Sarah Hegazi
Sarah Hegazi | |
---|---|
سارة حجازي | |
LGBT , socialist and human rights activism |
Sarah Hegazi (
Early life and education
Hegazi was born on 1 October 1989 to an Egyptian conservative middle-class family; she was the eldest of four siblings. She helped her mother take care of her siblings after her father, a high school science teacher, died. Pictures of a young Hegazi in conservative Islamic garb, including a hijab, surfaced after her death.[4] Hegazi wore the hijab until she came out as a lesbian in 2016.[5][6]
In 2010, Hegazi graduated from Thebas Academy with a bachelor's degree in information systems and the
Political views
Hegazi identified as a
Persecution in Egypt
Arrest and asylum
On September 22, 2017, Sarah Hegazi attended a concert for the
Legal and political context
In Egypt, where homosexuality is not outlawed explicitly in jurisprudence, detention and charges are made on the basis of the 1961 "Law on Combating Prostitution" that sanctions debauchery and sex work. In October 2017, in the aftermath of the Mashrou' Leila's 2017 Cairo concert, a number of Egyptian members of the parliament submitted a law that sanctions homosexual acts with up to three years of prison. If convicted again, the convicts would face the possibility of being sentenced to imprisonment for five years.[14] The law update was used to crack down on Egyptian LGBT individuals even though the updated law made no allusion to homosexuality. The update authorized the police to infiltrate chat rooms and dating apps, to pretend to be gay men and women and ensnare members of the LGBT community.[22] According to the Egyptian government, the law was updated to address modern developments and to stop the internet and social media users from encouraging vice and the practice of prostitution. The LGBTQ+ community is posited as a national security threat by the Egyptian government, religious authorities, and political parties; this view is promoted by state-controlled media outlets.[23]
Death and legacy
Hegazi died on 14 June 2020 in Toronto, Canada. On 15 June 2020, Hegazi's lawyer Khaled Al-Masry confirmed her death as suicide.[24] A short letter written by Hegazi, in Arabic, circulated on social media following her death.[3][24] The letter read: "To my siblings – I tried to survive and I failed, forgive me. To my friends – the experience was harsh and I am too weak to resist it, forgive me. To the world – you were cruel to a great extent, but I forgive."[25][26] Her death was reported across a range of international news outlets, with tributes to her activism a recurring theme.[27][28][29] Hamed Sinno, the frontman of the Lebanese band Mashrou' Leila shared a tribute on his Facebook profile to Hegazi which read "الحرية لروحك", or "Freedom for your soul".[29][30] Sinno later composed and performed a song based on the words written by Hegazi shortly before her death.[31] Visual art memorializing Hegazi has circulated widely since her death.[32][30] Other Arab and Middle Eastern artists and public figures shared messages of sympathy and solidarity with Hegazi and the LGBT community among which Egyptian actor Amr Waked, Lebanese singer and stage actress Carole Samaha, Iranian painter and LGBT activist Alireza Shojaian, and Jordanian lawyer and journalist Ola Al-Fares.[30][33]
The Canadian socialist magazine Spring published an obituary to Hegazi with Valerie Lannon writing: "I remember her saying 'I never felt so alive as during the revolution.' In her honour, and to fulfil our own sense of life, it is our duty to continue fighting for the revolution here, Egypt and around the world."
Hegazi was laid to rest in a rainbow coloured casket following a public funeral at St. John's Dixie Cemetery on 22 June 2020.[37]
Commemorative events continued after Hegazi's funeral. The organizers of
The Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) named Sarah Hegazi in their tribute to "450 feminist activists who have changed our world".[49]
John Greyson's 2021 experimental short documentary film International Dawn Chorus Day was created as a tribute to Hegazi and Shady Habash.[50] A short documentary titled "The Sarah Hegazi Documentary" by director Nicole Teeny was a finalist of the 2022 Breaking Through the Lens jury.[51]
In February 2023, the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy announced a fellowship commemorating Hegazi.[52]
Reactions
There is a long history of LGBT people being erased and oppressed both specifically in Egypt and in the broader context of the Middle East and North Africa (
Street murals and graffiti art commemorating Hegazi in the Jordanian capital Amman were speedily painted over after a social media uproar.[60] A journalist decried the act in a tweet saying: "...the Amman Municipality worked until the late night hours on obliterating drawings by some aberrants [شواذ, an Arabic pejorative for homosexuals] in some areas of Amman. I am surprised that this category [homosexuals] exists even though it is foreign to our customs and traditions..."[61] A spokesperson for the Greater Amman Municipality said: "Amman Mayor Yusef Al-Shawarbeh issued an order to all district managers to remove the murals."[61]
Egypt's Bedayaa LGBT Organisation reported that the death of Hegazi and the ensuing media attention prompted an online homophobic and transphobic smear campaign against her and the LGBT community.[18] Noor Selim, a transgender Egyptian man and the son of renowned actor Hesham Selim, blasted what he called societal hypocrisy and defended Hegazi's memory.[62] On 23 June 2020, two Egyptian lawyers filed a lawsuit against Selim for defending Hegazi, and accused him of trying to "spread homosexuality" in Egypt.[63]
Cheikh Rafiki, a Moroccan Muslim cleric, received death threats when he defended the memory of Hegazi from an online
Italian photographer Umberto Nicoletti published a book titled "Asylum", in collaboration the 519 Church Street, CIG Arcigay, and other LGBT community LGBT organizations that offer refugees support programs. The book recounts the stories of LGBT asylum seekers, and opens with Hegazi's story.[68]
References
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- ^ "Sarah Hegazi on Instagram: "ياعبسلام تاني شهادة في كورسات الاونلاين ، والمرة دي عن النسوية والعدالة الاجتماعية ."". Instagram.
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- ^ "In memory of Sarah: Reflections on violence, fear and pain". dis:orient.
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- ^ Staff, The Popular Chorus (22 June 2020). "Artists pay tribute to departed LGBTQ+ activist Sarah Hegazi". The Popular Chorus. Archived from the original on 26 June 2020. Retrieved 25 June 2020.
- ^ "Artists pay tribute to departed LGBTQ+ activist Sarah Hegazi". 22 June 2020. Archived from the original on 26 June 2020. Retrieved 23 June 2020.
- ^ Zaramella, Nicole (22 June 2020). "Alireza Shojaian, the Painter of Middle Eastern Queer Men | Il Grande Colibrì". Archived from the original on 1 July 2020. Retrieved 1 July 2020.
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{{cite web}}
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- ^ Maria (20 June 2020). "Islam - Maroc: Cheikh Rafiki " menacé de mort " sur le Net par un daechien" [Islam - Morocco: Cheikh Rafiki "threatened with death" on the web by an ISIS member]. Article19.ma (in French). Retrieved 25 June 2020.
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- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
External links
- The Guardian (22 June 2022). The queer revolution in the Middle East: 'One good song can do more than 5,000 protests'.