Maamoun
regarding chats on his phone, particularly on Grindr and WhatsApp. He said he claimed his phone was
hacked, but the prosecutor did not believe him. When he requested that his court-appointed lawyer
retrieve a friend’s number from his phone, Maamoun said the lawyer gave him a wrong number. He later
discovered that the lawyer had also contacted his parents and told them, “Your son is detained for
debauchery and immoral activity.” Maamoun’s father still does not speak to him because of this incident.
He continued:
On Monday, I went to the Abdeen court again for investigation, and I was put in that same
terrible room. When I returned to the Qasr El-Nil police station, they changed my prison cell andplaced me with high-profile felons. I was terrified and asked to be returned to my old cell, but theprison guard demanded 500 Egyptian pounds (US$32) and a phone card as a bribe. I experienced
continuous sexual assault. One of the detainees with me in the cell forced me to confess that I
was gay, and he sexually assaulted me in exchange for protection. This went on for a week, andother detainees sexually harassed me as well, while I was sleeping, and then when I was
showering. We were 45 people in a tiny cell, and they were using drugs the entire time.67
After Maamoun spent 10 days in pretrial detention without charge, the judge ordered his release, he said.

129

Human Rights Watch, “All This Terror Because of a Photo”: Digital Targeting and Its Offline Consequences forLGBT People in the Middle East and North Africa, 21 February 2023, pp. 24-25

61

Ayman, a 23-year-old gay man from Egypt, said he was entrapped on Grindr and arrested by police while
he was out with three of his friends at a caf in Cairo, on November 17, 2020.
I was cha ng with a man on Grindr while si ng in the caf . We agreed to meet at the caf , butinstead of the man I was expecting, five police officers in civilian attire walked in at about 9 p.m.
They handcuffed [all four of] us and took us to the Smouha Police Department (morality unit) intheir police car and beat us there while calling us names like “faggot,” “whore,” “son of a bitch.”
They [police officers] had a rope in the [police] car and threatened to hang me with it if I did notopen my phone. They found private photos of me with long hair and other photos with a man
and turned it into a case of debauchery and indecency. They found chats on my phone byaccessing my Grindr, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger. They accused us of running an online
sex business for profit, turning it into a case for economic court. They threatened us, that theywould add photos on our phones to incriminate us further, but I don’t know if they did that or
not because we haven’t seen our phones since.68 […]After five hours at the Smouha police station, police transferred Ayman and his friends to Bab Sharqi
detention center, where they spent a month. “It was a terrible place,” Ayman added. “Everyone slept on
the floor in a very crowded tiny room. We were only offered appalling food that was impossible todigest.”72
After two days, at the public prosecutor’s office, Ayman said he endured further mistreatment and insults.
We were told that we will never get out of jail. The prosecutor wrote things in the report thatwere false. He searched our phones again, especially WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram, andinsisted that we were running an online sex business. I had a lawyer with me, and the prosecutor
asked him, “Aren’t you ashamed to defend faggots?” Then the lawyer left.73
After four days of being detained in Bab Sharqi, Ayman and his friends were presented before a judge,
who extended their pretrial detention for 15 days. After their new lawyer, whom their families appointed,
appealed, the judge reduced their pretrial detention to seven days. When they returned to court a week
later, a different judge sentenced them to two years in prison for “debauchery” and “indecency.”
Ayman said he tested positive for Covid-19 after 15 days in Bab Sharqi detention center. He was denied
medical care and access to medication from his parents. The police did not try to contain the spread, andthe inmates, who were kept in cells with no ventilation, all became very sick, Ayman added.74 […]Majd, a 38-year-old gay man from Egypt, and Ismail, a 23-year-old gay man from Egypt, told Human Rights
Watch that a gang extorted them on Grindr in August 2021. Ismail began:
We met a guy on Grindr. We chatted with him for four days before meeting him. […] He cameover and we had sex.
An hour after he left, he called us again and told us he wanted to come back and bring a friend
with him. They arrived, and his demeanor changed completely, and the guy with him was avacant-eyed thug. They started moving around the apartment and interrogating us. We told
them to leave, but they refused and told us that they were not there to have sex, they were
there to turn us in to the police. They said they were both in the military. They told us that either
we pay them 70,000 Egyptian pounds (US$4,451) or they would turn us in to the police. They also
demanded we sign an agreement with them. They beat up Ismail. We were terrified.127
Ismail wept as he was telling the story, so Majd continued:
I managed to open the door of our apartment and scream for help, so they got scared and leftfrom the back exit, only taking Ismail’s phone with them. The police came because of thescreaming and asked us what happened, we said it was a theft attempt. The police told us to filea report, but we did not, and I thought that the incident had ended there, only to find [the twomen who tried to blackmail us] waiting for me outside my place a few days later. Wanting to62

cause a scene, they dragged me to a populated square in Cairo, started calling me a “faggot”
while beating me up in front of everyone, and broke my phone.128
When the police intervened, the man they had met on Grindr told the police that Majd was gay andshowed them their WhatsApp chats, which contained messages about gay sex and stickers (a WhatsApp
feature) that showed images of men having sex. Police officers insulted Majd and Ismail with homophobic
slurs, handcuffed them, and took them to the Helwan police station in Cairo, where they were detainedfor four days.129
Ismail and Majd did not know what happened to the two alleged perpetrators. They tried to file acomplaint at the police station, but officers refused to register their complaint, they said. […]Yasin, an 18-year-old gay man from Egypt, was extorted and raped on December 28, 2020, when he was16, by a gang after he met a gang member on Grindr, only learning later that these men had extorted andraped in a similar manner before. […]After Yasin left, he found a place nearby where he called his father, told him he was kidnapped, and asked
him to come immediately. His father then took Yasin to the New Cairo Kattameya police station to file acomplaint with the police. Yasin said:
I told the police officer what happened but left out the part about Grindr. I told him that thethugs accosted me in the street, took me to their place, then raped me. He did not believe me,
and when he started yelling at me, my father told him to take us to the chief officer, which hedid. The chief officer said he would help me, then asked that I take another police officer to theapartment where I was being held. We went, and two of the men who attacked me were there,
but the one who had the big knife wasn’t. They started screaming and the police arrested them.
[The police officers] took the three phones there (including mine), drugs they found at theapartment, and the weapons that they had. They refused to confess anything at the police
station, while I filed the police report.132
The following day, Yasin went to the office of the public prosecutor, who assured him that he would not
be detained and asked him to explain what happened:
I once again left out the part about Grindr, but when the men who attacked me came in to beinterrogated, one of them confessed to everything and showed the prosecutor the chat on
Grindr. When he searched their phones, he saw a video detailing another incident similar tomine, done in the exact same way. The prosecutor showed me that video and the video theyrecorded of me. We were at the prosecutor’s office from 9 a.m. until 2 a.m.
Four days later, the police department summoned Yasin to perform an anal exam to “verify his sexual
orientation.”133 He added that the exam “showed that he was not gay,” which allowed him to escapedetention.134 Yasin did not know what happened to the men he accused of rape and extortion.
Baha’, a 24-year-old gay man from Alexandria, Egypt, was robbed by a man he met on Facebook, whothen attacked him one evening in February 2021 while they were on a date. […]After the attack against him, Baha’ immediately blocked the man he met on Facebook and went to thenearest police station, near Al-Namous Square in Cairo, to report the attack.
I told the police that I was walking and a group of men attacked and robbed me. I was
accompanied by officers to the location where I was attacked. I distanced myself from them andopened my Facebook account from a pedestrian’s phone to try to get the attackers’ accountdetails. One of the officers saw me, snatched the phone from my hand, and found out that I was
gay from my private Facebook groups. They brought me back to the station and started
interrogating me. One officer said, “I know you’re a faggot, so stop lying and tell me about yourrelation to the attacker.” I told him the whole story. They said, “Do you fuck or get fucked?”63

“What have you done with the guy?” I was threatened with an anal exam and also with themilitary court’s interference as I am in the army.136
Police officers interrogated Baha’ for from 7 p.m. until 1 a.m. and forced him to open both his Facebook
accounts, his real one and a fake one he used for dating. He described the interrogation process:
I was not allowed to call anyone or use the restroom. The police report stated that I was walking
on the street and my phone fell. The officer did not write another report because it would havebeen a burden, he said, so they threatened me with [sending the case to] the military court toget me to agree to the report as it was. Even though I presented information about theperpetrators’ identities, the police did absolutely nothing to help me. Instead, they threatened
and insulted me. I left there completely shocked, and I had no money, so I had to walk a long
distance.137 […][…] On January 15, 2020, Tina, a 34-year-old trans woman sex worker from Cyprus, was in Egypt for workwhen police arrested her after her client told the police that he found her on the internet. She wasdetained for 13 months at the Nasr City police station and convicted for “inciting debauchery” based on
photos and chats that police found when they searched her phone.174 Human Rights Watch’s review ofthe police report and court files in Tina’s case confirmed that this private information was the only
evidence presented in her case. Tina said:
At 10:30 p.m., on the last night before my flight back to Cyprus, I had an appointment with adiplomat who was my client. He arrived with his driver to the hotel. The police outside the hotel
stopped us because of the car’s tinted windows. They asked for our passports and the diplomat
refused. I had to give them mine, which was a passport I do not currently use, because it says I
am male. The police asked the diplomat if I was his girlfriend or his wife. He said that he foundme on the internet. Then they put us both in a minibus and took us to the Giza police station.175
At the station, Tina described the treatment by police:[The police officers] did not tell me on what basis I was being held. They took my fingerprints andsearched my phone and took screenshots of my messages with clients as well as pictures of me
they found on my phone. They also did not allow me to call a lawyer, my embassy, or even mymother.176
Tina’s pretrial detention was extended three times, each for 15 days, for a total of 45 days. During that
period, she said, “They gave me food and water in exchange for sex,” otherwise she did not receive foodor water. Because her gender identity confused the officers, who did not know whether to place her in amen’s or women’s prison, she was never transferred to a prison. When she finally had her court hearing,“it was eight seconds. The judge did not even look at me.” The judge dropped one charge, for“prostitution,” but sentenced her to three years for “inciting debauchery” on the basis of her nudephotos. She was detained for another 13 months.177 […]Martin, a 39-year-old gay man from Chile, was working in Egypt as a Spanish teacher when he wasarrested in February 2020.
My only problem is that I had Grindr on my phone. It was a Sunday, and I was at the supermarket
in Dokki, where I was living. Suddenly, a man I did not know approached me, called me by myname, and said, “We are going to the police station.” He forcibly took my phone and demanded I
opened it. He asked for my passport, which I did not have, so they handcuffed me, put me in aminibus, and drove to my apartment. I got my passport, and I was surprised that police officers
took everything valuable from my apartment: iPad, TV, and laptop. They also never returned myphone.178
At the Dokki police station, Martin said no one spoke English and he did not know the reason for his
arrest. He stayed at the police station overnight, until his court hearing the next morning, at which he was64

convicted of “inciting debauchery” and sentenced to a fine of 400 pounds (US$25) and deportation to
Chile.
Human Rights Watch reviewed the police report and court files in Martin’s case, which indicated that thepresence of the Grindr app on his phone was the basis for his conviction. The police report also
highlighted that Egypt’s Intelligence Agency received information that he was meeting men on Grindr tohave sex with them, which Martin denied. Martin told Human Rights Watch that he believed the Chilean
embassy’s intervention was the only reason he was released.179
In August 2020, the Egyptian National Security Agency arrested four witnesses to a high- profile 2014 gangrape in Cairo’s Fairmont Hotel (known as the Fairmont case), along with two of their acquaintances,
weeks after independent women’s rights activists exposed the incident online. The authorities accusedtwo of the witnesses, Seif Bedour and Ahmed Ganzoury, of consensual same-sex sexual conduct and“inciting debauchery,” based solely on private photos from their phones.180
The authorities subjected Bedour and Ganzoury to drug testing and forced anal exams.181 Police
unlawfully searched the men’s phones by forcing them to unlock their devices and, on the basis of theprivate photos they found, detained them for allegedly engaging in same-sex conduct.182 Progovernment media targeted them with a coordinated online smear campaign, publishing their names,
photos, and private information based on their perceived sexual orientation.183 The two men weredetained in pretrial detention for five months, then released pending investigation in January 2021.184[…]
Nour, the 31-year-old gender non-binary person from Zagazig, Egypt, referred to above who uses
they/them pronouns, described the physical and sexual abuse, as well as poor conditions, they faced indetention:[…] Three detainees, ordered by police officers, also threatened me with a mousse knife andbrought me to the bathroom, took off my clothes, and did an anal test on me. They then beat me
on my groin and intimate parts, skull, and buttocks […].213 […]62 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Maamoun, October 28, 2021. […]65 Ibid.
66 Ibid.
67 Ibid.
68 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Ayman, December 8, 2021. […]72 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Ayman, December 8, 2021.
73 Ibid.
74 Ibid. […]127 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Majd and Ismail, October 14, 2021.
128 Ibid.
129 Ibid. […]132 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Yasin, October 26, 2021.
133 Forced anal examinations constitute cruel, degrading, and inhuman treatment that can rise to the level of tortureand sexual assault under international human rights law. They violate medical ethics and lack scientific validity for
their purported purpose of establishing that same-sex conduct has taken place. They are therefore internationallydiscredited. Human Rights Watch, Dignity Debased: Forced Anal Examinations in Homosexuality Prosecutions, (NewYork: Human Rights Watch report, 2016), https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/07/12/dignity-debased/forced-analexaminations-homosexuality- prosecutions.
134 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Yasin, October 26, 2021. […]136 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Baha’, October 22, 2021.
137 Ibid. […]174 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Tina, September 15, 2021.

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175 Ibid.
176 Ibid.
177 Ibid.
178 Human Rights Watch interview with Martin, October 2, 2021.
179 Ibid.
180 “Egypt: Gang Rape Witnesses Arrested, Smeared,” Human Rights Watch news release.
181 Rasha Younes, “Egypt Detains Men for Alleged Sexual Orientation, Alongside Alleged Rapists,” Human Rights
Watch dispatch.
182 Ibid.
183 “Egypt: Gang Rape Witnesses Arrested, Smeared,” Human Rights Watch news release.
184 Rasha Younes, “Justice Stalled in Egypt’s ‘Fairmont’ Rape Case,” Human Rights Watch dispatch. […]130
213 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Nour, October 6, 2021.

In early March 2023, the UN Human Rights Committee published a summary record of the 3958th
meeting, held in February 2023, in which the fifth periodic report of Egypt was considered. Within it,
concerns were raised that: “The Committee had been informed of cases in which homosexual andtransgender persons had been arbitrarily detained and subjected to invasive, unjustified medical
examinations that could amount to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment under article 7 of theCovenant”.131
A couple of days later, the UN Human Rights Committee published a summary record of the 3959th
meeting, held in March 2023, in which the fifth periodic report of Egypt was further considered.
Concerns were raised that referred to the following incident: “The case involving the arrest of the 28
men – reportedly solely on grounds of debauchery rather than the possession of drugs or pornography –constituted the biggest mass arrest linked to sexual orientation in Egypt in the last 20 years. The
Committee had received information that those persons had been subjected to forced anal
examinations, which constituted torture and was therefore banned under the Covenant,”132 in responseto an Egyptian state representative stating that “the case that had been reported concerning the allegedharassment of 28 persons because of their sexual orientation had actually involved a group of persons
who had gathered to sell drugs. The police had been called to the scene and the disturbance had later
escalated when some of the suspects had begun brandishing bladed weapons”.133
The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2022, published in March 2023, wrote
that: “Rights groups reported that authorities, including the Forensic Medical Authority, conducted130

Human Rights Watch, “All This Terror Because of a Photo”: Digital Targeting and Its Offline Consequences forLGBT People in the Middle East and North Africa, 21 February 2023, pp. 25-29, 52-56, 73-75, 89
131
UN Human Rights Committee, 137th session, Summary record of the 3958th meeting*: Held at the Palais
Wilson, Geneva, on Tuesday, 28 February 2023, at 3 p.m. - Consideration of reports submitted by States parties
under article 40 of the Covenant - Fifth periodic report of Egypt, 6 March 2023, p. 4
132
UN Human Rights Committee, 137th session, Summary record of the 3959th meeting: Held at the Palais Wilson,
Geneva, on Wednesday, 1 March 2023, at 10 a.m. - Consideration of reports submitted by States parties underarticle 40 of the Covenant (continued) - Fifth periodic report of Egypt (continued), 8 March 2023, pp. 8-9
133
UN Human Rights Committee, 137th session, Summary record of the 3959th meeting: Held at the Palais Wilson,
Geneva, on Wednesday, 1 March 2023, at 10 a.m. - Consideration of reports submitted by States parties underarticle 40 of the Covenant (continued) - Fifth periodic report of Egypt (continued), 8 March 2023, p. 2

66

forced anal examinations in cases involving “debauchery” charges, which rights groups indicatedprimarily targeted LGBTQI+ individuals”.134 The report further stated that:
Human rights organizations stated the Public Prosecutor’s Office continued to order forced anal andvaginal “exams” of detainees, primarily in “debauchery” cases against transgender women and men who
have sex with men. Civil society organizations further alleged that the authority to undertake these
abusive practices stemmed from internal guidelines rather than law, and that police would continue tocarry them out absent formal prohibition from leadership. Authorities regularly used the “results” offorced anal exams as evidence against the defendants, despite independent international medical experts
135
having emphasized that there was no medical or evidentiary basis for such conclusions […].

In April 2023, the UN Human Rights Committee published its concluding observations on the fifth
periodic report of Egypt, in which it stated that: “The Committee is concerned that vague provisions on“habitual debauchery” under Act No. 10 of 1961 on combating prostitution are used to prosecute
persons due to their sexual orientation or gender identity, and in some cases to subject them to forced
anal examinations (arts. 2, 3, 7, 17 and 26)”.136

ii.

Treatment in detention facilities

For further relevant information consult also section II., b., i., 2. Mistreatment in Investigations.
2020
In March 2020, ANKH Association (Arab Network for Knowledge about Human Rights) and the Cairo
Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), among other organisations, published an appeal for the
release of Eman Al-Helw and Hossam Ahmad from detention in Egypt, stating that:
February 28 marked one year since the arrests of actress and human rights defender Eman Al-Helw andtransgender man Hossam Ahmad. They were both arrested that day, along with 70 other people as part ofa mass arrest campaign against persons who critiqued the government and called for protests on social
media following the deadly train crash on February 27, 2019 at Ramses Station, which left 22 dead over
40 injured. They are under investigation in State Security Case no. 1739 of 2018. […]Earlier this month, on March 3, 2020, the Prosecution issued yet another decision to renew the detentionof Al-Helw and Ahmad for another 45 days.
For over one year, Eman Al-Helw and Hossam Ahmad have been held on false charges, only because of
their peaceful activities. They have also been constantly subjected to various forms of harassment,
physical and psychological abuse. Since the first day of their detention, they have been held in anunderground cell in a police station, with no access to fresh air or sunlight, as the women’s prisons refuse
to take them because they don’t “look like women”.

134

USDOS, 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 20 March 2023
USDOS, 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 20 March 2023
136
UN Human Rights Committee, Concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of Egypt, 14 April 2023, p. 2
13567

During a recent interview, Hossam explained: “I am tired of being brought to hospitals again and again,
and having my genitals exposed there… The problem is that because Eman is staying with me, anything
137
that happens to me also happens to her.”

The statement released by Bedayaa Organization in June 2020 after the death by suicide of activist
Sarah Hegazy noted that: “LGBTIQ persons are frequently subjected to a wide range of violations during
the interrogation and investigation phases including torture, sexual and physical assault, coerced anal
examination and bullying in detention places”.138
The September 2020 Human Rights Watch article on the August 2020 arrest of witnesses to a gang rapein 2014 wrote that:
Egyptian security agencies in late August 2020 arbitrarily arrested a man and three women who were
witnesses to a high-profile gang rape case from 2014 that recently came to light, Human Rights Watch
said today. Security also arrested two of the witnesses’ acquaintances.
The prosecutor general ordered the release of three of the six on August 31 but is pressing charges
against all of them for violating laws on “morality” and “debauchery” that are vague, discriminatory, andopen to abuse. Pro-government media have subjected them to a coordinated smear campaign […].
The authorities had encouraged witnesses of the rape to come forward, which they did in early August.
They now stand accused of consensual same-sex sexual conduct, “inciting debauchery,” personal druguse, and “misuse of social media,” a charge frequently used against peaceful government critics. […]Security forces have been holding the two men in al-Tagamoa First Police Station, east of Cairo.
Authorities have not allowed any family visits for the two since their arrest, a person with knowledge ofthe case said. Lawyers were reportedly able to attend the prosecution interrogations with the two men,but not see them privately. […]The statement said that prosecutors ordered the detainees to be tested by the forensic labs for drugs andtwo of them to undergo physical examinations.
Two activists said that authorities subjected the two detained men to forced anal examinations, apractice denounced by African and international human rights bodies, which Egyptian authorities
139
routinely carry out to seek “proof” of same-sex conduct.

The October 2020 Human Rights Watch report on the arrest, abuse, and torture of LGBT people in Egypt
by security forces noted that:
Egyptian police and National Security Agency officers arbitrarily arrest lesbian, gay, bisexual, andtransgender (LGBT) people and detain them in inhuman conditions, systematically subject them to illtreatment including torture, and often incite fellow inmates to abuse them, Human Rights Watch said
today. […]137

ANKH Association (Arab Network for Knowledge about Human Rights) and the Cairo Institute For Human Rights
Studies (CIHRS) et al., Egypt: As coronavirus threatens to spread in prisons, immediately release Eman Al-Helw,
Hossam Ahmad and other peaceful political detainees, 25 March 2020
138
Bedayaa Organization, Tons of Oppressions Resulted in PRIDE, 18 June 2020
139
Human Rights Watch, Egypt: Gang Rape Witnesses Arrested, Smeared: Personal Data Used in Abusive
Prosecutions, 11 September 2020

68

In late August, Egyptian security forces, likely from the National Security Agency, arrested two men who
witnessed a high-profile gang rape in Cairo’s Fairmont Nile City Hotel in 2014 and were to give evidence
about the case. Officers unlawfully searched the men’s phones while holding them incommunicado at alTagamoa First Police Station, east of Cairo, for several days, and used photos they found to allege thatthey had engaged in same-sex conduct, to keep them in custody. Judges renewed their detention several
times, and prosecutors subjected them to forced anal examinations, a practice which Egyptian authorities
routinely carry out to seek “proof” of same-sex conduct, despite it being denounced as abusive and in
violation of international law. The two men could face charges under Egypt’s “debauchery” laws. […]Malak el-Kashif, 20, a transgender woman and human rights activist, was arbitrarily detained for fourmonths, sexually harassed, and abused in a male prison in 2019. An administrative court in May 2020
dismissed the appeal her lawyer filed requesting the Interior Ministry to provide separate detention
facilities for transgender detainees in accordance with their gender identity. […]Hossam Ahmed, 27
Hossam Ahmed, a transgender man, was arrested in a café in Cairo on February 28, 2019 and detained in
an undisclosed location for four days before being presented to prosecutors on March 4. He was charged
with “joining a terrorist group and misusing social media to commit a crime punishable by law.” Althougha court ordered Ahmed released on September 15, 2020, he remained in pretrial detention for an
additional week before he was eventually released on September 22.
Despite undergoing gender-affirming medical interventions, and his self-identification as a transgenderman, Ahmed’s ID card says “female.” While he was detained in a women’s prison in Abdeen, Cairo, hesaid, he was subjected to physical examinations and prohibited from continuing his hormonal treatment
and gender-affirming surgery.
Human Rights Watch obtained a statement he wrote from prison February 21, 2020, through a Francebased LGBT rights organization:
Every day feels like a year. Everyone who enters here is scared of my [trans identity] andharasses me physically and emotionally. The police officers enjoy harassing me. They call me by
the name on my ID. The women detained alongside me here tell the officers, “His name is
Hossam.” The officers beat and torture these women to make them say that I did things thatnever happened. We sleep on a rotten and smelly mattress with no covers. The government only
sends us bread. But all the food comes from visitors. If I don’t get visitors for three days, I don’t
eat for three days.
All I’m asking for is to be treated as a human being and be called Hossam. I’m so tired of being
regularly brought to the hospital so they can check my genitals. My bones hurt, my knees areruined, I have weird spots on my body, fleas and bugs and lice everywhere, and bite marks. I feel140
like I’ve been here for 100 years.

A Human Rights Watch article, released in November 2020, added updates to the case of the witnesses
to the 2014 gang rape arrested for their perceived sexual orientation:
They remain in jail more than two months later, after judges renewed their pretrial detention three times
in hearings they were not allowed to attend.

140

Human Rights Watch, Egypt: Security Forces Abuse, Torture LGBT People - Arbitrary Arrests, Discrimination,
Entrapment, Privacy Violations, 1 October 2020

69

Authorities kept them for several weeks in a police station in east Cairo, permitting only one family visit.
On October 14, they were transferred to al-Nahda prison, where they are currently detained in the same
cell as the suspected Fairmont rapists.
According to the men’s families, prison guards forcibly shaved their heads, and prosecutors ordered them141
to undergo drug testing and forced anal exams […].

In the November 2020 list of issues and questions in relation to the combined eighth to tenth periodic
reports of Egypt, presented by the UN CEDAW, “reports of abuse of women and girls in detention,
including ill-treatment of transgender women, by security and prison personnel” were referenced.142
In December 2020, the European Parliament published a resolution on the deteriorating human rights
situation in Egypt, noting that “tens of thousands of human rights defenders, including women’s rights
activists, LGBTI activists, lawyers, journalists, activists, peaceful dissenters and members of the
opposition remain imprisoned in life-threatening conditions”.143
2021
The 2021 Human Rights Watch World Report, covering events of 2020 and published in January 2021,
wrote on Egypt that: “Egypt continued to arbitrarily arrest and detain people based on their sexual
orientation or gender identity and subjected them to torture and ill-treatment in detention, including
forced anal examinations”.144
The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2020, published in March 2021, wrote
that: “On June 1, the Administrative Court rejected a lawsuit filed by transgender Malek El-Kashef,whom authorities released from detention in July 2019, to compel the interior minister to establish
separate facilities for transgender individuals inside prisons and police stations. A court orderedtransgender male Hossam Ahmed, whom authorities subjected to invasive physical exams, released
from pretrial detention in a women’s prison in September”.145
The latest edition of ILGA World's “Our Identities under Arrest” report, released in December 2021,
stated that:
Police and other authorities have demonstrated a common tactic of using online entrapment, raiding of
known “gay hangouts”, and illegally seizing and searching cell phones for incriminating content, in orderto justify the arbitrary detention of suspects. Once the accused are in custody, physical and psychological141

Human Rights Watch, Egypt Detains Men for Alleged Sexual Orientation, Alongside Alleged Rapists, 2 November
2020
142
UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, List of issues and questions in relation to
the combined eighth to tenth periodic reports of Egypt, 17 November 2020, p. 7
143
European Parliament, Joint motion for a resolution on the deteriorating situation of human rights in Egypt, inparticular the case of the activists of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), 16 December 2020
144
Human Rights Watch, World Report 2021: Events of 2020, 13 January 2021, p. 215
145
USDOS, 2020 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 30 March 2021

70

violence, and sexual assault are also reportedly common, and legal procedures remain opaque to makeaccess to justice difficult. […]Examples of Enforcement […]In August or September 2020, a young man accompanied a female friend to a police station in Cairo. She
had been arrested in 2014 as part of an investigation into a party at Cairo’s Fairmont hotel. It wasreported that another woman was drugged and raped by several men in the hotel room that night andthe young man’s friend was being sought to give input as a witness. He voluntarily accompanied her tothe police station and had no connection to the 2014 incident as he was only 14 at the time. However,once there, police arbitrarily detained him as well as another man who was at the party. Both weresearched and their phones taken away. Police found private photos and detained both for allegedly
engaging in homosexual conduct. They remained in jail for more than two months, as judges renewed
their detention orders three times, being transferred on 14 October to al-Nahda Prison where guards
shaved their heads, subjected them to anal examinations and housed them with the suspected party
rapists. It is unclear whether the men were later released.74 […]And as of 21 May 2021, a trans woman from Cyprus was being held under house arrest in Cyprus forallegedly “promoting and inciting immorality on the Internet” and “insult and scandal of the Egyptian
people". Arrested and detained in Egypt in January 2020, the accused is said to have been raped andassaulted repeatedly by prison officials and the male inmates with whom she was housed, leading her torequire corrective surgery back in Cyprus. […]74 This entry has been redacted for the safety of those in involved. For more information, please contact ILGA
146
World.

In 2021, Bedayaa Organization released a report answering FAQs on the situation for LGBTQI people in
Egypt. On the detention of LGBTI persons, it wrote that:The Egyptian detention centres are known for widespread abuses, verbal, mental and physical violence
are common practices by the Egyptian Police. In the absence of strong state institutions that oversee the
Police and ensure the rule of law within the legal system, the Police is given de-facto immunity from any
accountability when it comes to torture. Torture became the norm, expected as a package that comeswith the arrest. In LGBTI cases abuses are causally related to their sexual orientation or gender identity, as
it is common for the police to use the person sexuality or gender identity to incite inmates against themor to enact verbal and physical violence. With Trans cases on the other hand, especially Trans women, it is147
often that they are placed in a detention centre that does not fit their gender identity.

2022
In Amnesty International’s January 2022 submission to the UN Human Rights Committee ahead of the
adoption of the list of issues for the fifth periodic report of Egypt at its 134th session, it stated:“Authorities have detained at least one trans woman in an all-male prison, where she was subjected to146

International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), Our Identities Under Arrest: A
global overview on the enforcement of laws criminalising consensual same-sex sexual acts between adults anddiverse gender expressions, 15 December 2021, pp. 126, 131-132
147
Bedayaa Organization, 10 FAQs about LGBTIQs situation in Egypt, 2021, p. 1171

sexual assault including by medical staff and where she was held in prolonged solitary confinement
purportedly for her protection. Her complaints to courts were dismissed”.148
The April 2022 article by the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy on challenges for transgender people
in the Middle East and North Africa wrote on Egypt that:In detention, transgender people are often placed in cells that do not correspond to their gender identity,
and are subjected to ill-treatment that can amount to torture, including sexual violence by security forces
and other detainees, being confined in solitary cells for extended periods, and forced anal examinations.
Masha, a 34-year-old transgender woman who was arrested in Egypt and sentenced in 2020 to three
years for “inciting and practicing debauchery,” spoke of being confined in a makeshift solitary cell inside apolice station in Cairo for almost a year: “I had to endure endless abuse by the police. I was raped multiple
149
times. For the police, we deserved to be raped as part of the punishment.”

The April 2022 report on sexual violence in detention in Egypt between 2015 and 2022 by the Freedom
Initiative and the Egyptian Front for Human Rights found the following information on sexual violence
faced by LGBTQ+ individuals in police stations, at National Security Agency sites, and in prisons:
Security officers are intentional in how they use sexual violence. The arrests of LGBTQ+ individuals areoften rife with instances of sexualized and gendered violence. In an interview conducted with a humanrights lawyer, she spoke about an incident she consulted on involving a gay man in Egypt.12 Khaled wasgoing to meet a man he had met over Grindr, a social networking app for people from the LGBTQ+
community.12 At his date’s house, he realized he was being entrapped and that his date was a police
officer luring him to arrest him. Khaled was beaten by police officers, verbally assaulted, and raped with afinger that one of the officers inserted in his anus. […]Our research identified 57 cases of sexual violence in police stations. Instances of sexual violence thatmen endured ranged from groping to rape with an instrument. An interview with someone present with a
victim shared that a man held on a criminal charge was asked to squat in line alongside other detainees.
Upon his refusal, a higher-ranking officer charged towards him, held him from his penis and testicles andcontinued to tighten his grip and twist his fist yelling “what is it that you did not want to do you faggot?!”
The detainee squatted as demanded as the officer loosened the grip. […]In Police Stations […]For LGBTQ+ individuals, police stations are particularly rife with sexual abuse and violence. The gendered
nature of sexual violence is very clear in these instances as victimization often occurs amidst an onslaught
of homophobic slurs by both officers and other detainees in the holding cell. Low ranking officers arenotorious for grabbing gay men, trans women, and non-binary folk by their genitalia. Grabbing someone
from behind or shoving a finger into their anus, in this context, is used to connote the lack of a detainee’s
masculinity and manhood as a means of degradation.24 Officers, according to an interview conductedwith a human rights lawyer, call on the detainees to perform a variety of daily tasks, referring to them
only as ‘khawalat’, faggots.
148

Amnesty International, Egypt - Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee – 134th session (28 February –25 March 2022), list of issues, 17 January 2022, p. 2
149
The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, Tough Territory for Transgender People in the Middle East and North
Africa, 7 April 2022

72

In their recollection of an instance of rape against a refugee, Mahmoud, the researcher in a human rights
organization, noted “low ranking officers would tell the detainees in the holding cell, ‘he’s a faggot. Fuck
him. Enjoy it.’” Mahmoud was later raped in the police station by two different men. Another non-binary
individual who is a refugee was also raped by another criminal detainee. In an interview with a victim,
Alaa recalled the times they were raped and how it happened:
In the holding cell at the police station, our gender identities are almost immediately exposed.
Officers deal with us differently than other detainees. In a number of incidents, while in thebathroom in the cell, for instance, a fellow detainee would approach me with their erect penis
and demand that I touch it or perform oral sex. Refusal is tricky because you could be beaten
severely. Sleeping was another issue. We would all sleep close to each other on the floor fromover-crowdedness. While sleeping one night, I felt an erect penis on my lower back. Before I
could scream or make any motions, the detainee attempting to rape me put a razor on me
indicating that any motions on my end would trigger a violent response on his. I refused andfought as much as I could that time. There were two other times where I just couldn’t fight back.
I was raped twice in two separate instances in the same way.25- AlaaFor trans women, police stations are often sites of sexual violence as well. Sarah,26 a trans woman, wasgoing to meet a date off Grindr before she realized she was entrapped. She found a police car waiting forher and an officer opposite her arrested her and escorted her to the police station. She stayed in thepolice station for three months. According to a human rights researcher who worked on her case, shewoke up a number of times to detainees trying to rape her in her sleep. The researcher noted that Sarah
was raped at least once by a detainee in the police station.
We also found at least seven instances of anal examinations of gay men and a trans woman. At least oneof these detainees was a minor. […]At National Security Agency (NSA) Sites
Our research indicates that sexual violence occurs most often in NSA buildings, to the extent that it is anear systematic feature of detention at these sites. Of the 655 instances of sexual violence that we havedocumented, 523 of them happened in NSA sites. These violations ranged from electrocution of genitals
to rape (oral, anal, and/or vaginal), and were perpetrated against men, women, and trans or nonbinary
individuals. The most common form of sexual violence documented at the NSA was electrocution ofgenitals. […]Notably missing here are documentations of cases of sexual violence against members of the LGBTQ+
community. While we do not claim that none have occurred in NSA sites, as we do document one incidentof an anal examination against a trans man, the NSA interfaces most commonly with political detainees.
Members of the LGBTQ+ community are most often held under criminal cases and therefore notenmeshed within the NSA’s ecosystem. […]In Prisons […]We also documented instance of anal examinations of a trans man and a trans woman. Upon entry, aprison officer called for their medical examination, and they were transferred to a hospital in Cairo. Bothdetainees reportedly endured anal examinations by the presiding physicians. These examinations, while
not requested by either the prosecutor’s office or prison authorities directly, were conducted in what theydescribed as a very demeaning way that amounted to sexual violence.61 […]Findings […]The sexualized nature of violence was evident even in supposedly routine or medicalized examinations or
searches: gay men, for instance, were subject to unnecessary anal examinations, a form of rape. A
manifestation of this gendered nature of violence includes instances in which detainees from the LBGTQ+

73

community are often forced to perform demeaning chores in police stations, like cleaning the bathrooms
and mopping the floors. They are forced to do this as a form of emasculation. […]Class can also play a significant role in the extent to which one endures sexual violence in Egypt.
According to a human rights lawyer, after being entrapped on Grindr and abused during the process ofarrest, by the time a gay man made it to the police station authorities had realized that the detainee
belonged to a prominent, wealthy family in Egypt. The types of sexual violence that other members of the
LGBTQ+ community endured were not levied against him. […]12 Based on case number A586 […]24 Aghacy, Masculine Identity in the Fiction of the Arab East since 1967.; Personal correspondence with Hannah Elsisi,
March 23, 2021. Agachy and ElSisi’s work theorizing on the nature of gendered violence in Egypt and Syria specificallyinform this analysis.
25 Based on case number A655
26 Based on case number A644 […]150
61 Based on case number A123

In May 2022, the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) and the Committee for Justice (CFJ)
called for the African Commission to issue public statements condemning the violations detainees in
Egypt face, stating that: “In Al-Qanater female prison, [women] face torture and gender-based violencein custody with impunity, including humiliating vaginal searches, sexual harassment, and also forced
genital examinations for transgender women”.151
The meeting minutes with a Human Rights Watch analyst, published in the September 2022 COI briefreport on the situation of LGBT persons in Egypt by the Danish Immigration Service, wrote that: “In 2021
and 2022, HRW has documented cases of torture of LGBT individuals such as severe and repeatedbeatings and sexual violence in police custody, forced anal exams and virginity tests against men andwomen. HRW has also documented verbal abuse, extracted forced confessions, systematic denial of
medical care and legal counsel and an increase in prosecution for alleged same sex conduct since 2017and precipitating for 2021 and 2022”.152
An article by Human Rights Watch in November 2022 on the failure of the Egyptian authorities toprotect vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers from sexual violence, or investigation of such instances,
spoke of the following case:
The transgender woman refugee said that a group of Egyptian men raped her in a private car after
abducting her at knifepoint in January 2022. She said she did not file a police report about the incident
because of a previous experience in 2020 at a Cairo police station, where she was arbitrarily detained in amen’s cell on “morality” charges due to her gender identity, during which time a police employee sexually

150

The Freedom Initiative and Egyptian Front for Human Rights, No One is Safe: Sexual Violence Throughout theLife Cycle of Detention in Egypt: 2015-2022, 7 April 2022, pp. 16-20, 23, 25, 31-32
151
The International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) and the Committee for Justice (CFJ), Egypt must take thenecessary steps to improve prison conditions, 17 May 2022
152
The Danish Immigration Service, Country of Origin (COI) Brief Report – Egypt: Situation of LGBT persons,September 2022, p. 21

74

assaulted her. […] Eman said she never considered reporting the incident to the police after her
experience in detention serving a prison sentence on “morality” charges linked to her gender identity in2020 at a Cairo police station, where she was sexually assaulted by a police officer:
I spent six months at this police station, and police there treat people like me as a slave. Once I
arrived at the station, the police took me to the thugs who control the cells and offered me towhoever pays most. I was raped more than once by other inmates. I saw people detained for noreason, sometimes they arrested people who visited the police station to file reports. I can’t go
to police stations in Egypt. They degrade and hate people like me and will find any way to detain
someone like me.
One day a police officer came to the cell where I was being held and asked all inmates to go out
to the corridor except for me. When everyone went out, he asked me to take off my shirt andlooked at my breasts. He said, “How could these naturally be your breasts? How are they thisbig?” Then he started to touch me; after he finished, he made a scene pretending that I was
harassing him and started beating me on my face until I bled from my nose.
Eman said she reported this assault to the chief of the station, but the officer was already suspended. She
said later she was pressured to drop it:
Some time after the assault the chief pressured me to drop the complaint. He said to me, “Dropit or I will make your life a hell,” and he threatened to fabricate more cases against me. I had todrop the complaint eventually as I am a foreigner and have no one in this country. Even my only
friend who used to visit me stopped after the police repeatedly asked him if he had sex with me.
Eman said she frequently hears stories of “transgender people held in detention in Egypt.” “Their lives are153
miserable in these places,” she said.

January – May 2023
The 2023 Human Rights Watch World Report, covering events of 2022 and published in January 2023,
stated that: “Human Rights Watch documented cases where security forces have used digital targeting[…] to entrap LGBT people, arbitrarily arrest and detain them based on digital evidence found on theirpersonal devices, and ill-treat them in police custody”.154
A mid-term report submitted in January 2023 by the Egyptian Taskforce for Human Rights (including the
Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies) to the UPR mechanism at the UN stated that: “Security forces
have committed crimes of sexual violence against detained men, women, children, and members of the
LGBTQI+ community, as documented by human rights organizations”.155
The joint NGO submission for the review of Egypt by the Human Rights Committee, published in January2023 by the Committee for Justice (CFJ) and eight other organisations, stated that:153

Human Rights Watch, Egypt: Sexually Abused Refugees Find No Justice, 24 November 2022
Human Rights Watch, World Report 2023: Events of 2022, 12 January 2023, p. 196
155
The Egyptian Taskforce for Human Rights, A Crisis by Design: The Systemic Nature of Human Rights Violations in
Egypt – Mid-term UPR Report, 25 January 2023, p. 7
154

75

Contrary to the State’s response, cases of targeting LGBTQ+ individuals are still taking place in Egypt
especially by using the internet to entrap and arrest them. The arrests of LGBTQ+ individuals are often rifewith instances of sexualized and gendered violence. […]Egyptian police, prosecution and courts persecute homosexuality, transgender women’s identities andconsensual same-sex acts between men or men and trans women under provisions of Egypt’s Law no.
10/1961 on Combating Prostitution (most notably, the vague and overbroad crime of “habitualdebauchery”, among others). A central feature of this persecution is forced anal examinations, performedby the Justice Ministry’s Forensic Medical Authority (FMA) upon referral from the prosecution, against
individuals accused of “habitual debauchery”. […]This rise in prosecution of real or perceived sexual and gender differences in Egypt is characterized byperiodic State and media induced moral panics surrounding group arrests on grounds of “debauchery”
every few months since 2013. Other forms of torture and ill-treatment also precipitate from such arrests,
including verbal threats and insults, beatings, threats of sexual violence, and incitement of other intimatesto abuse the individual. […]Increasingly EIPR [Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights] has documented the use of forced examinations
extends beyond charges of “habitual debauchery” under law 10/1961. […] Moreover, the referral ofindividuals to the Forensic Medical Authority (FMA) for forced anal examinations continues to this day. In
the 12 months between September 2021 and September 2022, EIPR documented 18 cases using charges
of “habitual debauchery” against 37 individuals. In some of these cases, referral of defendants by theprosecution to the FMA for forced anal examinations were documented. […]NGOs documented - from the period of 2015 to 2022 - 655 incidents of sexual violence conducted by
security personnel against 544 victims including […] 30 members of the LGBTQ community […]. Sexual
based violence is rife in Egyptian detention facilities, and in particular in National Security Agency sites,
where authorities use gender and surrounding social norms to increase victims’ pain and suffering. No
type or demographic is spared, with attacks recorded against women, men, children, trans and non-binary
persons. Attacks take on different forms, purposes, and targets—in some cases embodying an expressionof personal or state power, while in others being a means of punishment and in others still a means to
extract a confession. Physical attacks are often accompanied by verbal abuses who use slurs or references
to honor, modesty, and chastity to increase the psychological and social impact of the victim. Thesesexualized attacks are not the result of a small group of “bad apple” perpetrators, they are systematic.
Most detainees reporting instances of sexual violence experienced the same lifecycle of violations—beginning with psychological and physical torture through threats, sexual harassment, virginity tests for
women, anal examination for gay men, beating, electric shocks, sexual assaults and rape, and trumped-up
156
charges relating to the victims’ exercise of the rights of opinion, expression, or assembly.

The February 2023 Human Rights Watch report into digital targeting and its offline consequences forLGBT people in the Middle East and North Africa wrote on the ill-treatment, sexual violence, andinhuman conditions in detention, including in Egypt:
Maamoun, a 24-year-old gay man from Egypt, described an instance in February 2021 when he suspected
police officers had used Grindr to entrap him […]Maamoun said the police officers then took him to the Abbasiya police station, where he waited on thefloor in a dirty room with no ventilation until 1 a.m. During this time, he said police officers verbally
156

Committee for Justice (CFJ) et al., Joint NGO submission for the review of Egypt by the Human Rights
Committee: 137th session (27 February to 24 March 2023), 30 January 2023, pp. 7-8, 10-1176

abused him and insulted him based on his sexual orientation. He was denied a phone call to a lawyer orfamily member and was not provided with food or water. Furthermore, although an officer allowed him
to take his HIV medication that night, the police withheld his treatment for the rest of his detention.
Police officers also took his phone, wallet, and personal belongings. […]At 1:30 a.m., Maamoun was transferred to the Qasr El-Nil police station, where he was placed in solitaryconfinement due to his HIV status, he said. At 8 a.m., police took Maamoun to Abdeen Court, where hesaid he was held in insanitary conditions until his interrogation […]. […]He continued:
On Monday, I went to the Abdeen court again for investigation, and I was put in that same
terrible room. When I returned to the Qasr El-Nil police station, they changed my prison cell andplaced me with high-profile felons. I was terrified and asked to be returned to my old cell, but theprison guard demanded 500 Egyptian pounds (US$32) and a phone card as a bribe. I experienced
continuous sexual assault. One of the detainees with me in the cell forced me to confess that I
was gay, and he sexually assaulted me in exchange for protection. This went on for a week, andother detainees sexually harassed me as well, while I was sleeping, and then when I was
showering. We were 45 people in a tiny cell, and they were using drugs the entire time.67
After Maamoun spent 10 days in pretrial detention without charge, the judge ordered his release, he said.
Ayman, a 23-year-old gay man from Egypt, said he was entrapped on Grindr and arrested by police while
he was out with three of his friends at a caf in Cairo, on November 17, 2020. […]After five hours at the Smouha police station, police transferred Ayman and his friends to Bab Sharqi
detention center, where they spent a month. “It was a terrible place,” Ayman added. “Everyone slept on
the floor in a very crowded tiny room. We were only offered appalling food that was impossible todigest.”72
After two days, at the public prosecutor’s office, Ayman said he endured further mistreatment and insults.
[…]
Ayman said he tested positive for Covid-19 after 15 days in Bab Sharqi detention center. He was denied
medical care and access to medication from his parents. The police did not try to contain the spread, andthe inmates, who were kept in cells with no ventilation, all became very sick, Ayman added.74 […]On January 15, 2020, Tina, a 34-year-old trans woman sex worker from Cyprus, was in Egypt for workwhen police arrested her after her client told the police that he found her on the internet. She wasdetained for 13 months at the Nasr City police station and convicted for “inciting debauchery” based on
photos and chats that police found when they searched her phone.174 Human Rights Watch’s review ofthe police report and court files in Tina’s case confirmed that this private information was the only
evidence presented in her case. Tina said:
At 10:30 p.m., on the last night before my flight back to Cyprus, I had an appointment with adiplomat who was my client. He arrived with his driver to the hotel. The police outside the hotel
stopped us because of the car’s tinted windows. They asked for our passports and the diplomat
refused. I had to give them mine, which was a passport I do not currently use, because it says I
am male. The police asked the diplomat if I was his girlfriend or his wife. He said that he foundme on the internet. Then they put us both in a minibus and took us to the Giza police station.175
At the station, Tina described the treatment by police:[The police officers] did not tell me on what basis I was being held. They took my fingerprints andsearched my phone and took screenshots of my messages with clients as well as pictures of me
they found on my phone. They also did not allow me to call a lawyer, my embassy, or even mymother.176

77

Tina’s pretrial detention was extended three times, each for 15 days, for a total of 45 days. During that
period, she said, “They gave me food and water in exchange for sex,” otherwise she did not receive foodor water. Because her gender identity confused the officers, who did not know whether to place her in amen’s or women’s prison, she was never transferred to a prison. When she finally had her court hearing,“it was eight seconds. The judge did not even look at me.” The judge dropped one charge, for“prostitution,” but sentenced her to three years for “inciting debauchery” on the basis of her nudephotos. She was detained for another 13 months.177 […]In August 2020, the Egyptian National Security Agency arrested four witnesses to a high- profile 2014 gangrape in Cairo’s Fairmont Hotel (known as the Fairmont case), along with two of their acquaintances,
weeks after independent women’s rights activists exposed the incident online. The authorities accusedtwo of the witnesses, Seif Bedour and Ahmed Ganzoury, of consensual same-sex sexual conduct and“inciting debauchery,” based solely on private photos from their phones.180
The authorities subjected Bedour and Ganzoury to drug testing and forced anal exams.181 Police
unlawfully searched the men’s phones by forcing them to unlock their devices and, on the basis of theprivate photos they found, detained them for allegedly engaging in same-sex conduct.182 Progovernment media targeted them with a coordinated online smear campaign, publishing their names,
photos, and private information based on their perceived sexual orientation.183 The two men weredetained in pretrial detention for five months, then released pending investigation in January 2021.184[…]
Sexual Violence
Tina, a 34-year-old trans woman sex worker from Cyprus, referred to in the previous section, said she was
raped more than 100 times in the 290 days she was in detention, including 22 times in the first 15 days,
which she recorded in her diary. She recounted her ordeal to Human Rights Watch:
The chief police officer, who introduced himself as such, told me that if I were younger, he would
marry me. He told me that he was the boss there and that if I wanted to leave, I must have sex
with him. I evaluated the situation and decided to do it so I may return home. While we had sex,
every few minutes someone knocked at the door. When he finished, I was forced to have sex
with two other police officers at the court as well. I am a sex worker, and I am used to sex forbusiness and for pleasure, but that was rape.207
Tina said that police officers then took her to the Nasr City police station, where one police officer told
her, “Welcome to hell.” She believes five men raped her on the first night in the station, and she was also
raped by two men when she went to court. She was detained near the police station’s entrance when she
returned.
At around 5 a.m., eight men came inside my room and forced me to undress so that they could
search me. When I got naked, they took out their phones and took videos of me. That was theworst night of my life, I felt that my soul was violated.208
During the 15 days while I was waiting for my court hearing, I was raped 22 times; I know that
because I wrote it all in my diary. I went to court again, and my pretrial detention was extended
for another 15 days. During that time, I signed a paper the first day of the court, perhaps it was aconfession, but I did not have a lawyer so I could not tell and they did not allow me to call alawyer. I knew I had rights, but there was nothing I could do in Egypt, especially for [atransgender person] like me.209
Her torture and sexual abuse continued:
In April 2020, police officers barged in with a big rope and they forcibly inserted it in my anus. My
anus was damaged to an extent that I had to undergo surgery when I got to Cyprus. The reason I
waited to get to Cyprus to do the surgery was because I did not know that area was damaged78

because I was suffering from malnutrition while at the police station. I eventually noticed thedamage when I got to Cyprus and started eating better—I was bleeding from my anus for ninemonths. [Nine months after verdict,] I weighed 42 kilograms.
[While in pretrial detention] I did not have energy to do anything, I could not even stand up. I did
not have a bed. I had a water bottle to urinate in it, as I could not walk to the bathroom
anymore. I had no water, no food. Once a month, the officers would order food and ask me if I
wanted to order anything, but I refused because I was afraid it would have negative
repercussions. I chose starvation over being raped again. One police officer there told me thatincarcerated women get raped as a form of punishment.210
Tina’s physical health steadily deteriorated in detention due to malnutrition and the sexual abuse.
The only time I ate was when other inmates gave me some of the food they had. I tried tocommit suicide several times there because I was exhausted from all the pain and the extreme
dirty state of my room. The chief officer then called my embassy and asked them to get a
representative to see me or move me to a hospital, because I was in a critical condition. The
diplomat came 20 days after, he [was mad and upset] after he saw me, and I was immediately
moved to the Heliopolis public hospital on September 27. A woman came in to examine me, but
because I was trans, another doctor came and asked me to take off my clothes. I asked him why
and he said it was to see my tattoos. I gathered all the energy I had left and ran out of that room.
I wanted to go back to my room at the police station—I preferred to be with those policemen
than be raped by the medical staff.211 […]Nour, the 31-year-old gender non-binary person from Zagazig, Egypt, referred to above who uses
they/them pronouns, described the physical and sexual abuse, as well as poor conditions, they faced indetention:[The police officer] said that I am a khawal [Egyptian term for “faggot”] and that he would not letme go without giving me what I deserved. He beat me up and punched my head and ears. I stillcannot hear properly because of this. Another officer sexually harassed me. It was at night, andeveryone was sleeping. He was touching my intimate parts, then he rubbed his dick on my ass
and put his hand on my mouth so that I would not make a sound. Three detainees, ordered bypolice officers, also threatened me with a mousse knife and brought me to the bathroom, took
off my clothes, and did an anal test on me. They then beat me on my groin and intimate parts,
skull, and buttocks. I slept in a tiny room, which had about 100 detainees and no space to lie
down, let alone fall asleep. It was also poorly ventilated and infested with insects. I got a skindisease there.213 […]67 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Maamoun, October 28, 2021. […]72 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Ayman, December 8, 2021. […]74 Ibid. […]174 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Tina, September 15, 2021.
175 Ibid.
176 Ibid.
177 Ibid. […]180 “Egypt: Gang Rape Witnesses Arrested, Smeared,” Human Rights Watch news release.
181 Rasha Younes, “Egypt Detains Men for Alleged Sexual Orientation, Alongside Alleged Rapists,” Human Rights
Watch dispatch.
182 Ibid.
183 “Egypt: Gang Rape Witnesses Arrested, Smeared,” Human Rights Watch news release.
184 Rasha Younes, “Justice Stalled in Egypt’s ‘Fairmont’ Rape Case,” Human Rights Watch dispatch. […]79

207 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Tina, September 15, 2021.
208 Ibid.
209 Ibid.
210 Ibid.
211 Ibid.
157
213 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Nour, October 6, 2021.

In early March 2023, the UN Human Rights Committee published a summary record of the 3958th
meeting, held in February 2023, in which the fifth periodic report of Egypt was considered. Within it,
concerns were raised that: “The Committee had been informed of cases in which homosexual andtransgender persons had been arbitrarily detained and subjected to invasive, unjustified medical
examinations that could amount to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment under article 7 of theCovenant”.158
A couple of days later, the UN Human Rights Committee published a summary record of the 3959th
meeting, held in March 2023, in which the fifth periodic report of Egypt was further considered.
Concerns were raised that referred to the following incident: “The case involving the arrest of the 28
men – reportedly solely on grounds of debauchery rather than the possession of drugs or pornography –constituted the biggest mass arrest linked to sexual orientation in Egypt in the last 20 years. The
Committee had received information that those persons had been subjected to forced anal
examinations, which constituted torture and was therefore banned under the Covenant,”159 in responseto an Egyptian state representative stating that “the case that had been reported concerning the allegedharassment of 28 persons because of their sexual orientation had actually involved a group of persons
who had gathered to sell drugs. The police had been called to the scene and the disturbance had later
escalated when some of the suspects had begun brandishing bladed weapons”.160
The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2022, published in March 2023, stated
that: “Several incidents of domestic and street violence against LGBTQI+ individuals were reported by
local rights groups, including one case during the year in which authorities allegedly facilitated assault
against a detained LGBTQI+ person”.161
Amnesty International’s annual 2022/23 report on the state of the world’s human rights stated on Egypt
that: “In April, security forces arrested four men and two transgender women at a mall in Cairo and157

Human Rights Watch, “All This Terror Because of a Photo”: Digital Targeting and Its Offline Consequences forLGBT People in the Middle East and North Africa, 21 February 2023, pp. 25-29, 73, 75, 86-89
158
UN Human Rights Committee, 137th session, Summary record of the 3958th meeting*: Held at the Palais
Wilson, Geneva, on Tuesday, 28 February 2023, at 3 p.m. - Consideration of reports submitted by States parties
under article 40 of the Covenant - Fifth periodic report of Egypt, 6 March 2023, p. 4
159
UN Human Rights Committee, 137th session, Summary record of the 3959th meeting: Held at the Palais Wilson,
Geneva, on Wednesday, 1 March 2023, at 10 a.m. - Consideration of reports submitted by States parties underarticle 40 of the Covenant (continued) - Fifth periodic report of Egypt (continued), 8 March 2023, pp. 8-9
160
UN Human Rights Committee, 137th session, Summary record of the 3959th meeting: Held at the Palais Wilson,
Geneva, on Wednesday, 1 March 2023, at 10 a.m. - Consideration of reports submitted by States parties underarticle 40 of the Covenant (continued) - Fifth periodic report of Egypt (continued), 8 March 2023, p. 2
161
USDOS, 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 20 March 2023

80

briefly detained them solely on the grounds of their gender identity and their actual or perceived sexual
orientation. They reported being verbally and physically abused. One of the transgender women said
she was sexually harassed and forced to strip naked and remove her hijab”.162

iii.

Prosecutions and convictions under laws that are deployed against the
LGBTQI+ community

2020
An Al Jazeera article in June 2020 wrote that: “Although homosexuality is not specifically outlawed in
Egypt, it is a conservative society and discrimination is rife. Gay men are frequently arrested andtypically charged with debauchery, immorality or blasphemy”.163
The July 2020 report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the freedom of
opinion and expression stated that:“Debauchery” presents another potential mechanism for the restriction of artistic expression. Althoughsimilar to a general attack on freedom of expression for public morals, debauchery is unique in that it
tends to involve restrictions pertaining to allegedly indecent or overtly sexual content or content that runs
against perceived sexual social norms. Debauchery is also most commonly seen when being used torestrict the art of women or LGBT persons. Egypt has been reportedly been forceful in its use of164
debauchery laws to attack otherwise allowable artistic expression.

An article in Slate in December 2020 on the increasing persecution of LGBTQI+ people in Egypt using
cybercrime and online morality laws recounted the following arrest and charge:
Earlier this year, Adel went on Grindr to surf and meet other queer people in town. (Adel is a pseudonym
I’m using for his protection.) Adel eventually set a date with someone he had been talking to. The datearrived at his house—but it wasn’t whom he had been talking to. This wasn’t a date; it was entrapment.
Adel was met by officers who arrested him for debauchery and digital crimes, using his chats on the app
as reason for the arrest.
He was charged with “debauchery crimes” as well as cybercrimes and telecommunication crimes for thechats he’d had on Grindr and other apps with a “police consultant,” and for other pieces of evidence
discovered on his person and devices. His case is being heard in the Egyptian economic courts and is165
indicative of a worrying change in how the Egyptian government targets the queer community.

2021
162

Amnesty International, Annual Report 2022/23: The State of the World's Human Rights - Egypt 2022, 27 March
2023
163
Al Jazeera, Egyptian LGBT activist dies by suicide in Canada, 15 June 2020
164
UN Human Rights Council, Research report on artistic freedom of expression: Report of the Special Rapporteuron the promotion and promotion and protection of the freedom of opinion and expression, 24 July 2020, p. 13
165
Slate, Egypt’s Dangerous New Strategy for Criminalizing Queerness, 30 December 202081

At the beginning of 2021, Bedayaa Organization produced its annual report covering events relevant to
its legal aid programme from January to December 2020. In this timeframe, it documented 21 cases, 25arrested persons, 20 adjudicated cases, and 1 case awaiting.166 It also reported that:
I. Cybercrime Law and Economic Courts
Early on in 2020, and In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Egyptian General Prosecutor announced that
the Cybercrime Law (no. 175 for the year 2018) will be intensively employed starting March 2020.
Prosecutors also started to use another new charge in SOGlESC-based prosecutions which is “the misuseof communication devices” that is present in the Telecommunication Regulation Law (no. 10 for the year2010).
Due to these vague charges that are used in the Cybercrime Law such as “violating family values andprinciples in the Egyptian society”, there is an uncertainty status with regards to the extent to which theapplication of that law will affect SOGlESC-based prosecutions. […]This presented a dramatic shift from the traditional use of the debauchery article in prosecutions of
LGBTQ+ individuals in criminal courts.
The early signs of the employment of these new charges in SOGlESC-based prosecutions are very mixed.
Two different cases in front of economic courts received acquittals in the first degree however, in an
unexpected turn of events, one of these cases received a two-year sentence after the prosecution
appealed the first-degree sentence.
A third case, in which four gay men were arrested from a coffee shop in Alexandria, is currently pending
trial in an economic court. […]II. Targeting of Foreigners
Out of the 25 people that were arrested in 2020, a staggering 16% were foreigners. Despite therestrictions imposed by the Egyptian government due to the COVID-19 pandemic which led to a significant
decrease in the total number of arrested persons in 2020, four people of different nationalities werearrested during the year. Three out of the four were entrapped by the police which is an alarming
indicator which shows that police officials are intentionally targeting foreigners visiting or living in Egypt.
[…]
In January, a transgender Cypriot tourist was entrapped and arrested from the hotel she was staying in.
She later received a 3-year prison sentence in addition to 3-year probation on the charge of incitement
and promotion of debauchery. Later in March, her appeal was rejected; the Egyptian authorities did not
acknowledge her transgender status and did not assign her to a women’s detention facility as her official
documents stated that she was male. Instead, she was kept in solitary confinement in a small room insidea police station for over a year with no access to sunlight until she was extradited to Cyprus where she willcontinue to serve her sentence.
Later in April, a Chilean man was arrested after being entrapped by the police. He received a fine and wasdeported. A US citizen was also entrapped and arrested in April. He was acquitted in the first-degree trial
in the economic court but then the court’s decision was appealed by the prosecution and the seconddegree court sentenced him in absentia to two years in prison. In September, a British citizen was
167
arrested and charged with debauchery, but the charges were later dropped.

166
167

Bedayaa Organization, Legal Aid – Annual Report: 2020, 2021, pp. 2-3
Bedayaa Organization, Legal Aid – Annual Report: 2020, 2021, pp. 2-3

82

A letter in June 2021 to the Egyptian authorities by Amnesty International and sixty-three otherorganisations stated that: “The authorities have also used morality and debauchery laws to arbitrarily
arrest, detain and prosecute survivors and witnesses of sexual and other gender-based violence, womensocial media influencers, and LGBTQI+ people and activists”.168
In reference to the Cybercrime Law, the Sexual Rights Initiative noted in July 2021 that “By far, Articles
25 and 27 of Law 175 have been applied more assiduously in cases in which political dissent and content
concerning religious minorities and sexual diversities appeared online”.169
The U Government’s Human Rights and Democracy Report for 2020, published in July 2021, stated
that: “In January, after interviewing an LGBT+ individual, TV host Mohamed Al-Ghaity was sentenced toa year in prison for contempt of religion, incitement of debauchery, and immorality”.170
The latest edition of ILGA World's “Our Identities under Arrest” report, released in December 2021,
stated that:ILGA World has identified at least 50 individual examples of de facto criminal enforcement in Egypt
between 2001 and 2021. This number does not account for the high number of people targeted in someraids or crackdowns, nor does it account for the many borderline cases which could not be verified forinclusion in this report, as the provisions used to target SOGIE persons are also regularly employed against
sex workers, “adulterers”, rapists, political dissidents and others. […]Examples of Enforcement […]In August or September 2020, a young man accompanied a female friend to a police station in Cairo. She
had been arrested in 2014 as part of an investigation into a party at Cairo’s Fairmont hotel. It wasreported that another woman was drugged and raped by several men in the hotel room that night andthe young man’s friend was being sought to give input as a witness. He voluntarily accompanied her tothe police station and had no connection to the 2014 incident as he was only 14 at the time. However,once there, police arbitrarily detained him as well as another man who was at the party. Both weresearched and their phones taken away. Police found private photos and detained both for allegedly
engaging in homosexual conduct. They remained in jail for more than two months, as judges renewed
their detention orders three times, being transferred on 14 October to al-Nahda Prison where guards
shaved their heads, subjected them to anal examinations and housed them with the suspected party
rapists. It is unclear whether the men were later released.74
In November 2020 a group of five gay and trans individuals in Cairo were arrested and charged with“habitual debauchery” for being vocal on social media. One of the accused was under 18 and sentenced
to one year in prison in May 2021, while three others received nine years, and the fifth was given 12
years’ imprisonment.75
In December 2020 a man was entrapped by police in Cairo and sentenced to three years’ imprisonmentfor “debauchery”. In January 2021 an appeal saw his sentence reduced to one year.76

168

Amnesty International et al., Egypt: President should act to unshackle freedoms, 1 June 2021, p. 2
Sexual Rights Initiative, Decoding cyber borders, 2 July 2021
170
UK Government and UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Human Rights & Democracy: The 2020
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Report, 8 July 2021, p. 44
16983

On 4 December 2020 an Egyptian publication shared the story of a young man who had been detained
and investigated by the General Administration for the Protection of Morals in the Social Security Sector
in Alexandria. He had made social media posts stating that he would participate in same-sex sexual
activity in exchange for money. The Montazah Public Prosecution Office in Alexandria ordered his
detention for four days during the investigation, but it is not clear what occurred thereafter.77
A man in Cairo was entrapped by police in January 2021 and sentenced the following month to six years’
imprisonment on charges of “habitual debauchery” and “incitement to debauchery”. An appeal failed andhe was made to pay the trial costs.78
In February 2021, in Alexandria, a man was charged by officials from the Protection of Morals in the Social
Security Sector with “promoting the practice of immoral acts on the Internet and the practice of
debauchery”, with seven other men allegedly implicated in the accused’s confession.79 It is not clear if
this is the same case as the one reported in December 2020.
In May 2021 a man in Cairo was detained for smoking hashish but later also charged with debauchery. He
was acquitted, but at the time of publication the prosecution had appealed that decision.80
Two other men were also arbitrarily arrested in May 2021 in Cairo, but they were acquitted of theirdebauchery charges the following month.81
From 8 May 2021 onward it was reported in several international news outlets that two Israeli trans men
had been denied entry into Egypt where they had come to spend a holiday, on account of their passports
not matching their appearance and gender expression.82 Border officials detained them temporarily andmocked them, but it is not clear whether this was the result of any State policy on identity documentationand legal gender recognition (either directly or indirectly), or rather a case of personal prejudice by theofficials involved.
And as of 21 May 2021, a trans woman from Cyprus was being held under house arrest in Cyprus forallegedly “promoting and inciting immorality on the Internet” and “insult and scandal of the Egyptian
people". Arrested and detained in Egypt in January 2020, the accused is said to have been raped andassaulted repeatedly by prison officials and the male inmates with whom she was housed, leading her torequire corrective surgery back in Cyprus. In early 2021 she was deported from Egypt back to her homecountry, but per a bilateral agreement between both States, the sentence meted out against her by
Egyptian courts must be completed, despite no such criminalising law having legal effect in Cyprus.83
In July 2021 a man in Cairo was entrapped by police online and charged with “habitual debauchery”,
though he was later found innocent and released.84
A group of four gay and trans individuals were arrested in July 2021 and charged with debauchery, but at
the time of publication no further details have been made available on this case.85 […]74 This entry has been redacted for the safety of those in involved. For more information, please contact ILGA World.
75 Information supplied by Bedayaa.
76 Ibid.
77 [A young man was arrested for practicing homosexuality in Alexandria], 05A young man was imprisoned on
charges of exposing himself to perversion on Facebook], Al Masry Al Youm [ ” ‫ل ار سة ن ف س ه رض ب ت ه ة شاب ح ب‬‫ىل ال شذوذ‬‫ “ ب وك ف‬December 2020]. ;“ ‫س ال شذوذ ل ار س ت ه شاب ىل ب ضال ق‬‫م رص ا ل| ب اإل س ك ندري ة ال ج ن ي‬
Ahlmasr News, 24 January 2021
78 Information supplied by Bedayaa.
79 2021 Egypt: Accused of homosexuality implicates 7 businessmen in his network], Al Madenah News, 15 February [‫ز‬”‫ م رص‬:‫ ي ورط ب ال شذوذ م ت هم‬7 ‫“ ش ب ك ت ه ق ي ا ا رجا‬80 Information supplied by Bedayaa.
81 Ibid84

82 “Israeli transgender couple said refused entry to Egypt at border crossing”, Times of Israel, 08 May 2021; “Transmen mocked and denied entry to Egypt by border guards because they 'do not look female'”, Pink News, 09 May
2021.
83 “
:
–
...” [Tina
Liasi asks to be released: "I have medical issues due to my rapes"], Politis, 04 April 2021; “” [The trans convict is at home with a bracelet], Philenews, 25 May 2021.
84 Information supplied by Bedayaa.
171
85 Ibid.

In 2021, Bedayaa Organization released a report answering FAQs on the situation for LGBTQI people in
Egypt. On cases of convictions, it wrote that: “Some cases went publicly in the media for example: […] 5.
In 2020, a foreigner Trans woman received 3 years sentence.20 […]20 https://tinyurl.com/yabgxkcr”

172

2022
The Human Rights World Report 2022, covering the events of 2021 and published in January 2022, gave
the following update with regards to the “Fairmont” gang-rape case and the detention of the accused
witnesses: “On May 11, Prosecutor General Hamada al-Sawy said his office had terminatedinvestigations into the high-profile 2014 “Fairmont” gang-rape case for “insufficient evidence” andordered the release of the four accused men. This came after the main witnesses, who came forward to
support the rape survivor in 2020, had been unlawfully arrested and two of them spent months inarbitrary detention. At time of writing, all five key witnesses remain arbitrarily banned from travel
abroad despite closure of the case”.173
In Amnesty International’s January 2022 submission to the UN Human Rights Committee ahead of the
adoption of the list of issues for the fifth periodic report of Egypt at its 134th session, it stated:“Authorities also continue to harass, intimidate and prosecute defenders of LGBTI rights and otherpeople publicly discussing LGBTI issues”.174
Afsaneh Rigot’s March 2022 report on the role of digital evidence in the persecution of LGBTQ people in
Egypt (as well as Lebanon and Tunisia) reported the following with regards to the implementation of thelegal framework on LGBTQI+ persons in Egypt, including cyber-related laws:
In Egypt, the criminalisation of queerness is framed as a campaign against sex work. Broadly interpreted
laws and extensive judicial support have allowed for continuous and targeted prosecution of LGBTQ
individuals, as well as those suspected of engaging in gender nonconformist behaviors.117 Colonial-era
171International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), Our Identities Under Arrest: A
global overview on the enforcement of laws criminalising consensual same-sex sexual acts between adults anddiverse gender expressions, 15 December 2021, pp. 125, 131-132
172
Bedayaa Organization, 10 FAQs about LGBTIQs situation in Egypt, 2021, p. 9
173
Human Rights Watch, World Report 2022 – Events of 2021, 13 January 2022, p. 217
174
Amnesty International, Egypt - Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee – 134th session (28 February –25 March 2022), list of issues, 17 January 2022, p. 285

criminal laws have been retained, but have been reframed and further evolved in recent years, creating acatch-all framework which is used in prosecution. […]Under Egypt’s current laws, the legal position on female same-sex practices is unclear, and interviews forthis report did not reveal any known prosecutions of these case examples. It should be noted that
authorities generally refuse to recognize trans people’s gender identity, instead treating them according
to the sex assigned at birth, meaning that trans women are routinely prosecuted as gay men.120
Moreover, in practice men deemed heterosexual are not prosecuted: “There may not be many cases ofhetrosexual men being accused of debauchery although, the [...] elements we talked about would bebroad enough to cover [it],” one interviewee noted, and also pointed out that straight men “are not evenunder the radar” when law enforcement strives to identify persons engaged in debauchery.121
Currently in Egypt, the main provision used to prosecute those deemed as LGBTQ is Article 9(c) of Law No.
10/1961, on the Combating of Prostitution. It provides for up to three years in prison and/or fines foranyone who “habitually engages in debauchery or prostitution.” […]The statute also fails to offer any definition of “habitually,” leaving interpretation to the courts.123124
The Court of Cassation subsequently required that, to meet the element of habituality, the accused musthave engaged in “indiscriminate” sexual acts for three years preceding arrest, in addition to the incident
that triggered the arrest.125 Judges in Misdemeanors and Appeal courts have relied on this precedent toacquit defendants from debauchery charges or reduce their sentences. However, the requirement of
habituality has also failed to protect many LGBTQ defendants, as even when the threshold of three years’
activity can be shown, the definition of “indiscriminate” is left to the discretion of the presiding judge andis often interpreted so broadly as to be meaningless. […]In practice, the presence of only one sexual partner, coupled with lack of sexual activity in return formonetary payment, have not been considered sufficient grounds to deem that the element of habituality
was not present. Rather than viewing “habituality” as an element the prosecution needs to prove, judges
instead seem to be considering evidence of monetary return or multiple partners as extraneousconfirmation of what the prosecution has other wise insinuated.
LGBTQ people in Egypt are also prosecuted under other provisions of Law No. 10/1961, another aspect of
the Combating of Prostitution framework, including for accessory crimes like incitement to or publicizingof debauchery. Article (1)(a) provides for prison terms of up to three years and/or fines for “Whoever
incites a person, be they male or female, to engage in debauchery or in prostitution, or assists in this or
facilitates it,” and Article 14 provides similar penalties for publicizing or drawing attention to debauchery.
Police and prosecuting teams work together to ensure a conviction is assured under at least one of thelaws. Interviewees have observed the charges being stacked on top of a successful Article 9(c)prosecution: “So even though they find all the evidence, they also give him the charge of inciting
debauchery and also advertising for debauchery online. And the court can decide to sentence each charge
with the maximum of 3 years.” 130.
When the crime of habitually engaging in debauchery under Article 9(c) cannot be proven from evidence
on the defendant’s conduct, the court relies on digital evidence.131 In these cases, the charge will be of
the crime of incitement to debauchery, or in colloquial terms, seduction.132 An interviewee noted thatthe “‘practicing habitual debauchery’ charge is easier to dispose of in front of the judge, [because it] isharder to prove [...] But if you are arrested with digital evidence like dating apps, or screenshots from thephone, or the phone number and so on, it is very easy for them to get you for promoting and advertisingdebauchery [Article 14].” 133. In most of these cases, incitement or seduction is believed to be evidenced
through something as simple as an image sent by the accused to an under-cover policeman or informant
in a private chat room or text thread. This has led to multiple convictions based on online conversation on

86

dating apps or social media platforms.134 To further compound these concerns, LGBTQ cases are beingtransferred to the Economic Courts of Egypt, adding further cybercrimes to the ‘crimes of sexuality’. […]In Egypt, the interviewees found that when it came to courts, based on their knowledge, “there was nocases against queer [cis] women under this law.”158 Furthermore, “there are no laws against lesbian [cis]women, even if they’re in the same place or same house as there’s no legal basic to it. The only people arehomosexual men.”159 The Egyptian interviewees affirmed that the most targeted persons in the LGBTQ
community are trans people and queer cis men, and sentencing is always harsh due to the, “pictures andthem looking like a woman and so on, the anal examination, and of course the provocative pictures thatthey usually attach with the police report”160. […]In the interviews from lawyers working in Egypt and Lebanon, it was noted that a large portion of thequeer sex workers are trans women. Trans women sex workers are not only most targeted but also face
the highest number of charges, and the most severe types of charges. This is regardless of whether theelement of sex work is proven. Disproportionate barriers and challenges placed against trans women(who are often arrested for merely existing) is also followed by the highest amount of targeting andprosecutions. Trans women often get prostitution charged regardless of whether they were engaged with
sex work or not. […]Due to increased reliance on digital evidence as a component of prosecution, there is a corresponding
increase in the use of cyber laws to persecute queerness. […]While this research was underway, there was a pronounced increase in the use of cyber laws in the typeof cases being studied. Specifically, Article 76 of the Telecommunication Regulation Law, which
criminalizes the “misuse of telecommunications,”168 and Article 25 of the cybercrime law, which
criminalizes the use of technology to “infringe on any family principles or values in Egyptian society.”169
The interviews for this project commenced around February of 2020; beginning in March of that year,
interviewees in Egypt and local experts in the topic of legal rights for LGBTQ persons noted that a numberof cases, predominately of sex workers, were being transferred to that country’s Economic Courts.170
This confirmed a central premise of this report: there is an increasing reliance in the prosecution of queer
people on digital evidence and documentation. […]By September of 2020, a significant percentage of LGBTQ cases involving digital evidence were beingtransferred to the economic courts. Transfers were generally accomplished through the addition of
charges under Article 76 of the Telecommunication Regulation Law, criminalizing the “misuse of
telecommunications,”177 and Article 25 of the cybercrime law, criminalizing the use of technology to“infringe on any family principles or values in Egyptian society.”178 This shift enabled police andprosecutors to optimize their use of digital evidence in the pursuit of more stringent sentences. Based on
the comments of the lawyer interviewed, it is possible to bring debauchery and prostitution law charges
before the Economic court and therefore combined charges. […]Yet this process also creates vulnerabilities for the prosecution. Even as law enforcement found thatmoving cases through the misdemeanor courts could circumnavigate defense strategies, the defense
teams found success in challenging these cases on their lack of legal substance, resulting in reduced
sentences or in gaining acquittals. […]Moving to the Economic Court, however, closes many of these legal holes. For example, multiple
interviewees noted that as offenses under the cybercrime law did not require the aforementioned public
element, prosecution in the Economic Court would become the prevailing trend. One interviewee notedthat after “police officers took note and started writing that the person violated the cybercrime law in thepolice report as well. And when that happens, ... it’s much easier for the prosecutor to send it to theeconomic court because ... he is more guaranteed to get a sentence that he wants from the economic
courts more than the regular court.”180 Thus, if the debauchery law charges fail, charges filed in the87Economic Court based on cyberlaw or telecommunications law may still succeed in guaranteeing asentence. These procedures also play into an ongoing theme of this research, in which sex worker cases
are often used to test the viability of new laws and/or new law enforcement procedures, with one
interviewee noting that, “if you really need to follow the rhythm, you will need to see the sex working
cases. It’s like there are more sex working cases in [the Economic] Court than like debauchery ones.”181.
The only exception is for cases that do not contain digital evidence, such as cases of queer people,
including sex workers, arrested on the streets. These remain in the regular felony courts:“Of course there are cases outside the dating applications that go to the regular courts. But [I] don’t think
any cases that have been caught by the applications are going outside of the economic court. This iseasiest for the police, because they are just sitting in their office doing nothing and they are just talking on
their phone and then they do the arrest”182
Even as the Economic Court is evolving as a core prosecution pillar of the Egyptian authorities in policing
online “morality,” the LGBTQ/sex worker cases stand out as anomalies, as these are cases based on
private activities by private actors and are not committed in public domains. […]The impact of increased recourse to the economic courts is significant. It brings with it increases in thenumber of charges and in the severity of sentences, which present additional barriers for defense teams.
[…]
Lawyers working on these cases outline the complexity that comes with the breadth and vagueness of thecybercrime charges. There is consensus that the most dangerous of the laws is Article 25 of thecybercrimes law:“[this law] doesn’t have any elements to it. Every crime has an element, like the elements that areunderstood, elements that are clear, not only for the lawyer but for the person because if you want tocriminalize something you need to make it clear for the individual so they wouldn’t commit the crime, but
an article like violating family values and social traditions and so on, it’s so vague and so flexible and open
to interpretation that no individual will have an understanding of it to prevent doing that crime. And this is
an issue even for the defendant because how do you defend something that doesn’t have aninterpretation?”187
The lack of specificity in these laws amounts to a delegation of authority from the legislature to thecourts, and affords the courts and prosecutors tabula rasa to avoid pro-defendant precedent on
debauchery laws put before the Court of Cessation. […]In particular, the interviewee observed that there is “a very big jump” on the severity of sentences, as thecybercrime law provides higher fines and longer prison terms:“If we look at the Law No 10/1961 we’ll see that article number 9-c that is related to practice and habitualdebauchery says that the person is to be punished for a minimum of 3 months and the maximum of 3
years or a fine does not go over 300 Egyptian pounds and probation of the same time that person receives.
The new law, Law No. 175, Article 25 [of the cybercrime law], the punishment is at least 6 months—here
we see a 3-month increase in the jail time punishment—and the fine does not go lower than 50 thousand
Egyptian pounds and maximum of 100 [thousand] Egyptian pounds...”190
Furthermore, the overall structure of these laws is not just defined by longer prison terms, but by theoverall lack of options for punishment except for those of prison terms, where “under the new law there is
no probation, so it is just jail time.”191
In terms of defending these cases, the interviewees reviewed for this report have indicated that acquittals
are only won in instances where the police or prosecution makes procedural errors. This is significant inthat it is increasingly unlikely that defendants will be able to prove their innocence; without a procedural
error, the question will be the length of sentence and under which law […]. […]88

117 Sexuality, Development and Non-Conformist Desire in the Arab World: Case of Lebanon and Egypt – […]120 Trans women who have had gender affirming surgery and whose IDs are updated may encounter different
treatment; more research is required to fully substantiate this finding.
121 TL6 […]123 Sexuality, Development and Non-conforming Desire in the Arab World: The Case of Lebanon and Egypt
124 There is some insight into the limits of discretion on the notion of “habituality” based on prominent definitions ofthese offences as laid out throughout different judgements of the Egyptian Court of Cassation. On this, EIPR’s analysis
shows that: EIPR page 37
125 Ibid[…] 130 EL1 - it is not clear how ne bis in idem applies in these cases.
131 This is based on analysis and consultation from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, provided to the leadresearcher and ARTICLE 19 in 2018
132 which according to section (a) of Article (14) which states that it is punishable by the same penalties of Article (1)133 EL6
134 In effect these articles prohibit any engagement in soliciting, or providing facilities for “debauchery andprostitution.” The law also explicitly fails to mention commerciality, leaving this law broad enough allowing police andprosecutors engage it to prosecute and target LGBTQ individuals in Egypt and even their supporters and generallycommercial as well as non-commercial sex between consenting adult men, those deemed as “male” by prosecutors
and trans women. This means, contrary to most laws against sex work, Egypt’s law does not require a transaction ofmoney as evidence of “prostitution”, leaving it open to broad interpretation. […]158 EL2
159 EL1
160 EL2 […]168 Article19.org. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.article19.org/data/files/medialibrary/37966/Egypttelecoms-report---English.pdf> [Accessed 22 December 2021]. (In this English translation it is translated as“illegitimate means to conduct telecommunication correspondence”
http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/research/Egypt/Egypt%20Telecommunication%20Regulation%20Law.pdf yet holds thesame interpretation)
169 Cyrilla.org. 2021. Law No. 175 of 2018 on Anti-Cybercrimes and Information Technology Crimes • Page 2 •CYRILLA:
GlobalDigitalRightsLaw.
[online]Availableat:<https://cyrilla.org/en/document/eonsr41300kx0jqeipsvbcsor?page=2> [Accessed 22 December 2021].
170 Rigot, A., 2021. Egypt’s Dangerous New Strategy for Criminalizing Queerness. [online] Slate Magazine. Available
at: <https:// slate.com/technology/2020/12/egypt-lgbtq-crime-economic-courts.html> [Accessed 22 December 2021].
[…]
177 Article19.org. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.article19.org/data/files/medialibrary/37966/Egypttelecoms-report---English.pdf> [Accessed 22 December 2021]. (In this English translation it is translated as“illegitimate means to conduct telecommunication correspondence”
http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/research/Egypt/Egypt%20Telecommunication%20Regulation%20Law.pdf yet holds thesame interpretation)
178 Cyrilla.org. 2021. Law No. 175 of 2018 on Anti-Cybercrimes and Information Technology Crimes • Page 2 •CYRILLA:
GlobalDigitalRightsLaw.
[online]Availableat:<https://cyrilla.org/en/document/eonsr41300kx0jqeipsvbcsor?page=2> [Accessed 22 December 2021]. […]180 EL2181 EL2
182 EL2 […]187 EL2 […]190 EL6
175

191 EL6
175

Afsaneh Rigot, Digital Crime Scenes: The Role of Digital Evidence in the Persecution of LGBTQ People in Egypt,
Lebanon, and Tunisia, 7 March 2022, pp. 36-39, 48, 50-57

89

The Freedom Initiative and the Egyptian Front for Human Rights’ April 2022 report on sexual violence indetention in Egypt between 2015 and 2022 highlighted that:
We believe that the number of cases we are able to identify and document in this report represents
a fraction of the actual number of instances of sexual assault in Egypt during this time period. First,
as organizations working on political and civil rights, the cases we have most exposure to are cases of“political detainees.” This excludes a significant swath of the prison population referred to sometimes as“criminal detainees.”[1] Interviews we conducted with lawyers and researchers suggest that the abuses
they endure can be much more frequent and severe. Human rights activists have also shared that thisdelineation affects members of the LGBTQ+ community more significantly as many of them are detained
as “criminals” by virtue of their gender identity. […]1 ElRaggal, “ ” (Egyptian Center for Economic & Social Rights, August 19, 2020), http://ecesr.org/

176

In May 2022, ahead of COP27, Amnesty International wrote: “There are also concerns around the safetyof all participants at COP27, given the Egyptian authorities’ appalling track record in failing to protect
women and LGBTI people from discrimination and gender-based violence as well as prosecuting themon bogus “indecency”, “morality” or “debauchery” charges, simply for the way they dress, talk andexpress themselves on social media or for sexual relations between consenting adults”.177
The same day, Amnesty International also wrote in a separate public statement ahead of COP27 that:“The authorities also continue to arrest and prosecute individuals on the basis of their real or perceived
sexual orientation or gender identity and carry out anal examinations, an intentional, discriminatory andpunitive practice that amounts to rape and torture. For instance, in August 2021, a court convicted four
adult men of engaging in consensual same-sex sexual relations and sentenced them to prison terms
ranging from six to nine years”.178
The meeting minutes with a Human Rights Watch analyst, published in the September 2022 COI briefreport on the situation of LGBT persons in Egypt by the Danish Immigration Service, note the following
with regards to the implementation of the law and prosecutions of LGBT persons:
5. It is primarily the incitement to debauchery and debauchery laws and the public indecency laws thatare used against LGBT persons. They are invoked when individuals are found to defy gender roles orgender conformity - including if they are suspected of being gay or transgender. The accusations are
based on either content of phones discovered during arbitrary phone searches or the individual’s
appearance. Egyptian authorities round up suspected gay men or transgender individuals on the street or
target them online. Usually, the cybercrime laws are invoked if individuals have posted something online

176

The Freedom Initiative and Egyptian Front for Human Rights, No One is Safe: Sexual Violence Throughout theLife Cycle of Detention in Egypt: 2015-2022, 7 April 2022, p. 13
177
Amnesty International, Egypt: Lift restrictions on civic space to ensure a successful COP27, 23 May 2022
178
Amnesty International, Egypt: COP27 should not overshadow human rights crisis in the country, 23 May 2022,
p. 4

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that is perceived to violate public decency, or if they have content on their phone such as selfies, photos,
chats on Grindr or even the mere presence of the application Grindr. Any same sex dating app on one’s
phone is also used to incriminate the person under either cybercrime laws or incitement to debaucherylaws.
6. Usually the laws are combined. In the first instance, individuals are referred to court based on penal
code provisions such as the debauchery laws. If the case has any online content, it can be transferred tothe economic court where the cybercrime law is invoked.
7. Usually photos are used against individuals as evidence in LGBT cases. Photos of individuals themselves
or photos of them with others perceived as a same-sex couple. Other examples are presence of
applications on phones, a Facebook post, a rainbow flag filter on a Facebook profile etc. There have beencases of online extortion in the sense that individuals have coerced LGBT people into having sex and thenreported the act or blackmailed them by threatening to report it to the authorities.
8. An example of online evidence used against LGBT persons could be a man telling another man “I likeyou” which is used in court as incriminating evidence to prosecute. The evidence comes from searches ofindividuals’ phones or entrapment on social media where many law enforcement officers create fakesame sex profiles on Grindr and other applications through which they entrap LGBT people by for instancegetting them to confess that, “they are gay”. Sometimes, the law enforcement officer would ask, “howmuch would you charge”, and if the LGBT individual do not reject payment for sex, this would be used as
evidence against the person by accusing him of habitually practicing debauchery and promoting
179
indecency.

The meeting minutes further noted that Human Rights Watch had documented “an increase inprosecution for alleged same sex conduct since 2017 and precipitating for 2021 and 2022”.180
January – May 2023
The joint NGO submission for the review of Egypt by the Human Rights Committee, published in January2023 by the Committee for Justice (CFJ) and eight other organisations, stated that:
Egyptian police, prosecution and courts persecute homosexuality, transgender women’s identities andconsensual same-sex acts between men or men and trans women under provisions of Egypt’s Law no.
10/1961 on Combating Prostitution (most notably, the vague and overbroad crime of “habitualdebauchery”, among others). A central feature of this persecution is forced anal examinations, performedby the Justice Ministry’s Forensic Medical Authority (FMA) upon referral from the prosecution, against
individuals accused of “habitual debauchery”. […]This rise in prosecution of real or perceived sexual and gender differences in Egypt is characterized byperiodic State and media induced moral panics surrounding group arrests on grounds of “debauchery”
every few months since 2013. […]Increasingly EIPR [Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights] has documented the use of forced examinations
extends beyond charges of “habitual debauchery” under law 10/1961. […] In the 12 months between

179

The Danish Immigration Service, Country of Origin (COI) Brief Report – Egypt: Situation of LGBT persons,September 2022, p. 21
180
The Danish Immigration Service, Country of Origin (COI) Brief Report – Egypt: Situation of LGBT persons,September 2022, p. 21

91

September 2021 and September 2022, EIPR documented 18 cases using charges of “habitual debauchery”
181
against 37 individuals.

The February 2023 Human Rights Watch report into digital targeting and its offline consequences forLGBT people in the Middle East and North Africa published the following excerpt from an interview with
Afsaneh Rigot:
Rigot told Human Rights Watch:
Documentation and research are highlighting that, with increasing vigor, digital evidence is becoming
the cornerstone of prosecutions against LGBT people [in the MENA region]. In a context where
something as intimate, complex, and private as gender identity and sexual orientation are essentiallycriminalized, we are seeing digital evidence become the main ingredient in these discriminatory
prosecutions. Digital evidence– especially [on] people’s mobile devices–is now the scene of the crime.
Yet as we look closer at prosecutions and sentences, what is deemed too queer to be legal is notdefined.59 […]59 Human Rights Watch remote interview with Afsaneh Rigot, December 2, 2022.

182

The same report also looked into prosecutions based on digital “evidence”, reporting the following:
On January 15, 2020, Tina, a 34-year-old trans woman sex worker from Cyprus, was in Egypt for workwhen police arrested her after her client told the police that he found her on the internet. She wasdetained for 13 months at the Nasr City police station and convicted for “inciting debauchery” based on
photos and chats that police found when they searched her phone.174 Human Rights Watch’s review ofthe police report and court files in Tina’s case confirmed that this private information was the only
evidence presented in her case. […]Tina’s pretrial detention was extended three times, each for 15 days, for a total of 45 days. […] When she
finally had her court hearing, “it was eight seconds. The judge did not even look at me.” The judge
dropped one charge, for “prostitution,” but sentenced her to three years for “inciting debauchery” on thebasis of her nude photos. She was detained for another 13 months.177
Tina said that toward the end of September 2020, she received notice that she was being transferred backto Cyprus, the paperwork for which took over four months. Tina arrived in Nicosia, Cyprus, on January 19,
2021, where she was held in Central Nicosia Jail until May 21, 2021, when she was released under housearrest. She was released from house arrest in May 2022.
Martin, a 39-year-old gay man from Chile, was working in Egypt as a Spanish teacher when he wasarrested in February 2020. […]At the Dokki police station, Martin said no one spoke English and he did not know the reason for his
arrest. He stayed at the police station overnight, until his court hearing the next morning, at which he wasconvicted of “inciting debauchery” and sentenced to a fine of 400 pounds (US$25) and deportation to
Chile.

181

Committee for Justice (CFJ) et al., Joint NGO submission for the review of Egypt by the Human Rights
Committee: 137th session (27 February to 24 March 2023), 30 January 2023, pp. 7-8
182
Human Rights Watch, “All This Terror Because of a Photo”: Digital Targeting and Its Offline Consequences forLGBT People in the Middle East and North Africa, 21 February 2023, pp. 21-22

92

Human Rights Watch reviewed the police report and court files in Martin’s case, which indicated that thepresence of the Grindr app on his phone was the basis for his conviction. The police report also
highlighted that Egypt’s Intelligence Agency received information that he was meeting men on Grindr tohave sex with them, which Martin denied. Martin told Human Rights Watch that he believed the Chilean
embassy’s intervention was the only reason he was released.179
In August 2020, the Egyptian National Security Agency arrested four witnesses to a high- profile 2014 gangrape in Cairo’s Fairmont Hotel (known as the Fairmont case), along with two of their acquaintances,
weeks after independent women’s rights activists exposed the incident online. The authorities accusedtwo of the witnesses, Seif Bedour and Ahmed Ganzoury, of consensual same-sex sexual conduct and“inciting debauchery,” based solely on private photos from their phones.180
The authorities subjected Bedour and Ganzoury to drug testing and forced anal exams.181 Police
unlawfully searched the men’s phones by forcing them to unlock their devices and, on the basis of theprivate photos they found, detained them for allegedly engaging in same-sex conduct. […] The two men
were detained in pretrial detention for five months, then released pending investigation in January
2021.184 […]174 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Tina, September 15, 2021. […]177 Ibid. […]179 Human Rights Watch interview with Martin, October 2, 2021.
180 “Egypt: Gang Rape Witnesses Arrested, Smeared,” Human Rights Watch news release.
181 Rasha Younes, “Egypt Detains Men for Alleged Sexual Orientation, Alongside Alleged Rapists,” Human Rights
Watch dispatch.
182 Ibid. […]184 Rasha Younes, “Justice Stalled in Egypt’s ‘Fairmont’ Rape Case,” Human Rights Watch dispatch.

183

The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2022, published in March 2023, wrote
that:
While the law does not explicitly criminalize consensual same-sex sexual activity, lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) persons were arrested and prosecuted on charges including“debauchery,” prostitution, and “violating family values,” for which the law imposes prison sentences of
up to 10 years in prison, significant fines, or both. […]Based on an NGO survey in February of legal actions targeting LGBTQI+ persons, three individuals,
including an Eritrean asylum seeker, were sentenced in Cairo to a year in prison for producing“homosexual pornographic materials.” Separately, a man from Alexandria reportedly was entrapped using184
a dating application and investigated on charges of “debauchery” and “cyber indecency.”

In April 2023, the UN Human Rights Committee published its concluding observations on the fifth
periodic report of Egypt, in which it stated that: “The Committee is concerned that vague provisions on“habitual debauchery” under Act No. 10 of 1961 on combating prostitution are used to prosecute

183

Human Rights Watch, “All This Terror Because of a Photo”: Digital Targeting and Its Offline Consequences forLGBT People in the Middle East and North Africa, 21 February 2023, pp. 73-75
184
USDOS, 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 20 March 2023

93

persons due to their sexual orientation or gender identity, and in some cases to subject them to forced
anal examinations (arts. 2, 3, 7, 17 and 26)”.185

III.

Treatment by State Actors
a. Public statements by government officials

An article in February 2021 in New Lines Magazine on LGBTQ rights in the Arab world stated: “In
November, Egyptian Minister of Education Tarek Shawki called for acceptance of transgender individuals
to prevent abuse. On a locally aired TV show, Shawki highlighted the importance of exploring different
paths to accept transgender rights”.186
Similarly, France 24’s article in June 2021 on a transgender woman in Egypt fighting for her rights andovercoming challenges in the country wrote that: “Six months later, after a television show brought
Ramadan on to tell her story, during which she talked of her wish to teach again, Education Minister
Tarek Shawki urged Egyptians to "accept" transgender people -- a first. […] And while Shawki had
announced he would offer a fixed-term contract to the former teacher, the pledge came to nothing”.187
The U Government’s Human Rights and Democracy Report for 2020, published in July 2021, stated
that: “[…] comments by the Education Minister Dr Tarek Shawki in November urging society to do moreto accept transgender people were welcome”.188
The latest edition of ILGA World's “Our Identities under Arrest” report, released in December 2021,
stated that: “[…] the Egyptian Dar Al Iftaa (Islamic advisory body to the government) issued a series offatwas (legal opinions) in 2020, including one condemning homosexuality and outlining the need for
medical intervention (i.e., “conversion therapies”).28 […] 28 “‫م ت تال ية ف تاوى ث الث ال وط ن دن يا ى ل ع ال زي د‬‫[ “ال جد اثار وال غ ف ران وال شذوذ االن تحار ن ال رصي ل إلف تاء‬More on Dunya Al-Watan Three consecutive fatwasof the Egyptian fatwa on suicide, homosexuality, and forgiveness sparked controversy], Alwatan Voice, 22 June
189
2020.]”In February 2022, Al Jazeera published an article discussing the backlash in the Middle East and North
Africa after the release of “Perfect Strangers” on Netflix. It wrote:

185

UN Human Rights Committee, Concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of Egypt, 14 April 2023, p. 2
New Lines Magazine, A Place for LGBTQ Rights in the Arab World?, 26 February 2021
187
France 24, Transgender woman battles for 'dignity' in conservative Egypt, 2 June 2021
188
UK Government and UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Human Rights & Democracy: The 2020
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Report, 8 July 2021, p. 44
189
International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), Our Identities Under Arrest: A
global overview on the enforcement of laws criminalising consensual same-sex sexual acts between adults anddiverse gender expressions, 15 December 2021, p. 126
186

94

The film is Netflix’s first Arabic movie and quickly became the most watched in the streaming company’s
website in the region after it was released on January 20. It gathered particular criticism in Egypt over ascene where Egyptian actress Mona Zaki’s character is seen taking off her underwear from underneathher dress. At some point one of the male characters comes out as gay, surprising his childhood friends.
Egyptian member of parliament Mostafa Bakri said in a TV interview that the film targeted family values
and said Egypt should “ban Netflix”. There were other calls to prohibit the film in the country and threats
190
of lawsuits over its “promotion” of homosexuality.

The January 2023 BBC News article on the online entrapment of LGBT persons in Egypt by police stated
that: “The Egyptian government has spoken publicly about its use of online surveillance to target what it
described as "homosexual gatherings". In 2020, Ahmed Taher, former assistant to the Minister ofInterior for Internet Crimes and Human Trafficking, told the newspaper Ahl Masr: "We recruited police
in the virtual world to uncover the masses of group sex parties, homosexual gatherings"”.191
An article by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights in September 2020 wrote that the website of the
Public Prosecution “has published content that incites hatred against women, LGBT+ individuals andpeople living with HIV/AIDS, and places the responsibility on victims of rape as a result of their moral
behavior, in addition to violating the privacy of witnesses”.192
The ILGA World Database page for Egypt stated the following:
In January 2022, a member of the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee in the Senate
reportedly submitted to a proposal to the legislative council to add a number of articles to the Penal Codeto "prohibit and criminalize homosexuality". A month later, it was reported that another MP had drafted abill for consideration which would explicitly criminalise consensual same-sex activity, as well as the"promotion of homosexuality". […]In August 2022 the Ministry of Education and Technical Education issued instructions to all educational
directorates calling for the implementation of awareness campaigns for students, to promote "goodbehaviour", "manners" and religious values. This was reportedly done in an effort to counter the presenceof "homosexuality" seen in international streaming and broadcast services like Netflix.
In September 2022, as reported by the media, the Ministry of Education and Technical Education orderededucational directorates to integrate concepts of sexual education, sexual harassment and sexual violence
into the basic education curriculum, aiming to "protect children from imitating deviant sexual
behaviours", i.e. homosexuality. The ministry of education has reportedly instructed educational
directorates to place posters that raise awareness of the "dangers of so-called abnormal sexual
behaviours" in schools across the country. […]In June 2022, the state-controlled Supreme Media Council of Egypt announced the launch of a "safemedia for kids" campaign with the main purpose of "confronting ideas that promote homosexuality",190

Al Jazeera, Netflix film Perfect Strangers challenges Middle East taboos, 4 February 2022
BBC News, How Egyptian police hunt LGBT people on dating apps, 30 January 2023
192
Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights calls on the "National Council
for Women" to protect the complainants and witnesses in the "Fairmont Case" and for the Public Prosecution toclarify their legal position, 2 September 202019195

specifically for media produced by Disney. The initiative seems to seek to curate content catered for
193
children in Egypt to curb the promotion of "abnormal ideas".

b. Homophobia and transphobia in government institutions (incl. state-owned
media, within the police, in the prison service, in the judiciary, in the publichealth service, in schools)
2020
The Alliance of Queer Egyptian Organizations’ (AQEO) statement on their Facebook page regarding theoutcome of the UPR on Egypt in March 2020 stated that:
While LGBTI issues are a part of human rights, denial has been indicated in the Egyptian state’s discourse,and systematic state homophobia and transphobia remain. Driven by patriarchal norms and personal
ideologies, State actors entrap gay men and trans-women, and judiciary system hands down penalties
with maximum sentences. Moreover, trans-persons are hindered from processing their official
documents, face constant discrimination and exclusion from education, workplaces, receiving healthcare,194
and face social violence without protection.

The same month, ANKH Association (Arab Network for Knowledge about Human Rights) and the Cairo
Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), among other organisations, released an appeal for the
release of Eman Al-Helw and Hossam Ahmad from detention in Egypt, stating that:
February 28 marked one year since the arrests of actress and human rights defender Eman Al-Helw andtransgender man Hossam Ahmad. They were both arrested that day, along with 70 other people as part ofa mass arrest campaign against persons who critiqued the government and called for protests on social
media following the deadly train crash on February 27, 2019 at Ramses Station, which left 22 dead over
40 injured. They are under investigation in State Security Case no. 1739 of 2018. […]For over one year, Eman Al-Helw and Hossam Ahmad have been held on false charges, only because of
their peaceful activities. They have also been constantly subjected to various forms of harassment,
physical and psychological abuse. Since the first day of their detention, they have been held in anunderground cell in a police station, with no access to fresh air or sunlight, as the women’s prisons refuse
to take them because they don’t “look like women”.
During a recent interview, Hossam explained: “I am tired of being brought to hospitals again and again,
and having my genitals exposed there… The problem is that because Eman is staying with me, anything
195
that happens to me also happens to her.”

193

International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), ILGA World Database: Egypt
page, undated [last accessed 30 June 2023]
194
Alliance of Queer Egyptian Organizations (AQEO), Facebook post - Statement regarding the Universal Periodic
Review Outcome – Egypt, 15 March 2020
195
ANKH Association (Arab Network for Knowledge about Human Rights) and the Cairo Institute For Human Rights
Studies (CIHRS) et al., Egypt: As coronavirus threatens to spread in prisons, immediately release Eman Al-Helw,
Hossam Ahmad and other peaceful political detainees, 25 March 2020

96

In March 2020, following the release the previous year of detained transgender activist Malak al-Kashef,
Amnesty International wrote that: “After her release, Malak filed a case in administrative court
requesting the Ministry of Interior to provide separate detention facilities in prisons and police stations
for transgender detainees undergoing gender reassignment treatment. The first hearing in the case isschedule for 17 April 2020”.196
In April 2020, Human Rights Watch released an article on the challenges of accessing HIV treatment [inpublic health centres] in Egypt during the pandemic. It stated: “Two gay men living with HIV told Human
Rights Watch that even before the Covid-19 pandemic, they were uncomfortable visiting government
hospitals because they faced stigma and discrimination on the grounds of their sexual orientation”.197
The May 2020 BBC News article about the Egyptian actor, Hisham Selim, speaking out in support of histransgender son, wrote that:In the first interview, on the privately-owned channel Al-Qahira Wa al-Nas, Selim revealed how his son then aged 18 - first told him about feeling uncomfortable with the gender he was assigned at birth. […]He also spoke about the challenges his son was facing in getting his gender reflected on his national ID which expired two years ago - because his transition was not yet complete.
"The problem in Egypt is that we have either female or male; we don't have anything in-between to referto the transitional stage," Selim said.
Although transitioning is legal in Egypt, the process is long and complex. It involves medical tests,
198
psychological treatment and approval from both doctors and religious clerics.

The September 2020 Human Rights Watch article on the August 2020 arrest of witnesses to a gang rapein 2014 wrote that:
Egyptian security agencies in late August 2020 arbitrarily arrested a man and three women who were
witnesses to a high-profile gang rape case from 2014 that recently came to light, Human Rights Watch
said today. Security also arrested two of the witnesses’ acquaintances.
The prosecutor general ordered the release of three of the six on August 31 but is pressing charges
against all of them for violating laws on “morality” and “debauchery” that are vague, discriminatory, andopen to abuse. Pro-government media have subjected them to a coordinated smear campaign […].
Smear Campaign
After their arrest, videos and photos showing scenes of some of the detained witnesses’ private lives havebeen leaked online. One video shows several women and a man who appear to be drunk, and othervideos show intimate behavior. Activists said they believe that security forces leaked the photos andvideos to smear and intimidate the witnesses.
The Office of the Prosecutor General said in its August 31 statement that all mobile phones of the people
detained were sent to the “Technical Support Administration” in the Interior Ministry to “retrieve all its
196

Amnesty International, Egypt: Further Information: Transgender Activist Released: Malak al-Kashef, 27 March
2020
197
Human Rights Watch, Egypt: Covid-19 Threatens Treatment for HIV Patients, 22 April 2020
198
BBC News, Hisham Selim, famed Egyptian actor, praised over transgender son, 10 May 202097

contents and recover any deleted content and retrieve all conversations made on the communications
apps.” One activist, who spoke with some of the released witnesses, said that the National Security
Agency had searched the phones and laptops of the witnesses at the time of arrest and “took whatever
they could find.”Since August 31, pro-government websites and journalists have published reports that stigmatize the rape
survivor, witnesses, and activists involved in the case. Some government-affiliated media websites
are reframing the gang rape as a “group sex party” and alleging that security investigations revealed “thebiggest network of homosexuality.” One pro-government journalist, who is also a lawyer, said in a nowremoved Facebook post that she submitted a complaint to the prosecutor general about several activists
whom she accused of fabricating the rape allegations to “tarnish Egypt’s image” and to “spread199
homosexuality.”

In September 2020, Al Jazeera reported on Egypt’s rising digital authoritarianism, stating that:In the most prominent instance, women’s reports of a violent Fairmont Hotel gang rape sent shockwaves
through Egypt in July. The public prosecution ignored the constant calls by women and campaigners toinvestigate the case. When it finally took action, it also decided to detain three key female witnesses.
These courageous women are now facing charges of inciting debauchery, drug use, and attempting todamage the image of the Egyptian state.
Egypt’s pro-state outlets pursued an aggressive smear campaign against them, disseminating their private
information and videos online. These outlets reframed the rape allegedly perpetrated by privileged young
200
Egyptian men into a story of sex parties and “homosexual perverts”.

The October 2020 Human Rights Watch report on the arrest, abuse, and torture of LGBT people in Egypt
by security forces wrote that:Malak el-Kashif, 20, a transgender woman and human rights activist, was arbitrarily detained for fourmonths, sexually harassed, and abused in a male prison in 2019. An administrative court in May 2020
dismissed the appeal her lawyer filed requesting the Interior Ministry to provide separate detention
facilities for transgender detainees in accordance with their gender identity. […]Hossam Ahmed, 27
Hossam Ahmed, a transgender man, was arrested in a café in Cairo on February 28, 2019 and detained in
an undisclosed location for four days before being presented to prosecutors on March 4. He was charged
with “joining a terrorist group and misusing social media to commit a crime punishable by law.” Althougha court ordered Ahmed released on September 15, 2020, he remained in pretrial detention for an
additional week before he was eventually released on September 22.
Despite undergoing gender-affirming medical interventions, and his self-identification as a transgenderman, Ahmed’s ID card says “female.” While he was detained in a women’s prison in Abdeen, Cairo, hesaid, he was subjected to physical examinations and prohibited from continuing his hormonal treatment
and gender-affirming surgery.
Human Rights Watch obtained a statement he wrote from prison February 21, 2020, through a Francebased LGBT rights organization:
199

Human Rights Watch, Egypt: Gang Rape Witnesses Arrested, Smeared: Personal Data Used in Abusive
Prosecutions, 11 September 2020
200
Al Jazeera, Egypt’s rising digital authoritarianism, 24 September 202098

Every day feels like a year. Everyone who enters here is scared of my [trans identity] andharasses me physically and emotionally. The police officers enjoy harassing me. They call me by
the name on my ID. The women detained alongside me here tell the officers, “His name is
Hossam.” The officers beat and torture these women to make them say that I did things thatnever happened. We sleep on a rotten and smelly mattress with no covers. The government only
sends us bread. But all the food comes from visitors. If I don’t get visitors for three days, I don’t
eat for three days.
All I’m asking for is to be treated as a human being and be called Hossam. I’m so tired of being
regularly brought to the hospital so they can check my genitals. My bones hurt, my knees areruined, I have weird spots on my body, fleas and bugs and lice everywhere, and bite marks. I feel201
like I’ve been here for 100 years.

Al-Monitor’s December 2020 article on discrimination against transgender people in Egypt stated that:““Everybody bullies transgender people, including state institutions, the media and ordinary people,”
Reda al-Danbouki, director of the local Women's Center for Guidance and Legal Awarenessnongovernmental organization, told Al-Monitor. “There is a need for opening a nationwide dialogue on
this issue””.202
2021
In February 2021, Right Side, an NGO for the protection of transgender people and sex workers inArmenia, reported that three Armenian transgender women had been barred from entering Egypt
because of the “male” marker in their passports. It stated that:
On February 22, 2021 “Right Side” HRD NGO received a request from three Armenian trans women toprovide support to lift the illegal ban from entering the Arab Republic of Egypt and to assist in returning
the expenses from the tour agency.
In February, three transgender women purchased fourteen-day travel packages to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt
from two different travel agencies. Arriving at the Sharm el-Sheikh airport on February 19, after waiting
for six hours, they were informed that “all three could not enter the country, since their passports statethat they are “men”, and they can enter the country only after the female gender mark is indicated in the
passport”. The transgender women travelled to Egypt, having previously consulted with a travel agency,with updated photos in the valid passports of the Republic of Armenia.
The border guards, by noting that “the headquarters of the security service in Cairo barred them fromentering,” took the passports, isolated them in one of the closed cafes of the airport, deprived them ofcommunication, did not provide food and water, and informed them that they can travel to Armenia only
in fourteen days with a flight purchased by them. The border guards did not mark the passports withentry-exit stamps, and no deportation order was issued. For three days, transgender women regularly
paid cleaning women about 20 US dollars for water and chips, which allowed them to survive under
severe psychological pressure and fear. Realizing that there is no other way, they paid the border guards

201

Human Rights Watch, Egypt: Security Forces Abuse, Torture LGBT People - Arbitrary Arrests, Discrimination,
Entrapment, Privacy Violations, 1 October 2020
202
Al-Monitor, Transgender Egyptians face abuse, discrimination for asserting their identity, 9 December 202099

three hundred US dollars in cash to be released and sent to Armenia with a next flight. Transgender203
women were able to arrive in Yerevan only in the morning of February 21.

The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2020, published in March 2021, wrote
that: “On June 1, the Administrative Court rejected a lawsuit filed by transgender Malak El-Kashef,whom authorities released from detention in July 2019, to compel the interior minister to establish
separate facilities for transgender individuals inside prisons and police stations. A court orderedtransgender male Hossam Ahmed, whom authorities subjected to invasive physical exams, released
from pretrial detention in a women’s prison in September”.204
In April 2021, ANKH (Arab Network for Knowledge about Human Rights), the Alliance of Queer Egyptian
Organizations (AQEO), and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), among otherorganisations, published an open letter to human rights ambassadors around the world regarding thetargeting of LGBTQI+ community and activists in Egypt. It stated: “Egyptian human rights and LGBTQI+
activists have been continuously subjected to discrimination and dissemination of false information by
the Egyptian government authorities, as well as in the state controlled media”.205
In May 2021, The Times of Israel reported on an Israeli transgender couple refused entry to Egypt:
An Israeli transgender couple was apparently denied entry to Egypt at the Taba gateway to Sinai on
Thursday, as Egyptian security officers confiscated their passports for inspection, according to a television
report.
Or Mizan and Titi Katan, two trans men from Haifa who had planned a five-day trip at the Ras a-Satan
resort in the Sinai peninsula were stopped on the Egyptian side of the Taba crossing, Channel 12 news
reported on Thursday.
“Every now and then an officer comes by, talks to someone on the phone, looks at us, laughs and walks
away,” they told Channel 12.
They told the network that since their passports still list them as female, the border guards apparently did
not believe it matched their external appearances.
“They say we do not look female and because of that, they are not willing to let us in. We were shocked,
we tried to explain that there is no problem with it all over the world, but they took the passports forinspection and looked at the pictures as if we were wanted. It is a terrible feeling, we just wanted aholiday,” they told Channel 12.
206
There was no further update if the two had managed to enter the peninsula or not.

In May 2021, the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) posted an article on discrimination
against LGBTIQ+ people in Egypt, stating that:203

Right Side NGO, Three Armenian transgender women barred from entering Egypt because of “male” marker inthe passport, 23 February 2021
204
USDOS, 2020 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 30 March 2021
205
ANKH (Arab Network for Knowledge about Human Rights), the Alliance of Queer Egyptian Organizations(AQEO), and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) et al., Egypt: Open letter to human rights
ambassadors around the world regarding the targeting of LGBTQI+ community and activists, 30 April 2021
206
The Times of Israel, Israeli transgender couple said refused entry to Egypt at border crossing, 7 May 2021

100

[…] the system also takes advantage of the lack of awareness, lack of correct information, and unjustified
fear of HIV and uses State-owned media to broadcast hate speech toward people living with HIV. […]During the past years, and as a result of the political and social atmosphere that encourages hatred andthe rejection of the other, hate speech against LGBTIQ+ people has spread widely, especially on social
media, and Egypt witnessed the emergence of so-called “schools” that aim to “heal” homosexuality andprevent gender transitions. The Egyptian Medical Syndicate did not take any steps to prevent doctors
from conducting these “treatments”. The State’s support for this form of hatred and myths related to207homosexuality is evident.

On 11 May 2021, Bedayaa Organization, ANKH Association (Arab Network for Knowledge about Human
Rights), and the Alliance of Queer Egyptian Organizations (AQEO) released a report twenty years after
the Queen Boat / Cairo 52 incident, where on 11 May 2001, the Queen Boat night club in Cairo wasraided and thirty gay men were arrested. The report noted that twenty years later, violations still
continue against the LGBTQI+ community in Egypt. It wrote that the Egyptian state “[foments] moral
panic through exceptional media coverage of LGBTQI+ cases of arrest. Media coverage includes
defamation and demonizing of persons arrested through the use of exaggerated headlines withdegrading terms that describes them as a threat to the society itself and its values”.208
In May 2021, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) published a press release related to thegang rape which took place at the Fairmont Hotel in 2014. It stated that:
Over the past year, and since the launch of its ongoing campaign to control what it has called “social
national security,” the Public Prosecution has targeted a number of individuals-particularly women andthose with supposed or actual sexual identities and practices that differ from those socially accapteble[sic]. These individuals were targeted for publishing content on social media platforms that includes
dancing or content that does not reflect what the Public Prosecution views as the definition of “the values
209
and morals of the Egyptian family.”France 24’s article in June 2021 on a transgender woman in Egypt fighting for her rights and overcoming
challenges in the country wrote that:The Egyptian Medical Syndicate allows for sex reassignment surgeries only with the "approval of a special
committee" comprised of medical doctors and clergy from Al-Azhar -- Sunni Islam's leading seat oflearning, based in Cairo.
The committee relies on a fatwa, or religious edict, that stipulates sex reassignment surgery must be
justified by a "biological" issue and "not a mental one", explained the activist.

207

The International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), Egypt | Stop prosecuting and harassing LGBTIQ+ individuals
and organisations, 11 May 2021
208
Bedayaa Organization, ANKH Association (Arab Network for Knowledge about Human Rights) and the Alliance ofQueer Egyptian Organizations (AQEO), Twenty years - Cairo 52, 11 May 2021, pp. 6-7
209
Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), Joint press release: Closing investigations of the Fairmont rape is anatural result of a year of intimidation of witnesses and prosecution of plaintiffs, 12 May 2021

101

The syndicate's bylaws demand "blood and hormone tests, chromosome analysis and minimum of two
years of psychotherapy and hormonal treatment", requirements that exclude many transgender people
wanting GCS, though there are no official statistics available on the community in Egypt.
The committee only meets sporadically, and there has not been a designated Al-Azhar sheikh for at least
two years, said the activist, who asked to remain anonymous.
210"No operation can be carried out without the agreement of Al-Azhar."Reuters posted an article in June 2021 on LGBT+ conversion therapy content on Facebook, and stated
that: “In Egypt, medical professionals offering conversion therapy services are part of the mental healthcare system, local LGBT+ groups say”.211
In August 2021, Mada Masr, an independent Egyptian online newspaper, reported on the death of atrans man in Giza as a result of complications arising from sex reassignment surgery. The article wrote
that:
People wishing to have sex reassignment surgery in Egypt have to go through long, complex procedures.
They must first apply to the Sex Reassignment Committee at the national Doctors Syndicate, which
subjects applicants of the procedure to a series of physical tests. Each case is then reviewed by urologists
and gynecologists, and is finally referred to a psychotherapist. The mental assessment process generally
takes no less than two years during which time psychologists assess the case and have a say in whether it
is “necessary” or not to refer the applicant for surgery. A seven-member committee made up of doctors
and one representative from the religious institution of Al-Azhar will make a final decision about whether
or not to approve the candidate’s application for surgery.
If approved, the applicant can have surgery at the state’s expense at a public hospital such as Al-Hussein
University Hospital, Demerdash or Qasr al-Aini, or at a private hospital, and will be able to acquire thedocumentation needed to alter the sex recorded in their official documents.
Zayat told Mada Masr that, in practice, the Doctors Syndicate’s committee has not met for years because
the Al-Azhar representative refuses to attend, putting thousands of applicants in limbo on a waiting list.
“I went through all these stages myself. And even though I completed all my sex reassignment surgeries
abroad, my papers with the government are still held up awaiting the committee’s approval. Therefore,212
my identification card still says male,” ashif said.

In October 2021, an article was published by African Arguments exploring the increasing representationof and information around sexuality available on social media in Egypt. It noted: “Egypt’s current regime
has carried out the harshest crackdown against LGBTQ people in modern Egyptian history”.213
The latest edition of ILGA World's “Our Identities under Arrest” report, released in December 2021,
stated that:

210

France 24, Transgender woman battles for 'dignity' in conservative Egypt, 2 June 2021
Reuters, INSIGHT-LGBT+ conversion therapy: banned on Facebook, but thriving in Arabic, 3 June 2021
212
Mada Masr, Deterred from official healthcare, 26-yr-old dies after sex reassignment surgery, 31 August 2021
213
African Arguments, Egypt’s sexual revolutionaries tackling the tyranny within, 20 October 2021
211

102

[…] the Egyptian Dar Al Iftaa (Islamic advisory body to the government) issued a series of fatwas (legal
opinions) in 2020, including one condemning homosexuality and outlining the need for medical
intervention (i.e., “conversion therapies”).28 […][…] a clear State-backed policy of targeting of persons based on their SOGIE through provisions against
public indecency, sex work, adultery, rape and others is at play, though social attitudes, a vocal religious
sector, the need for political scapegoating during times of instability and a hostile media landscape allinteract in myriad ways.29 […]Examples of Enforcement […]From 8 May 2021 onward it was reported in several international news outlets that two Israeli trans men
had been denied entry into Egypt where they had come to spend a holiday, on account of their passports
not matching their appearance and gender expression.82 Border officials detained them temporarily andmocked them, but it is not clear whether this was the result of any State policy on identity documentationand legal gender recognition (either directly or indirectly), or rather a case of personal prejudice by theofficials involved. […]28 “‫“ال جد اثار وال غ ف ران وال شذوذ االن تحار ن ال رصي ل إلف تاء م ت تال ية ف تاوى ث الث ال وط ن دن يا ى ل ع ال زي د‬[More on Dunya Al-Watan Three consecutive fatwas of the Egyptian fatwa on suicide, homosexuality, and forgivenesssparked controversy], Alwatan Voice, 22 June 2020.]
29 EIPR, The Trap: Punishing sexual difference in Egypt (2017); OHCHR, UA EGY 17/2017 (2017); “The Policies ofSuppressing Sexual Rights in Egypt”, The Legal Agenda, 2 February 2018; “Rights of LGBTQ People in Egypt: Between
State, Society, and de facto Criminalisation”, in: ILGA World, State-Sponsored Homophobia 13th edition (2019), 520522; “"Clean the Streets of Faggots"” Digital Targeting of LGBT People by Middle East/North Africa Governments”,
Human Rights Watch, 4 August 2021. […]82 “Israeli transgender couple said refused entry to Egypt at border crossing”, Times of Israel, 08 May 2021; “Transmen mocked and denied entry to Egypt by border guards because they 'do not look female'”, Pink News, 09 May
214
2021.

The 2021 Bedayaa Organization report answering FAQs on the situation for LGBTQI people in Egypt
wrote that:
Security campaigns led by the Interior Ministry typically target gay men and trans-women, whose arrest islater followed by charging them with habitual debauchery. […]Looking to the fact of the conservative and patriarchal nature of the Egyptian society, which believes thatbeing a male is the highest social status as such you must fit the social norms of what a man should look
and act, abandoning such privilege by being feminine male or trans person is something that must be
punished.
That idea also reflects a lack of understanding by the Egyptian legal authorities of what being a transwoman is, as trans women are often seen as feminine gay men who are dressed as women to seduceother men into committing sexual acts.
With this fact, the Egyptian authorities does not only target gay men and trans women, but also bisexual
men, intersex, and gender non-conforming individuals. To put it plainly, it persecutes what appears as
contradicting to social norms. […]214

International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), Our Identities Under Arrest: A
global overview on the enforcement of laws criminalising consensual same-sex sexual acts between adults anddiverse gender expressions, 15 December 2021, pp. 126, 132103

Even though homosexuality is not mentioned in the Egyptian penal code, the LGBTI community in Egypt
face state persecution and social stigma. The Egyptian state condones violence and discrimination against
LGBTI community, even though the committed violence is supposed to be punished by law e.g., blackmail,physical attack, accessory to murder and defamation. […]The Egyptian detention centres are known for widespread abuses, verbal, mental and physical violence
are common practices by the Egyptian Police. In the absence of strong state institutions that oversee the
Police and ensure the rule of law within the legal system, the Police is given de-facto immunity from any
accountability when it comes to torture. Torture became the norm, expected as a package that comeswith the arrest. In LGBTI cases abuses are causally related to their sexual orientation or gender identity, as
it is common for the police to use the person sexuality or gender identity to incite inmates against themor to enact verbal and physical violence. With Trans cases on the other hand, especially Trans women, it isoften that they are placed in a detention centre that does not fit their gender identity. […][…] the Egyptian state does not recognize trans-sexualism, as there are no legal articles that allows thisprocedure to happen, instead there are bylaws within the medical syndicate that also does not allow aperson to transition rather “reassign” their gender as seen in Chapter (3) Article (43) in the Egyptian
Medical Syndicate code of ethics:“A doctor is prohibited from conducting sex change operations, as for sex reassignment surgeries it isallowed after receiving the approval from the special committee on sex reassignment in the medical
syndicate and after having the case doing all the required hormonal and chromosome tests and after thecase has spent at least two years of psychological and hormonal therapy27”
The official “Fatwa” from El-Azhar28 and other religious figures confirms, that for a person to go throughany kind of sexual reassignment operation, they first have to prove that the issues they are having are
biological and not mental […].
As such the transgender community is left with a legal and medical dilemma, as the system refuses toacknowledge their existence. The system is built around the Islamic Sharia that may allow only sex
reassignment after proving that a Trans person truly needs it for medical reasons. And even for transpeople who can prove that, the system does not work in their favour, as the committee who supposed toapprove cases for sex reassignment has no act that organizes the work of this committee, and when it
should be held, or how long it should take to decide on cases.
All these left hundreds waiting for long periods for approvals. The approval is necessary to continue thelegal process of changing their IDs. During this long period transgender individuals (Especially transgenderwomen) start living as women within the society, which put them in a high risk of violence legally andsocially.
One of the major problems that transgender women face is dealing with the military establishment since
they are still listed as males in their IDs and Egypt applies compulsory military service for males over theage of 18 years. Trans women must go through a long process to receive an exemption from military
service and sometimes this process fail. […]Egyptian police do not understand the different between a transgender woman and a homosexual man,as such they view every transgender woman as a gay man who is dressed up as a woman to seduce men
into debauchery for money, and view any gathering of Trans women in one flat as a hideout for
prostitution. In other cases, the neighbours would attack transgender women in their flats and when thetransgender women would call the police, the police would arrest them instead of the neighbours for thereason mentioned above.
Sadly, some judges do not care about the legality of the arrest procedures and the seriousness of theevidence and just settle for using female clothes and makeup as evidence of committing prostitution anddebauchery without understanding that these evidences are nothing but important tools for trans women104

to use to live as a woman within the society. Other legal issues that face transgender persons is the lack ofcommunication channels within the different executive branches and ministries inside the state; thisoften leads to being arrested, even though they would have governmental medical reports from theministry of health stating that they are having gender identity disorder, but the Ministry of Interior does
not acknowledge these kinds of reports.
With all these legal challenges, access to good health care is almost impossible unless you come from anupper social class, where money and power can award you with all what you need, as such there is a
private costly underground medical system that operates in parallel to the official state system thatprovides healthcare to the trans community in Egypt with very high fees and undertrained medical staff
who are not familiar with the needs of trans persons. The results are catastrophic in some cases.30 The
same goes to the process of changing gender remarks on the person ID, as there is no legal structure, andthe law does not recognize transgender people, that created another underground system that works
within the official system at the civil registry where “bribes” and “connections” are often used as a mean
to change a person gender remarks on their ID. […]27 http://www.ems.org.eg/emsadmin/uploads/userfiles/file/‫ال ھ نھ اداب الئ حة‬.pdf
28
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jii/4750978.0002.302/--sex-change-in-cairo-gender-and-islamiclaw?rgn=main;view=fulltext […]215
30 https://www.almasryalyoum.com/news/details/1183960

The same report also noted that:
After a rainbow flag was raised at a concert in September 2017, the Supreme Media Council, that is
responsible for media in Egypt and tasked with improving and elevating media performance,36 banned
any gay people from appearing in print or audio-visual media unless it was to admit their sin andrepent.37 […]36 Statement from the council https://tinyurl.com/y9yjlfnn
37 The decree states, “The Supreme Media Council prohibits the propagation or publication of emblems ofhomosexuals because homosexuality is a disease and a disgrace that is better concealed than promoted until it can betreated and the disgrace eliminated, and this with the purpose of preserving public morals and conduct and out of arespect for the values of society and its correct beliefs. The propagation of such emblems is a corruption of society
216
that must be penalized.”

2022
The February 2022 Al Jazeera article discussing the backlash in the Middle East and North Africa after
the release of “Perfect Strangers” on Netflix wrote:
The film is Netflix’s first Arabic movie and quickly became the most watched in the streaming company’s
website in the region after it was released on January 20. It gathered particular criticism in Egypt over ascene where Egyptian actress Mona Zaki’s character is seen taking off her underwear from underneathher dress. At some point one of the male characters comes out as gay, surprising his childhood friends.

215
216

Bedayaa Organization, 10 FAQs about LGBTIQs situation in Egypt, 2021, pp. 3-5, 11, 13-14
Bedayaa Organization, 10 FAQs about LGBTIQs situation in Egypt, 2021, p. 18

105

Egyptian member of parliament Mostafa Bakri said in a TV interview that the film targeted family values
and said Egypt should “ban Netflix”. There were other calls to prohibit the film in the country and threats217
of lawsuits over its “promotion” of homosexuality.

Afsaneh Rigot’s March 2022 report on the role of digital evidence in the persecution of LGBTQ people in
Egypt (as well as Lebanon and Tunisia) wrote that:
It should be noted that authorities generally refuse to recognize trans people’s gender identity, instead
treating them according to the sex assigned at birth, meaning that trans women are routinely prosecuted
as gay men.120 […]In Egypt, the interviewees found that when it came to courts, based on their knowledge, “there was nocases against queer [cis] women under this law.”158 Furthermore, “there are no laws against lesbian [cis]women, even if they’re in the same place or same house as there’s no legal basic to it. The only people arehomosexual men.”159 The Egyptian interviewees affirmed that the most targeted persons in the LGBTQ
community are trans people and queer cis men, and sentencing is always harsh due to the, “pictures andthem looking like a woman and so on, the anal examination, and of course the provocative pictures thatthey usually attach with the police report”160. […]In the interviews from lawyers working in Egypt and Lebanon, it was noted that a large portion of thequeer sex workers are trans women. Trans women sex workers are not only most targeted but also face
the highest number of charges, and the most severe types of charges. This is regardless of whether theelement of sex work is proven. Disproportionate barriers and challenges placed against trans women(who are often arrested for merely existing) is also followed by the highest amount of targeting andprosecutions. Trans women often get prostitution charged regardless of whether they were engaged with
sex work or not. […]120 Trans women who have had gender affirming surgery and whose IDs are updated may encounter different
treatment; more research is required to fully substantiate this finding. […]218
160 EL2

A March 2022 article in Reuters on the targeting of LGBTQ+ people’s phones in Egypt gave the following
account:
Before Omar leaves home in the morning, he carefully uninstalls the apps on his phone one by one - no
WhatsApp, no Facebook, no Grindr.
"The paranoia is constant," said the 19-year-old gay Egyptian man, who asked the Thomson Reuters
Foundation not to identify his home town or real name for his safety.
If a policeman searched his phone, a single WhatsApp conversation or Facebook selfie could be enough to
see Omar prosecuted under laws banning "debauchery" and "prostitution" - regularly used in Egypt to219
criminalise citizens for being gay.

217

Al Jazeera, Netflix film Perfect Strangers challenges Middle East taboos, 4 February 2022
Afsaneh Rigot, Digital Crime Scenes: The Role of Digital Evidence in the Persecution of LGBTQ People in Egypt,
Lebanon, and Tunisia, 7 March 2022, pp. 32, 48
219
Reuters, Sentenced for a selfie: Middle East police target LGBTQ+ phones, 8 March 2022
218

106

The April 2022 report on sexual violence in detention in Egypt between 2015 and 2022 by the Freedom
Initiative and the Egyptian Front for Human Rights found the following information on abuse and sexual
violence for LGBTQ+ individuals in police stations, at National Security Agency sites, and in prisons:
In Police Stations […]For LGBTQ+ individuals, police stations are particularly rife with sexual abuse and violence. The gendered
nature of sexual violence is very clear in these instances as victimization often occurs amidst an onslaught
of homophobic slurs by both officers and other detainees in the holding cell. Low ranking officers arenotorious for grabbing gay men, trans women, and non-binary folk by their genitalia. Grabbing someone
from behind or shoving a finger into their anus, in this context, is used to connote the lack of a detainee’s
masculinity and manhood as a means of degradation.24 Officers, according to an interview conductedwith a human rights lawyer, call on the detainees to perform a variety of daily tasks, referring to them
only as ‘khawalat’, faggots.
In their recollection of an instance of rape against a refugee, Mahmoud, the researcher in a human rights
organization, noted “low ranking officers would tell the detainees in the holding cell, ‘he’s a faggot. Fuck
him. Enjoy it.’” Mahmoud was later raped in the police station by two different men. […]24 Aghacy, Masculine Identity in the Fiction of the Arab East since 1967.; Personal correspondence with Hannah Elsisi,
March 23, 2021. Agachy and ElSisi’s work theorizing on the nature of gendered violence in Egypt and Syria specifically220
inform this analysis.

The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2021, published in April 2022, wrote
that: “On May 6, border guards prevented two transgender Israelis from entering Sinai for tourism
because they did not appear to belong to the sex listed in their passports”.221
The article by the New Arab in July 2022 on the lack of gender-affirming health care in Middle East
nations, including Egypt, wrote that:
The already marginalised transgender communities of the Middle East have seen their rights dwindle evenfurther in the past several years, as an alarming number of Arab Middle Eastern countries have passed
laws restricting or banning their access to gender-affirming health care and legal gender recognition.
The result is that transgender people in these countries are pushed into risky underground medical
treatments, or compelled to seek asylum in more tolerant countries rather than stay in places where
being transgender is, as one Egyptian activist described it, “a death sentence.”
Egypt led the region in cracking down on transgender people: In 2003, the country’s medical syndicate
amended its code of ethics and added article 43, which banned doctors from providing any sex-change
treatments.
These legal changes are often driven by conservative religious narratives and the façade of protecting thevalues of society –and resisting the West.

220

The Freedom Initiative and Egyptian Front for Human Rights, No One is Safe: Sexual Violence Throughout theLife Cycle of Detention in Egypt: 2015-2022, 7 April 2022, pp. 17-18
221
USDOS, 2021 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 12 April 2022

107

“Conservative socio-religious narrative has been labelling transgender identities as Western and a danger
to the concept of family,” says Ayouba El-Hamri, regional coordinator of Transat, a regional transgenderadvocacy group.
“These legal changes are a product of those narratives and the moral panic religious figures have beenpromoting against transgender people.” […]In Egypt, article 43 stipulated that sex-change medical interventions shall only be allowed after a full
chromosome map to ensure that the person has a “biological need” to receive that medical treatment.
It also mandates that gender-affirming health care will be made available only after receiving approval
from a sex reassignment committee.
The committee was established in 2003 to review applications from those who wish to receive genderaffirming health care and included a representative of Al-Azhar – Egypt’s highest religious authority – toensure that every case is medically compatible with Sharia.
Violation of this amendment placed doctors under professional and criminal liability, […]. […][…] in Egypt, underground medical markets sprung up to take advantage of transgender people’s
desperation. Those markets often come with huge risks, as sources of hormones are unknown, andsurgeries often take place in ill-equipped home clinics.
In 2021, Ezz El-Din, a 26-year-old transgender man, died after a botched surgery in an underground
Egyptian clinic.
Furthermore, legal gender recognition is out of the question, as courts often rely on Sharia to make their
judgment on the matter and employ medical opinions to verify whether the person truly has intersex
characteristics or not. […]"The mismatch between their gender identity and their ID papers makes them an easy target for vicepolice," says Maryam Chaine, a Cairo-based lawyer.
“I receive different cases where transgender people are just targeted or harassed for who they are. Evenin cases where transgender people are the victim of social attacks, the police arrest them instead. In
detention, verbal and physical abuse are common and transgender people are especially targetedbecause of their identity." […]"Being transgender in Egypt or other Middle Eastern countries is a death sentence,” says Salma, an
Egyptian transgender activist who now resides in the Netherlands.
“I am not the first or the last person to leave – many of my friends from different countries also left for
Europe, and many more will. A drastic change in the region's policies is needed to allow us to breathe."[…]Currently, the Egyptian parliament, together with the medical syndicate, is discussing new medical liability
law. One can be hopeful that this new law will remove the discriminatory ban that the current code of222
ethics has enacted on transgender bodies since 2003.

In September 2022, Al Jazeera published an article on controversies around some Netflix content in Gulf
countries, also stating that: “The Marvel movie Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness was […]banned in April by […] Egypt for LGBTQ references”.223
Edge Media Network also reported in September 2022 that:

222
223

The New Arab, The Middle East has an anti-transgender bills problem, 22 July 2022
Al Jazeera, Gulf nations demand Netflix remove ‘offensive’ content, 7 September 2022

108

Egypt's media regulator demanded Wednesday that Netflix and other steaming services adhere to thismajority Muslim county's "societal values" – a veiled reference to programs featuring members of the
LGBTQ community.
The statement came a day after Gulf Arab countries asked Netflix to remove "offensive content" on thestreaming service, apparently targeting programs that show gays and lesbians.
According to the Egyptian government's statement, streaming services should comply with "societal
principles and values of the country" they are streaming in. The statement called for them to undertake"necessary measures if they air content contradicting values of the society." […]Egypt's movie industry, long celebrated in the Mideast, also bans films and programs from featuring gays
224
and lesbians.

The meeting minutes with a Human Rights Watch analyst, published in the September 2022 COI briefreport on the situation of LGBT persons in Egypt by the Danish Immigration Service, wrote the following
with regards to legal gender recognition:
17. In Egypt, there is a distinction between ‘sex change’ referring to gender affirming surgery fortransgender people and ‘sex reassignment’ for intersex individuals. An individual who undergoes a sex
change operation is not qualified for legal gender recognition, while individuals who undergo a sex
reassignment surgery are allowed to change their name and gender.
18. Since 2003, a review committee under Egypt’s Ministry of Health comprising medical authorities andreligious leaders (a representative from Egypt’s Islamic oversight body Dar el-Ifta) has made decisions
about whether an individual can obtain a sex change or a sex reassignment procedure and whether they
can obtain legal gender recognition at all. In 2003, the medical code of ethics was amended resulting indoctors being banned from performing surgery on transgender patients. Since then, individuals who want
to receive legal recognition of their new sex from the state have been continuously denied, because thereis the mentioned distinction between sex change and sex reassignment. There have been a few cases
where transgender individuals could obtain a legal gender recognition, but it was based on proclaiming asex reassignment surgery and not a sex change surgery. […]20. In 2020 the head of the Sex Reassignment Commitee at the National Doctors Syndicate indicated thatbetween 2014 and 2017, 87 cases had been approved for “physical reasons” but cases based on “gender
identity disorder” - which is how transgender people usually get diagnosed, before they are referred tolegal gender recognition - were all denied. There has not been more recent statistics on how manytransgender individuals were able to change their name or gender, based on the gender identity disorder225
diagnosis.

Rainbow Egypt posted on their Facebook page in November 2022 a summary of violations against
LGBTQI+ persons that had taken place between September 2021 and September 2022, and recorded
that: in November 2021 ““Eternals” movie [was] banned in Egyptian cinemas for including homosexual
characters”; in April 2022 “Marvel’s ‘Doctor Strange’ Sequel [was] Banned in Egypt Over LGBTQ+
Character”; in June 2022 “Disney’s “Lightyear” [was] Banned in Egypt Over LGBTQ+ Character” and there
was a “[h]uge attack on “Disney” in the Egyptian Media for what they claim[ed was] “Promoting
224

Edge Media Network, Egypt Warns Streamers about 'Societal Values' (aka LGBTQ+ Content), 8 September 2022
The Danish Immigration Service, Country of Origin (COI) Brief Report – Egypt: Situation of LGBT persons,September 2022, p. 22
225

109

Homosexuality””; in July 2022 ““Thor: Love and Thunder” [was] Banned in Egypt Over LGBTQ+
Character”; in August 2022 “Disney+ To Remove LGBTQ Content in Middle East to Comply With Local
Censors”; and in September 2022 “Egypt’s Supreme Council for Media Regulation (SCMR) issued astatement in which it announced it would issue regulatory rules and licenses for streaming services suchas Netflix and Disney+ in light of content which runs contrary to the country’s values”.226
January – May 2023
The January 2023 BBC News article on the online entrapment of LGBT persons in Egypt by police stated
that: “Covering any of these issues inside Egypt itself has been banned since 2017, when the country's
Supreme Council for Media Regulation imposed a media blackout on LGBT representation except if thecoverage "acknowledge[s] the fact that their conduct is inappropriate"”.227
The February 2023 Human Rights Watch report into digital targeting and its offline consequences forLGBT people in the Middle East and North Africa wrote on the homophobia and harassment one gay
Egyptian man continues to receive:
Amr, a 33-year-old Egyptian gay man, spoke about the consequences of his online entrapment andsubsequent detention in 2018:
I still suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and I cannot afford therapy. I get sudden burstsof coldness and anger. I isolate myself and fear checkpoints and state agents in public. I still getharassed at checkpoints and my phone gets searched with excessive verbal humiliation. I evenreceived bullying by airport security in December 2020, when they saw the case on my record,
they said, “You’re a faggot and you are going abroad to get fucked.”228 […]228 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Amr, January 14, 2022.

228

The same report also detailed the experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals with the police in the context of
having been extorted by gang members:
On September 13, 2021, Mahdy, a 28-year-old gay man from Cairo, said he was extorted by a man he had
met on Instagram, with whom he spoke for two months before agreeing to meet him and have sexual
relations. He said:
We went to his place at night and had sex. After we finished, he told me that he knew everything
about me, including my work, my house, and who my father is. He lived in my area as well. He
said that he wouldn’t leave me alone until I paid him 10,000 Egyptian pounds [US$636]. He
snatched my phone and refused to leave without getting paid. I had to pay the amount so I could
escape him. He called me two days later asking for a new mobile phone. He told me that hewould tell my father otherwise, and he sent me a video of our sexual encounter, which he took
226

Rainbow Egypt, Facebook post - Highlights of 1 year (from September 2021 to September 2022), 30 November
2022
227
BBC News, How Egyptian police hunt LGBT people on dating apps, 30 January 2023
228
Human Rights Watch, “All This Terror Because of a Photo”: Digital Targeting and Its Offline Consequences forLGBT People in the Middle East and North Africa, 21 February 2023, p. 95

110without my paying attention. I wasn’t responding because I did not know what to do. I consulted
with a lawyer, and he said that there is a 50 percent chance that he would go to prison, but also
there will be a case against me for immoral conduct. This is why I cannot turn to the law for
help.109
Despite Mahdy’s payment, the extortionist shared the video with his work colleagues and people in his
residential area. Mahdy quit his job and stopped going out in public in his area due to the “the stigma andthe public shaming,” he said. The extortionist, accompanied by others, later went to Mahdy’s house tothreaten him. “I heard them detail the ways they would torture me,” Mahdy said. “It was a blatant threat
to my life. If my father sees the video, that would be the end of me.”110 […]Majd, a 38-year-old gay man from Egypt, and Ismail, a 23-year-old gay man from Egypt, told Human Rights
Watch that a gang extorted them on Grindr in August 2021 […]. […]Ismail wept as he was telling the story, so Majd continued:
I managed to open the door of our apartment and scream for help, so they got scared and leftfrom the back exit, only taking Ismail’s phone with them. The police came because of thescreaming and asked us what happened, we said it was a theft attempt. The police told us to filea report, but we did not, and I thought that the incident had ended there, only to find [the twomen who tried to blackmail us] waiting for me outside my place a few days later. Wanting tocause a scene, they dragged me to a populated square in Cairo, started calling me a “faggot”
while beating me up in front of everyone, and broke my phone.128
When the police intervened, the man they had met on Grindr told the police that Majd was gay andshowed them their WhatsApp chats, which contained messages about gay sex and stickers (a WhatsApp
feature) that showed images of men having sex. Police officers insulted Majd and Ismail with homophobic
slurs, handcuffed them, and took them to the Helwan police station in Cairo, where they were detainedfor four days.129 […]Baha’, a 24-year-old gay man from Alexandria, Egypt, was robbed by a man he met on Facebook, whothen attacked him one evening in February 2021 while they were on a date. […]After the attack against him, Baha’ immediately blocked the man he met on Facebook and went to thenearest police station, near Al-Namous Square in Cairo, to report the attack.
I told the police that I was walking and a group of men attacked and robbed me. I was
accompanied by officers to the location where I was attacked. I distanced myself from them andopened my Facebook account from a pedestrian’s phone to try to get the attackers’ accountdetails. One of the officers saw me, snatched the phone from my hand, and found out that I was
gay from my private Facebook groups. They brought me back to the station and started
interrogating me. One officer said, “I know you’re a faggot, so stop lying and tell me about yourrelation to the attacker.” I told him the whole story. They said, “Do you fuck or get fucked?”“What have you done with the guy?” I was threatened with an anal exam and also with themilitary court’s interference as I am in the army.136 […]109 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Mahdy, October 7, 2021.
110 Ibid. […]128 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Majd and Ismail, October 14, 2021.
129 Ibid. […]229
136 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Baha’, October 22, 2021.

229

Human Rights Watch, “All This Terror Because of a Photo”: Digital Targeting and Its Offline Consequences forLGBT People in the Middle East and North Africa, 21 February 2023, pp. 44, 52-53, 55-56

111

The February 2023 Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE) report on banning theLGBT community from appearing in the Egyptian media stated the following:
The anti-LGBT campaign in Egypt was renewed after the animation company “Disney” pledged to produce
more cartoon characters that support homosexuality during 2022 due to the poor representation of LGBT
people in the media and in the entertainment business. The Egyptian authorities responded[6] to themove by banning the screening of the Lightyear cartoon in Egypt, claiming that it contains homosexualscenes.
In the same context, MP Enas Abdel Halim submitted a request[7] in June 2020 to block the “Disney”
website for promoting homosexuality. […]The Press and Media Regulation Law No. 180 of 2018 gives the SCMR [Supreme Council for Media
Regulation] the right to regulate the media in order to guarantee the protection of press and media
freedom by ensuring that media outlets and press institutions adhere to the standards, principles andethics of the profession, as well as the requirements of national security. This allows the SCMR to ban the
publication or the broadcast of any content that it may deem violating the profession and its ethics orthreatening the national security. […]6 Not the first time.. Disney movie banned in Arab countries over homosexuality allegations, Masrawy, published inJune 2022, last visited in August 2022; https://bit.ly/3Z5VaDe
7 A new move in Egypt against “Disney” because of homosexuality, Russia Today, published in June 2022, last visited230
in August 2022; https://bit.ly/3KmAT8y

An article in February 2023 in Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) MENA by Ahmed ShihabEldin, a journalist and producer who had completed a two-year-long documentary investigation with the
BBC called “Queer Egypt Under Attack”, stated that: “By essentially outlawing public discussion ofgender and sexual orientation in society, Egypt's government effectively ensures that these concepts
remain taboo, and simultaneously, a welcome tool to distract from the broader and protracted crisis
most Egyptians are enduring under Sisi's regime. The state is able to maintain a false narrative: that
LBGTQ+ rights are merely a Western device to corrupt and even delegitimize its religious and national
authority”.231
Freedom House’s annual report, released in March 2023, stated that: “Discrimination against women,
LGBT+ people, and other groups remain serious problems, as do high rates of sexual and gender-based
violence” and that “Christians, Shiite Muslims, people of color, and LGBT+ people face discrimination
and are denied access to rights, which in turn affects their ability to participate in political life”.232 Similarstatements were written in the 2022 and 2021 annual reports.233

230

Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE), “They have no presence!” - On banning the LGBT
community from appearing in the Egyptian media, 23 February 2023
231
Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) MENA, How Sisi's Regime Is Ruthlessly Targeting Egypt's Queer
Community, 27 February 2023
232
Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2023: Egypt, March 2023
233
Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2022: Egypt, 24 February 2022; Freedom House, Freedom in the World
2021: Egypt, 3 March 2021.

112

The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2022, published in March 2023, statedthat:
The Egyptian Medical Syndicate allows for gender-affirming treatment including surgery, with approval bya special committee composed of medical doctors and al-Azhar clergy, according to international media,
citing a local LGBTQI+ activist. The committee relied on a fatwa that stipulates gender-affirming treatment
must be “medically necessary” and justified by a “biological,” not a “mental” matter. Thus, according to
HRW, the surgery was allowed only for intersex persons, which left transgender individuals to seek
234
treatment from unregulated and often unsafe clinics.

The report further stated that:
According to a local independent media outlet, the Ministry of Education issued a mandate, based on arecommendation from the Ministry of Interior, to integrate the concepts of “sexual education, sexual
harassment, and physical violence” into public school curricula with a specific focus on renouncing
homosexuality. These curriculum changes were reportedly to be reinforced with posters, pamphlets, andother media highlighting the “dangers of abnormal behaviors” and to feature the participation of school
235
medical providers, psychologists, social workers, and both Muslim and Christian religious educators.

The report also wrote that: “Opinions supporting LGBTQI+ rights cannot be expressed in state-controlled
media”.236
At the end of March 2023, an article in Deutsche Welle on LGBTQ rights in Egypt reported that: “In 2022,
Egypt's Ministry of Education issued a new directive to combat homosexuality and associated ideas inmedia outlets and started promoting anti-LGBTQ awareness campaigns in schools”.237
In April 2023, the UN Human Rights Committee published its concluding observations on the fifth
periodic report of Egypt, in which it stated that: “9. The Committee is concerned about continuing
reports of discrimination, stigmatization, harassment and violence, including by law enforcement
officials, against persons on the basis of their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity, andthat these serious crimes are not investigated and punished”.238
The ILGA World Database page for Egypt reported the following:
In August 2022 the Ministry of Education and Technical Education issued instructions to all educational
directorates calling for the implementation of awareness campaigns for students, to promote "goodbehaviour", "manners" and religious values. This was reportedly done in an effort to counter the presenceof "homosexuality" seen in international streaming and broadcast services like Netflix.

234

USDOS, 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 20 March 2023
USDOS, 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 20 March 2023
236
USDOS, 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 20 March 2023
237
DW (Deutsche Welle) News, LGBTQ rights in Egypt: Queer community battles crackdown, 30 March 2023
238
UN Human Rights Committee, Concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of Egypt, 14 April 2023, p. 2
235

113

In September 2022, as reported by the media, the Ministry of Education and Technical Education orderededucational directorates to integrate concepts of sexual education, sexual harassment and sexual violence
into the basic education curriculum, aiming to "protect children from imitating deviant sexual
behaviours", i.e. homosexuality. The ministry of education has reportedly instructed educational
directorates to place posters that raise awareness of the "dangers of so-called abnormal sexual
behaviours" in schools across the country. […]In 2021 a Disney film, Eternals, was banned in Egypt, reportedly for featuring a gay character. Other
instances of banned media include Netflix film 'Ashab Wala A’aaz' that was deemed to offend Egyptian
values by promoting homosexuality and adultery. A lawsuit was filed against all websites that publishedthis film, where prosecutors demanded the websites to be taken down. In June 2022, the Economic Court
in Cairo ruled in favour of the prosecution, ordering the websites to be blocked in Egypt. Other films, suchas Lightyear and Dr. Strange 2, were banned due to portraying LGBTI contents.
In June 2022, the state-controlled Supreme Media Council of Egypt announced the launch of a "safemedia for kids" campaign with the main purpose of "confronting ideas that promote homosexuality",
specifically for media produced by Disney. The initiative seems to seek to curate content catered forchildren in Egypt to curb the promotion of "abnormal ideas".
In September 2022, the Supreme Council for Media Regulation issued a press release (2022) announcingthat streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+ will need to comply with Egyptian moral standards
and values to acquire licences to be broadcast. This seems to imply that these platforms will have to block239
LGBT-related content in Egypt.

c. Harassment and violence
For additional relevant information consult also section III., b. Homophobia and transphobia ingovernment institutions and section II. Legal Framework, ii. Treatment in detention facilities.
2020
In March 2020, ANKH Association (Arab Network for Knowledge about Human Rights) and the Cairo
Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), among other organisations, published an appeal for the
release of Eman Al-Helw and Hossam Ahmad from detention in Egypt, stating that:
February 28 marked one year since the arrests of actress and human rights defender Eman Al-Helw andtransgender man Hossam Ahmad. […]Earlier this month, on March 3, 2020, the Prosecution issued yet another decision to renew the detentionof Al-Helw and Ahmad for another 45 days.
For over one year, Eman Al-Helw and Hossam Ahmad have been held on false charges, only because of
their peaceful activities. They have also been constantly subjected to various forms of harassment,
physical and psychological abuse. Since the first day of their detention, they have been held in anunderground cell in a police station, with no access to fresh air or sunlight, as the women’s prisons refuse
to take them because they don’t “look like women”.

239

International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), ILGA World Database: Egypt
page, undated [last accessed 30 June 2023]

114

During a recent interview, Hossam explained: “I am tired of being brought to hospitals again and again,
and having my genitals exposed there… The problem is that because Eman is staying with me, anything
240
that happens to me also happens to her.”

The statement released by Bedayaa Organization in June 2020 after the death by suicide of activist
Sarah Hegazy noted that: “LGBTIQ persons are frequently subjected to a wide range of violations during
the interrogation and investigation phases including torture, sexual and physical assault, coerced anal
examination and bullying in detention places”.241
The September 2020 Human Rights Watch article on the August 2020 arrest of witnesses to a gang rapein 2014 wrote that:
Egyptian security agencies in late August 2020 arbitrarily arrested a man and three women who were
witnesses to a high-profile gang rape case from 2014 that recently came to light, Human Rights Watch
said today. Security also arrested two of the witnesses’ acquaintances. […]The authorities had encouraged witnesses of the rape to come forward, which they did in early August.
They now stand accused of consensual same-sex sexual conduct, “inciting debauchery,” personal druguse, and “misuse of social media,” a charge frequently used against peaceful government critics. […]Two activists said that authorities subjected the two detained men to forced anal examinations, apractice denounced by African and international human rights bodies, which Egyptian authorities
242
routinely carry out to seek “proof” of same-sex conduct.

The October 2020 Human Rights Watch report on the arrest, abuse, and torture of LGBT people in Egypt
by security forces noted that:
Egyptian police and National Security Agency officers arbitrarily arrest lesbian, gay, bisexual, andtransgender (LGBT) people and detain them in inhuman conditions, systematically subject them to illtreatment including torture, and often incite fellow inmates to abuse them, Human Rights Watch said
today. […]In late August, Egyptian security forces, likely from the National Security Agency, arrested two men who
witnessed a high-profile gang rape in Cairo’s Fairmont Nile City Hotel in 2014 and were to give evidence
about the case. […] Judges renewed their detention several times, and prosecutors subjected them toforced anal examinations, a practice which Egyptian authorities routinely carry out to seek “proof” ofsame-sex conduct, despite it being denounced as abusive and in violation of international law. […]Several LGBT Egyptians said that after the August arrests in the Fairmont case, they feared the crackdown
would only intensify, and several had fled the country. […]Hossam Ahmed, 27

240

ANKH Association (Arab Network for Knowledge about Human Rights) and the Cairo Institute For Human Rights
Studies (CIHRS) et al., Egypt: As coronavirus threatens to spread in prisons, immediately release Eman Al-Helw,
Hossam Ahmad and other peaceful political detainees, 25 March 2020
241
Bedayaa Organization, Tons of Oppressions Resulted in PRIDE, 18 June 2020
242
Human Rights Watch, Egypt: Gang Rape Witnesses Arrested, Smeared: Personal Data Used in Abusive
Prosecutions, 11 September 2020115

Hossam Ahmed, a transgender man, was arrested in a café in Cairo on February 28, 2019 and detained in
an undisclosed location for four days before being presented to prosecutors on March 4. He was charged
with “joining a terrorist group and misusing social media to commit a crime punishable by law.” Althougha court ordered Ahmed released on September 15, 2020, he remained in pretrial detention for an
additional week before he was eventually released on September 22.
Despite undergoing gender-affirming medical interventions, and his self-identification as a transgenderman, Ahmed’s ID card says “female.” While he was detained in a women’s prison in Abdeen, Cairo, hesaid, he was subjected to physical examinations and prohibited from continuing his hormonal treatment
and gender-affirming surgery.
Human Rights Watch obtained a statement he wrote from prison February 21, 2020, through a Francebased LGBT rights organization:
Every day feels like a year. Everyone who enters here is scared of my [trans identity] andharasses me physically and emotionally. The police officers enjoy harassing me. They call me by
the name on my ID. The women detained alongside me here tell the officers, “His name is
Hossam.” The officers beat and torture these women to make them say that I did things thatnever happened. We sleep on a rotten and smelly mattress with no covers. The government only
sends us bread. But all the food comes from visitors. If I don’t get visitors for three days, I don’t
eat for three days.
All I’m asking for is to be treated as a human being and be called Hossam. I’m so tired of being
regularly brought to the hospital so they can check my genitals. My bones hurt, my knees areruined, I have weird spots on my body, fleas and bugs and lice everywhere, and bite marks. I feellike I’ve been here for 100 years.

243

In the November 2020 list of issues and questions in relation to the combined eighth to tenth periodic
reports of Egypt, presented by the UN CEDAW, “reports of abuse of women and girls in detention,
including ill-treatment of transgender women, by security and prison personnel” were referenced.244
2021
The 2021 Human Rights Watch World Report, covering events of 2020 and published in January 2021,
wrote on Egypt that: “Egypt continued to arbitrarily arrest and detain people based on their sexual
orientation or gender identity and subjected them to torture and ill-treatment in detention, including
forced anal examinations”.245
The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2020, published in March 2021, wrote
that: “There were reports of arrests and harassment of LGBTI individuals. […] Rights groups and activists
reported harassment by police, including physical assault and forced payment of bribes to provide
information concerning other LGBTI individuals or to avoid arrest”.246
243

Human Rights Watch, Egypt: Security Forces Abuse, Torture LGBT People - Arbitrary Arrests, Discrimination,
Entrapment, Privacy Violations, 1 October 2020
244
UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, List of issues and questions in relation to
the combined eighth to tenth periodic reports of Egypt, 17 November 2020, p. 7
245
Human Rights Watch, World Report 2021: Events of 2020, 13 January 2021, p. 215
246
USDOS, 2020 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 30 March 2021

116

In 2021, Bedayaa Organization released a report answering FAQs on the situation for LGBTQI people in
Egypt. On the abuse and violence faced by LGBTI persons in detention, it wrote that:The Egyptian detention centres are known for widespread abuses, verbal, mental and physical violence
are common practices by the Egyptian Police. In the absence of strong state institutions that oversee the
Police and ensure the rule of law within the legal system, the Police is given de-facto immunity from any
accountability when it comes to torture. Torture became the norm, expected as a package that comeswith the arrest. In LGBTI cases abuses are causally related to their sexual orientation or gender identity, as
it is common for the police to use the person sexuality or gender identity to incite inmates against them247
or to enact verbal and physical violence.

2022
In Amnesty International’s January 2022 submission to the UN Human Rights Committee ahead of the
adoption of the list of issues for the fifth periodic report of Egypt at its 134th session, it stated:“Authorities also continue to harass, intimidate and prosecute defenders of LGBTI rights and otherpeople publicly discussing LGBTI issues. Authorities have detained at least one trans woman in an allmale prison, where she was subjected to sexual assault including by medical staff and where she washeld in prolonged solitary confinement purportedly for her protection. Her complaints to courts weredismissed”.248
The April 2022 article by the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy on challenges for transgender people
in the Middle East and North Africa wrote on Egypt that:In detention, transgender people are often placed in cells that do not correspond to their gender identity,
and are subjected to ill-treatment that can amount to torture, including sexual violence by security forces
and other detainees, being confined in solitary cells for extended periods, and forced anal examinations.
Masha, a 34-year-old transgender woman who was arrested in Egypt and sentenced in 2020 to three
years for “inciting and practicing debauchery,” spoke of being confined in a makeshift solitary cell inside apolice station in Cairo for almost a year: “I had to endure endless abuse by the police. I was raped multiple
249
times. For the police, we deserved to be raped as part of the punishment.”

The April 2022 report on sexual violence in detention in Egypt between 2015 and 2022 by the Freedom
Initiative and the Egyptian Front for Human Rights found the following information on sexual violence
faced by LGBTQ+ individuals in police stations, at National Security Agency sites, and in prisons:247

Bedayaa Organization, 10 FAQs about LGBTIQs situation in Egypt, 2021, p. 11
Amnesty International, Egypt - Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee – 134th session (28 February –25 March 2022), list of issues, 17 January 2022, p. 2
249
The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, Tough Territory for Transgender People in the Middle East and North
Africa, 7 April 2022
248

117

Security officers are intentional in how they use sexual violence. The arrests of LGBTQ+ individuals areoften rife with instances of sexualized and gendered violence. In an interview conducted with a humanrights lawyer, she spoke about an incident she consulted on involving a gay man in Egypt.12 Khaled wasgoing to meet a man he had met over Grindr, a social networking app for people from the LGBTQ+
community.12 At his date’s house, he realized he was being entrapped and that his date was a police
officer luring him to arrest him. Khaled was beaten by police officers, verbally assaulted, and raped with afinger that one of the officers inserted in his anus. […]Our research identified 57 cases of sexual violence in police stations. Instances of sexual violence thatmen endured ranged from groping to rape with an instrument. An interview with someone present with a
victim shared that a man held on a criminal charge was asked to squat in line alongside other detainees.
Upon his refusal, a higher-ranking officer charged towards him, held him from his penis and testicles andcontinued to tighten his grip and twist his fist yelling “what is it that you did not want to do you faggot?!”
The detainee squatted as demanded as the officer loosened the grip. […]In Police Stations […]For LGBTQ+ individuals, police stations are particularly rife with sexual abuse and violence. The gendered
nature of sexual violence is very clear in these instances as victimization often occurs amidst an onslaught
of homophobic slurs by both officers and other detainees in the holding cell. Low ranking officers arenotorious for grabbing gay men, trans women, and non-binary folk by their genitalia. Grabbing someone
from behind or shoving a finger into their anus, in this context, is used to connote the lack of a detainee’s
masculinity and manhood as a means of degradation.24 Officers, according to an interview conductedwith a human rights lawyer, call on the detainees to perform a variety of daily tasks, referring to them
only as ‘khawalat’, faggots.
In their recollection of an instance of rape against a refugee, Mahmoud, the researcher in a human rights
organization, noted “low ranking officers would tell the detainees in the holding cell, ‘he’s a faggot. Fuck
him. Enjoy it.’” Mahmoud was later raped in the police station by two different men. Another non-binary
individual who is a refugee was also raped by another criminal detainee. In an interview with a victim,
Alaa recalled the times they were raped and how it happened:
In the holding cell at the police station, our gender identities are almost immediately exposed.
Officers deal with us differently than other detainees. In a number of incidents, while in thebathroom in the cell, for instance, a fellow detainee would approach me with their erect penis
and demand that I touch it or perform oral sex. Refusal is tricky because you could be beaten
severely. Sleeping was another issue. We would all sleep close to each other on the floor fromover-crowdedness. While sleeping one night, I felt an erect penis on my lower back. Before I
could scream or make any motions, the detainee attempting to rape me put a razor on me
indicating that any motions on my end would trigger a violent response on his. I refused andfought as much as I could that time. There were two other times where I just couldn’t fight back.
I was raped twice in two separate instances in the same way.25- AlaaFor trans women, police stations are often sites of sexual violence as well. Sarah,26 a trans woman, wasgoing to meet a date off Grindr before she realized she was entrapped. She found a police car waiting forher and an officer opposite her arrested her and escorted her to the police station. She stayed in thepolice station for three months. According to a human rights researcher who worked on her case, shewoke up a number of times to detainees trying to rape her in her sleep. The researcher noted that Sarah
was raped at least once by a detainee in the police station.
We also found at least seven instances of anal examinations of gay men and a trans woman. At least oneof these detainees was a minor. […]118

At National Security Agency (NSA) Sites
Our research indicates that sexual violence occurs most often in NSA buildings, to the extent that it is anear systematic feature of detention at these sites. Of the 655 instances of sexual violence that we havedocumented, 523 of them happened in NSA sites. These violations ranged from electrocution of genitals
to rape (oral, anal, and/or vaginal), and were perpetrated against men, women, and trans or nonbinary
individuals. The most common form of sexual violence documented at the NSA was electrocution ofgenitals. […]Notably missing here are documentations of cases of sexual violence against members of the LGBTQ+
community. While we do not claim that none have occurred in NSA sites, as we do document one incidentof an anal examination against a trans man, the NSA interfaces most commonly with political detainees.
Members of the LGBTQ+ community are most often held under criminal cases and therefore notenmeshed within the NSA’s ecosystem. […]In Prisons […]We also documented instance of anal examinations of a trans man and a trans woman. Upon entry, aprison officer called for their medical examination, and they were transferred to a hospital in Cairo. Bothdetainees reportedly endured anal examinations by the presiding physicians. These examinations, while
not requested by either the prosecutor’s office or prison authorities directly, were conducted in what theydescribed as a very demeaning way that amounted to sexual violence.61 […]Findings […]The sexualized nature of violence was evident even in supposedly routine or medicalized examinations or
searches: gay men, for instance, were subject to unnecessary anal examinations, a form of rape. A
manifestation of this gendered nature of violence includes instances in which detainees from the LBGTQ+
community are often forced to perform demeaning chores in police stations, like cleaning the bathrooms
and mopping the floors. They are forced to do this as a form of emasculation. […]Class can also play a significant role in the extent to which one endures sexual violence in Egypt.
According to a human rights lawyer, after being entrapped on Grindr and abused during the process ofarrest, by the time a gay man made it to the police station authorities had realized that the detainee
belonged to a prominent, wealthy family in Egypt. The types of sexual violence that other members of the
LGBTQ+ community endured were not levied against him. […]12 Based on case number A586 […]24 Aghacy, Masculine Identity in the Fiction of the Arab East since 1967.; Personal correspondence with Hannah Elsisi,
March 23, 2021. Agachy and ElSisi’s work theorizing on the nature of gendered violence in Egypt and Syria specificallyinform this analysis.
25 Based on case number A655
26 Based on case number A644 […]250
61 Based on case number A123

In May 2022, the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) and the Committee for Justice (CFJ)
called for the African Commission to issue public statements condemning the violations detainees in
Egypt face, stating that: “In Al-Qanater female prison, [women] face torture and gender-based violence

250

The Freedom Initiative and Egyptian Front for Human Rights, No One is Safe: Sexual Violence Throughout theLife Cycle of Detention in Egypt: 2015-2022, 7 April 2022, pp. 16-20, 23, 25, 31-32

119

in custody with impunity, including humiliating vaginal searches, sexual harassment, and also forced
genital examinations for transgender women”.251
The July 2022 Guardian article on calls for the UN to move COP27 from Egypt wrote that:
A White House adviser and his partner have called on the United Nations to move a key climate change
summit from Egypt due to the country’s treatment of LGBTQ people, citing fears that they and otheractivists would be targeted by security forces if they attend the talks.
The couple, Jerome Foster and Elijah Mckenzie-Jackson, have written to Patricia Espinosa, executive
secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to condemn the
choice of Egypt as host of the Cop27 talks due to its “LGBTQ+ torture, woman slaughter and civil rights
suppression” and that the decision “places our life in danger in the process of advocating for the life of
our planet”. […][…] climate activists have voiced concerns about the ability of protesters, indigenous rights groups andothers to access the event. Sameh Shoukry, Egypt’s foreign minister, has said the government will assign“a facility adjacent to the conference centre” to contain activists, with a coalition of human rights
groups warning this risks curtailing people’s ability to protest world leaders’ inaction on the climate crisis.
[…]
Foster, a 20-year-old US activist who is an adviser to the White House on environmental justice issues,
said that he worried he could be arrested or imprisoned because of his sexuality if he went to Egypt.
“Being gay in Egypt is scary. We aren’t going to put our lives at risk and we don’t want anyone else to havetheir lives at risk,” he told the Guardian. “It’s terrifying. My family is highly religious and it was really hardto even talk about all this with them, the idea of going to a country with that sort of extra fear istraumatizing.”
Mckenzie-Jackson, an 18-year-old British climate activist, said the UNFCCC needed to move theconference or risk failing to uphold its own stated values, which includes a prohibition of any
discriminatory behavior against people for their sexual orientation or gender identity at any event held by
the body. […]While same-sex relationships aren’t explicitly banned in Egypt, the country’s security forces have usedlaws designed to protect against public “debauchery” to harass, arrest, imprison and even torture LGBTQ
people, according to human rights groups. One of the co-signatories to Foster and Mckenzie-Jackson’s
letter is Ahmed Alaa, an Egyptian who was imprisoned for three months after waving a rainbow flag at aconcert.
Rasha Younes, a Middle East and North Africa LGBTQ rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, said it is
not uncommon for security forces to drag people from the streets solely based on their gender expression
or to entrap them through dating apps or social media by pretending to be romantically interested inthem, only to then arrest them, throw them in prison and encourage other inmates to abuse them.
“The evidence we’ve collected on entrapment suggested a coordinated policy by Egyptian authorities totarget LGBT people,” Younes said. “Anyone going to Cop27 should be concerned and should takeprecautions, particularly with their online activity. But of course we are even more concerned for people
who live in Egypt already.

251

The International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) and the Committee for Justice (CFJ), Egypt must take thenecessary steps to improve prison conditions, 17 May 2022

120

“Under [Egyptian president] Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, authorities have waged a persecution against thoseperceived to be gay or transgender, there have been widespread abuses,” she added. “The problem issystematic and huge. Cop27 provides an opportunity for civil society to pay attention to what’s happening252
on the ground in Egypt.”

The article by Human Rights Watch in November 2022 on the failure of the Egyptian authorities toprotect vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers from sexual violence reported on the following
experience of one transgender woman in Egypt:
The transgender woman refugee said that a group of Egyptian men raped her in a private car after
abducting her at knifepoint in January 2022. She said she did not file a police report about the incident
because of a previous experience in 2020 at a Cairo police station, where she was arbitrarily detained in amen’s cell on “morality” charges due to her gender identity, during which time a police employee sexuallyassaulted her. […] Eman said she never considered reporting the incident to the police after her
experience in detention serving a prison sentence on “morality” charges linked to her gender identity in2020 at a Cairo police station, where she was sexually assaulted by a police officer:
I spent six months at this police station, and police there treat people like me as a slave. Once I
arrived at the station, the police took me to the thugs who control the cells and offered me towhoever pays most. I was raped more than once by other inmates. I saw people detained for noreason, sometimes they arrested people who visited the police station to file reports. I can’t go
to police stations in Egypt. They degrade and hate people like me and will find any way to detain
someone like me.
One day a police officer came to the cell where I was being held and asked all inmates to go out
to the corridor except for me. When everyone went out, he asked me to take off my shirt andlooked at my breasts. He said, “How could these naturally be your breasts? How are they thisbig?” Then he started to touch me; after he finished, he made a scene pretending that I was
253
harassing him and started beating me on my face until I bled from my nose.

January – May 2023
A mid-term report submitted in January 2023 by the Egyptian Taskforce for Human Rights (including the
Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies) to the UPR mechanism at the UN stated that: “Security forces
have committed crimes of sexual violence against detained men, women, children, and members of the
LGBTQI+ community, as documented by human rights organizations”.254
The joint NGO submission for the review of Egypt by the Human Rights Committee, published in January2023 by the Committee for Justice (CFJ) and eight other organisations, stated that:

252

The Guardian, UN urged to move Cop27 from Egypt over ‘LGBTQ+ torture’, 15 July 2022
Human Rights Watch, Egypt: Sexually Abused Refugees Find No Justice, 24 November 2022
254
The Egyptian Taskforce for Human Rights, A Crisis by Design: The Systemic Nature of Human Rights Violations in
Egypt – Mid-term UPR Report, 25 January 2023, p. 7
253

121

Contrary to the State’s response, cases of targeting LGBTQ+ individuals are still taking place in Egypt
especially by using the internet to entrap and arrest them. The arrests of LGBTQ+ individuals are often rifewith instances of sexualized and gendered violence. […]Egyptian police, prosecution and courts persecute homosexuality, transgender women’s identities andconsensual same-sex acts between men or men and trans women under provisions of Egypt’s Law no.
10/1961 on Combating Prostitution (most notably, the vague and overbroad crime of “habitualdebauchery”, among others). A central feature of this persecution is forced anal examinations, performedby the Justice Ministry’s Forensic Medical Authority (FMA) upon referral from the prosecution, against
individuals accused of “habitual debauchery”. […]This rise in prosecution of real or perceived sexual and gender differences in Egypt is characterized byperiodic State and media induced moral panics surrounding group arrests on grounds of “debauchery”
every few months since 2013. Other forms of torture and ill-treatment also precipitate from such arrests,
including verbal threats and insults, beatings, threats of sexual violence, and incitement of other intimatesto abuse the individual. […]Increasingly EIPR [Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights] has documented the use of forced examinations
extends beyond charges of “habitual debauchery” under law 10/1961. […] Moreover, the referral ofindividuals to the Forensic Medical Authority (FMA) for forced anal examinations continues to this day. In
the 12 months between September 2021 and September 2022, EIPR documented 18 cases using charges
of “habitual debauchery” against 37 individuals. In some of these cases, referral of defendants by theprosecution to the FMA for forced anal examinations were documented. […]NGOs documented - from the period of 2015 to 2022 - 655 incidents of sexual violence conducted by
security personnel against 544 victims including […] 30 members of the LGBTQ community […]. Sexual
based violence is rife in Egyptian detention facilities, and in particular in National Security Agency sites,
where authorities use gender and surrounding social norms to increase victims’ pain and suffering. No
type or demographic is spared, with attacks recorded against women, men, children, trans and non-binary
persons. Attacks take on different forms, purposes, and targets—in some cases embodying an expressionof personal or state power, while in others being a means of punishment and in others still a means to
extract a confession. Physical attacks are often accompanied by verbal abuses who use slurs or references
to honor, modesty, and chastity to increase the psychological and social impact of the victim. Thesesexualized attacks are not the result of a small group of “bad apple” perpetrators, they are systematic.
Most detainees reporting instances of sexual violence experienced the same lifecycle of violations—beginning with psychological and physical torture through threats, sexual harassment, virginity tests for
women, anal examination for gay men, beating, electric shocks, sexual assaults and rape, and trumped-up
255
charges relating to the victims’ exercise of the rights of opinion, expression, or assembly.

The February 2023 Human Rights Watch report into digital targeting and its offline consequences forLGBT people in the Middle East and North Africa wrote on the ill-treatment, sexual violence, andinhuman conditions in detention, including in Egypt:
Maamoun, a 24-year-old gay man from Egypt, described an instance in February 2021 when he suspected
police officers had used Grindr to entrap him […]255

Committee for Justice (CFJ) et al., Joint NGO submission for the review of Egypt by the Human Rights
Committee: 137th session (27 February to 24 March 2023), 30 January 2023, pp. 7-8, 10-11

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At 1:30 a.m., Maamoun was transferred to the Qasr El-Nil police station, where he was placed in solitaryconfinement due to his HIV status, he said. At 8 a.m., police took Maamoun to Abdeen Court, where hesaid he was held in insanitary conditions until his interrogation […]. […]He continued:
On Monday, I went to the Abdeen court again for investigation, and I was put in that same
terrible room. When I returned to the Qasr El-Nil police station, they changed my prison cell andplaced me with high-profile felons. I was terrified and asked to be returned to my old cell, but theprison guard demanded 500 Egyptian pounds (US$32) and a phone card as a bribe. I experienced
continuous sexual assault. One of the detainees with me in the cell forced me to confess that I
was gay, and he sexually assaulted me in exchange for protection. This went on for a week, andother detainees sexually harassed me as well, while I was sleeping, and then when I was
showering. We were 45 people in a tiny cell, and they were using drugs the entire time.67
After Maamoun spent 10 days in pretrial detention without charge, the judge ordered his release, he said.
Ayman, a 23-year-old gay man from Egypt, said he was entrapped on Grindr and arrested by police while
he was out with three of his friends at a caf in Cairo, on November 17, 2020. […]After two days, at the public prosecutor’s office, Ayman said he endured further mistreatment and insults.
[…]
Sexual Violence
Tina, a 34-year-old trans woman sex worker from Cyprus, referred to in the previous section, said she was
raped more than 100 times in the 290 days she was in detention, including 22 times in the first 15 days,
which she recorded in her diary. She recounted her ordeal to Human Rights Watch:
The chief police officer, who introduced himself as such, told me that if I were younger, he would
marry me. He told me that he was the boss there and that if I wanted to leave, I must have sex
with him. I evaluated the situation and decided to do it so I may return home. While we had sex,
every few minutes someone knocked at the door. When he finished, I was forced to have sex
with two other police officers at the court as well. I am a sex worker, and I am used to sex forbusiness and for pleasure, but that was rape.207
Tina said that police officers then took her to the Nasr City police station, where one police officer told
her, “Welcome to hell.” She believes five men raped her on the first night in the station, and she was also
raped by two men when she went to court. She was detained near the police station’s entrance when she
returned.
At around 5 a.m., eight men came inside my room and forced me to undress so that they could
search me. When I got naked, they took out their phones and took videos of me. That was theworst night of my life, I felt that my soul was violated.208
During the 15 days while I was waiting for my court hearing, I was raped 22 times; I know that
because I wrote it all in my diary. I went to court again, and my pretrial detention was extended
for another 15 days. During that time, I signed a paper the first day of the court, perhaps it was aconfession, but I did not have a lawyer so I could not tell and they did not allow me to call alawyer. I knew I had rights, but there was nothing I could do in Egypt, especially for [atransgender person] like me.209
Her torture and sexual abuse continued:
In April 2020, police officers barged in with a big rope and they forcibly inserted it in my anus. My
anus was damaged to an extent that I had to undergo surgery when I got to Cyprus. The reason I
waited to get to Cyprus to do the surgery was because I did not know that area was damaged
because I was suffering from malnutrition while at the police station. I eventually noticed the123damage when I got to Cyprus and started eating better—I was bleeding from my anus for ninemonths. [Nine months after verdict,] I weighed 42 kilograms.
[While in pretrial detention] I did not have energy to do anything, I could not even stand up. I did
not have a bed. I had a water bottle to urinate in it, as I could not walk to the bathroom
anymore. I had no water, no food. Once a month, the officers would order food and ask me if I
wanted to order anything, but I refused because I was afraid it would have negative
repercussions. I chose starvation over being raped again. One police officer there told me thatincarcerated women get raped as a form of punishment.210
Tina’s physical health steadily deteriorated in detention due to malnutrition and the sexual abuse.
The only time I ate was when other inmates gave me some of the food they had. I tried tocommit suicide several times there because I was exhausted from all the pain and the extreme
dirty state of my room. The chief officer then called my embassy and asked them to get a
representative to see me or move me to a hospital, because I was in a critical condition. The
diplomat came 20 days after, he [was mad and upset] after he saw me, and I was immediately
moved to the Heliopolis public hospital on September 27. A woman came in to examine me, but
because I was trans, another doctor came and asked me to take off my clothes. I asked him why
and he said it was to see my tattoos. I gathered all the energy I had left and ran out of that room.
I wanted to go back to my room at the police station—I preferred to be with those policemen
than be raped by the medical staff.211 […]Nour, the 31-year-old gender non-binary person from Zagazig, Egypt, referred to above who uses
they/them pronouns, described the physical and sexual abuse, as well as poor conditions, they faced indetention:[The police officer] said that I am a khawal [Egyptian term for “faggot”] and that he would not letme go without giving me what I deserved. He beat me up and punched my head and ears. I stillcannot hear properly because of this. Another officer sexually harassed me. It was at night, andeveryone was sleeping. He was touching my intimate parts, then he rubbed his dick on my ass
and put his hand on my mouth so that I would not make a sound. Three detainees, ordered bypolice officers, also threatened me with a mousse knife and brought me to the bathroom, took
off my clothes, and did an anal test on me. They then beat me on my groin and intimate parts,
skull, and buttocks. I slept in a tiny room, which had about 100 detainees and no space to lie
down, let alone fall asleep. It was also poorly ventilated and infested with insects. I got a skindisease there.213 […]67 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Maamoun, October 28, 2021. […]72 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Ayman, December 8, 2021. […]74 Ibid. […]174 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Tina, September 15, 2021.
175 Ibid.
176 Ibid.
177 Ibid. […]180 “Egypt: Gang Rape Witnesses Arrested, Smeared,” Human Rights Watch news release.
181 Rasha Younes, “Egypt Detains Men for Alleged Sexual Orientation, Alongside Alleged Rapists,” Human Rights
Watch dispatch.
182 Ibid.
183 “Egypt: Gang Rape Witnesses Arrested, Smeared,” Human Rights Watch news release.
184 Rasha Younes, “Justice Stalled in Egypt’s ‘Fairmont’ Rape Case,” Human Rights Watch dispatch. […]207 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Tina, September 15, 2021.

124

208 Ibid.
209 Ibid.
210 Ibid.
211 Ibid.
256
213 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Nour, October 6, 2021.

The same report wrote on the homophobia and harassment one gay Egyptian man continues to receive:
Amr, a 33-year-old Egyptian gay man, spoke about the consequences of his online entrapment andsubsequent detention in 2018:
I still suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and I cannot afford therapy. I get sudden burstsof coldness and anger. I isolate myself and fear checkpoints and state agents in public. I still getharassed at checkpoints and my phone gets searched with excessive verbal humiliation. I evenreceived bullying by airport security in December 2020, when they saw the case on my record,
they said, “You’re a faggot and you are going abroad to get fucked.”228 […]228 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Amr, January 14, 2022.

257

In early March 2023, the UN Human Rights Committee published a summary record of the 3958th
meeting, held in February 2023, in which the fifth periodic report of Egypt was considered. Within it,
concerns were raised that “Act No. 10 of 1961 was used criminalize homosexual and transgenderpersons and that people were subject to stigmatization, harassment, violence and discrimination
because of their sexual orientation or gender identity by private individuals and State agents, including
law enforcement personnel. The Committee had been informed of cases in which homosexual andtransgender persons had been arbitrarily detained and subjected to invasive, unjustified medical
examinations that could amount to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment under article 7 of theCovenant”.258 Further concerns were voiced that “the State party had not accepted recommendations
made at its universal periodic review in 2020 concerning the investigation of cases of harassment anddiscrimination, including by the police, against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex
persons”.259
The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2022, published in March 2023, stated
that: “Several incidents of domestic and street violence against LGBTQI+ individuals were reported by

256

Human Rights Watch, “All This Terror Because of a Photo”: Digital Targeting and Its Offline Consequences forLGBT People in the Middle East and North Africa, 21 February 2023, pp. 25-29, 73, 75, 86-89
257
Human Rights Watch, “All This Terror Because of a Photo”: Digital Targeting and Its Offline Consequences forLGBT People in the Middle East and North Africa, 21 February 2023, p. 95
258
UN Human Rights Committee, 137th session, Summary record of the 3958th meeting*: Held at the Palais
Wilson, Geneva, on Tuesday, 28 February 2023, at 3 p.m. - Consideration of reports submitted by States parties
under article 40 of the Covenant - Fifth periodic report of Egypt, 6 March 2023, p. 4
259
UN Human Rights Committee, 137th session, Summary record of the 3958th meeting*: Held at the Palais
Wilson, Geneva, on Tuesday, 28 February 2023, at 3 p.m. - Consideration of reports submitted by States parties
under article 40 of the Covenant - Fifth periodic report of Egypt, 6 March 2023, p. 8125

local rights groups, including one case during the year in which authorities allegedly facilitated assault
against a detained LGBTQI+ person”.260
Amnesty International’s annual 2022/23 report on the state of the world’s human rights, published in
March 2023, stated on Egypt that: “In April, security forces arrested four men and two transgenderwomen at a mall in Cairo and briefly detained them solely on the grounds of their gender identity andtheir actual or perceived sexual orientation. They reported being verbally and physically abused. One of
the transgender women said she was sexually harassed and forced to strip naked and remove herhijab”.261
Freedom House’s annual report for Egypt, released in March 2023, stated that “[…] LGBT+ people […]face various forms of discrimination and harassment”.262 Similar statements were written in the 2022
and 2021 annual reports.263
In April 2023, the UN Human Rights Committee published its concluding observations on the fifth
periodic report of Egypt, in which it stated that: “9. The Committee is concerned about continuing
reports of discrimination, stigmatization, harassment and violence, including by law enforcement
officials, against persons on the basis of their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity, andthat these serious crimes are not investigated and punished”.264

d. Discrimination
In the October 2021 summary record for the eightieth session and 1823rd meeting of the UN CEDAW,
considering the eighth to tenth periodic reports of Egypt, the following point was recorded:“Intersectional discrimination affected all women and girls who were unable to exercise their rights
based on their poverty, rural status, ethnic origin, cultural or religious practices or sexual orientation”.265i.

Access to state-owned housing

The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2020, published in March 2021, wrote
that: “Information was not available on official or private discrimination in […] housing […] based on

260

USDOS, 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 20 March 2023
Amnesty International, Annual Report 2022/23: The State of the World's Human Rights - Egypt 2022, 27 March
2023
262
Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2023: Egypt, March 2023
263
Freedom House, Freedom in the World 2022: Egypt, 24 February 2022; Freedom House, Freedom in the World
2021: Egypt, 3 March 2021.
264
UN Human Rights Committee, Concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of Egypt, 14 April 2023, p. 2
265
UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, Eightieth session - Summary record of the
1823rd meeting* - Held at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, on Tuesday, 26 October 2021, at 10 a.m. - Considerationof reports submitted by States parties under article 18 of the Convention (continued): Combined eighth to tenth
periodic reports of Egypt, 28 October 2021, p. 4
261

126

sexual orientation and gender identity. There were no government efforts to address potential
discrimination”.266
The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2021, published in April 2022, wrote
that: “Information was not available on discrimination in […] housing […] based on sexual orientationand gender identity. There were no government efforts to address potential discrimination”.267

ii.

Access to public health services

The Alliance of Queer Egyptian Organizations’ (AQEO) statement on their Facebook page in March 2020
regarding the UPR outcome for Egypt wrote that “trans-persons are hindered from processing theirofficial documents, face constant discrimination and exclusion […] receiving healthcare”.268
In April 2020, Human Rights Watch released an article on the challenges of accessing HIV treatment in
Egypt during the pandemic. It stated:
The government on March 9, 2020 designated the country’s fever hospitals, the only centers where
people living with HIV can get this medication, as testing centers for Covid-19. Egyptians living with HIV
told Human Rights Watch that they are “too fearful” to go there to get their medication for fear ofcontracting coronavirus. […]On March 9, the spokesperson for the Egyptian Cabinet announced that the fever hospitals across thecountry, responsible for treating infectious diseases, would receive people for the Covid-19 test andtemporary quarantine. This includes the three fever hospitals in Cairo – the Imbaba, Abbassiya, andHelwan hospitals.
The government did not say how it would reduce any risk to people with HIV of increased exposure to thecoronavirus when retrieving their medication from the same hospitals. […]Two gay men living with HIV told Human Rights Watch that even before the Covid-19 pandemic, they
were uncomfortable visiting government hospitals because they faced stigma and discrimination on the
grounds of their sexual orientation.
Egypt should permit nongovernmental organizations trusted by marginalized groups to operate drop-in
centers providing HIV testing and treatment services during the Covid-19 crisis and beyond, Human Rights
Watch said. The authorities should ensure that people do not need to travel long distances, particularly
during the Covid-19 outbreak, to get treatment. According to media reports citing official statements, only
14 centers are serving the country’s 27 governorates.
Outside Egypt’s fever hospitals, private and government hospitals do not provide HIV treatment, andthere have been several incidents of patients being denied treatments or surgery, including for other269
illnesses, when they are found to be HIV patients.

266

USDOS, 2020 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 30 March 2021
USDOS, 2021 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 12 April 2022
268
Alliance of Queer Egyptian Organizations (AQEO), Facebook post - Statement regarding the Universal Periodic
Review Outcome – Egypt, 15 March 2020
269
Human Rights Watch, Egypt: Covid-19 Threatens Treatment for HIV Patients, 22 April 2020
267

127

At the end of May 2020, the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) released its
weekly edition of their Covid-19 Human Rights Monitor, stating that: “in Egypt, clinics where HIVpatients collected medication are being used as Covid-19 testing centres, and LGBTQI+ persons arehesitant to visit”.270
A June 2020 update by EuroMed Rights on the impact of COVID-19 on human rights in Egypt stated that:
Women are at higher risk of being negatively impacted by the effects of COVID-19. Most particularly,
those already marginalised, such as refugees, women with disabilities, LGBTI women, women living inrural areas, are of particular concern. […]In Egypt, homosexuality is legal on paper, but de facto illegal, and legal gender recognition is notaccessible. Under “normal” circumstances, access to healthcare for LGBTI people is particularly difficult.
Homosexuality is repressed through charges of “debauchery”, and trans and intersex people’s identities
are pathologised, resulting in institutional violence, torture, discrimination and arbitrary detentions.43 In
a sanitary crisis, LGBTI people might not even seek medical assistance, which puts them at higher risk. […]43 ANKH France, Universal Periodic Review, statement concerning LGBTIQ+ right in Egypt, 2020.

271

An article published in Al-Monitor in June 2020 on the struggles of Egypt's gay community stated thefollowing: “Being openly gay in Egypt is difficult because of societal norms and LGBTQI+ individuals face
many issues, with violence from both the state and civilians being the most obvious, Darwish [genderand human rights officer with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights] said. […] Other structuralissues, like the intervention of the medical system through anal examinations, forms of corrective
therapy or lack of medical attention and services are also harmful, Darwish explained”.272
The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2020, published in March 2021, wrote
that: “Information was not available on official or private discrimination in […] access to education or
health care based on sexual orientation and gender identity. There were no government efforts toaddress potential discrimination”.273 It did note that: “The health-care system provided anonymous
counseling and testing for HIV, free adult and pediatric antiretroviral therapy, and support groups”.274
The report of Bedayaa Organization, ANKH Association (Arab Network for Knowledge about Human
Rights), and the Alliance of Queer Egyptian Organizations (AQEO) on 11 May 2021, twenty years after
the Queen Boat / Cairo 52 incident, wrote that transgender people in Egypt face “[d]ifficulties to accesshormone therapy treatment from pharmaceutical outlets, and the lack of its alternatives from270

International Bar Association, IBAHRI Covid-19 Human Rights Monitor: Issue 6 – Thursday 28 May 2020, 29 May
2020
271
EuroMed Rights, How COVID-19 is affecting human rights in Egypt, updated 18 June 2020, pp. 4-5
272
Al-Monitor, Death of activist Sarah Hegazy highlights struggle of Egypt's gay community, 18 June 2020
273
USDOS, 2020 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 30 March 2021
274
USDOS, 2020 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 30 March 2021

128

contraceptives, and if they were located, pharmacies resist and refuse dispensing them”.275 It also notedthat:
As for intersex persons, the Egyptian medical system recognizes intersexuality as a disorder of sex
development (DSD) while there are no specialized centres for DSD in Egyptian governorates that provide
diagnostic services for intersexuality, leaving diagnosis and management to the expertise of individual
physicians in research centres and universities. This subjects intersex babies to violations at the hand of
doctors who interfere by identifying the baby’s sex at birth.
In regards to healthcare for LGBTQI+ persons living with HIV, state counselling and testing centres’
personnel practice discrimination and homophobia against LGBTQI+ persons. Number of centres waspermanently reduced with lack of medicine available which impacts the health of people living with HIV.
276
This reflects the Egyptian state’s underestimation of the health of people living with HIV.

In May 2021, a research article was published in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes
on interruptions to HIV prevention and treatment services during the Covid-19 pandemic for men who
have sex with men. With data collected in April and May 2020 through a survey on the gay social
networking app, Hornet, the research found that out of those who reported they were living with HIV[10.8%], “[g]reater than 40% reported being unable to access their provider in […] Egypt (2/5)”.277
Reuters posted an article in June 2021 on LGBT+ conversion therapy content on Facebook, and stated
that: “In Egypt, medical professionals offering conversion therapy services are part of the mental healthcare system, local LGBT+ groups say”.278
The 2021 Bedayaa Organization report answering FAQs on the situation for LGBTQI people in Egypt
wrote that:The Egyptian medical system recognizes32 intersexuality as a disorder of sex development (DSD) and/or
other disorders such as congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH). Moreover, health care centres in Egyptian
governorates do not provide diagnostic services for intersexuality, leaving diagnosis and management to
the expertise of individual physicians in research centres and universities. Due to the lack of neonatal
screening facilities, DSD and CAH go undiagnosed and unmanaged which results in a higher number ofdeaths, especially with male children with CAH, who usually do not show genital ambiguity and, therefore,
do not come to early medical attention for management as intersex persons. An additional barrier toadequate medical care for intersex persons in Egypt is the fact that medical insurance does not usually
cover the high expenses of cytogenetic, hormonal, and surgical procedures for intersex persons, especially
if age at diagnosis is late. Thus, many intersex persons who choose a reassigned sex are not fully
275

Bedayaa Organization, ANKH Association (Arab Network for Knowledge about Human Rights) and the Alliance ofQueer Egyptian Organizations (AQEO), Twenty years - Cairo 52, 11 May 2021, p. 8
276
Bedayaa Organization, ANKH Association (Arab Network for Knowledge about Human Rights) and the Alliance ofQueer Egyptian Organizations (AQEO), Twenty years - Cairo 52, 11 May 2021, p. 9277
A Rao et al., “Perceived Interruptions to HIV Prevention and Treatment Services Associated With COVID-19 forGay, Bisexual, and Other Men Who Have Sex With Men in 20 Countries”, Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndromes, May 2021
278
Reuters, INSIGHT-LGBT+ conversion therapy: banned on Facebook, but thriving in Arabic, 3 June 2021

129examined or are lost to follow-up and, in the absence of adequate medical care, subsequently experience
both social and psychological difficulties.
Regarding psychological treatment, numerous professional and pedagogical violations were documented
in relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI). Some doctors and psychiatrists treat the
LGBTI community in ways that diverge from international standards.33 Some 52 members of the LGBTI
community said they experienced various unorthodox practices from well-known psychiatrists in the past
four years. These include behaviour modification techniques, intimidation, and forcing patients to readthe treating physician’s book on how to “cure” homosexuality. Some adults were also involuntarily
committed to psychiatric institutions based solely on the consent of their families, ostensibly to correct
their sexual orientation. All these practices run counter to the World Health Organization’s International
Classification of Diseases (ICD) and the American Psychiatric. Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which affirm that homosexuality is not a mental disorder.34 […]32 “Clinical management of gender in Egypt: Intersexuality and transsexualism,” Inas Mohamed Mazen, M.D. National
Research Center Cairo, Egypt
33 Many advocates treating homosexuality with behavioural therapy and drugs such as sedatives, hormone
suppressants, and anti-depressants279
34 See the ICD from WHO and the DSM from the APA.

A 2022 report on the effects of violence against LGBTI persons on their enjoyment of the right to health,submitted by ILGA World to the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of thehighest attainable standard of physical and mental health, stated the following with regards to Egypt:
In Egypt, access to healthcare for LBTI women is particularly challenging, as same-sex sexual acts are
repressed through charges of debauchery, and trans and intersex people’s identities are pathologized.
This results in institutional violence, torture, discrimination and arbitrary detentions, and therefore LBTI
women/persons might not even seek medical and psychological assistance, which puts them at a higher
risk of illness and mental health conditions. Moreover, neither official nor private sectors in Egypt offer
safe sexual and reproductive health services designed explicitly for LBTI women.27 […]27 HRW (2020) Egypt: Security Forces Abuse, Torture LGBT People. Arbitrary Arrests, Discrimination, Entrapment,
280
Privacy Violations

The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2021, published in April 2022, wrote
that: “Information was not available on […] or access to education or health care based on sexual
orientation and gender identity. There were no government efforts to address potential
discrimination”.281
The meeting minutes with a Human Rights Watch analyst, published in the September 2022 COI briefreport on the situation of LGBT persons in Egypt by the Danish Immigration Service, wrote that:
279

Bedayaa Organization, 10 FAQs about LGBTIQs situation in Egypt, 2021, pp. 16-17
International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), Violence and its impact on
LGBTI people’s right to physical and mental health: Submission to the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone
to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, 18 January 2022, pp. 8-9
281
USDOS, 2021 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 12 April 2022
280

130

11. At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Human Rights Watch documented a lack of access tohealthcare for gay men and transgender women living with HIV in Egypt. The three fever hospitals in
Cairo, where infectious diseases are treated, were the places where individuals could go to obtain their
HIV medication. These hospitals were converted into Covid-19 testing centres, which created a crisis
where individuals could not retrieve their life saving medication due to fear of contracting coronavirus.
13. HRW has also documented the stigma that LGBT individuals faced by health professionals at the fever
hospitals during the pandemic. They were verbally abused, they were unable to obtain their medication,and they were ridiculed based on their HIV status. Civil society actors have not been able to provide thesame services for LGBT people, which they used to provide, due to the restrictive NGO law and otherrestrictions imposed on civil society by the Egyptian government. This situation has resulted in LGBT
people de facto being denied access to basic services as they cannot turn to the government sponsoredcentres for care.
13. Individuals who are detained, arrested, or questioned on morality charges are facing extreme difficulty
in securing any kind of employment or healthcare due to their record. Morality charges usually stay on an
individual’s record for up to three years, which prohibits them from traveling and from accessing basic
282
services, and it may subject them to additional arbitrary arrests and discrimination.

1. Access to gender affirming surgery and legal gender recognition
for transgender persons
2020
The May 2020 BBC News article about the Egyptian actor, Hisham Selim, speaking out in support of histransgender son, stated that: “Although transitioning is legal in Egypt, the process is long and complex. It
involves medical tests, psychological treatment and approval from both doctors and religious clerics”.283
Al-Monitor published an article in December 2020 on discrimination against transgender people in
Egypt, writing that:
People who do not identify with the sex assigned to them at birth or who are making the transition toalign their sex with their gender identity are having a tough time in Egypt. […]Before the operation, they undergo a complicated psychological assessment. After that, they are given
medications to help them align their gender identity with the sex they are assigned at birth, before they
undergo reassignment surgery. The surgery cannot be carried out without approval from Al-Azhar.
The religious establishment is divided on the issue. […]The Islamic Research Academy, the decision-making body of Al-Azhar, says it studies each transition
request separately in the light of medical reports submitted to it by the hospitals. The academy theneither approves the required reassignment surgery or rejects it.

282

The Danish Immigration Service, Country of Origin (COI) Brief Report – Egypt: Situation of LGBT persons,September 2022, p. 21283
BBC News, Hisham Selim, famed Egyptian actor, praised over transgender son, 10 May 2020

131

“The whole thing depends on the report referred to us by specialized medical institutions,” Hamed Abu
Taleb, a member of the academy, told Al-Monitor. “We do not have specific rules for the reassignment
process.”
Some of the nation's top clerics vehemently oppose these transitions, contributing to the presence of asocial culture that vilifies people making or thinking of making a transition.
284
Former mufti Sheikh Ali Gomaa said transitions portend the destruction of society.

2021
France 24’s article in June 2021 on a transgender woman in Egypt fighting for her rights and overcoming
challenges in the country wrote that:The Egyptian Medical Syndicate allows for sex reassignment surgeries only with the "approval of a special
committee" comprised of medical doctors and clergy from Al-Azhar -- Sunni Islam's leading seat oflearning, based in Cairo.
The committee relies on a fatwa, or religious edict, that stipulates sex reassignment surgery must be
justified by a "biological" issue and "not a mental one", explained the activist.
The syndicate's bylaws demand "blood and hormone tests, chromosome analysis and minimum of two
years of psychotherapy and hormonal treatment", requirements that exclude many transgender people
wanting GCS, though there are no official statistics available on the community in Egypt.
The committee only meets sporadically, and there has not been a designated Al-Azhar sheikh for at least
two years, said the activist, who asked to remain anonymous.
285"No operation can be carried out without the agreement of Al-Azhar."Mada Masr’s article in August 2021 on the death of a trans man in Giza as a result of complications
arising from sex reassignment surgery wrote that:
A 26-year-old trans man named Ezz Eddin died on Saturday as a result of complications arising from sex
reassignment surgery he had undergone the prior week at a private hospital in Dokki, Giza.
Ezz Eddin had chosen to have the surgery at a hospital that was unauthorized to perform it, since theofficial committee that issues permission for hospitals to do sex reassignment surgeries has not met toprocess the procedures for years, Malak al-Kashif, a gender issues activist, told Mada Masr.
Doctors performed a hysterectomy on Ezz Eddin, but since they did not have official permission for thesurgery Ezz Eddin left on the same day as the surgery instead of staying as an in-patient for observation,
Kashif said. Ezz Eddin felt ill and returned to the hospital for a follow-up a few days after the procedure.
His condition deteriorated and he went into a coma for several hours before he died on Saturday
evening.
Lawyer Nesma al-Khatib, who was in contact with Ezz Eddin before his death, told Mada Masr that his
family has not pressed any legal charges in relation to his death because they did not support Ezz Eddin’stransition. Doctors Syndicate council member Ibrahim al-Zayat also said that it would be impossible to filea lawsuit to seek justice for Ezz Eddin’s death since there is no proof that the doctor performed theprocedure to begin with.
284
285

Al-Monitor, Transgender Egyptians face abuse, discrimination for asserting their identity, 9 December 2020
France 24, Transgender woman battles for 'dignity' in conservative Egypt, 2 June 2021

132

People wishing to have sex reassignment surgery in Egypt have to go through long, complex procedures.
They must first apply to the Sex Reassignment Committee at the national Doctors Syndicate, which
subjects applicants of the procedure to a series of physical tests. Each case is then reviewed by urologists
and gynecologists, and is finally referred to a psychotherapist. The mental assessment process generally
takes no less than two years during which time psychologists assess the case and have a say in whether it
is “necessary” or not to refer the applicant for surgery. A seven-member committee made up of doctors
and one representative from the religious institution of Al-Azhar will make a final decision about whether
or not to approve the candidate’s application for surgery.
If approved, the applicant can have surgery at the state’s expense at a public hospital such as Al-Hussein
University Hospital, Demerdash or Qasr al-Aini, or at a private hospital, and will be able to acquire thedocumentation needed to alter the sex recorded in their official documents.
Zayat told Mada Masr that, in practice, the Doctors Syndicate’s committee has not met for years because
the Al-Azhar representative refuses to attend, putting thousands of applicants in limbo on a waiting list.
“I went through all these stages myself. And even though I completed all my sex reassignment surgeries
abroad, my papers with the government are still held up awaiting the committee’s approval. Therefore,
my identification card still says male,” ashif said.
The lawyer and Kashif both called on the Health Ministry and the Doctors Syndicate to resume the Sex
Reassignment Committee meetings and facilitate surgical procedures at public hospitals to prevent thedeaths of others like Ezz Eddin.
“Ezz Eddin and others [like him] are victims of the lack of safe options to exercise their right to transition.
There are people who don’t die, but may suffer permanent disabilities as a result of undergoing the286
procedures in untrustworthy places,” hatib said.

Similarly, the November 2021 OpenGlobalRights article on the discriminatory system for transgenderpeople in Egypt and the death of Ezz Eldin, a 26-year-old transgender man, in August of that year, wrote:
August 26 should have been a day of celebration for Ezz Eldin, a 26-year-old transgender man, but it
ended in tragedy. He bled to death after he was prematurely discharged following a gender-affirmation
surgery in an underground clinic, transgender activists told Human Rights Watch.
Ezz Eldin, who also went by Ahmed Fares, need not have died, and what should have been a life-affirming
surgery instead became a life-threatening procedure in an unauthorized clinic. A dysfunctional,
discriminatory system left him with no surgical alternative. This is the situation for transgender people in
Egypt who are denied access to appropriate health care under a government that discriminates againstthem and withholds legal gender recognition.
His desperate attempts to get the care he needed arose, in part, due to discord between religious andmedical authorities. The impasse originated almost two decades ago and revolves around the extent at
which religious authorities should have a say in medical matters. It is based on a fatwa, or religious edict,that permitted medical intervention only for intersex people, who are born with characteristics that varyfrom what is considered typical for female or male bodies.
Transgender individuals, whose gender differs from the sex they were assigned at birth, were disqualified.
This confusing, contradictory, and discriminatory policy has left transgender people in Egypt with very few
choices—if they want surgery, unregulated and often unsafe clinics are the only options.

286

Mada Masr, Deterred from official healthcare, 26-yr-old dies after sex reassignment surgery, 31 August 2021

133

In 2003, Egypt’s Health Ministry established a review committee within the Medical Syndicate for people
wanting “sex reassignment surgery.” However, the volunteer committee met irregularly, had no legal
authority, and was required to include a representative from Egypt’s Islamic oversight body, Dar Al Ifta.
This led to the anomalous situation of a religious authority participating in medical policy, based on theirunderstanding of religion, not science. In accordance with the fatwa, Dar Al Ifta drew a distinction
between “sex change,” referring to gender affirming surgery for transgender people, and “sexreassignment,” referring to surgery for people with intersex characteristics.
Medical authorities were reluctant to refer transgender patients to surgery, out of deference for theirreligious counterparts. In 2003, the Medical Syndicate amended the Medical Code of Ethics to ban doctors
from performing surgery on transgender patients to further please the religious authorities, who believedthat sex reassigment sugries should only be allowed for intersex indvidiuals [sic].
Doctors who perform such surgery risk a professional liability, and legal repercussions under article 244 of
Egypt’s Penal Code. In several documented cases, prosecutors and judges punished doctors who had
performed these operations under the guise of causing a “permanent disability” to transgender patients.
This caused a spike in the cost of gender-affirming care, as fewer doctors were willing to take this risk.
According to several transgender people we talked to, gender-affirming surgeries could cost anywherefrom 7,000 EGP (445 USD) to 25,000 EGP (1,560 USD).
Notwithstanding these barriers, the Medical Syndicate indicated in 2013 that it was willing to consider
individual transgender applicants under certain onerous conditions, including two years of psychiatricobservation. This was to demonstrate to the religious authorities that the applicant tried to resolve theissue through psychiatric treatment but to no effect. But even this narrow window was closed underpressure from Dar Al Ifta in 2014.
In 2017, religious and medical representatives appeared to have resolved their differences by agreeingthat the religious authorities would have the final say. However, the committee remained
so dysfunctional that it asked the government to dissolve it and transfer responsibility for handling cases
to the Health Ministry or Justice Ministry.
In a landmark 2016 case, a transgender man requested legal gender recognition from the state, but anadministrative court denied his request, based on the aforementioned fatwa, and after the Forensic
Medical Authority said that “the plaintiff underwent a sex change operation and not a sex reassignmentone.” Thus, the plaintiff violated the Shari’a principles, which only allows surgeries for intersex
individuals.
The court added that parliament should “issue laws to regulate the matter and to clear the confusion
about the process, on the condition that the new laws would be compatible with Islamic Shari’a.” and that“the medical syndicate is a body only responsible to look after the welfare of its members and is not in aposition to review requests for sex reassignment surgeries.”
This ruling highlighted the negative impact of having religious authorities determine the health care needsof transgender people, a task for which they are wholly unqualified.
The lack of access to health care for transgender people gave rise to an underground medical
business that is dangerous and expensive, with unsupervised treatment in unlicensed centers, without
avenues for accountability. Many transgender people in Egypt who want surgery are left with no choice
but to take this risk.
Ezz Eldin could have received the care he needed had the Egyptian authorities remedied this systemic
failure and established an administrative procedure that facilitates transgender people’s access to genderaffirming medical care.
Egypt’s legislative and executive branches should carry out urgent reforms to create a legal genderrecognition system recognized by all government departments. The Medical Syndicate should rescind its

134ban on surgery for transgender people, and religious bodies, such as Dar Al-Ifta, should end theirinterference in medical matters. Medical school curricula should also be changed to include medical
287
training for gender affirming procedures.

The 2021 Bedayaa Organization report answering FAQs on the situation for LGBTQI people in Egypt
wrote that:[…] the Egyptian state does not recognize trans-sexualism, as there are no legal articles that allows thisprocedure to happen, instead there are bylaws within the medical syndicate that also does not allow aperson to transition rather “reassign” their gender as seen in Chapter (3) Article (43) in the Egyptian
Medical Syndicate code of ethics:“A doctor is prohibited from conducting sex change operations, as for sex reassignment surgeries it isallowed after receiving the approval from the special committee on sex reassignment in the medical
syndicate and after having the case doing all the required hormonal and chromosome tests and after thecase has spent at least two years of psychological and hormonal therapy27”
The official “Fatwa” from El-Azhar28 and other religious figures confirms, that for a person to go throughany kind of sexual reassignment operation, they first have to prove that the issues they are having are
biological and not mental […].
[…] With all these legal challenges, access to good health care is almost impossible unless you come froman upper social class, where money and power can award you with all what you need, as such there is a
private costly underground medical system that operates in parallel to the official state system thatprovides healthcare to the trans community in Egypt with very high fees and undertrained medical staff
who are not familiar with the needs of trans persons. The results are catastrophic in some cases.30 The
same goes to the process of changing gender remarks on the person ID, as there is no legal structure, andthe law does not recognize transgender people, that created another underground system that works
within the official system at the civil registry where “bribes” and “connections” are often used as a mean
to change a person gender remarks on their ID. […]27 http://www.ems.org.eg/emsadmin/uploads/userfiles/file/‫ال ھ نھ اداب الئ حة‬.pdf
28
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jii/4750978.0002.302/--sex-change-in-cairo-gender-and-islamiclaw?rgn=main;view=fulltext […]288
30 https://www.almasryalyoum.com/news/details/1183960

2022
The January 2022 article by Malak El-Kashif at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy on transgenderpolicy in Egypt stated that:
Egypt purports to have a medical procedural system that gives transgender people the right to attainmedical reports and syndicate approvals, undergo corrective surgeries, and obtain national identity cards
with their new identities.
I began gender correction procedures almost seven years ago, and I have not finished them yet. […]

287
288

OpenGlobalRights, A discriminatory system killed a transgender man in Egypt, 10 November 2021
Bedayaa Organization, 10 FAQs about LGBTIQs situation in Egypt, 2021, pp. 13-14

135

As for medical approvals, the syndicate committee in charge of gender reassignment surgeries, known as
the “Gender Correction” Committee, is composed of many doctors of various medical specialties with areligious scholar from al-Azhar among them— a necessary institution for the Medical Syndicate to use tohang onto the religious authority. During the last months of 2018, public hospitals stopped issuingreferrals for transgender people to the syndicate, and with the absence of a religious scholar in thecommittee from 2013 to 2019, it completely ceased to function and stopped giving transgender people
approvals. As a result, we were put on a waiting list for years and years, entirely stopping our lives.
Meanwhile, we had to resort to private doctors and agreed to undergo gender correction surgeries insecret with no other alternatives—with no recourse in the case of medical error or malpractice.
“Ahmad Fares” known as “Ezz” died on August 28—a week after undergoing gender correction surgery
performed by a private doctor Ashraf Al-Sebaie. Ezz, like any transgender person in Egypt, was aware thathe could not attain a governmental medical report. He was also aware that he would not obtain approval
from the Medical Syndicate, which, even after resuming its work in 2019, gave approvals to intersex
people and denied them to transgenders. Consequently, Ezz decided to undergo a gender correction
surgery in a private hospital so that he could start his life, work, and rent a house like any transgenderperson abandoned by his family. He worked odd jobs provided by his friends, but he faced social
obstacles, including robbery and physical violence at his workplace. After moving between demanding
jobs, Ezz finally collected enough money to undergo the operation.
After undergoing his first gender correction surgery, Ezz was forced to leave the hospital after only one
day—due to doctor’s fear that an inspection committee might pass by the hospital and find that he had
performed the surgery on a transgender man without syndicate approval. Despite the risky surgery andhis precarious health condition, Ezz was forced to leave the hospital. Due to his inability to work and theabsence of job opportunities for transgender people in Egypt, Ezz moved between the houses of his
friends. A few days after he had undergone surgery, everyone was surprised at the news of his death due
to physical complications and internal hemorrhaging.
The news of his death was shared widely on social media platforms and covered by many news websitesthat mentioned the name of the doctor and the private hospital in which the surgery was performed.
However, the Egyptian Medical Syndicate took no action against this doctor although it, through its
intransigence and bureaucratic suspension, represents a main reason that Ezz underwent this surgery at
the hands of a private doctor who lacked the capability to perform this type of surgery. On top of that, thecompetent authorities did not investigate his indirect murder in the same way they investigate fabricatedcases against transgender women accused of “debauchery.” No one lifted a finger, and the case was
rapidly forgotten, and so was Ezz! Therefore, we remind you today of Ezz and his suffering and case,which is the case of all transgender people in Egypt; however, it is only him who paid the heavy price of289
bringing it to light.

The April 2022 article by the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy on challenges for transgender people
in the Middle East and North Africa wrote on Egypt that:
Transgender people in Egypt face a lack of legislative or procedural frameworks allowing them to obtaingender-affirming healthcare and legal gender recognition. In 2003, Egypt’s Health Ministry established areview committee within the Medical Syndicate for people wanting “sex reassignment surgery.” However,289

The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, Transgender Policy in Egypt: Murder by Medical Bureaucracy, 18
January 2022

136the volunteer committee met irregularly, had no legal authority, and was required to include a
representative from Egypt’s Islamic oversight body, Dar Al Ifta.
In 2020, the head of the committee indicated that “between 2014 and 2017, 87 cases had been approvedfor ‘physical’ reasons but none based on ‘gender identity disorder’.” This medical position is influenced by
the Islamic Shari’a, as according to some interpretations, there is a distinction between “sex change,”referring to gender-affirming surgery for transgender people, and “sex reassignment,” referring to surgery
on people with intersex characteristics, with only the latter permitted under such interpretations.
In the absence of government-sponsored gender-affirming healthcare, a dangerous andexpensive underground medical industry has emerged resulting in unsupervised treatment in unlicensed
centers, without avenues for accountability. Many transgender people in Egypt who seek surgery are left
with no choice but to take this risk. On August 26, 2021, Ezz Eldin, a 26-year-old Egyptian transgenderman, bled to death after he was prematurely discharged following a surgery in an underground clinic toaffirm his gender.
Salma, a 27-year-old Egyptian transgender activist, said, “The Medical Syndicate’s sex reassignment
committee stopped giving approvals, and transgender people who want to undergo surgeries had nochoice but to do it in an underground hospital. Even before, Al-Azhar [Egypt’s religious authority] stood in
the way of transgender people getting approval even if they had all the needed medical papers, as in theirview only intersex people should undergo [sex reassignment surgery].”
Nada, a 28-year-old Egyptian transgender woman, spoke about her experience undergoing surgery in anunderground clinic: “For these private doctors, it is nothing but a trade. They charged me around 7000
EGP [$445] for the first operation and the experience was very hard and painful for me. The doctors were290
not friendly, and I had to leave before I even recovered.”

The article by the New Arab in July 2022 on the lack of gender-affirming health care in Middle East
nations, including Egypt, wrote that:
The already marginalised transgender communities of the Middle East have seen their rights dwindle evenfurther in the past several years, as an alarming number of Arab Middle Eastern countries have passed
laws restricting or banning their access to gender-affirming health care and legal gender recognition.
The result is that transgender people in these countries are pushed into risky underground medical
treatments, or compelled to seek asylum in more tolerant countries rather than stay in places where
being transgender is, as one Egyptian activist described it, “a death sentence.”
Egypt led the region in cracking down on transgender people: In 2003, the country’s medical syndicate
amended its code of ethics and added article 43, which banned doctors from providing any sex-change
treatments. […]In Egypt, article 43 stipulated that sex-change medical interventions shall only be allowed after a full
chromosome map to ensure that the person has a “biological need” to receive that medical treatment.
It also mandates that gender-affirming health care will be made available only after receiving approval
from a sex reassignment committee. […]Violation of this amendment placed doctors under professional and criminal liability, […]. […][…] in Egypt, underground medical markets sprung up to take advantage of transgender people’s
desperation. Those markets often come with huge risks, as sources of hormones are unknown, andsurgeries often take place in ill-equipped home clinics.
290

The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, Tough Territory for Transgender People in the Middle East and North
Africa, 7 April 2022

137

In 2021, Ezz El-Din, a 26-year-old transgender man, died after a botched surgery in an underground
Egyptian clinic. […]Currently, the Egyptian parliament, together with the medical syndicate, is discussing new medical liability
law. One can be hopeful that this new law will remove the discriminatory ban that the current code of291
ethics has enacted on transgender bodies since 2003.

The meeting minutes with a Human Rights Watch analyst, published in the September 2022 COI briefreport on the situation of LGBT persons in Egypt by the Danish Immigration Service, wrote that:
16. There is a divide between the religious and the medical authorities in Egypt, which evolves around theextent to which the religious authorities should have a say in medical matters. There is a fatwa, which
permits medical intervention only for intersex people who are born with characteristics that vary fromwhat is considered female and male bodies. However, transgender individuals are often disqualified fromaccessing gender affirming medical care, which leaves them with very few choices. If they want surgery,they need to go to the unregulated, unsafe clinics where Human Rights Watch has documented cases ofpeople dying after surgery.
17. In Egypt, there is a distinction between ‘sex change’ referring to gender affirming surgery fortransgender people and ‘sex reassignment’ for intersex individuals. An individual who undergoes a sex
change operation is not qualified for legal gender recognition, while individuals who undergo a sex
reassignment surgery are allowed to change their name and gender.
18. Since 2003, a review committee under Egypt’s Ministry of Health comprising medical authorities andreligious leaders (a representative from Egypt’s Islamic oversight body Dar el-Ifta) has made decisions
about whether an individual can obtain a sex change or a sex reassignment procedure and whether they
can obtain legal gender recognition at all. In 2003, the medical code of ethics was amended resulting indoctors being banned from performing surgery on transgender patients. Since then, individuals who want
to receive legal recognition of their new sex from the state have been continuously denied, because thereis the mentioned distinction between sex change and sex reassignment. There have been a few cases
where transgender individuals could obtain a legal gender recognition, but it was based on proclaiming asex reassignment surgery and not a sex change surgery.
19. There is a lack of LGBT related health care services, which encourages the underground medical
business. There has been no reform on legal gender recognition.
20. In 2020 the head of the Sex Reassignment Commitee at the National Doctors Syndicate indicated thatbetween 2014 and 2017, 87 cases had been approved for “physical reasons” but cases based on “gender
identity disorder” - which is how transgender people usually get diagnosed, before they are referred tolegal gender recognition - were all denied. There has not been more recent statistics on how manytransgender individuals were able to change their name or gender, based on the gender identity disorder292
diagnosis.

The U Government’s Human Rights and Democracy Report for 2021, published in December 2022,
stated that: “Government discrimination and a lack of access to gender affirming health care fortransgender people was blamed for the death in August of 26 year old transgender man Ezz Eldin, also

291

The New Arab, The Middle East has an anti-transgender bills problem, 22 July 2022
The Danish Immigration Service, Country of Origin (COI) Brief Report – Egypt: Situation of LGBT persons,September 2022, p. 22
292

138

known as Ahmed Fares, following a gender-reassignment surgery conducted at an undergroundclinic”.293
The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2022, published in March 2023, stated
that: “The Egyptian Medical Syndicate allows for gender-affirming treatment including surgery, withapproval by a special committee composed of medical doctors and al-Azhar clergy, according tointernational media, citing a local LGBTQI+ activist. The committee relied on a fatwa that stipulates
gender-affirming treatment must be “medically necessary” and justified by a “biological,” not a “mental”
matter. Thus, according to HRW, the surgery was allowed only for intersex persons, which lefttransgender individuals to seek treatment from unregulated and often unsafe clinics”.294i.

Access to state employment (e.g. civil service)

No relevant information could be found amongst the sources consulted within the time frame for thisreport.

ii.

Access to public education

The Alliance of Queer Egyptian Organizations’ (AQEO) statement on their Facebook page in March 2020
on the UPR outcome for Egypt wrote that “trans-persons are hindered from processing their official
documents, face constant discrimination and exclusion from education […]”.295
The 2021 Bedayaa Organization report answering FAQs on the situation for LGBTQI people in Egypt
wrote that: “Even though lesbian, bisexual, and queer women do not face the same legal discrimination
other groups face, they face different forms of social and family violence e.g., […] deprivation fromeducation, work and travel”.296
The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2021, published in April 2022, wrote
that: “Information was not available on […] access to education or health care based on sexual
orientation and gender identity. There were no government efforts to address potential
discrimination”.297 The previous annual report covering 2020 had published the same information.298

293

UK Government and UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Human Rights & Democracy: The 2021
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Report, 9 December 2022, p. 50
294
USDOS, 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 20 March 2023
295
Alliance of Queer Egyptian Organizations (AQEO), Facebook post - Statement regarding the Universal Periodic
Review Outcome – Egypt, 15 March 2020
296
Bedayaa Organization, 10 FAQs about LGBTIQs situation in Egypt, 2021, p. 4
297
USDOS, 2021 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 12 April 2022
298
USDOS, 2020 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 30 March 2021

139

Rainbow Egypt posted on their Facebook page in November 2022 a summary of violations against
LGBTQI+ persons between September 2021 and September 2022, and recorded that in March 2022 a“school expelled a student for being homosexual without any warning”.299

IV.

Societal Attitudes Towards LGBTQI+ Individuals

In March 2020, Pink News released an article about Malak El-Kashif, a trans activist and human rights
defender in Egypt, who had been detained and kept in solitary confinement in a prison for men (andlater released) in 2019. The article wrote: “A trans activist from Egypt has said she is treated like “theenemy” in her own country, where LGBT+ people’s identities are generally not accepted. Malak El-Kashif
said that people in Egypt who declare themselves to be “different” should be “ready for war”, according
to ABC News". “The society will stomp on you and treat you like you are the enemy,” she said”.300
The May 2020 BBC News article about the Egyptian actor, Hisham Selim, speaking out in support of histransgender son, wrote that:
Last Sunday, Hisham Selim took viewers by surprise when he spoke openly about 26-year-old Nour's step a rare occurrence in the conservative country.
Two days later, Selim was again interviewed on TV, this time accompanied by Nour - previously Noura.
It prompted a wave of support, with LGBT activists seeing it as a boost.
In Egypt, a religiously conservative society, the LGBT community is widely stigmatised.
Transgender people, however, are comparatively more accepted by society and government in Egypt than301
gay people.

A June 2020 article by Sarah El Sirgany for CNN on the death due to suicide of Sarah Hegazi wrote that:
Hegazi’s friends reported her death, circulated a suicide note and shared an outpouring of messages ofsolidarity, grief and anger. Their mourning was soon hijacked by hateful messages.
On social media, posts about Hegazi that ended with the traditional condolences, “May God Have Mercy
on her,” were followed by comments saying “she is not worthy of His Mercy,” and a torrent of expletives
targeting her sexuality. […]After her death, online trolls and commenters said her advocacy for LGBTQ rights was a greater crimethan her “sinful sexuality.”“Sarah committed a crime against religion and society by supporting homosexuality and publicizing her
homosexuality and atheism,” one user wrote on Facebook.
Others used expletives and derogatory terms while arguing that she would be denied God’s mercy and rot
in hell. In Egypt’s Twittersphere, her name was trending along with “People of Lot,” a reference to a
Quranic passage about punishment for homosexuality.
299

Rainbow Egypt, Facebook post - Highlights of 1 year (from September 2021 to September 2022), 30 November
2022
300
Pink News, Egyptian trans activist says she is treated like ‘the enemy’ and is ‘ready for war’ with her own
country, 30 March 2020
301
BBC News, Hisham Selim, famed Egyptian actor, praised over transgender son, 10 May 2020

140

“The most humiliating and infuriating part in her death are those gloating in it,” her friend Amr Mohamed
said in a video posted on Facebook. Addressing these people, he added, “She died after detention, tortureand expulsion … what religion that would reward you for insulting a dead person?” […]In the note she wrote before her death, she said: “To my siblings, I tried to survive and I failed. Forgive
me. To my friends, experiences have been cruel and I’m too weak to resist. Forgive me. To the world, you302
have been extremely cruel, but I forgive.”

The article published in Al-Monitor in June 2020 on the struggles of Egypt's gay community stated thefollowing:
Being openly gay in Egypt is difficult because of societal norms and LGBTQI+ individuals face many issues,
with violence from both the state and civilians being the most obvious, Darwish [gender and human rights
officer with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights] said. […]Mohamed Alborgi, founder of the LGBTQI+ organization Rainbow Egypt, told Al-Monitor, “The majority of
LGBTQI individuals in Egypt are living in fear.”He explained that anxiety, depression, chronic stress and fear are common mental health issues. “Beingan outspoken ally or an LGBTQ+ individual in Egypt is an act of heroism. It could mean losing ties withfamily, losing friends and the social support network, being fired from work or physical and verbal
violence in public and private spaces without finding a legal system to gain your rights back or report
303
these offenses.”

Al-Monitor’s December 2020 article on discrimination against transgender people in Egypt stated that:
People who do not identify with the sex assigned to them at birth or who are making the transition toalign their sex with their gender identity are having a tough time in Egypt.
Family members who are uncomfortable with the sex assigned to them at birth are considered a nuisanceand shame and something that has to be kept secret. In front of society, the same members are viewed asperverts, sometimes apostates.
“Everybody bullies transgender people, including state institutions, the media and ordinary people,” Reda
al-Danbouki, director of the local Women's Center for Guidance and Legal Awareness nongovernmentalorganization, told Al-Monitor. “There is a need for opening a nationwide dialogue on this issue.” […]Some of the nation's top clerics vehemently oppose these transitions, contributing to the presence of asocial culture that vilifies people making or thinking of making a transition.
Former mufti Sheikh Ali Gomaa said transitions portend the destruction of society.
“This process entails a destruction of families and consequently the destruction of the wholesociety,” Gomaa wrote on his own website.
In a country where people live by religion, such fatwas cause suffering to transgender Egyptians. They also
turn the public against them. Statistics about crimes committed against transgenders are notavailable because most of these crimes go unreported. If they are reported, there is usually no mention of
the real causes behind them.
Mushira Khaled (a pseudonym), does everything possible to hide the story of her transition.

302
303

CNN, How one gay Egyptian woman stood up to homophobia and paid the ultimate price, 17 June 2020
Al-Monitor, Death of activist Sarah Hegazy highlights struggle of Egypt's gay community, 18 June 2020

141

Khaled, in her mid-30s, had to leave her home village in Giza province and live in the northern coastal cityof Alexandria where nobody knows her.
“I became everybody's enemy in the village before and after I underwent reassignment surgery,” haled
told Al-Monitor. “My neighbors used to look at me and say things behind my back whenever I passed bythem."
A neighbor spit in her face, another threatened to stab her and a third tried to rape her.
“I thought of committing suicide, but my mother finally decided that we should move and live somewhere
else,” haled said. […]Renowned Egyptian actor Hesham Selim, who supported his son's transition, became the center ofcriticism for standing by his transgender son.
[Farida] Ramadan was a successful schoolteacher in the coastal city of Damietta. She stopped going toschool a few years ago after facing exhaustion from playing the role of a man. She was fired from her job.
Her case made headlines last month when she appealed her firing to the minister of education.
The minister said she did not have the right to return to work because she was absent for too long.
Nonetheless, he called on people not to bully her.
To earn a living, Ramadan worked at a patisserie shop in Damietta. But she was harassed by those aroundher because of her occasional expression of her female gender identity.
Her breaking moment came when her colleagues learned she had a Facebook page in which she
expressed her gender identity freely and frankly.
“This was when everybody turned openly against me,” Ramadan said.
Ramadan left Damietta to start a new life in the Nile Delta province of Beheira. After undergoing sex
reassignment surgery, she went to a police station in her native town to receive official documentation.
This was when she wore a woman's dress for the first time in her life.
“I watched as people looked contemptuously at me,” Ramadan said. “For the first time, I was not afraid of
their looks.”
Few people have similar courage to face society and express their gender identity openly and without
fear. Ramadan knows of people who shudder at the prospect of expressing their identity and have to live
a dual life.
Some have to live as men, even though they identify as female — and others as women, even though they
identify as male.
This suffering, observers say, should alert legislators to the need for a legal process that organizes gendertransitions.
“Our society is badly in need of cultural change when it comes to the issue of transitioning,” Nadia
Radwan, a sociology professor at Port Said University, told Al-Monitor. “Gross injustice is done to those304
who suffer gender identity problems.”

The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2020, published in March 2021, wrote
that: “HIV-positive individuals faced significant social stigma and discrimination in society and theworkplace”.305
France 24’s article in June 2021 on a transgender woman in Egypt fighting for her rights and overcoming
challenges in the country wrote that:
304
305

Al-Monitor, Transgender Egyptians face abuse, discrimination for asserting their identity, 9 December 2020
USDOS, 2020 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 30 March 2021

142

Unemployed today, she has had myriad odd jobs, all of which she has lost due to stigma.
On top of that, neighbours shunned her and some health professionals and officials "insulted andassaulted her", including sexually, she said.
"Those who transition from women to men are in a better situation than us (transgender women) andmore socially accepted."
In a rare moment of support for the transgender community last May, veteran actor Hisham Selim
announced he was fully behind his son Nour's transition from female to male, eliciting an outpouring ofsympathy as well as fierce public debate.
Six months later, after a television show brought Ramadan on to tell her story, during which she talked ofher wish to teach again, Education Minister Tarek Shawki urged Egyptians to "accept" transgender people-- a first.
But the Bedayaa activist maintains this renewed public conversation doesn't equal concrete improvement
for the lot of transgender people in Egypt. […]In 2017, LGBTQ+ activist Sarah Hegazi was jailed after waving a rainbow flag at a concert.
She was tortured while in detention, according to rights groups, and sought asylum in Canada following
her release.
Hegazi died by suicide last year, sparking a global outpouring of grief.
"Both Nour and Farida received support because society believes that transitioning is a 'correction'," theBedayaa activist said.
But when Nour publicly voiced his support for Hegazi, compassion quickly turned to "anger and attacks".
And while Shawki had announced he would offer a fixed-term contract to the former teacher, the pledgecame to nothing.
- 'I haven't given up' Four years ago, Ramadan found a welcome home in a village in the northern Beheria governorate.
Every month, the villagers, with their own meagre savings, help her financially to cover her essentials.
"Farida was created by God just like everyone else," Ramadan's neighbour Om Menna told AFP.
Neighbours call her Om Alaa (Alaa's mother), a name she gave herself when she was young and dreamingof becoming a mother.
"Everyone calls me that in the village and it fills me with joy," Ramadan said.
While she has found a community that accepts her, she is still fighting to "live with dignity".
"I just want to work," said Ramadan, who is preparing a lawsuit to claim her rights.
306"I won't keep silent. I'm tired, but I haven't given up."

Pink News posted an article in June 2021 on conversion therapy content proliferating on Arabic
Facebook, noting the following Egyptian individuals:
One of the most prolific Arabic conversion “therapists”, Awsam Wasfy, has over 150,000 followers on a
page where he advertises his abilities to “cure” homosexuality.
Also active on Facebook is Heba Kotb, who has over 2 million followers and performs anal exams as partof a “sexual assessment”.
She said Facebook was a key “channel” to interact with patients, particularly during the pandemic, andhas dedicated staff who respond to Facebook inquiries.

306

France 24, Transgender woman battles for 'dignity' in conservative Egypt, 2 June 2021

143

“I have treated no less than 3,000 cases of gays, all over the Arab world,” she claimed, boasting a “100 per
307
cent success rate”.

The latest edition of ILGA World's “Our Identities under Arrest” report, released in December 2021,
stated that:In September 2020, there were reports of investigations being carried out on two women who announced
that they had married each other. News of the marriage spread on social media and a lawyer who
founded the conservative “ eep It Clean” campaign indicated to local media that he would file acomplaint with police. It seems, however, that investigations revealed that the announcement was fakeand that the two women were left alone thereafter, though tremendous public outcry against themremained.72 […]72 This entry has been redacted for the safety of those in involved. For more information, please contact ILGA
308
World.

The 2021 Bedayaa Organization report answering FAQs on the situation for LGBTQI people in Egypt
wrote that:
Looking to the fact of the conservative and patriarchal nature of the Egyptian society, which believes thatbeing a male is the highest social status as such you must fit the social norms of what a man should look
and act, abandoning such privilege by being feminine male or trans person is something that must be
punished.
That idea also reflects a lack of understanding by the Egyptian legal authorities of what being a transwoman is, as trans women are often seen as feminine gay men who are dressed as women to seduceother men into committing sexual acts. […]Even though lesbian, bisexual, and queer women do not face the same legal discrimination other groups
face, they face different forms of social and family violence e.g., corrective therapy, forced marriage,
marital rape, forced confinement inside homes and deprivation from education, work and travel. […]Even though homosexuality is not mentioned in the Egyptian penal code, the LGBTI community in Egypt
face state persecution and social stigma. […][…] hotel employees and neighbours usually report to police any individuals who look, act, or announce
his/her affiliation to LGBTI community.
Many cases have been documented for LGBTI persons who announced publicly his/her orientation, they
have been subjected to social and family violence26 or arrests in case of someone report the case topolice. […]26 https://raseef22.com/article/1072422-well-leave-you-a-nice-memento-on-your-pretty-face-how-hate-messages309
and- threats-forced-a-gay-man-to-flee-egypt

307

Pink News, Barbaric conversion therapy content still ‘thriving’ on Arabic Facebook despite so-called ban, 4 June
2021
308International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), Our Identities Under Arrest: A
global overview on the enforcement of laws criminalising consensual same-sex sexual acts between adults anddiverse gender expressions, 15 December 2021, p. 132
309
Bedayaa Organization, 10 FAQs about LGBTIQs situation in Egypt, 2021, pp. 4-5, 12

144

A February 2022 report by the Lebanese NGO, Social Media Exchange (SMEX), on the doxxing ofvulnerable persons in the region found that: “Doxxing in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia seem todisproportionately impact the most vulnerable groups and individuals in society, including activists,
women and LGBTQ+ people”.310
The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2021, published in April 2022, wrote
that: “Legal discrimination and social stigma impeded LGBTQI+ persons from organizing or advocating
publicly in defense of their rights”.311
The article by the New Arab in July 2022 on the lack of gender-affirming health care in Middle East
nations, including Egypt wrote that:
Furthermore, legal gender recognition is out of the question, as courts often rely on Sharia to make their
judgment on the matter and employ medical opinions to verify whether the person truly has intersex
characteristics or not. […]"The mismatch between their gender identity and their ID papers makes them an easy target for vicepolice," says Maryam Chaine, a Cairo-based lawyer.
“I receive different cases where transgender people are just targeted or harassed for who they are. Evenin cases where transgender people are the victim of social attacks, the police arrest them instead. In
detention, verbal and physical abuse are common and transgender people are especially targetedbecause of their identity." […]"Being transgender in Egypt or other Middle Eastern countries is a death sentence,” says Salma, an
Egyptian transgender activist who now resides in the Netherlands.
“I am not the first or the last person to leave – many of my friends from different countries also left for
312
Europe, and many more will. A drastic change in the region's policies is needed to allow us to breathe."With regards to societal treatment, the meeting minutes with a Human Rights Watch analyst, publishedin the September 2022 COI brief report on the situation of LGBT persons in Egypt by the Danish
Immigration Service, wrote that:
21. Many LGBT people live a low-key life by practicing self-censorship, however it is becoming increasingly
difficult to maintain privacy, and the risk of being outed or revealed may come from many directions,
including private individuals. LGBT people may also risk being monitored, extorted and blackmailed bygangs, primarily working in Cairo, who sometimes themselves are LGBT persons. There have been
incidents in recent years where expressing anything related to sexual identity, e.g. support of LGBT rights,
has been enough to be targeted by either private individuals or the authorities.
22. Individuals coming from higher income backgrounds who have access to class power can live arela vely normal life if the authori es do not target them. They have to maintain a low pro le and avoid

310

Social Media Exchange (SMEX), Doxxing of Residential Information Targeting Vulnerable Groups: Online andOffline harms, 8 February 2022
311
USDOS, 2021 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 12 April 2022
312
The New Arab, The Middle East has an anti-transgender bills problem, 22 July 2022

145

any interac ons with security forces, for instance at a checkpoint, at a caf or at a police sta on, which
may lead to their phones being searched and their LGBT identity disclosed.
23. There is a disproportionate favouring of transgender identity over gay identity in the sense that beingtransgender in Egypt is more acceptable than being a gay man. Whereas transgender people areperceived as persons suffering from a “fault or error”, which needs correction, gay men are perceived as
immoral individuals conducting a deviant act that is not “correctable”. Therefore, if someone comes out
as transgender in an average Egyptian family, s/he may have received more public sympathy than an
313
individual who comes out as gay.

Rainbow Egypt posted on their Facebook page in November 2022 a summary of violations against
LGBTQI+ persons between September 2021 and September 2022, and recorded that in in October 2021
there was an “attack on “Superman” cartoon for including homosexual character”; in January 2022 that
“Netflix’s Arabic version of ‘Perfect Strangers’ spark[ed] controversy over ‘violating social values’
because of including a homosexual character”; in February 2022 “[c]ontinuing the attack on Netflix’s
Arabic version of ‘Perfect Strangers’ sparks controversy over ‘violating social values’ because of including
a homosexual character”; in May 2022 there was the “[s]tigmatizing [of] gay men because of the
spreading of “Monkeypox” virus”; and in August 2022 there was “a hate campaign against “Booking”[possibly reference is made here to Booking.com] for supporting LGBTQI community”.314
The February 2023 Human Rights Watch report into digital targeting and its offline consequences forLGBT people in the Middle East and North Africa gave the following information about stigma andsocietal backlash in Egypt:
On September 13, 2021, Mahdy, a 28-year-old gay man from Cairo, said he was extorted by a man he had
met on Instagram, with whom he spoke for two months before agreeing to meet him and have sexual
relations. […]Despite Mahdy’s payment, the extortionist shared the video with his work colleagues and people in his
residential area. Mahdy quit his job and stopped going out in public in his area due to the “the stigma andthe public shaming,” he said. The extortionist, accompanied by others, later went to Mahdy’s house tothreaten him. “I heard them detail the ways they would torture me,” Mahdy said. “It was a blatant threat
to my life. If my father sees the video, that would be the end of me.”110 […]Majd, a 38-year-old gay man from Egypt, and Ismail, a 23-year-old gay man from Egypt, told Human Rights
Watch that a gang extorted them on Grindr in August 2021. […] Ismail and Majd were forced to change
their residence after they were outed in the neighborhood. They also stopped using social media anddating applications because they did not believe there were enough safety measures to guarantee theirprotection online. […]109 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Mahdy, October 7, 2021.
110 Ibid. […]313

The Danish Immigration Service, Country of Origin (COI) Brief Report – Egypt: Situation of LGBT persons,September 2022, pp. 22-23
314
Rainbow Egypt, Facebook post - Highlights of 1 year (from September 2021 to September 2022), 30 November
2022

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128 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Majd and Ismail, October 14, 2021.

315

The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2022, published in March 2023, stated
that: “Legal discrimination and social stigma impeded LGBTQI+ persons from organizing or advocating
publicly in defense of their rights. Additionally, there was widespread public support for discrimination
against this community”.316

a. Representation in media and social media
The July 2020 report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the freedom of
opinion and expression stated that: “Debauchery” presents another potential mechanism for the
restriction of artistic expression. Although similar to a general attack on freedom of expression for public
morals, debauchery is unique in that it tends to involve restrictions pertaining to allegedly indecent orovertly sexual content or content that runs against perceived sexual social norms. Debauchery is also
most commonly seen when being used to restrict the art of women or LGBT persons. Egypt has beenreportedly been forceful in its use of debauchery laws to attack otherwise allowable artistic
expression”.317
The Human Rights Watch article in September 2020 on the August 2020 arrest of witnesses to a gangrape in 2014 wrote that:
Egyptian security agencies in late August 2020 arbitrarily arrested a man and three women who were
witnesses to a high-profile gang rape case from 2014 that recently came to light, Human Rights Watch
said today. Security also arrested two of the witnesses’ acquaintances.
The prosecutor general ordered the release of three of the six on August 31 but is pressing charges
against all of them for violating laws on “morality” and “debauchery” that are vague, discriminatory, andopen to abuse. Pro-government media have subjected them to a coordinated smear campaign […].
Smear Campaign
After their arrest, videos and photos showing scenes of some of the detained witnesses’ private lives havebeen leaked online. One video shows several women and a man who appear to be drunk, and othervideos show intimate behavior. Activists said they believe that security forces leaked the photos andvideos to smear and intimidate the witnesses. […]Since August 31, pro-government websites and journalists have published reports that stigmatize the rape
survivor, witnesses, and activists involved in the case. Some government-affiliated media websites
are reframing the gang rape as a “group sex party” and alleging that security investigations revealed “thebiggest network of homosexuality.” One pro-government journalist, who is also a lawyer, said in a nowremoved Facebook post that she submitted a complaint to the prosecutor general about several activists

315

Human Rights Watch, “All This Terror Because of a Photo”: Digital Targeting and Its Offline Consequences forLGBT People in the Middle East and North Africa, 21 February 2023, pp. 42, 44, 52-53,
316
USDOS, 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 20 March 2023
317
UN Human Rights Council, Research report on artistic freedom of expression: Report of the Special Rapporteuron the promotion and promotion and protection of the freedom of opinion and expression, 24 July 2020, p. 13

147

whom she accused of fabricating the rape allegations to “tarnish Egypt’s image” and to “spread318
homosexuality.”

The September 2020 Al Jazeera article on Egypt’s rising digital authoritarianism stated that:In the most prominent instance, women’s reports of a violent Fairmont Hotel gang rape sent shockwaves
through Egypt in July. The public prosecution ignored the constant calls by women and campaigners toinvestigate the case. When it finally took action, it also decided to detain three key female witnesses.
These courageous women are now facing charges of inciting debauchery, drug use, and attempting todamage the image of the Egyptian state.
Egypt’s pro-state outlets pursued an aggressive smear campaign against them, disseminating their private
information and videos online. These outlets reframed the rape allegedly perpetrated by privileged young
319
Egyptian men into a story of sex parties and “homosexual perverts”.

Al-Monitor’s December 2020 article on discrimination against transgender people in Egypt stated that:““Everybody bullies transgender people, including state institutions, the media and ordinary people,”
Reda al-Danbouki, director of the local Women's Center for Guidance and Legal Awarenessnongovernmental organization, told Al-Monitor. “There is a need for opening a nationwide dialogue on
this issue””.320
The February 2021 article in New Lines Magazine on LGBTQ rights in the Arab world stated:
Despite the crackdown, Egypt’s online community has taken up the cause of spreading awareness about
the gay community. “Building up from 2013 to this day, the attitude towards gay rights began to slightly
improve in Egypt because of the growing online initiatives calling for change,” Fouad [one of theunderground cofounders of a group called Solidarity with LGBTQ Egypt that documents crackdowns] said.
In November, Egyptian Minister of Education Tarek Shawki called for acceptance of transgenderindividuals to prevent abuse. On a locally aired TV show, Shawki highlighted the importance of exploring
different paths to accept transgender rights. […]Egyptian civil rights groups have long been silent about gay rights and have only criticized how the media
demonizes the LGBTQ community, calling it “unethical journalism,” according to Fouad. […]In 2014, Tunisia launched its first magazine covering LGBTQ news called Gayday.
However, the Arab queer community finds it difficult to replicate such scenarios in countries such as […]Egypt, where the Supreme Council for Media Regulation, which supervises the press in the country, bans321
the press from interviewing LGBTQ individuals and promoting their content.

The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2020, published in March 2021, wrote
that: “In a televised statement in early May, prominent actor Hisham Selim spoke openly about his son’s
gender change and inability to change his identity card from female to male”.322
318

Human Rights Watch, Egypt: Gang Rape Witnesses Arrested, Smeared: Personal Data Used in Abusive
Prosecutions, 11 September 2020
319
Al Jazeera, Egypt’s rising digital authoritarianism, 24 September 2020
320
Al-Monitor, Transgender Egyptians face abuse, discrimination for asserting their identity, 9 December 2020
321
New Lines Magazine, A Place for LGBTQ Rights in the Arab World?, 26 February 2021

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The May 2021 article by the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) on discrimination against
LGBTIQ+ people in Egypt stated that: “the system also takes advantage of the lack of awareness, lack ofcorrect information, and unjustified fear of HIV and uses State-owned media to broadcast hate speech
toward people living with HIV. […] During the past years, and as a result of the political and social
atmosphere that encourages hatred and the rejection of the other, hate speech against LGBTIQ+ people
has spread widely, especially on social media”.323
On 11 May 2021, Bedayaa Organization, ANKH Association (Arab Network for Knowledge about Human
Rights) and the Alliance of Queer Egyptian Organizations (AQEO) released a report twenty years after
the Queen Boat / Cairo 52 incident, writing that the Egyptian state “[foments] moral panic throughexceptional media coverage of LGBTQI+ cases of arrest. Media coverage includes defamation anddemonizing of persons arrested through the use of exaggerated headlines with degrading terms that
describes them as a threat to the society itself and its values”.324
The U Government’s Human Rights and Democracy Report for 2020, published in July 2021, stated
that: “In January, after interviewing an LGBT+ individual, TV host Mohamed Al-Ghaity was sentenced toa year in prison for contempt of religion, incitement of debauchery, and immorality”.325
In October 2021, an article was published by African Arguments exploring the increasing representationof and information around sexuality available on social media in Egypt. It stated:
Through Arabic language accounts that are unprecedented in their boldness, sexual radicals are targetingshame, taboo, silence, and sexual repression. Orgasms, masturbation, anal sex, abortion, being queer,
how to ask for what you want from a sexual partner, consent – nothing is off limits. […]Shrouk El Attar, a queer Egyptian engineer who sought asylum in the UK, started the Dancing
Queer account to campaign for LGBT+ people, including through the talk show “el anaba” (The Couch),which airs on Instagram Live.
“I started it because I didn’t see many things – if any – around me in Arabic… about LGBT+ that are
positive and I felt I had this platform and this privilege of being able to speak about these things safely,”
they say. El Attar’s guests have included queer and trans activists such as Dalia el-Faghal, Malak El Kashef,and Nour Hisham Selim.
“It was really hard to find anything in Arabic that wasn’t ‘they are hellbound’ or ‘they are the people of
Lot/Sodomites’ and all of that stuff,” says El Attar. “It’s shit that I can’t use my own mother tongue, that326
I’m not as good at it or I’m not as comfortable speaking in it because my language was unkind to me.”322

USDOS, 2020 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 30 March 2021
The International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), Egypt | Stop prosecuting and harassing LGBTIQ+ individuals
and organisations, 11 May 2021
324
Bedayaa Organization, ANKH Association (Arab Network for Knowledge about Human Rights) and the Alliance ofQueer Egyptian Organizations (AQEO), Twenty years - Cairo 52, 11 May 2021, pp. 6-7
325
UK Government and UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Human Rights & Democracy: The 2020
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Report, 8 July 2021, p. 44
326
African Arguments, Egypt’s sexual revolutionaries tackling the tyranny within, 20 October 2021
323

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The latest edition of ILGA World's “Our Identities under Arrest” report, released in December 2021,
stated that:[…] a clear State-backed policy of targeting of persons based on their SOGIE through provisions against
public indecency, sex work, adultery, rape and others is at play, though social attitudes, a vocal religious
sector, the need for political scapegoating during times of instability and a hostile media landscape allinteract in myriad ways.29 […]Examples of Enforcement […]In September 2020, there were reports of investigations being carried out on two women who announced
that they had married each other. News of the marriage spread on social media and a lawyer who
founded the conservative “ eep It Clean” campaign indicated to local media that he would file acomplaint with police. It seems, however, that investigations revealed that the announcement was fakeand that the two women were left alone thereafter, though tremendous public outcry against themremained.72 […]29 EIPR, The Trap: Punishing sexual difference in Egypt (2017); OHCHR, UA EGY 17/2017 (2017); “The Policies ofSuppressing Sexual Rights in Egypt”, The Legal Agenda, 2 February 2018; “Rights of LGBTQ People in Egypt: Between
State, Society, and de facto Criminalisation”, in: ILGA World, State-Sponsored Homophobia 13th edition (2019), 520522; “"Clean the Streets of Faggots"” Digital Targeting of LGBT People by Middle East/North Africa Governments”,
Human Rights Watch, 4 August 2021. […]72 This entry has been redacted for the safety of those in involved. For more information, please contact ILGA
327
World.

The Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) produces a weekly newsletter analysing
Egyptian media representation that week. For the week of the 7-13 December 2021, it reported on an
episode shown by Egyptian broadcaster Nashaat Al-Daihi on 7 December stating that “The Egyptian
Initiative for Human Rights (EIPR), headed by Hossam Bahgat, issued a statement about Patrick George
Zaki, researcher in gay community rights, as some newspapers reported”; ANHRI commented that
“Patrick is a postgraduate student at the University of Bologna, Italy and a researcher in gender issues.
But, Nashaat deliberately described him as a researcher in gay rights in order to inflame the anger ofviewers against him given the societal rejection of the issue”.328
The 2021 Bedayaa Organization report answering FAQs on the situation for LGBTQI people in Egypt
wrote that:
Most media portrayal of cross-dressing or homosexuality has been negative in keeping with thetraditional cultural and religious values of most Egyptians. More liberal portrayal of LGBTI issues in films
and other forms of media tend to be subjected to government censorship or criticism from social
conservatives. They mostly tend to feature a wealthy Egyptian man who has been raped when he was achild and having an affair with a lower-class man or other usual stereotypes of femininity as an affiliation
327

International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), Our Identities Under Arrest: A
global overview on the enforcement of laws criminalising consensual same-sex sexual acts between adults anddiverse gender expressions, 15 December 2021, pp. 126, 131
328
Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), The Egyptian Media in a Week Newsletter (Issue 20) From 7-13 December 2021, 15 December 2021

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to homosexuality or prostitution. However, these approaches promote public calls from social
conservatives to censor or ban these films’ exhibition, and sometimes the Egyptian censorship board
request deletion of certain scenes in the films.
After a rainbow flag was raised at a concert in September 2017, the Supreme Media Council, that is
responsible for media in Egypt and tasked with improving and elevating media performance,36 banned
any gay people from appearing in print or audio-visual media unless it was to admit their sin andrepent.37 […]36 Statement from the council https://tinyurl.com/y9yjlfnn
37 The decree states, “The Supreme Media Council prohibits the propagation or publication of emblems ofhomosexuals because homosexuality is a disease and a disgrace that is better concealed than promoted until it can betreated and the disgrace eliminated, and this with the purpose of preserving public morals and conduct and out of arespect for the values of society and its correct beliefs. The propagation of such emblems is a corruption of society
329that must be penalized.”

The January 2022 article by Malak El-Kashif at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy on transgenderpolicy in Egypt stated that:
Egyptian media touts Egypt to have relatively good medical, legal, and social standards for transgenderpeople in comparison to other countries of the region, especially pointing to the number of transgenderpeople who have revealed their gender identities in recent years. Egypt purports to have a medical
procedural system that gives transgender people the right to attain medical reports and syndicate
approvals, undergo corrective surgeries, and obtain national identity cards with their new identities.
I began gender correction procedures almost seven years ago, and I have not finished them yet. As an
Egyptian transgender woman, I can make it clear that we do not have the protections that the media
330
claims that we have.

The February 2022 Al Jazeera article discussing the backlash in the Middle East and North Africa after
the release of “Perfect Strangers” on Netflix wrote:
The film is Netflix’s first Arabic movie and quickly became the most watched in the streaming company’s
website in the region after it was released on January 20. It gathered particular criticism in Egypt over ascene where Egyptian actress Mona Zaki’s character is seen taking off her underwear from underneathher dress. At some point one of the male characters comes out as gay, surprising his childhood friends.
Egyptian member of parliament Mostafa Bakri said in a TV interview that the film targeted family values
and said Egypt should “ban Netflix”. There were other calls to prohibit the film in the country and threats331of lawsuits over its “promotion” of homosexuality.

The September 2022 Al Jazeera article on controversies around some Netflix content in Gulf countries
also stated that: “The Marvel movie Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness was […] banned in
April by […] Egypt for LGBTQ references”.332
329

Bedayaa Organization, 10 FAQs about LGBTIQs situation in Egypt, 2021, p. 18
The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, Transgender Policy in Egypt: Murder by Medical Bureaucracy, 18
January 2022
331
Al Jazeera, Netflix film Perfect Strangers challenges Middle East taboos, 4 February 2022
330

151

Edge Media Network also reported in September 2022 that:
Egypt's media regulator demanded Wednesday that Netflix and other steaming services adhere to thismajority Muslim county's "societal values" – a veiled reference to programs featuring members of the
LGBTQ community.
The statement came a day after Gulf Arab countries asked Netflix to remove "offensive content" on thestreaming service, apparently targeting programs that show gays and lesbians.
According to the Egyptian government's statement, streaming services should comply with "societal
principles and values of the country" they are streaming in. The statement called for them to undertake"necessary measures if they air content contradicting values of the society." […]Egypt's movie industry, long celebrated in the Mideast, also bans films and programs from featuring gays
333
and lesbians.

The meeting minutes with a Human Rights Watch analyst, published in the September 2022 COI briefreport on the situation of LGBT persons in Egypt by the Danish Immigration Service, wrote that:“Journalists or people with platforms cannot discuss LGBT issues without risks of being arrested. The
Egyptian journalist Mohamed el-Gheiti who was homophobic but discussed homosexuality on his show
was sentenced to one year in prison”.334
Rainbow Egypt posted on their Facebook page in November 2022 a summary of violations against
LGBTQI+ persons that had taken place between September 2021 and September 2022, and recorded
that: in October 2021 there was an “[a]ttack on “Superman” cartoon for including homosexual
character”; in November 2021 ““Eternals” movie [was] banned in Egyptian cinemas for including
homosexual characters”; in January 2022 “Netflix’s Arabic version of ‘Perfect Strangers’ spark[ed]controversy over ‘violating social values’ because of including a homosexual character”; in February
2022 there was a “[c]ontinuing [of] the attack on Netflix’s Arabic version of ‘Perfect Strangers’ sparks
controversy over ‘violating social values’ because of including a homosexual character”; in April 2022
“Marvel’s ‘Doctor Strange’ Sequel [was] Banned in Egypt Over LGBTQ+ Character”; in June 2022
“Disney’s “Lightyear” [was] Banned in Egypt Over LGBTQ+ Character” and there was a “[h]uge attack on“Disney” in the Egyptian Media for what they claim[ed was] “Promoting Homosexuality””; in July 2022““Thor: Love and Thunder” [was] Banned in Egypt Over LGBTQ+ Character”; in August 2022 “Disney+ To
Remove LGBTQ Content in Middle East to Comply With Local Censors”; and in September 2022 “Egypt’s
Supreme Council for Media Regulation (SCMR) issued a statement in which it announced it would issue
regulatory rules and licenses for streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+ in light of content whichruns contrary to the country’s values”.335

332

Al Jazeera, Gulf nations demand Netflix remove ‘offensive’ content, 7 September 2022
Edge Media Network, Egypt Warns Streamers about 'Societal Values' (aka LGBTQ+ Content), 8 September 2022
334
The Danish Immigration Service, Country of Origin (COI) Brief Report – Egypt: Situation of LGBT persons,September 2022, p. 21
335
Rainbow Egypt, Facebook post - Highlights of 1 year (from September 2021 to September 2022), 30 November
2022
333

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The January 2023 BBC News article on the online entrapment of LGBT persons in Egypt by police stated
that: “Covering any of these issues inside Egypt itself has been banned since 2017, when the country's
Supreme Council for Media Regulation imposed a media blackout on LGBT representation except if thecoverage "acknowledge[s] the fact that their conduct is inappropriate". […] LGBT community advocates,
many of them in exile, are divided over whether the problems in Egypt should be highlighted in the
media or tackled behind the scenes”.336
The February 2023 Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE) report on banning theLGBT community from appearing in the Egyptian media stated the following:
The anti-LGBT campaign in Egypt was renewed after the animation company “Disney” pledged to produce
more cartoon characters that support homosexuality during 2022 due to the poor representation of LGBT
people in the media and in the entertainment business. The Egyptian authorities responded[6] to themove by banning the screening of the Lightyear cartoon in Egypt, claiming that it contains homosexualscenes.
In the same context, MP Enas Abdel Halim submitted a request[7] in June 2020 to block the “Disney”
website for promoting homosexuality. […]6 Not the first time.. Disney movie banned in Arab countries over homosexuality allegations, Masrawy, published inJune 2022, last visited in August 2022; https://bit.ly/3Z5VaDe
7 A new move in Egypt against “Disney” because of homosexuality, Russia Today, published in June 2022, last visited337
in August 2022; https://bit.ly/3KmAT8y

The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2022, published in March 2023, stated
that:
Al-Azhar International Center for Electronic Fatwas issued a statement on June 9 denouncing the“systematic diabolical plan to normalize the immoral crime of homosexuality in Muslim societies” throughentertainment content directed at children. The center claimed the entertainment industry sought tonormalize “the immoral crime of homosexuality” in Muslim societies “through systematic satanic plans,”
destroying family moral and social values, distorting identity, and tampering with social security andstability. Local actors and commentators objected to what they perceived as an imposition of foreignvalues from different cultures with the inclusion of homosexual characters in children’s productions,according to media reports. Social media users called for the government to ban Disney content, andcensors banned two Disney films due to brief scenes involving gay characters that Disney reportedly
338
declined to delete.

336

BBC News, How Egyptian police hunt LGBT people on dating apps, 30 January 2023
Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE), “They have no presence!” - On banning the LGBT
community from appearing in the Egyptian media, 23 February 2023
338
USDOS, 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 20 March 2023
337

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The report further wrote that “Intimidation and the risk of arrest greatly restricted open reporting andcontributed to self-censorship” and that “Opinions supporting LGBTQI+ rights cannot be expressed instate-controlled media”.339
The March 2023 Deutsche Welle article on LGBTQ rights in Egypt reported that: “In 2022, Egypt's
Ministry of Education issued a new directive to combat homosexuality and associated ideas in media
outlets and started promoting anti-LGBTQ awareness campaigns in schools”.340
The ILGA World Database page for Egypt reported the following:
In August 2022 the Ministry of Education and Technical Education issued instructions to all educational
directorates calling for the implementation of awareness campaigns for students, to promote "goodbehaviour", "manners" and religious values. This was reportedly done in an effort to counter the presenceof "homosexuality" seen in international streaming and broadcast services like Netflix. […]In 2021 a Disney film, Eternals, was banned in Egypt, reportedly for featuring a gay character. Other
instances of banned media include Netflix film 'Ashab Wala A’aaz' that was deemed to offend Egyptian
values by promoting homosexuality and adultery. A lawsuit was filed against all websites that publishedthis film, where prosecutors demanded the websites to be taken down. In June 2022, the Economic Court
in Cairo ruled in favour of the prosecution, ordering the websites to be blocked in Egypt. Other films, suchas Lightyear and Dr. Strange 2, were banned due to portraying LGBTI contents.
In June 2022, the state-controlled Supreme Media Council of Egypt announced the launch of a "safemedia for kids" campaign with the main purpose of "confronting ideas that promote homosexuality",
specifically for media produced by Disney. The initiative seems to seek to curate content catered forchildren in Egypt to curb the promotion of "abnormal ideas".
In September 2022, the Supreme Council for Media Regulation issued a press release (2022) announcingthat streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+ will need to comply with Egyptian moral standards
and values to acquire licences to be broadcast. This seems to imply that these platforms will have to block341
LGBT-related content in Egypt.

b. Representation by influential cultural and religious figures
The May 2020 BBC News article about the Egyptian actor, Hisham Selim, speaking out in support of histransgender son, wrote that:
Last Sunday, Hisham Selim took viewers by surprise when he spoke openly about 26-year-old Nour's step a rare occurrence in the conservative country.
Two days later, Selim was again interviewed on TV, this time accompanied by Nour - previously Noura.
It prompted a wave of support, with LGBT activists seeing it as a boost.
In Egypt, a religiously conservative society, the LGBT community is widely stigmatised.

339

USDOS, 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 20 March 2023
DW (Deutsche Welle) News, LGBTQ rights in Egypt: Queer community battles crackdown, 30 March 2023
341
International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), ILGA World Database: Egypt
page, undated [last accessed 30 June 2023]
340

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Transgender people, however, are comparatively more accepted by society and government in Egypt thangay people.
Although homosexuality is not explicitly criminalised under Egyptian law, LGBT people are periodicallysubjected to crackdowns and arrests on the grounds of "debauchery". […]In the first interview, on the privately-owned channel Al-Qahira Wa al-Nas, Selim revealed how his son then aged 18 - first told him about feeling uncomfortable with the gender he was assigned at birth.
"I am living in a body other than my own," he recalled Nour as saying.
"I was not surprised... because from the day [he] was born I felt [his] body was a boy's body. I always
suspected this," Selim said.
Selim, 62, praised Nour for being "courageous", especially as "we live in a society where these things are
difficult... very difficult".
He also spoke about the challenges his son was facing in getting his gender reflected on his national ID which expired two years ago - because his transition was not yet complete.
"The problem in Egypt is that we have either female or male; we don't have anything in-between to referto the transitional stage," Selim said.
Although transitioning is legal in Egypt, the process is long and complex. It involves medical tests,
psychological treatment and approval from both doctors and religious clerics.
Only 48 hours later, Selim and Nour were interviewed together by DW Arabic on a yacht moored at the
Red Sea resort city of Hurghada.
Nour said he had thought about taking his own life before talking to his father about transitioning.
"I didn't feel I was normal. I didn't feel I could live like that. I didn't see a future for myself," he said. "If I
hadn't done this, I would have killed myself.""I don't think anyone will see me now and say 'no, he should have stayed as Noura'," he added.
Clips from both interviews were widely shared on Egyptian social media, with many expressing admiration
for their courage.
Hisham Selim's openness was celebrated by fellow celebrities, LGBT activists and others.
Transgender woman and human rights defender Malak El-Kashif - whose detention at an all-male prison
for three months last year on what Amnesty International called "trumped up charges" sparked aninternational outcry - described the actor's statements "a step forward for the social acceptance oftransgender people".
Film director Amr Salama tweeted: "Of course Hisham Salim's position should be saluted, but the more
beautiful surprise is the support from most people for his son."
But Hisham Selim's confession that his reaction might not have been the same if his son had wanted to
identify as a woman disappointed some people.
"Honestly, when thinking about it I thought, 'Thank God, it's not the other way around,'" he told DW
Arabic. "Although I believe both are the same, as an Arab and an Egyptian who's raised believing that men
342
are stronger or have higher status, then it would have definitely been different for me."In June 2020, Reuters published an article detailing how the same Egyptian actor's son was being suedby two Egyptian lawyers for his Instagram post in support of an LGBT+ activist who had recently taken
her own life:

342

BBC News, Hisham Selim, famed Egyptian actor, praised over transgender son, 10 May 2020

155

The transgender son of one of Egypt’s most famous actors is being sued for promoting homosexuality
among young people after posting on Instagram in support of an LGBT+ activist who died by suicide
earlier this month.
Two Egyptian lawyers filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Noor Hesham Selim, son of film and television
star Hesham Selim, after he posted a video on Instagram in response to the death of exiled Egyptian
activist Sarah Hegazy.
“It is a conspiracy against Egypt to give up on our culture and morals and let homosexuality spread among
young people,” Ayman Mahfouz, one of the two lawyers who filed the lawsuit, told Thomson Reuters
Foundation by phone on Wednesday.
“Strict action” should be taken against people who seek to destroy Egyptian values and religious beliefs,
Mahfouz added.
While homosexuality is not outlawed in Egypt, it is a conservative Muslim society and discrimination
against LGBT+ groups is rife, with gay and trans people facing instances of assault and torture, according
to Human Rights Watch.
Selim, 26, was thrown into the spotlight last month when his father surprised television viewers by
speaking openly about his transition in the hope it would help change social attitudes towards transpeople in Egypt.
Selim’s support for Hegazy, who was found dead in her apartment in Canada, where she sought asylum in2018 after being jailed in Egypt for waving a rainbow flag at a pop concert, has triggered further upset
343
among conservatives.

The August 2020 report of the Special Rapporteur on gender-based violence and discrimination in thename of religion or belief stated that:[…] according to some sources, the rising number of hate crimes based on sexual orientation and gender
identity worldwide correlates with a steep rise in faith-based groups using interpretations of religious
teachings that promote gender-based violence and discrimination to violate the human rights of LGBT+
persons, including, inter alia, their right to life and freedom from torture (A/73/152, paras. 47–48). The
Special Rapporteur confirms that these accounts are emblematic of allegations he has received and thathave been raised by United Nations human rights experts with the Governments of States including
Egypt,26 […]. […]26 See communication EGY 17/2017.

344

Al-Monitor’s December 2020 article on discrimination against transgender people in Egypt reported
that:
Some of the nation's top clerics vehemently oppose these transitions, contributing to the presence of asocial culture that vilifies people making or thinking of making a transition.
Former mufti Sheikh Ali Gomaa said transitions portend the destruction of society.
“This process entails a destruction of families and consequently the destruction of the wholesociety,” Gomaa wrote on his own website.
343

Reuters, Egyptian actor's trans son sued for Instagram post about LGBT+ activist's suicide, 24 June 2020
UN Human Rights Council, Gender-based violence and discrimination in the name of religion or belief: Report of
the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, 24 August 2020, p. 10
344

156

In a country where people live by religion, such fatwas cause suffering to transgender Egyptians. […]Renowned Egyptian actor Hesham Selim, who supported his son's transition, became the center ofcriticism for standing by his transgender son.
[Farida] Ramadan was a successful schoolteacher in the coastal city of Damietta. She stopped going toschool a few years ago after facing exhaustion from playing the role of a man. She was fired from her job.
Her case made headlines last month when she appealed her firing to the minister of education.
The minister said she did not have the right to return to work because she was absent for too long.
345
Nonetheless, he called on people not to bully her.

In December 2020, Pink News wrote on plans by an evangelical pastor in Egypt to set up a school to‘treat’ homosexuality in young people. The article stated:
Pastor Tony George Rizk, a member of the Evangelicals Association in Egypt and the Middle East, plans toopen the school on 26 December in Heliopolis, where he will conduct the harmful practice of conversion
therapy on LGBT+ youth.
The pastor, who is also founder of community youth service tC Egypt, said in a statement that the school
will run for eight weeks and will target queer youth.
In a statement, Rizk claimed that his school will work with people who want to to [sic] change their sexual
orientation.
Without any evidence, Rizk claims that homosexuality can be “treated” and that people are gay due tochildhood trauma, sexual abuse and bullying.
He went on to claim that he is setting up the school because he believes he has a responsibility to queer
youth, and said a team of “specialists” would work with LGBT+ young people in the school.
Those “specialists” include therapists specialising in sexuality and sex addiction, as well as “survivors” ofhomosexuality, he claimed.
Rizk went on to reference the Bible’s teachings about sexuality, claiming that sex outside of marriage is a
sin and that “sin must be dealt with”.
He said nobody would be forced to attend his anti-gay school and that they would take in LGBT+ youth
who approached him for guidance.
346
Risk added: “Recovering from homosexuality is not impossible,” according to the Egyptian Independent.

The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2020, published in March 2021, wrote
that: “In a televised statement in early May, prominent actor Hisham Selim spoke openly about his son’s
gender change and inability to change his identity card from female to male. On June 23, two lawyers
filed lawsuits against Selim and his transgender son for an Instagram post that paid tribute to Egyptian
LGBT activist Sara Hegazy, who died by suicide in 2020”.347
USDOS’s annual report on religious freedom in Egypt, published in May 2021, recounted the following:

345

Al-Monitor, Transgender Egyptians face abuse, discrimination for asserting their identity, 9 December 2020
Pink News, Religious extremist sets up makeshift school to ‘treat’ homosexuality in young people, 9 December
2020
347
USDOS, 2020 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 30 March 2021
346

157

There are four entities currently authorized to issue fatwas (religious rulings binding on Muslims): the alAzhar Council of Senior Scholars, the al-Azhar Islamic Research Center, the Dar al-Iftaa (House of Religious
Edicts), and the Ministry of Awqaf’s General Fatwa Directorate. Previously part of the Ministry of Justice,
Dar al-Iftaa has been an independent organization since 2007. […]On June 16, Dar al-Iftaa issued a series of statements on social media following the death due to suicide of
Sarah Hegazy, an Egyptian lesbian activist, writer, and reported atheist. Dar al-Iftaa wrote that “allheavenly religions” prohibit homosexuality and that atheism was an “intellectual problem” and a“psychological disease” requiring treatment. However, the statement continued, Muslims claiming “withfull certainty” that a person “will never enter paradise” were “absolutely wrong, because such judgement348
of who goes to heaven and who does not is up to Allah.”France 24’s article in June 2021 on a transgender woman in Egypt fighting for her rights and overcoming
challenges in the country wrote that: “The Egyptian Medical Syndicate allows for sex reassignment
surgeries only with the "approval of a special committee" comprised of medical doctors and clergy from
Al-Azhar -- Sunni Islam's leading seat of learning, based in Cairo. […] The committee relies on a fatwa, or
religious edict, that stipulates sex reassignment surgery must be justified by a "biological" issue and "nota mental one", explained the activist”.349
The latest edition of ILGA World's “Our Identities under Arrest” report, released in December 2021,
stated that:[…] the Egyptian Dar Al Iftaa (Islamic advisory body to the government) issued a series of fatwas (legal
opinions) in 2020, including one condemning homosexuality and outlining the need for medical
intervention (i.e., “conversion therapies”).28 […][…] a clear State-backed policy of targeting of persons based on their SOGIE through provisions against
public indecency, sex work, adultery, rape and others is at play, though social attitudes, a vocal religious
sector, the need for political scapegoating during times of instability and a hostile media landscape allinteract in myriad ways.29 […]28 “‫“ال جد اثار وال غ ف ران وال شذوذ االن تحار ن ال رصي ل إلف تاء م ت تال ية ف تاوى ث الث ال وط ن دن يا ى ل ع ال زي د‬[More on Dunya Al-Watan Three consecutive fatwas of the Egyptian fatwa on suicide, homosexuality, and forgivenesssparked controversy], Alwatan Voice, 22 June 2020.]
29 EIPR, The Trap: Punishing sexual difference in Egypt (2017); OHCHR, UA EGY 17/2017 (2017); “The Policies ofSuppressing Sexual Rights in Egypt”, The Legal Agenda, 2 February 2018; “Rights of LGBTQ People in Egypt: Between
State, Society, and de facto Criminalisation”, in: ILGA World, State-Sponsored Homophobia 13th edition (2019), 520522; “"Clean the Streets of Faggots"” Digital Targeting of LGBT People by Middle East/North Africa Governments”,
350
Human Rights Watch, 4 August 2021.”

In January 2022, New Frame released an article reporting on the homophobic statements of Egyptian
footballer Mohamed Aboutrika. It stated that:
348

USDOS, 2020 Report on International Religious Freedom: Egypt, 12 May 2021
France 24, Transgender woman battles for 'dignity' in conservative Egypt, 2 June 2021
350
International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), Our Identities Under Arrest: A
global overview on the enforcement of laws criminalising consensual same-sex sexual acts between adults anddiverse gender expressions, 15 December 2021, p. 126
349

158

[…] in October, he invited global scrutiny when attacking the LGBTQIA+ community. “Our role is to standup to this phenomenon, homosexuality, because it’s a dangerous ideology and it’s becoming nasty, andpeople are not ashamed of it anymore. They (the Premier League) will tell you that homosexuality ishuman rights. No, it is not human rights; in fact, it’s against humanity,” Aboutrika said in the beIN Sports
studios. […]The coming out of Australia player Josh Cavallo and the Premier League Rainbow Laces campaign
prompted Aboutrika’s rant. A torrent of support followed – from Algeria fans at the Arab Cup, to Jordan’s
Mahmoud Al-Mardi, a member of the Al Thani family and Egyptian Twitter where #WeAreAllAboutrika
trended. […]In statements, the Premier League and beIN Sports condemned Aboutrika’s words, but no sanctions
351
followed. The Egyptian legend is also an ambassador for the 2022 World Cup.

An essay written in Manara Magazine, the publication wing of the Cambridge Middle East and North
Africa Forum (MENAF), in March 2022 on legal gender recognition law in the MENA region, commented
on Egypt that:
Despite not having a law regulating the matter, Egypt established a sex reassignment committee in 2003
to review applications from people who wish to receive gender-affirming health care. Islamic Shari’a plays
a role in the livelihood of transgender people in the country, as courts’ verdicts are often governed byIslamic Law.[xiii] […]The shift dialing back of granting LGR [legal gender recognition] in Egypt’s judiciary is symptomatic of asteady rise in the influence of Al-Azhar in Egyptian politics and policies. For example, in 2003, a medical
committee was established inside Egypt’s medical syndicate to review applications from individuals whowish to undergo gender-affirming health care on the condition that one of the committee members had
to be from Al-Azhar. In 2020, Dr. Osama Abdel-Hady, the head of that committee, indicated to ABC News
that: “the Al-Azhar representative often refused to attend the meetings, as he disagreed with our medical
opinions…. […].”[xxiii] Thus, since the 1980s, political Islam has been gaining attraction in Egypt, andtransgender policies and judicial opinions have been heavily influenced by Islamic Shari’a.[xxiv] […][xiii] Dabash, Ahmed. (2019). The Egyptian Constitution and Transgender rights: Judicial Interpretation of Islamic
Norms. 10.13140/RG.2.2.28351.46241.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336927596_The_Egyptian_Constitution_and_Transgender_rights_Judicial_Interpretation_of_Islamic_Norms […][xxiii] MICHAEL, MAGGIE, and MARIAM Fam. “In Egypt, Transgender Activist Fights Battle on Many Fronts.” ABCNews. ABC News Network. Accessed February 15, 2022. https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/egypttransgender-activist-fights-battle-fronts-69829327.
[xxiv] Noralla, Nora. “Elkarakhana: History of Sex Working in Modern Egypt between Legalization and Criminalization.”352
cairo52. Cairo 52 Legal Research Institute, June 16, 2021. https://cairo52.com/2020/11/05/elkarakhana-eng/.

The article by the New Arab in July 2022 on the lack of gender-affirming health care in Middle East
nations, including Egypt wrote that:351

New Frame, Aboutrika’s homophobic rant diminishes his image, 15 January 2022
Manara Magazine, Confused Judiciary & Transgender Rights: Inside the MENA Region’s Case Law on Legal
Gender Recognition, 17 March 2022
352

159

The already marginalised transgender communities of the Middle East have seen their rights dwindle evenfurther in the past several years, as an alarming number of Arab Middle Eastern countries have passed
laws restricting or banning their access to gender-affirming health care and legal gender recognition. […]Egypt led the region in cracking down on transgender people: In 2003, the country’s medical syndicate
amended its code of ethics and added article 43, which banned doctors from providing any sex-change
treatments.
These legal changes are often driven by conservative religious narratives and the façade of protecting thevalues of society –and resisting the West.
“Conservative socio-religious narrative has been labelling transgender identities as Western and a danger
to the concept of family,” says Ayouba El-Hamri, regional coordinator of Transat, a regional transgenderadvocacy group.
“These legal changes are a product of those narratives and the moral panic religious figures have beenpromoting against transgender people.” […]The committee was established in 2003 to review applications from those who wish to receive genderaffirming health care and included a representative of Al-Azhar – Egypt’s highest religious authority – toensure that every case is medically compatible with Sharia. […]Furthermore, legal gender recognition is out of the question, as courts often rely on Sharia to make their
judgment on the matter and employ medical opinions to verify whether the person truly has intersex353
characteristics or not.

The meeting minutes with a Human Rights Watch analyst, published in the September 2022 COI briefreport on the situation of LGBT persons in Egypt by the Danish Immigration Service, wrote that:
16. There is a divide between the religious and the medical authorities in Egypt, which evolves around theextent to which the religious authorities should have a say in medical matters. There is a fatwa, which
permits medical intervention only for intersex people who are born with characteristics that vary fromwhat is considered female and male bodies. […]18. Since 2003, a review committee under Egypt’s Ministry of Health comprising medical authorities andreligious leaders (a representative from Egypt’s Islamic oversight body Dar el-Ifta) has made decisions
about whether an individual can obtain a sex change or a sex reassignment procedure and whether they354
can obtain legal gender recognition at all.

Rainbow Egypt posted on their Facebook page in November 2022 with a summary of violations against
LGBTQI+ persons between September 2021 and September 2022, and noted that in December 2021 “Exfootballer Mohamed Abou-Trika calls homosexuality a ‘dangerous ideology’ against the backdrop of thePremier League’s Rainbow Laces campaign”.355

353

The New Arab, The Middle East has an anti-transgender bills problem, 22 July 2022
The Danish Immigration Service, Country of Origin (COI) Brief Report – Egypt: Situation of LGBT persons,September 2022, p. 22355
Rainbow Egypt, Facebook post - Highlights of 1 year (from September 2021 to September 2022), 30 November
2022
354

160

The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2022, published in March 2023, stated
that:
Al-Azhar International Center for Electronic Fatwas issued a statement on June 9 denouncing the“systematic diabolical plan to normalize the immoral crime of homosexuality in Muslim societies” throughentertainment content directed at children. The center claimed the entertainment industry sought tonormalize “the immoral crime of homosexuality” in Muslim societies “through systematic satanic plans,”
destroying family moral and social values, distorting identity, and tampering with social security andstability. Local actors and commentators objected to what they perceived as an imposition of foreignvalues from different cultures with the inclusion of homosexual characters in children’s productions,according to media reports. Social media users called for the government to ban Disney content, andcensors banned two Disney films due to brief scenes involving gay characters that Disney reportedly
356
declined to delete.

The report further commented on the role of Al-Azhar clergy: “The Egyptian Medical Syndicate allows
for gender-affirming treatment including surgery, with approval by a special committee composed of
medical doctors and al-Azhar clergy, according to international media, citing a local LGBTQI+ activist.
The committee relied on a fatwa that stipulates gender-affirming treatment must be “medicallynecessary” and justified by a “biological,” not a “mental” matter”.357
Egypt Independent reported in May 2023 that “The Al-Azhar Observatory for Combating Extremism
expressed its solidarity on Monday with Egyptian football player Mostafa Mohamed, after the French
football club Nantes imposed a fine on him because of his refusal to participate in a campaign to support
homosexuality”.358
In July 2023, Deutsche Welle commented that “The claim that same-sex relationships are not part of the
Middle East’s indigenous culture finds support from many officials and religious leaders. One example is
Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, the 1,000-year-old seat of Sunni learning in Cairo, Egypt.
Al-Tayeb repeatedly calls homosexuality a Western cultural import”.359

c. Impact of societal norms on state attitudes
It is recommended to read this section with the information contained in section III. Treatment by State
Actors, b. Homophobia and transphobia in government institutions.
The 2021 Bedayaa Organization report answering FAQs on the situation for LGBTQI people in Egypt
wrote that:

356

USDOS, 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 20 March 2023
USDOS, 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 20 March 2023
358
Egypt Independent, Al-Azhar expresses solidarity with Nantes’ Mostafa Mohamed, 23 May 2023
359
DW (Deutsche Welle) News, LGBTQ activism: Seeking queer love in Middle Eastern history, 10 July 2023
357

161

Looking to the fact of the conservative and patriarchal nature of the Egyptian society, which believes thatbeing a male is the highest social status as such you must fit the social norms of what a man should look
and act, abandoning such privilege by being feminine male or trans person is something that must be
punished.
That idea also reflects a lack of understanding by the Egyptian legal authorities of what being a transwoman is, as trans women are often seen as feminine gay men who are dressed as women to seduceother men into committing sexual acts.
With this fact, the Egyptian authorities does not only target gay men and trans women, but also bisexual
men, intersex, and gender non-conforming individuals. To put it plainly, it persecutes what appears as
contradicting to social norms. […]The state derives its popularity from appearing as a protector of the Egyptian values, morality, andtraditions. As this current administration came after disposing a right-wing religious regime, they felt theneed to prove to the Egyptian society that they did not dispose a religious regime to come with a liberal
one that will destroy “Egyptian values and tradition”. In this retrospective, we can see why the Egyptian
legal authorities made it their policy to actively discriminate and prosecute any group of people in the360
society that does not fit within the Egyptian values and tradition. LGBTI community included.

The article by the New Arab in July 2022 on the lack of gender-affirming health care in Middle East
nations, including Egypt wrote that:
Egypt led the region in cracking down on transgender people: In 2003, the country’s medical syndicate
amended its code of ethics and added article 43, which banned doctors from providing any sex-change
treatments.
These legal changes are often driven by conservative religious narratives and the façade of protecting thevalues of society –and resisting the West.
“Conservative socio-religious narrative has been labelling transgender identities as Western and a danger
to the concept of family,” says Ayouba El-Hamri, regional coordinator of Transat, a regional transgenderadvocacy group.
“These legal changes are a product of those narratives and the moral panic religious figures have beenpromoting against transgender people.” […]In Egypt, article 43 stipulated that sex-change medical interventions shall only be allowed after a full
chromosome map to ensure that the person has a “biological need” to receive that medical treatment.
It also mandates that gender-affirming health care will be made available only after receiving approval
from a sex reassignment committee.
The committee was established in 2003 to review applications from those who wish to receive genderaffirming health care and included a representative of Al-Azhar – Egypt’s highest religious authority – to361
ensure that every case is medically compatible with Sharia.

The article in February 2023 in Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) MENA by Ahmed ShihabEldin stated that: “By essentially outlawing public discussion of gender and sexual orientation in society,Egypt's government effectively ensures that these concepts remain taboo, and simultaneously, awelcome tool to distract from the broader and protracted crisis most Egyptians are enduring under Sisi's
360
361

Bedayaa Organization, 10 FAQs about LGBTIQs situation in Egypt, 2021, pp. 4, 7
The New Arab, The Middle East has an anti-transgender bills problem, 22 July 2022

162

regime. The state is able to maintain a false narrative: that LBGTQ+ rights are merely a Western device
to corrupt and even delegitimize its religious and national authority”.362
The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2022, published in March 2023, stated
that: “Social media users called for the government to ban Disney content, and censors banned two
Disney films due to brief scenes involving gay characters that Disney reportedly declined to delete”.363
The report further noted that: “Legal discrimination and social stigma impeded LGBTQI+ persons fromorganizing or advocating publicly in defense of their rights. Additionally, there was widespread public
support for discrimination against this community”.364

V.

Treatment by Non-State Actors
a. Violence

2020
The Alliance of Queer Egyptian Organizations’ (AQEO) statement on their Facebook page in March 2020
on the UPR outcome for Egypt wrote that “trans-persons are hindered from processing their official
documents, face constant discrimination and exclusion from education, workplaces, receiving
healthcare, and face social violence without protection”.365
They again posted a statement on their Facebook page in May 2020, which noted that:
One of the main issues in researching or trying to discuss the issue of domestic violence issued against the
LGBTQI community in Egypt is the lack of data. There are no clear statistics from the Egyptian government
or even international organizations on domestic violence issued against the LGBTQI community.
Despite the work of international women's and children's rights organizations in Egypt as well, we do nothave sufficient data on practices such as children's exposure to violations if they express sexual
orientation or a different gender identity, no data also about forced marriage and marital rape against
lesbian and queer women. Also, violence issued by psychiatrists on the recommendation of parents to366
compel a change in sexual orientation or gender identity.

Reuters published an article in August 2020 on a Facebook user in Egypt being harassed online for being
perceived as gay and later being harassed and assaulted offline:
362

Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) MENA, How Sisi's Regime Is Ruthlessly Targeting Egypt's Queer
Community, 27 February 2023
363
USDOS, 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 20 March 2023
364
USDOS, 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 20 March 2023
365
Alliance of Queer Egyptian Organizations (AQEO), Facebook post - Statement regarding the Universal Periodic
Review Outcome – Egypt, 15 March 2020
366
Alliance of Queer Egyptian Organizations (AQEO), Facebook post - #YourSilenceIsHeard 2, 13 May 2020

163

Rami was beaten up on the streets of Alexandria, Egypt, in early July by men who he says began harassing
him on Facebook for being gay and then tracked him down in real life.
The harassment began after a TikTok video of Rami in front of a rainbow flag was posted on Facebook
without his knowledge, prompting a series of threatening messages.
Multiple appeals to Facebook to take down the posts were ignored, he said, as pressure mounts on thecompany to react more quickly to online threats to the LGBT+ community in Egypt and elsewhere in the
Middle East. […]“I had to (temporarily) close my account because I received so many threats,” Rami, whose real name isbeing withheld for safety reasons, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“I received a video of someone threatening me, saying, ‘If I see you, I’ll kill you and hang you at the door.’”In Egypt, a cyber crimes law bans online activity that “violates the sanctity of private life or extensively
sends electronic messages...without consent.”
Egypt’s Communications Ministry, which enforces the law, did not respond to a request for comment. […]In June, 22 LGBT+ rights groups mostly in the Middle East urged Facebook to do more to tackle theproblem, prompted by a torrent of hate speech following the suicide of the exiled Egyptian LGBT+ activist
Sara Hegazi in Canada.
Activists say Facebook can be an essential tool for LGBT+ people in the Arab world, where many face an
oppressive legal and social atmosphere, and vague laws against indecency are often used to criminalize
sexual activity.
Strong social stigma around homosexuality, amplified by conservative religious entities, has led to low
acceptance of gay people across the region.
LGBT+ activists in the area risk social exclusion, prison sentences, and violence by security forces,
according to Human Rights Watch. […]Another post collected 20 profiles using rainbow flag filters, including Rami’s, adding the caption, “watch
out for yourself when you’re in the street, half the population has turned (gay).”
The post remained online after Thomson Reuters Foundation flagged it to Facebook. […]Since his attack, Rami has removed all content from his Facebook account that might indicate he is gay
and is trying to leave Egypt. But he said screenshots of his profile are still online.
“People were sending them to my family and colleagues asking if it was me,” he said. “I never expected367
things would turn real.”

Al-Monitor’s December 2020 article on discrimination against transgender people in Egypt stated that:
People who do not identify with the sex assigned to them at birth or who are making the transition toalign their sex with their gender identity are having a tough time in Egypt. […]Some of the nation's top clerics vehemently oppose these transitions, contributing to the presence of asocial culture that vilifies people making or thinking of making a transition.
Former mufti Sheikh Ali Gomaa said transitions portend the destruction of society. […]In a country where people live by religion, such fatwas cause suffering to transgender Egyptians. They also
turn the public against them. Statistics about crimes committed against transgenders are notavailable because most of these crimes go unreported. If they are reported, there is usually no mention of
the real causes behind them.
Mushira Khaled (a pseudonym), does everything possible to hide the story of her transition.
367

Reuters, 'I'll kill you': LGBT+ activists call on Facebook to move faster on Arabic hate speech, 12 August 2020

164

Khaled, in her mid-30s, had to leave her home village in Giza province and live in the northern coastal cityof Alexandria where nobody knows her.
“I became everybody's enemy in the village before and after I underwent reassignment surgery,” haled
told Al-Monitor. “My neighbors used to look at me and say things behind my back whenever I passed bythem."
A neighbor spit in her face, another threatened to stab her and a third tried to rape her.
“I thought of committing suicide, but my mother finally decided that we should move and live somewhere368
else,” haled said.

2021
At the beginning of 2021, Bedayaa Organization produced its annual report covering events relevant to
its legal aid programme from January to December 2020. It reported that:
III. Gangs’ Entrapment and Vulnerability to Protection
In late 2020, a double-edged threat to the LGBTIQ+ community gained new momentum. Several incidents
in which LGBTQI+ persons were targeted and attacked by gangs who used force to film LGBTIQ+
individuals in sexual contexts and robbed them of their money and other belongings inside their houses,
threatening that they would send the photos and films to the police if they were to report it. LGBTIQ+
persons in Egypt were always at risk of being persecuted and prosecuted on the basis of their sexuality,
but now with the recurrence of these types of incidents, this risk is doubled as they are forced tosurrender to these gangs otherwise, they would have to face the higher risk of going to prison if they werereported to the police. Some of these gangs were even allegedly informally connected to the police, whichsheds lights on the state role of protection and the indirect message of the legitimacy of permitting
violence. It is worth mentioning that in January 2021 only we noticed at least one incident per week that369
include more than one survivor of such infringement.

France 24’s article in June 2021 on a transgender woman in Egypt fighting for her rights and overcoming
challenges in the country wrote that “neighbours shunned her and some health professionals andofficials "insulted and assaulted her", including sexually, she said”.370
The 2021 Bedayaa Organization report answering FAQs on the situation for LGBTQI people in Egypt
wrote that:
Even though lesbian, bisexual, and queer women do not face the same legal discrimination other groups
face, they face different forms of social and family violence e.g., corrective therapy, forced marriage,
marital rape, forced confinement inside homes and deprivation from education, work and travel. […]Egypt has significant deficiencies in legislations that protect women from social violence, domestic
violence or violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In some cases, we document thecooperation of police officers to bring back lesbian or bisexual women to their parent’s house once the368

Al-Monitor, Transgender Egyptians face abuse, discrimination for asserting their identity, 9 December 2020
Bedayaa Organization, Legal Aid – Annual Report: 2020, 2021, p. 4
370
France 24, Transgender woman battles for 'dignity' in conservative Egypt, 2 June 2021
369

165

father reported her escape even if she is an “adult” not under his legal guardianship. Their escape usuallycomes due to long years of domestic violence and house confinement. […]In other cases, the neighbours would attack transgender women in their flats and when the transgenderwomen would call the police, the police would arrest them instead of the neighbours for the reason371
mentioned above.

2022
The January 2022 article by Malak El-Kashif for the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy stated that: “Asan Egyptian transgender woman, I can make it clear that we do not have the protections that the media
claims that we have. Quite to the contrary—we are exposed to community targeting and violence on
daily basis”.372
The same article also spoke out about the challenges Ahmad Fares faced before underdoing gendercorrection surgery in August 2021, from which he died, stating that: “He worked odd jobs provided byhis friends, but he faced social obstacles, including robbery and physical violence at his workplace”.373
The article by the New Arab in July 2022 on the lack of gender-affirming health care in Middle East
nations, including Egypt wrote that:
Furthermore, legal gender recognition is out of the question, as courts often rely on Sharia to make their
judgment on the matter and employ medical opinions to verify whether the person truly has intersex
characteristics or not. […]"The mismatch between their gender identity and their ID papers makes them an easy target for vicepolice," says Maryam Chaine, a Cairo-based lawyer.
“I receive different cases where transgender people are just targeted or harassed for who they are. Evenin cases where transgender people are the victim of social attacks, the police arrest them instead. In
detention, verbal and physical abuse are common and transgender people are especially targetedbecause of their identity." […]"Being transgender in Egypt or other Middle Eastern countries is a death sentence,” says Salma, an
Egyptian transgender activist who now resides in the Netherlands.
“I am not the first or the last person to leave – many of my friends from different countries also left for
374
Europe, and many more will. A drastic change in the region's policies is needed to allow us to breathe."The article by Human Rights Watch in November 2022 on the failure of the Egyptian authorities toprotect vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers from sexual violence wrote of the following case:

371

Bedayaa Organization, 10 FAQs about LGBTIQs situation in Egypt, 2021, pp. 4, 14
The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, Transgender Policy in Egypt: Murder by Medical Bureaucracy, 18
January 2022
373
The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, Transgender Policy in Egypt: Murder by Medical Bureaucracy, 18
January 2022
374
The New Arab, The Middle East has an anti-transgender bills problem, 22 July 2022
372

166

The transgender woman refugee said that a group of Egyptian men raped her in a private car after
abducting her at knifepoint in January 2022. She said she did not file a police report about the incident
because of a previous experience in 2020 at a Cairo police station, where she was arbitrarily detained in amen’s cell on “morality” charges due to her gender identity, during which time a police employee sexuallyassaulted her. […]Eman said that on January 11, 2022, she went to buy groceries in her neighborhood, Hadayek al-Ahram in
Giza. In the shop, some Egyptian men began to harass her:
They approached me and called me “you boy, you girl,” because I am a transgender woman. I
stayed in the shop until they left to avoid meeting them outside. I went out after they left, butwhile walking home the same men came out of a nearby car and asked me to get in the car. They
threatened me with a pocketknife, so I had to go with them to a remote area. I tried to resist but
couldn’t; they all raped me and then threw me in the street. […]Human Rights Watch reviewed screenshots of threatening WhatsApp messages Eman received. In one ofthem, an unknown number texted her, “Why you are in Egypt you bitch and slut, I swear I will get you
arrested motherfucker; I know you and will reach you.”
Human Rights Watch reviewed two photographs Eman shared showing bruises on her body resulting from375
the 2022 rape.

January – May 2023
The January 2023 BBC News article on the online entrapment of LGBT persons in Egypt by police statedthat:
Criminal gangs are using the same tactics as the police to find LGBT people. They then attack andhumiliate them, and extort them by threatening to post the videos online.
I managed to track down two people we are calling Laila and Jamal, who were victims of a video that went
viral in Egypt a few years ago. The footage shows them being forced to strip and dance, while being
beaten and abused. They are forced at knife point to give their full names and admit they are gay. They
told me the duo behind the video - named Bakar and Yahia - are notorious amongst the community.
We saw at least four videos in which Bakar and Yahia either appeared, or could be heard, extorting andabusing LGBT people before they uploaded the videos to Whatsapp, YouTube and Facebook. In one ofthese videos, an 18-year-old gay man we are calling Saeed is forced to, falsely, say he is a sex worker. I
met him to hear about what happened next. He told me that he considered legal action but says hislawyer advised against this, telling him his sexuality would be perceived as more of a crime than theattack he suffered.
Saeed is now alienated from his family. He says they cut him off when the gang sent them the video in abid to blackmail them too.
"I have been suffering from depression after what happened, with the videos circulating to all my friends
in Egypt. I don't go out, and I don't have a phone.
"No-one used to know anything about me."We've been told about dozens of attacks like this - carried out by multiple gangs. There are only a few
reports of attackers being arrested.

375

Human Rights Watch, Egypt: Sexually Abused Refugees Find No Justice, 24 November 2022

167

It shocked me to learn, in the course of investigation that one gang leader, Yahia, is gay and actively
posting online about his own sex work.
But perhaps it gives him a criminal edge - he knows just how vulnerable his targets are. And arguably his
own position, as a gay man with little opportunity, fuels his criminality.
We have no evidence that Yahia has been involved in recent attacks, and he has denied involvement in376
any of the attacks.

The February 2023 Human Rights Watch report into digital targeting and its offline consequences forLGBT people in the Middle East and North Africa gave the following information about extortion andviolence by gang members in Egypt:
In Egypt, LGBT people reported being extorted online by gang members pretending to be LGBT people.
After extended periods of chatting online, what begins as a date turns into threats and beatings, often at
knifepoint, to extract money from LGBT people. In several cases we documented, extortionists also raped
LGBT people using force or manipulating them into having sex while surreptitiously recording the act on
their phones to use against them. […]On September 13, 2021, Mahdy, a 28-year-old gay man from Cairo, said he was extorted by a man he had
met on Instagram, with whom he spoke for two months before agreeing to meet him and have sexual
relations. He said:
We went to his place at night and had sex. After we finished, he told me that he knew everything
about me, including my work, my house, and who my father is. He lived in my area as well. He
said that he wouldn’t leave me alone until I paid him 10,000 Egyptian pounds [US$636]. He
snatched my phone and refused to leave without getting paid. I had to pay the amount so I could
escape him. He called me two days later asking for a new mobile phone. He told me that hewould tell my father otherwise, and he sent me a video of our sexual encounter, which he took
without my paying attention. I wasn’t responding because I did not know what to do. I consulted
with a lawyer, and he said that there is a 50 percent chance that he would go to prison, but also
there will be a case against me for immoral conduct. This is why I cannot turn to the law for
help.109
Despite Mahdy’s payment, the extortionist shared the video with his work colleagues and people in his
residential area. Mahdy quit his job and stopped going out in public in his area due to the “the stigma andthe public shaming,” he said. The extortionist, accompanied by others, later went to Mahdy’s house tothreaten him. “I heard them detail the ways they would torture me,” Mahdy said. “It was a blatant threat
to my life. If my father sees the video, that would be the end of me.”110 […]Nour, the 31-year-old gender non-binary person who uses they/them pronouns from Zagazig, Egypt, said
they were extorted in January 2021 by a man they met on Grindr. They said:
He took me to his house. After some chatting, he turned into a monster. He pulled out a knife
and told me to give him everything I had. Then he took my phone, all my money, pointed at a
closed door, and told me that behind that door were individuals waiting for his signal to comeout and beat me up. He told me that no one would hear me if I screamed. He told me that his
landlord knew that he brought “faggots” to beat them up and rob them. There were two hours of
shouting and hysteric behavior on his part, and then he forced me to take my clothes off andraped me. He videotaped me and said he would share the video on social media and report me376

BBC News, How Egyptian police hunt LGBT people on dating apps, 30 January 2023

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to the police. I tried to resist at first, but I could not do anything as he pointed his knife at me
while he penetrated me. He raped me for around an hour while I was shaking. I felt like it was anightmare. I could not report it because if I did, I would be the one to suffer. How can I report
this crime when the police act similarly to my perpetrator? I know there are thousands of cases
like mine that are left in the dark.115 […]Majd, a 38-year-old gay man from Egypt, and Ismail, a 23-year-old gay man from Egypt, told Human Rights
Watch that a gang extorted them on Grindr in August 2021. Ismail began:
We met a guy on Grindr. We chatted with him for four days before meeting him. He was verykind and kept telling us that he was scared to meet strangers, so we reassured him. He told us
very personal stories and asked us to share detailed information about ourselves as well. We felt
we trusted him because of his approach and told him everything, including about our respective
jobs, the people we lived with, and our address. He came over and we had sex.
An hour after he left, he called us again and told us he wanted to come back and bring a friend
with him. They arrived, and his demeanor changed completely, and the guy with him was avacant-eyed thug. They started moving around the apartment and interrogating us. We told
them to leave, but they refused and told us that they were not there to have sex, they were
there to turn us in to the police. They said they were both in the military. They told us that either
we pay them 70,000 Egyptian pounds (US$4,451) or they would turn us in to the police. They also
demanded we sign an agreement with them. They beat up Ismail. We were terrified.127
Ismail wept as he was telling the story, so Majd continued:
I managed to open the door of our apartment and scream for help, so they got scared and leftfrom the back exit, only taking Ismail’s phone with them. The police came because of thescreaming and asked us what happened, we said it was a theft attempt. The police told us to filea report, but we did not, and I thought that the incident had ended there, only to find [the twomen who tried to blackmail us] waiting for me outside my place a few days later. Wanting tocause a scene, they dragged me to a populated square in Cairo, started calling me a “faggot”
while beating me up in front of everyone, and broke my phone.128 […]Ismail and Majd did not know what happened to the two alleged perpetrators. They tried to file acomplaint at the police station, but officers refused to register their complaint, they said. Ismail and Majd
were forced to change their residence after they were outed in the neighborhood. They also stopped
using social media and dating applications because they did not believe there were enough safetymeasures to guarantee their protection online. After their extortion, they both sought psychologicalsupport and began taking medication to cope with the extreme anxiety they were experiencing. Majd
described their fears:
We do not feel safe anywhere, especially because we know that those thugs could get to us at
any time, and the government will not protect us. We found out through friends that the men
who extorted us were an organized gang with one gay member who lures in the victims. They
made a lot of money by blackmailing gay men.130
Yasin, an 18-year-old gay man from Egypt, was extorted and raped on December 28, 2020, when he was16, by a gang after he met a gang member on Grindr, only learning later that these men had extorted andraped in a similar manner before. He said:
We spoke very casually and then he invited me to come over to get to know each other as
friends. When I got there, he closed the door behind me, and two other men appeared. One ofthem had a large knife and the other one had a [box]cutter. They told me that I was in captivity,
and they demanded I pay them 100,000 Egyptian pounds [US$6,360] if I ever wanted to leave.

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They all raped me and videotaped it on their phones, then they took my phone and wallet, fromwhich they retrieved my family information, and threatened to send the video to my father. I
told them that I did not care. Then they told me they’d share the video on my Facebook profileand broadcast it to my WhatsApp contacts. I told them I had a phone worth 7,000 Egyptian
pounds (US$445) and another 3,000 Egyptian pounds (US$190) in the bank. They were visibly
intoxicated and looked like they were on drugs. I left them my phone and password. They let me
go and told me that they would call me the next day to meet them and give them the money.131[…]
Baha’, a 24-year-old gay man from Alexandria, Egypt, was robbed by a man he met on Facebook, whothen attacked him one evening in February 2021 while they were on a date. He explained:
As we stood in front of [my date’s] building, three men attacked me with an axe andpocketknives. They beat me up and took my phone and money [1,000 Egyptian pounds, orUS$63.67]. They aimed their knives at my body and one of them put the axe against my neck. I
tried to keep my composure as they started grabbing my clothes and pushing me around, whileinsulting me with homophobic slurs. One of them said, “I know you’re a faggot and you’re
coming here to get fucked.” The guy I was supposedly on a date with joined them in beating me.
They searched me from head to toe and took all my belongings. They threatened me and said, “If
we see you or hear anything from you again, we’re going to kill you.” Then they ran away.135 […]109 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Mahdy, October 7, 2021.
110 Ibid. […]115 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Nour, October 6, 2021. […]127 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Majd and Ismail, October 14, 2021. […]129 Ibid.
130 Ibid.
131 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Yasin, October 26, 2021. […]377
135 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Baha’, October 22, 2021.

The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2022, published in March 2023, stated
that: “Several incidents of domestic and street violence against LGBTQI+ individuals were reported by
local rights groups, including one case during the year in which authorities allegedly facilitated assault
against a detained LGBTQI+ person”.378

b. Discriminationi.

Access to housing

The article in New Lines Magazine on LGBTQ rights in the Arab world in February 2021 stated:“Housing discrimination is also common as many LGBTQ individuals are denied housing and, in case they
were able to secure a place to live, they are often reported to the police by either their landlords orneighbors,” Fouad [one of the underground cofounders of a group called Solidarity with LGBTQ Egypt that377

Human Rights Watch, “All This Terror Because of a Photo”: Digital Targeting and Its Offline Consequences forLGBT People in the Middle East and North Africa, 21 February 2023, pp. 42, 44, 46, 52-56
378
USDOS, 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 20 March 2023

170

documents crackdowns] said. “They are only safe if they manage to buy or rent a place in the suburbs
where prices are unaffordable.”
LGBTQ individuals would sometimes arrange to rent a place together to avoid being questioned, which isrisky in case of a police raid. In such cases, they could all be arrested, including their landlord, who would379
be charged with running an “illegal prostitution ring.”

The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2021, published in April 2022, wrote
that: “Information was not available on discrimination in […] housing […] based on sexual orientationand gender identity. There were no government efforts to address potential discrimination”.380
The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2022, published in March 2023, stated
that: “Several cases were reported of LGBTQI+ persons who were threatened by landlords or neighbors
to vacate their homes or risk complaints being filed against them with police. There were nogovernment efforts to address potential discrimination”.381

ii.

Access to work

The Alliance of Queer Egyptian Organizations’ (AQEO) statement on their Facebook page in March 2020
on the UPR outcome for Egypt wrote that “trans-persons are hindered from processing their official
documents, face constant discrimination and exclusion from […] workplaces”.382
An article published in Al-Monitor in June 2020 on the struggles of Egypt's gay community stated thefollowing:
Being openly gay in Egypt is difficult because of societal norms and LGBTQI+ individuals face many issues,
with violence from both the state and civilians being the most obvious, Darwish [gender and human rights
officer with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights] said. They also suffer from a lack of legal
protection, which means that reporting an attack, harassment or rape to the state is impossible. Other
structural issues, like the intervention of the medical system through anal examinations, forms ofcorrective therapy or lack of medical attention and services are also harmful, Darwish explained. “And allthese issues result in economic consequences for the community. Generally people cannot hold jobs well,cannot continue safely in their work or places of study.” […][Mohamed Alborgi, founder of the LGBTQI+ organization Rainbow Egypt] explained that […] “Being anoutspoken ally or an LGBTQ+ individual in Egypt is an act of heroism. It could mean losing ties with family,
losing friends and the social support network, being fired from work or physical and verbal violence inpublic and private spaces without finding a legal system to gain your rights back or report these383
offenses.”379

New Lines Magazine, A Place for LGBTQ Rights in the Arab World?, 26 February 2021
USDOS, 2021 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 12 April 2022
381
USDOS, 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 20 March 2023
382
Alliance of Queer Egyptian Organizations (AQEO), Facebook post - Statement regarding the Universal Periodic
Review Outcome – Egypt, 15 March 2020
383
Al-Monitor, Death of activist Sarah Hegazy highlights struggle of Egypt's gay community, 18 June 2020
380

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Al-Monitor’s December 2020 article on discrimination against transgender people in Egypt highlighted
the following case:[Farida] Ramadan, now in her early 50s, was assigned the male sex at birth. In actuality, she lives, feels
and thinks like a woman. […]Ramadan was a successful schoolteacher in the coastal city of Damietta. She stopped going to school a
few years ago after facing exhaustion from playing the role of a man. She was fired from her job.
Her case made headlines last month when she appealed her firing to the minister of education.
The minister said she did not have the right to return to work because she was absent for too long.
Nonetheless, he called on people not to bully her.
To earn a living, Ramadan worked at a patisserie shop in Damietta. But she was harassed by those aroundher because of her occasional expression of her female gender identity.
Her breaking moment came when her colleagues learned she had a Facebook page in which she
expressed her gender identity freely and frankly.
“This was when everybody turned openly against me,” Ramadan said.
384
Ramadan left Damietta to start a new life in the Nile Delta province of Beheira.

The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2020, published in March 2021, wrote
that: “Information was not available on official or private discrimination in employment […] based on
sexual orientation and gender identity. There were no government efforts to address potential
discrimination”.385 It did note that: “HIV-positive individuals faced significant social stigma anddiscrimination in society and the workplace”.386
France 24’s article in June 2021 on a transgender woman in Egypt fighting for her rights and overcoming
challenges in the country wrote that: “Unemployed today, she has had myriad odd jobs, all of which she
has lost due to stigma”.387
The 2021 Bedayaa Organization report answering FAQs on the situation for LGBTQI people in Egypt
wrote that: “Even though lesbian, bisexual, and queer women do not face the same legal discrimination
other groups face, they face different forms of social and family violence e.g., […] deprivation fromeducation, work and travel”. 388 It further noted that:Job market for Trans individuals is another challenge, they face stigma, discrimination, and arbitrary
dismissal specially when their IDs is not matching their gender identity. […]Transgender men and women encounter workplace discrimination and at times harassment. They aremiss gendered [sic] and denied entry to bathrooms according to their gender. They may be arbitrarily
fired or suspended at work and may not be re-appointed to positions after they change their official

384

Al-Monitor, Transgender Egyptians face abuse, discrimination for asserting their identity, 9 December 2020
USDOS, 2020 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 30 March 2021
386
USDOS, 2020 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 30 March 2021
387
France 24, Transgender woman battles for 'dignity' in conservative Egypt, 2 June 2021
388
Bedayaa Organization, 10 FAQs about LGBTIQs situation in Egypt, 2021, p. 3
385

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documents. The state does not intervene to protect trans-people at work when they face arbitrary389
dismissal, verbal and sexual harassment, bullying, and rights violations.

The January 2022 article by Malak El-Kashif at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, speaking about
the challenges Ahmad Fares faced before underdoing gender correction surgery in August 2021, fromwhich he died, stated that: “He worked odd jobs provided by his friends, but he faced social obstacles,
including robbery and physical violence at his workplace”.390
The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2021, published in April 2022, wrote
that: “Information was not available on discrimination in employment […] based on sexual orientationand gender identity. There were no government efforts to address potential discrimination”.391
The meeting minutes with a Human Rights Watch analyst, published in the September 2022 COI briefreport on the situation of LGBT persons in Egypt by the Danish Immigration Service, stated that:
13. Individuals who are detained, arrested, or questioned on morality charges are facing extreme difficulty
in securing any kind of employment or healthcare due to their record. Morality charges usually stay on an
individual’s record for up to three years, which prohibits them from traveling and from accessing basic
services, and it may subject them to additional arbitrary arrests and discrimination.
14. Dozens of individuals interviewed by HRW have reported being unable to secure employment or tomove around due to discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender
expression. In many cases, individuals live at home with their parents and practice extreme selfcensorship to be able to lead a normal life. For those who cannot practice this type of self- censorship,392
access to services is very limited.

The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2022, published in March 2023, stated
that: “A local rights group reported several cases of discrimination in employment against members of
the LGBTQI+ community that forced them into jobs requiring more working hours and lesscompensation. […] There were no government efforts to address potential discrimination”.393

VI.

Treatment of LGBTQI+ Organizations and Human Rights Defenders

Little specific information could be found amongst the sources consulted within the time frame for thisreport. Instead, more broad information on the situation of human rights defenders has been included.

389

Bedayaa Organization, 10 FAQs about LGBTIQs situation in Egypt, 2021, pp. 13, 15
The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, Transgender Policy in Egypt: Murder by Medical Bureaucracy, 18
January 2022
391
USDOS, 2021 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 12 April 2022
392
The Danish Immigration Service, Country of Origin (COI) Brief Report – Egypt: Situation of LGBT persons,September 2022, p. 21
393
USDOS, 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 20 March 2023
390

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a. Government recognition of LGBTQI+ NGOs
The 2021 Human Rights Watch World Report, covering events of 2020 and published in January 2021,
wrote on Egypt that:At time of writing, the government has not issued implementing regulations for the draconian NGO law
al-Sisi approved in August 2019 despite the requirement that it do so within six months of approving thelaw, and the stipulation in the new law that existing organizations must re-register within one year. The
law prohibits a wide range of activities, such as “conduct opinion polls and publish or make their results
available or conduct field research or disclose their results” without government approval. The law allows
authorities to dissolve organizations for a wide range of “violations” and imposes fines of up to one
million Egyptian pounds (US$60,000) for organizations that operate without a license or send or receive394
funds without government approval.

In April 2021, Human Rights Watch again reported on the implementing regulations for Egypt’s 2019 law
regulating nongovernmental organisations, giving the following information:
The implementing regulations (bylaws), published in the Official Gazette under Prime Ministerial Decree
104 of 2021, emphasized restrictions in the law such as prohibiting any work of a “political” nature andadded new restrictions that largely negate the essence of freedom of association. […]The government issued the implementing regulations almost 17 months after President Abdel Fattah alSisi, in August 2019, approved Law 149 of 2019 on Regulating the Work of Civil Associations. Law 149
removed lengthy prison sentences that had been in the previous 2017 law but kept in place most of thedraconian restrictions on the work of independent groups.
President al-Sisi’s government has relentlessly cracked down on independent organizations and humanrights activists including with arbitrary detentions, unjust prosecutions, travel bans, and asset freezes.
The implementing regulations give organizations until January 2022 to register under Law 149 or risk
being dissolved. Law 149 also imposes fines up to one million Egyptian pounds (about US$64,000) for
violating its terms, which would bring the work of most independent organizations to a halt.
The implementing regulations require the Social Solidarity Ministry to maintain a database to include
details such as all employees, volunteers, and funders, and “any other documents the minister requires”
of all nongovernmental organizations in the country, and guarantee “instant exchange” of suchinformation between the ministry and “relevant authorities.” This amounts to active surveillance by theministry and security agencies, which are apparently among the main entities referred to as “relevant
authorities,” Human Rights Watch said. Associations are required to update such information monthly,
including the slightest activity such as new volunteers.
The Social Solidarity Ministry can suspend the work of any organization that violates terms of the law for
up to one year, or to ask an administrative court to dissolve the group and seize its assets. The ministry’s
staff can carry out unannounced inspections of an organization’s files and activities.
The government claimed that the 2019 law “removed all obstacles” to establishing an organization, sayingthat it allows the establishment simply by notifying the government. In fact, registration under Law 149 is
convoluted, Human Rights Watch said. It requires an organization to provide an unreasonably lengthy and394

Human Rights Watch, World Report 2021: Events of 2020, 13 January 2021, p. 196

174

complex set of documents and reports clearly intended to negate the essence of the right to freedom of
association and the ability to work without prior government permission.
The law, for instance, requires existing associations to submit detailed reports about all of its past
activities, the geographic areas where it worked, its funding sources, and any contracts or agreements ofcooperation with any other organizations, in addition to paying a fee of 5,000 Egyptian pounds ($320) andrenting or owning a multi-room office. Failure to submit any document can invalidate its registration,
which the authorities can use as a pretext to reject any registration. […]The implementing regulations state that, outside of an association, individuals cannot carry out any civic
initiative, campaign, or work without prior government permission, which requires complex measures
including opening a separate bank account for the activity.
Law 149 prohibits a wide range of activities without prior government approval, such as to “conduct
opinion polls and publish or make their results available or conduct field research or disclose theirresults,” to carry out activities in “border areas,” to “partner or cooperate” with foreign or localorganizations, or open branches outside Egypt. The law also employs vaguely worded terms to completely
ban other activities, such as ones that do not “match the goals” of the association, or any “political”
activity or work that undermines “national security, public order, public morals.” Neither the law nor its
implementing regulations provide definitions for any of these terms, which authorities frequently use to395
ban and punish the peaceful exercise of rights.

The 2022 Human Rights Watch World Report, covering events of 2021, gave the following update: “InJanuary 2021, the government issued implementing regulations for the 2019 NGO Law, confirming its
restrictive nature and extensive government interference. Existing nongovernmental organizations(NGOs) must register under the new law by January 2022 or face being dissolved”.396
The meeting minutes with a Human Rights Watch analyst, published in the September 2022 COI briefreport on the situation of LGBT persons in Egypt by the Danish Immigration Service, wrote that: “Civil
society actors have not been able to provide the same services for LGBT people, which they used toprovide, due to the restrictive NGO law and other restrictions imposed on civil society by the Egyptian
government. This situation has resulted in LGBT people de facto being denied access to basic services as
they cannot turn to the government sponsored centres for care”.397
The 2023 Human Rights Watch World Report, covering events of 2022, stated that: “In January 2022,
The Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI), one of Egypt’s leading independent humanrights organizations, announced that it was ending operations after nearly 18 years. The group wasforced to close due to a series of threats, violent attacks, and arrests by the National Security Agency, as
well as the looming deadline requiring all nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to register under thedraconian associations law”.398

395

Human Rights Watch, Egypt: Restrictions on Civic Work Underscored, 16 April 2021
Human Rights Watch, World Report 2022 – Events of 2021, 13 January 2022, p. 215
397
The Danish Immigration Service, Country of Origin (COI) Brief Report – Egypt: Situation of LGBT persons,September 2022, p. 21
398
Human Rights Watch, World Report 2023: Events of 2022, 12 January 2023, p. 194
396

175

The article in February 2023 in Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) MENA by Ahmed ShihabEldin stated that: “In recent years, NGOs in Egypt focused on protecting LGBTQ+ rights have been forced
underground or into exile, but fragile networks of support within the community remain”.399
The ILGA World Database page for Egypt reported the following: “As a result of hostile state and social
attitudes, groups have not been able to register their organisations officially and often have to work
secretly and anonymously to avoid state persecution. In 2021, a lawsuit was filed in the Administrative
Court of the Council of State to withdraw Human Rights Watch's permit to operate in Egypt, invoking,among other reasons, this organization's work in favor of the human rights of LGBTI people”.400

b. State treatment of LGBTQI+ activists or those supporting their case or thoseperceived as such
ANKH Association (Arab Network for Knowledge about Human Rights) released a statement in 2020,
reporting that:
This year only, LGBTIQ+ activists, defenders, and individuals, have been submitted to arrests and torture,
as it has been the case for Malak El-Kashif (who has been released in May), Eman Al-Helw and Hossam
Ahmad - the latest two are still being preventively detained with no date of trial. Not only are they
suffering from the wild-scale repression on activists and freedom of expression, they are also facing
discrimination and abuses by the Egyptian authorities due to their perceived “non-binarity” (i.e they don’t
fit in the traditional roles, behaviors or apparences [sic] assigned to men and women in the Egyptian
401society).

In February 2020, ARTICLE 19 released a statement calling for the release of detained activist andresearcher Patrick George Zaki. It stated that:
ARTICLE 19 is calling for the immediate release of Egyptian activist and researcher Patrick George Zaki,
who was arrested at Cairo airport on Friday February 7, 2020. Zaki, a researcher at the University of
Bologna, was returning to Egypt for a family visit.
According to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), Zaki was “beaten, subjected to electric
shocks, threatened, and questioned about various issues related to his work and activism”. (1)Saloua Ghazouani Oueslati, Director of ARTICLE 19 MENA said:“We demand the immediate release of Patrick George Zaki, and an end to the harassment of humanrights defenders in Egypt. We believe that Patrick’s detention is politically motivated because of his
criticism of el-Sisi’s regime and his campaigning work on behalf of vulnerable groups in Egypt, whose
fundamental rights are under attack.” […]399

Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) MENA, How Sisi's Regime Is Ruthlessly Targeting Egypt's Queer
Community, 27 February 2023
400
International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), ILGA World Database: Egypt
page, undated [last accessed 30 June 2023]
401
ANKH Association (Arab Network for Knowledge about Human Rights), Universal Periodic Review: Statement
concerning LGBTIQ+ rights in Egypt, 2020

176

Zaki has been an outspoken critic of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s brutal regime and has
campaigned for the rights of women, Christians and the LGBTQ+ community in Egypt. In 2017, he became
a gender and human rights researcher for the EIPR before leaving to study in Italy in 2019. […](1)
https://eipr.org/en/press/2020/02/egyptian-human-rights-defender-disappeared-and-tortured-eipr-gender402
rights-0

Another press release by Amnesty International in November 2020 wrote on the escalating punishmentof human rights defenders in Egypt and stated that: ““Egyptian authorities regularly use unfounded‘terrorism’ charges to detain and defame human rights defenders in the eyes of the Egyptian public andinternational community. In reality, the Egyptian authorities view legitimate human rights work like
defending LGBTI rights, opposing the death penalty, defending religious minorities and promoting theright to health as terrorism” said Philip Luther”.403
In December 2020, the European Parliament published a resolution on the deteriorating human rights
situation in Egypt, noting that “tens of thousands of human rights defenders, including women’s rights
activists, LGBTI activists, lawyers, journalists, activists, peaceful dissenters and members of the
opposition remain imprisoned in life-threatening conditions”.404
The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2020, published in March 2021, wrote
that: “Rights groups and activists reported harassment by police, including physical assault and forced
payment of bribes to provide information concerning other LGBTI individuals or to avoid arrest”.405
In April 2021, ANKH (Arab Network for Knowledge about Human Rights), the Alliance of Queer Egyptian
Organizations (AQEO), and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS), among otherorganisations, published an open letter to human rights ambassadors around the world regarding thetargeting of LGBTQI+ community and activists in Egypt. It stated: “Egyptian human rights and LGBTQI+
activists have been continuously subjected to discrimination and dissemination of false information by
the Egyptian government authorities, as well as in the state controlled media. The Egyptian government
has targeted LGBTQI+ human rights defenders. […] Eman al Helw and Hossam Ahmed were arrested on
28 February 2019, the day after the Ramses Station train accident in Cairo, which caused the death of atleast 25 people. […] Al-Helw and Ahmed were released on 17 and 22 September 2020”.406
The May 2021 article by the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) on discrimination against
LGBTIQ+ people in Egypt stated that: “Despite the strong attempts to marginalize and suppress the402

ARTICLE 19, Egypt: ARTICLE 19 calls for release of activist and researcher Patrick George Zaki, 14 February 2020
Amnesty International, Egypt: Authorities escalate punishment of human rights defenders, 24 November 2020
404
European Parliament, Joint motion for a resolution on the deteriorating situation of human rights in Egypt, inparticular the case of the activists of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), 16 December 2020
405
USDOS, 2020 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 30 March 2021
406
ANKH (Arab Network for Knowledge about Human Rights), the Alliance of Queer Egyptian Organizations(AQEO), and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS) et al., Egypt: Open letter to human rights
ambassadors around the world regarding the targeting of LGBTQI+ community and activists, 30 April 2021
403

177

LGBTIQ+ community in Egypt and ban their appearance in the media, their presence began to gain
support and momentum over the past years, especially after the passing of lesbian activist Sarah Hegazyin her exile in Canada in June 2020. Despite the challenges, human rights defenders and LGBTIQ+
activists remain determined to demand and respect their basic rights and create a space for action”.407
A letter in June 2021 to the Egyptian authorities by Amnesty International and sixty-three otherorganisations stated that: “The authorities have also used morality and debauchery laws to arbitrarily
arrest, detain and prosecute survivors and witnesses of sexual and other gender-based violence, womensocial media influencers, and LGBTQI+ people and activists”.408
The U Government’s Human Rights and Democracy Report for 2020, published in July 2021, stated
that: “In January, after interviewing an LGBT+ individual, TV host Mohamed Al-Ghaity was sentenced toa year in prison for contempt of religion, incitement of debauchery, and immorality”.409
The latest edition of ILGA World's “Our Identities under Arrest” report, released in December 2021,
stated that:
In November 2020 three human rights defenders for the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR)
were arrested and investigated for terrorism while being held in Cairo’s Torah prison. The EIPR advocateson issues of SOGIESC, women’s rights, criminal justice, environmental law and health. The three activists
were arrested shortly after meeting with diplomats from several European countries to showcase theirwork.73 […]73 “Verha ungen in gypten nach Tre en mit Schweizer Diplomaten” [Arrests in Egypt after meeting with Swiss
410
diplomats], SRF, 22 November 2020.

The 2022 BTI country report on Egypt, covering the period 1 February 2019 to 31 January 2021 andpublished in February 2022, stated that: “Civil society was harshly repressed, and the regime not only
targeted political opponents but virtually anyone not complying with norms defined by the rulers, suchas atheists, transgender persons, homosexuals or citizens who simply shared the “wrong” content onsocial media”.411 The report further noted that: “During the period under review, hundreds of bloggers
and social media users have been detained for comments criticizing the ruling elite, sharing atheist
views or defending homosexuality, among other issues”.412

407

The International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), Egypt | Stop prosecuting and harassing LGBTIQ+ individuals
and organisations, 11 May 2021
408
Amnesty International et al., Egypt: President should act to unshackle freedoms, 1 June 2021, p. 2
409
UK Government and UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Human Rights & Democracy: The 2020
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office Report, 8 July 2021, p. 44
410
International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), Our Identities Under Arrest: A
global overview on the enforcement of laws criminalising consensual same-sex sexual acts between adults anddiverse gender expressions, 15 December 2021, p. 131
411
Bertelsmann Stiftung, BTI 2022 Country Report: Egypt, 23 February 2022, p. 3
412
Bertelsmann Stiftung, BTI 2022 Country Report: Egypt, 23 February 2022, p. 10

178

The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2022, published in March 2023, stated
that: “Legal discrimination and social stigma impeded LGBTQI+ persons from organizing or advocating
publicly in defense of their rights. Additionally, there was widespread public support for discrimination
against this community. Opinions supporting LGBTQI+ rights cannot be expressed in state-controlled
media. LGBTQI+ civil society organizations are not allowed to register officially, and the ability toassemble peacefully was extremely limited due to the government’s restriction of assemblies in general,
as well as absence of any governmental protection for the community against violence they mightface”.413
The ILGA World Database page for Egypt reported the following: “As a result of hostile state and social
attitudes, groups have not been able to register their organisations officially and often have to work
secretly and anonymously to avoid state persecution. In 2021, a lawsuit was filed in the Administrative
Court of the Council of State to withdraw Human Rights Watch's permit to operate in Egypt, invoking,among other reasons, this organization's work in favor of the human rights of LGBTI people”.414

VII.

Availability of State Protection
a. Investigation and prosecution of crimes against LGBTQI+ individuals

2020
The Alliance of Queer Egyptian Organizations’ (AQEO) statement on their Facebook page in March 2020
on the UPR outcome for Egypt wrote that “trans-persons […] face social violence without protection”.415
An article published in Al-Monitor in June 2020 on the struggles of Egypt's gay community stated thefollowing:
Being openly gay in Egypt is difficult because of societal norms and LGBTQI+ individuals face many issues,
with violence from both the state and civilians being the most obvious, Darwish [gender and human rights
officer with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights] said. They also suffer from a lack of legal
protection, which means that reporting an attack, harassment or rape to the state is impossible. Other
structural issues, like the intervention of the medical system through anal examinations, forms ofcorrective therapy or lack of medical attention and services are also harmful, Darwish explained. “And allthese issues result in economic consequences for the community. Generally people cannot hold jobs well,cannot continue safely in their work or places of study.”
Mohamed Alborgi, founder of the LGBTQI+ organization Rainbow Egypt, told Al-Monitor, “The majority of
LGBTQI individuals in Egypt are living in fear.”
413

USDOS, 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 20 March 2023
International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World), ILGA World Database: Egypt
page, undated [last accessed 30 June 2023]
415
Alliance of Queer Egyptian Organizations (AQEO), Facebook post - Statement regarding the Universal Periodic
Review Outcome – Egypt, 15 March 2020
414

179

He explained that anxiety, depression, chronic stress and fear are common mental health issues. “Beingan outspoken ally or an LGBTQ+ individual in Egypt is an act of heroism. It could mean losing ties withfamily, losing friends and the social support network, being fired from work or physical and verbal
violence in public and private spaces without finding a legal system to gain your rights back or report416
these offenses.”

2021
At the beginning of 2021, Bedayaa Organization produced its annual report covering events relevant to
its legal aid programme from January to December 2020. It reported that:
III. Gangs’ Entrapment and Vulnerability to Protection
In late 2020, a double-edged threat to the LGBTIQ+ community gained new momentum. Several incidents
in which LGBTQI+ persons were targeted and attacked by gangs who used force to film LGBTIQ+
individuals in sexual contexts and robbed them of their money and other belongings inside their houses,
threatening that they would send the photos and films to the police if they were to report it. LGBTIQ+
persons in Egypt were always at risk of being persecuted and prosecuted on the basis of their sexuality,
but now with the recurrence of these types of incidents, this risk is doubled as they are forced tosurrender to these gangs otherwise, they would have to face the higher risk of going to prison if they werereported to the police. Some of these gangs were even allegedly informally connected to the police, whichsheds lights on the state role of protection and the indirect message of the legitimacy of permitting
417
violence.

On 11 May 2021, Bedayaa Organization, ANKH Association (Arab Network for Knowledge about Human
Rights) and the Alliance of Queer Egyptian Organizations (AQEO) released a report twenty years after
the Queen Boat / Cairo 52 incident, writing that: “It is note-worthy that the Egyptian state does notinterfere to protect any member of the LGBTQI+ as the state reinforces violence culture and rejection
towards the LGBTQI+. In monitored cases of violence from non-state actors, LGBTQI+ persons are notprotected when they resort to the police. On the contrary, they are subjected with direct threats ofbeing prosecuted instead”.418
The 2021 Bedayaa Organization report answering FAQs on the situation for LGBTQI people in Egypt
wrote that:
Even though lesbian, bisexual, and queer women do not face the same legal discrimination other groups
face, they face different forms of social and family violence e.g., corrective therapy, forced marriage,
marital rape, forced confinement inside homes and deprivation from education, work and travel. […]Egypt has significant deficiencies in legislations that protect women from social violence, domestic
violence or violence based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In some cases, we document thecooperation of police officers to bring back lesbian or bisexual women to their parent’s house once the416

Al-Monitor, Death of activist Sarah Hegazy highlights struggle of Egypt's gay community, 18 June 2020
Bedayaa Organization, Legal Aid – Annual Report: 2020, 2021, p. 4
418
Bedayaa Organization, ANKH Association (Arab Network for Knowledge about Human Rights) and the Alliance ofQueer Egyptian Organizations (AQEO), Twenty years - Cairo 52, 11 May 2021, p. 9
417

180

father reported her escape even if she is an “adult” not under his legal guardianship. Their escape usuallycomes due to long years of domestic violence and house confinement. […]The Egyptian state condones violence and discrimination against LGBTI community, even though thecommitted violence is supposed to be punished by law e.g., blackmail, physical attack, accessory tomurder and defamation. […]In other cases, the neighbours would attack transgender women in their flats and when the transgenderwomen would call the police, the police would arrest them instead of the neighbours for the reason
mentioned above.
[…] The state does not intervene to protect trans-people at work when they face arbitrary dismissal,
419
verbal and sexual harassment, bullying, and rights violations.

2022
In Amnesty International’s January 2022 submission to the UN Human Rights Committee ahead of the
adoption of the list of issues for the fifth periodic report of Egypt at its 134th session, it stated:“Authorities have detained at least one trans woman in an all-male prison, where she was subjected tosexual assault including by medical staff and where she was held in prolonged solitary confinement
purportedly for her protection. Her complaints to courts were dismissed”.420
The January 2022 article by Malak El-Kashif for the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy stated that:As an Egyptian transgender woman, I can make it clear that we do not have the protections that themedia claims that we have. Quite to the contrary—we are exposed to community targeting and violenceon daily basis. Furthermore, with a legislative vacuum regarding the civil rights of transgender people, wecannot file lawsuits against anyone who commits crimes against us. Instead, we can be detained under
the counter-debauchery articles of law No. 10 of 1961, which is used to punish homosexual men and421transgender women.

The same article also reported on the death of Ahmad Fares after undergoing gender correction surgery
and the lack of investigation into it:“Ahmad Fares” known as “Ezz” died on August 28—a week after undergoing gender correction surgery
performed by a private doctor Ashraf Al-Sebaie. Ezz, like any transgender person in Egypt, was aware thathe could not attain a governmental medical report. He was also aware that he would not obtain approval
from the Medical Syndicate, which, even after resuming its work in 2019, gave approvals to intersex
people and denied them to transgenders. Consequently, Ezz decided to undergo a gender correction
surgery in a private hospital so that he could start his life, work, and rent a house like any transgenderperson abandoned by his family. […]419

Bedayaa Organization, 10 FAQs about LGBTIQs situation in Egypt, 2021, pp. 3-4, 13, 15
Amnesty International, Egypt - Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee – 134th session (28 February –25 March 2022), list of issues, 17 January 2022, p. 2
421
The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, Transgender Policy in Egypt: Murder by Medical Bureaucracy, 18
January 2022
420

181

After undergoing his first gender correction surgery, Ezz was forced to leave the hospital after only one
day—due to doctor’s fear that an inspection committee might pass by the hospital and find that he had
performed the surgery on a transgender man without syndicate approval. Despite the risky surgery andhis precarious health condition, Ezz was forced to leave the hospital. […] A few days after he had
undergone surgery, everyone was surprised at the news of his death due to physical complications andinternal hemorrhaging.
The news of his death was shared widely on social media platforms and covered by many news websitesthat mentioned the name of the doctor and the private hospital in which the surgery was performed.
However, the Egyptian Medical Syndicate took no action against this doctor although it, through its
intransigence and bureaucratic suspension, represents a main reason that Ezz underwent this surgery at
the hands of a private doctor who lacked the capability to perform this type of surgery. On top of that, thecompetent authorities did not investigate his indirect murder in the same way they investigate fabricated422
cases against transgender women accused of “debauchery.”

The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2021, published in April 2022, wrote
that: “Authorities did not use antidiscrimination laws to protect LGBTQI+ individuals. […] There were nogovernment efforts to address potential discrimination”.423
In May 2022, ahead of COP27, Amnesty International wrote: “There are also concerns around the safetyof all participants at COP27, given the Egyptian authorities’ appalling track record in failing to protect
women and LGBTI people from discrimination and gender-based violence as well as prosecuting themon bogus “indecency”, “morality” or “debauchery” charges, simply for the way they dress, talk andexpress themselves on social media or for sexual relations between consenting adults”.424
The New Arab published an article in July 2022 on the lack of gender-affirming health care and legal
gender recognition in Middle East nations, including Egypt. It quoted a statement from Maryam Chaine,a Cairo-based lawyer: ““I receive different cases where transgender people are just targeted or harassed
for who they are. Even in cases where transgender people are the victim of social attacks, the policearrest them instead. In detention, verbal and physical abuse are common and transgender people areespecially targeted because of their identity””.425
Amnesty International, reporting on Egypt’s National Human Rights Strategy (NHRS) in September 2022,
stated that:
The NHRS claims that the "right to personal freedom" and "right to privacy" are safeguarded in theConstitution and the national laws185, and that the state guarantees fair compensation for those whohave been assaulted.186 But in practice, violations of the rights to privacy continue unabated against
LGBTI individuals. The NHRS is entirely silent on violations against LGBTI individuals and activists, despite

422

The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, Transgender Policy in Egypt: Murder by Medical Bureaucracy, 18
January 2022
423
USDOS, 2021 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 12 April 2022
424
Amnesty International, Egypt: Lift restrictions on civic space to ensure a successful COP27, 23 May 2022
425
The New Arab, The Middle East has an anti-transgender bills problem, 22 July 2022

182

well-documented patterns of authorities routinely harassing, arresting and prosecuting individuals on thebasis of their real or perceived sexual orientation and/or gender identity. […]185 SSCHR, NHRS - The Republic of Egypt 2021-2026 (previously cited), p21-22; p42-43
186 SSCHR, NHRS - The Republic of Egypt 2021-2026 (previously cited), p24; p42426

The article by Human Rights Watch in November 2022 on the failure of the Egyptian authorities toprotect vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers from sexual violence, or investigation of such instances,
stated the following:
One aid worker said that their organization never recommends to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender(LGBT) refugees who are sexually assaulted to report incidents to the police, out of fear that police will
instead arrest them because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. […]The transgender woman refugee said that a group of Egyptian men raped her in a private car after
abducting her at knifepoint in January 2022. She said she did not file a police report about the incident
because of a previous experience in 2020 at a Cairo police station, where she was arbitrarily detained in amen’s cell on “morality” charges due to her gender identity, during which time a police employee sexuallyassaulted her. […] Eman said she never considered reporting the incident to the police after her
experience in detention serving a prison sentence on “morality” charges linked to her gender identity in2020 at a Cairo police station, where she was sexually assaulted by a police officer:
I spent six months at this police station, and police there treat people like me as a slave. Once I
arrived at the station, the police took me to the thugs who control the cells and offered me towhoever pays most. I was raped more than once by other inmates. I saw people detained for noreason, sometimes they arrested people who visited the police station to file reports. I can’t go
to police stations in Egypt. They degrade and hate people like me and will find any way to detain
someone like me.
One day a police officer came to the cell where I was being held and asked all inmates to go out
to the corridor except for me. When everyone went out, he asked me to take off my shirt andlooked at my breasts. He said, “How could these naturally be your breasts? How are they thisbig?” Then he started to touch me; after he finished, he made a scene pretending that I was
harassing him and started beating me on my face until I bled from my nose.
Eman said she reported this assault to the chief of the station, but the officer was already suspended. She
said later she was pressured to drop it:
Some time after the assault the chief pressured me to drop the complaint. He said to me, “Dropit or I will make your life a hell,” and he threatened to fabricate more cases against me. I had to427
drop the complaint eventually as I am a foreigner and have no one in this country.

January – May 2023

426

Amnesty International, Egypt: “Disconnected from reality”: Egypt’s National Human Rights Strategy covers up
human rights crisis, 21 September 2022, p. 35
427
Human Rights Watch, Egypt: Sexually Abused Refugees Find No Justice, 24 November 2022

183

The February 2023 Human Rights Watch report into digital targeting and its offline consequences forLGBT people in the Middle East and North Africa gave the following information about extortion andviolence by gang members in Egypt, and lack of response or protection by police:
In Egypt, LGBT people reported being extorted online by gang members pretending to be LGBT people.
After extended periods of chatting online, what begins as a date turns into threats and beatings, often at
knifepoint, to extract money from LGBT people. In several cases we documented, extortionists also raped
LGBT people using force or manipulating them into having sex while surreptitiously recording the act on
their phones to use against them. […]On September 13, 2021, Mahdy, a 28-year-old gay man from Cairo, said he was extorted by a man he had
met on Instagram, with whom he spoke for two months before agreeing to meet him and have sexual
relations. He said:
We went to his place at night and had sex. After we finished, he told me that he knew everything
about me, including my work, my house, and who my father is. He lived in my area as well. He
said that he wouldn’t leave me alone until I paid him 10,000 Egyptian pounds [US$636]. He
snatched my phone and refused to leave without getting paid. I had to pay the amount so I could
escape him. He called me two days later asking for a new mobile phone. He told me that hewould tell my father otherwise, and he sent me a video of our sexual encounter, which he took
without my paying attention. I wasn’t responding because I did not know what to do. I consulted
with a lawyer, and he said that there is a 50 percent chance that he would go to prison, but also
there will be a case against me for immoral conduct. This is why I cannot turn to the law for
help.109 […]Nour, the 31-year-old gender non-binary person who uses they/them pronouns from Zagazig, Egypt, said
they were extorted in January 2021 by a man they met on Grindr. They said:
He took me to his house. After some chatting, he turned into a monster. He pulled out a knife
and told me to give him everything I had. Then he took my phone, all my money, pointed at a
closed door, and told me that behind that door were individuals waiting for his signal to comeout and beat me up. He told me that no one would hear me if I screamed. He told me that his
landlord knew that he brought “faggots” to beat them up and rob them. There were two hours of
shouting and hysteric behavior on his part, and then he forced me to take my clothes off andraped me. He videotaped me and said he would share the video on social media and report meto the police. I tried to resist at first, but I could not do anything as he pointed his knife at me
while he penetrated me. He raped me for around an hour while I was shaking. I felt like it was anightmare. I could not report it because if I did, I would be the one to suffer. How can I report
this crime when the police act similarly to my perpetrator? I know there are thousands of cases
like mine that are left in the dark.115 […]Majd, a 38-year-old gay man from Egypt, and Ismail, a 23-year-old gay man from Egypt, told Human Rights
Watch that a gang extorted them on Grindr in August 2021. Ismail began:
We met a guy on Grindr. We chatted with him for four days before meeting him. He was verykind and kept telling us that he was scared to meet strangers, so we reassured him. He told us
very personal stories and asked us to share detailed information about ourselves as well. We felt
we trusted him because of his approach and told him everything, including about our respective
jobs, the people we lived with, and our address. He came over and we had sex.
An hour after he left, he called us again and told us he wanted to come back and bring a friend
with him. They arrived, and his demeanor changed completely, and the guy with him was a184

vacant-eyed thug. They started moving around the apartment and interrogating us. We told
them to leave, but they refused and told us that they were not there to have sex, they were
there to turn us in to the police. They said they were both in the military. They told us that either
we pay them 70,000 Egyptian pounds (US$4,451) or they would turn us in to the police. They also
demanded we sign an agreement with them. They beat up Ismail. We were terrified.127
Ismail wept as he was telling the story, so Majd continued:
I managed to open the door of our apartment and scream for help, so they got scared and leftfrom the back exit, only taking Ismail’s phone with them. The police came because of thescreaming and asked us what happened, we said it was a theft attempt. The police told us to filea report, but we did not, and I thought that the incident had ended there, only to find [the twomen who tried to blackmail us] waiting for me outside my place a few days later. Wanting tocause a scene, they dragged me to a populated square in Cairo, started calling me a “faggot”
while beating me up in front of everyone, and broke my phone.128
When the police intervened, the man they had met on Grindr told the police that Majd was gay andshowed them their WhatsApp chats, which contained messages about gay sex and stickers (a WhatsApp
feature) that showed images of men having sex. Police officers insulted Majd and Ismail with homophobic
slurs, handcuffed them, and took them to the Helwan police station in Cairo, where they were detainedfor four days.129
Ismail and Majd did not know what happened to the two alleged perpetrators. They tried to file acomplaint at the police station, but officers refused to register their complaint, they said. […]Yasin, an 18-year-old gay man from Egypt, was extorted and raped on December 28, 2020, when he was16, by a gang after he met a gang member on Grindr, only learning later that these men had extorted andraped in a similar manner before. He said:
We spoke very casually and then he invited me to come over to get to know each other as
friends. When I got there, he closed the door behind me, and two other men appeared. One ofthem had a large knife and the other one had a [box]cutter. They told me that I was in captivity,
and they demanded I pay them 100,000 Egyptian pounds [US$6,360] if I ever wanted to leave.
They all raped me and videotaped it on their phones, then they took my phone and wallet, fromwhich they retrieved my family information, and threatened to send the video to my father. I
told them that I did not care. Then they told me they’d share the video on my Facebook profileand broadcast it to my WhatsApp contacts. I told them I had a phone worth 7,000 Egyptian
pounds (US$445) and another 3,000 Egyptian pounds (US$190) in the bank. They were visibly
intoxicated and looked like they were on drugs. I left them my phone and password. They let me
go and told me that they would call me the next day to meet them and give them the money.131
After Yasin left, he found a place nearby where he called his father, told him he was kidnapped, and asked
him to come immediately. His father then took Yasin to the New Cairo Kattameya police station to file acomplaint with the police. Yasin said:
I told the police officer what happened but left out the part about Grindr. I told him that thethugs accosted me in the street, took me to their place, then raped me. He did not believe me,
and when he started yelling at me, my father told him to take us to the chief officer, which hedid. The chief officer said he would help me, then asked that I take another police officer to theapartment where I was being held. We went, and two of the men who attacked me were there,
but the one who had the big knife wasn’t. They started screaming and the police arrested them.
[The police officers] took the three phones there (including mine), drugs they found at theapartment, and the weapons that they had. They refused to confess anything at the police
station, while I filed the police report.132

185

The following day, Yasin went to the office of the public prosecutor, who assured him that he would not
be detained and asked him to explain what happened:
I once again left out the part about Grindr, but when the men who attacked me came in to beinterrogated, one of them confessed to everything and showed the prosecutor the chat on
Grindr. When he searched their phones, he saw a video detailing another incident similar tomine, done in the exact same way. The prosecutor showed me that video and the video theyrecorded of me. We were at the prosecutor’s office from 9 a.m. until 2 a.m.
Four days later, the police department summoned Yasin to perform an anal exam to “verify his sexual
orientation.”133 He added that the exam “showed that he was not gay,” which allowed him to escapedetention.134 Yasin did not know what happened to the men he accused of rape and extortion.
Baha’, a 24-year-old gay man from Alexandria, Egypt, was robbed by a man he met on Facebook, whothen attacked him one evening in February 2021 while they were on a date. […]After the attack against him, Baha’ immediately blocked the man he met on Facebook and went to thenearest police station, near Al-Namous Square in Cairo, to report the attack.
I told the police that I was walking and a group of men attacked and robbed me. I was
accompanied by officers to the location where I was attacked. I distanced myself from them andopened my Facebook account from a pedestrian’s phone to try to get the attackers’ accountdetails. One of the officers saw me, snatched the phone from my hand, and found out that I was
gay from my private Facebook groups. They brought me back to the station and started
interrogating me. One officer said, “I know you’re a faggot, so stop lying and tell me about yourrelation to the attacker.” I told him the whole story. They said, “Do you fuck or get fucked?”“What have you done with the guy?” I was threatened with an anal exam and also with themilitary court’s interference as I am in the army.136
Police officers interrogated Baha’ for from 7 p.m. until 1 a.m. and forced him to open both his Facebook
accounts, his real one and a fake one he used for dating. He described the interrogation process:
I was not allowed to call anyone or use the restroom. The police report stated that I was walking
on the street and my phone fell. The officer did not write another report because it would havebeen a burden, he said, so they threatened me with [sending the case to] the military court toget me to agree to the report as it was. Even though I presented information about theperpetrators’ identities, the police did absolutely nothing to help me. Instead, they threatened
and insulted me. I left there completely shocked, and I had no money, so I had to walk a long
distance.137 […]109 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Mahdy, October 7, 2021. […]115 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Nour, October 6, 2021. […]127 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Majd and Ismail, October 14, 2021.
128 Ibid.
129 Ibid. […]131 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Yasin, October 26, 2021.
132 Ibid.
133 Forced anal examinations constitute cruel, degrading, and inhuman treatment that can rise to the level of tortureand sexual assault under international human rights law. They violate medical ethics and lack scientific validity for
their purported purpose of establishing that same-sex conduct has taken place. They are therefore internationallydiscredited. Human Rights Watch, Dignity Debased: Forced Anal Examinations in Homosexuality Prosecutions, (NewYork: Human Rights Watch report, 2016), https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/07/12/dignity-debased/forced-analexaminations-homosexuality- prosecutions.
134 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Yasin, October 26, 2021. […]186

136 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Baha’, October 22, 2021.
428
137 Ibid.

The article in February 2023 in Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) MENA by Ahmed ShihabEldin stated that: “Queer Egyptians can't go to the police or authorities when they are attacked or
entrapped, because they fear being jailed themselves on trumped-up charges of debauchery or sex
work. […] One 18-year-old I spoke to who was attacked by the gang we follow in our BBC investigation
asked his lawyer if he could report them to the police. The lawyer warned him not to and that he would
very easily be charged with debauchery if he did. "My lawyer said that my offense is more severe than
my attacker, according to Egyptian society," he told me”.429
In early March 2023, the UN Human Rights Committee published a summary record of the 3958th
meeting, held in February 2023, in which the fifth periodic report of Egypt was considered. Within it,
concerns were raised that: “the State party had not accepted recommendations made at its universal
periodic review in 2020 concerning the investigation of cases of harassment and discrimination,
including by the police, against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons”.430
The USDOS annual report on human rights practices in Egypt in 2022, published in March 2023, statedthat:
Authorities did not use antidiscrimination laws to protect LGBTQI+ individuals. Legal discrimination andsocial stigma impeded LGBTQI+ persons from organizing or advocating publicly in defense of their rights.
A local rights group reported several cases of discrimination in employment against members of the
LGBTQI+ community that forced them into jobs requiring more working hours and less compensation.
Several cases were reported of LGBTQI+ persons who were threatened by landlords or neighbors tovacate their homes or risk complaints being filed against them with police. There were no government
431
efforts to address potential discrimination.

The report further wrote that: “LGBTQI+ civil society organizations are not allowed to register officially,
and the ability to assemble peacefully was extremely limited due to the government’s restriction ofassemblies in general, as well as absence of any governmental protection for the community against
violence they might face”.432
In April 2023, the UN Human Rights Committee published its concluding observations on the fifth
periodic report of Egypt, in which it stated that: “9. The Committee is concerned about continuing
428

Human Rights Watch, “All This Terror Because of a Photo”: Digital Targeting and Its Offline Consequences forLGBT People in the Middle East and North Africa, 21 February 2023, pp. 42, 44, 46, 52-56
429
Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) MENA, How Sisi's Regime Is Ruthlessly Targeting Egypt's Queer
Community, 27 February 2023
430
UN Human Rights Committee, 137th session, Summary record of the 3958th meeting*: Held at the Palais
Wilson, Geneva, on Tuesday, 28 February 2023, at 3 p.m. - Consideration of reports submitted by States parties
under article 40 of the Covenant - Fifth periodic report of Egypt, 6 March 2023, p. 8
431
USDOS, 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 20 March 2023
432
USDOS, 2022 Country Report on Human Rights Practices: Egypt, 20 March 2023

187

reports of discrimination, stigmatization, harassment and violence, including by law enforcement
officials, against persons on the basis of their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity, andthat these serious crimes are not investigated and punished”.433

b. Fear of reporting to authorities
The article by Human Rights Watch in November 2022 on the failure of the Egyptian authorities toprotect vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers from sexual violence, or investigation of such instances,
stated the following:
One aid worker said that their organization never recommends to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender(LGBT) refugees who are sexually assaulted to report incidents to the police, out of fear that police will
instead arrest them because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. […]The transgender woman refugee said that a group of Egyptian men raped her in a private car after
abducting her at knifepoint in January 2022. She said she did not file a police report about the incident
because of a previous experience in 2020 at a Cairo police station, where she was arbitrarily detained in amen’s cell on “morality” charges due to her gender identity, during which time a police employee sexually434
assaulted her.

The February 2023 Human Rights Watch report into digital targeting and its offline consequences forLGBT people in the Middle East and North Africa gave the following information about extortion andviolence by gang members in Egypt, and lack of response or protection by police:
On September 13, 2021, Mahdy, a 28-year-old gay man from Cairo, said he was extorted by a man he had
met on Instagram, with whom he spoke for two months before agreeing to meet him and have sexual
relations. He said:
We went to his place at night and had sex. After we finished, he told me that he knew everything
about me, including my work, my house, and who my father is. He lived in my area as well. He
said that he wouldn’t leave me alone until I paid him 10,000 Egyptian pounds [US$636]. He
snatched my phone and refused to leave without getting paid. I had to pay the amount so I could
escape him. He called me two days later asking for a new mobile phone. He told me that hewould tell my father otherwise, and he sent me a video of our sexual encounter, which he took
without my paying attention. I wasn’t responding because I did not know what to do. I consulted
with a lawyer, and he said that there is a 50 percent chance that he would go to prison, but also
there will be a case against me for immoral conduct. This is why I cannot turn to the law for
help.109 […]Nour, the 31-year-old gender non-binary person who uses they/them pronouns from Zagazig, Egypt, said
they were extorted in January 2021 by a man they met on Grindr. They said:
He took me to his house. After some chatting, he turned into a monster. He pulled out a knife
and told me to give him everything I had. Then he took my phone, all my money, pointed at a
closed door, and told me that behind that door were individuals waiting for his signal to come433
434

UN Human Rights Committee, Concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of Egypt, 14 April 2023, p. 2
Human Rights Watch, Egypt: Sexually Abused Refugees Find No Justice, 24 November 2022

188

out and beat me up. He told me that no one would hear me if I screamed. He told me that his
landlord knew that he brought “faggots” to beat them up and rob them. There were two hours of
shouting and hysteric behavior on his part, and then he forced me to take my clothes off andraped me. He videotaped me and said he would share the video on social media and report meto the police. I tried to resist at first, but I could not do anything as he pointed his knife at me
while he penetrated me. He raped me for around an hour while I was shaking. I felt like it was anightmare. I could not report it because if I did, I would be the one to suffer. How can I report
this crime when the police act similarly to my perpetrator? I know there are thousands of cases
like mine that are left in the dark.115 […]109 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Mahdy, October 7, 2021. […]435
115 Human Rights Watch phone interview with Nour, October 6, 2021.

The article in February 2023 in Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) MENA by Ahmed ShihabEldin stated that: “Queer Egyptians can't go to the police or authorities when they are attacked or
entrapped, because they fear being jailed themselves on trumped-up charges of debauchery or sex
work. […] One 18-year-old I spoke to who was attacked by the gang we follow in our BBC investigation
asked his lawyer if he could report them to the police. The lawyer warned him not to and that he would
very easily be charged with debauchery if he did. "My lawyer said that my offense is more severe than
my attacker, according to Egyptian society," he told me”.436

435

Human Rights Watch, “All This Terror Because of a Photo”: Digital Targeting and Its Offline Consequences forLGBT People in the Middle East and North Africa, 21 February 2023, pp. 44 and 46
436
Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) MENA, How Sisi's Regime Is Ruthlessly Targeting Egypt's Queer
Community, 27 February 2023

189