alsemanche 97,808 Posted June 14, 2020 Share Posted June 14, 2020 TRIGGER WARNING: SUICIDE, ASSAULT, HARASSMENT, HOMOPHOBIA (I did not include suicide in the title in order not to trigger anyone) Sarah Hegazy, a prominent Egyptian queer activist, has been found dead on 14 July 2020 in her house in Canada at age 30. The activist is confirmed to have committed suicide. Sarah rose into prominence in 2017-2018 after she (and her friend) raised a rainbow flag at Mashrou Leila's concert in Cairo, a Lebanese band whose lead singer is openly gay. What followed was a series of condemnations and crackdowns that led to the arrest of up to 57 people in Egypt. Sarah was imprisoned for 3 months for “promoting sexual deviancy and debauchery.” She suffered abuse and harassment in prison, and the incident left her with PTSD. She eventually sought asylum in Canada where she lived for a few years before taking her own life yesterday. Sarah's only crime was being queer and being proud of herself in a society that is too bigoted and backwards to accept her and so many people like her. Sarah's death has hit us like a punch in the guts. We're all in shock and in disbelief at what happened. Many of us have followed her struggle and fought for her freedom along with the other incarcerated victims. Seeing her go hurts like hell. Any one of us can be next, and despite all the efforts we put as a community to keep each other safe in such a toxic environment, we're always faced with oppression and more pain and more loss. We need to stick closer together, and we need to support each other as much as possible, no matter how minimal that support might be. We won't survive alone. Sarah is not the first to leave, and she definitely won't be the last. In her last note, she wrote: “To my siblings – I tried to find redemption and failed, forgive me. To my friends – the experience [journey] 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.” Source: https://egyptianstreets.com/2020/06/14/egyptian-lgbtqi-activist-sara-hegazy-dies-aged-30-in-canada/ I'm sorry if this seems too bleak or depressing, but I insist on spreading news about such topics because they are rarely highlighted or even mentioned in international media. Arab queer voices need to be heard and we need to be seen. I hope to at least inform more people about our plights in hopes that maybe one day our voices will lead to radical change in our societies. I hope this doesn't go unnoticed here. Soft, soothing, and succulent Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alsemanche 97,808 Posted June 15, 2020 Author Share Posted June 15, 2020 Bringing this back to attention Soft, soothing, and succulent Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Velvet 10,988 Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 Why do we live in a world that oppresses us? Will the fear ever end? I'm like some kind of supernova Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alsemanche 97,808 Posted June 15, 2020 Author Share Posted June 15, 2020 6 minutes ago, BLACKPINK said: Why do we live in a world that oppresses us? Will the fear ever end? It sounds like an unachievable dream more and more every day tbh Soft, soothing, and succulent Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 11 hours ago, alsemanche said: To the world – you were cruel to a great extent, but I forgive.” Thats the saddest thing Ive ever read Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pennywise 36,080 Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 We can never have peace as long as bigots live, can we? It can never be "we". It is always us against them. No amount of kindness, no amount of compassion, no amount of us being nice will ever change that. So long ggd, it was nice while it lasted. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Hybrid 11,049 Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 How can this still be allowed? How can this be tolerated? I am beyond angry and sad right now. Countries like Egypt, including my own even if not that extreme, need to seek a reformation to protect such beautiful lives. 12 hours ago, alsemanche said: “To my siblings – I tried to find redemption and failed, forgive me. To my friends – the experience [journey] 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.” Her last words prove a harsh truth: The people who promote homophobia and any other kind of discrimination are murderers. There is no running away from it. There is nothing in between. If you promote any of these ideas, you are guilty and it's your job to fix this. No family’s safe when I sashay Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dramatica 13,698 Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 Can we please do a huge focus on gay issues in the middle east and Africa? I didn't ask for a free ride, I only asked you to show me a real good time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woohoo 6,534 Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 As a middle eastern I hope the future arab queer generations will never have to go through this "I heard if you record Gaga snoring and play it backward it sounds like an act. 2 unreleased." Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alsemanche 97,808 Posted June 15, 2020 Author Share Posted June 15, 2020 2 hours ago, Dramatica said: Can we please do a huge focus on gay issues in the middle east and Africa? I'm trying to post news about this kind of issues on here as often as I can. We're underrepresented on every single platform, so I might as well do my share of the job and post wherever I can. Soft, soothing, and succulent Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alsemanche 97,808 Posted June 15, 2020 Author Share Posted June 15, 2020 1 hour ago, Woohoo said: As a middle eastern I hope the future arab queer generations will never have to go through this I hope we manage to keep them as safe as possible and give them the future we wanted for ourselves. Some great people are doing great things for the community, but it's very hard when the vast majority of the society around you is against you. Soft, soothing, and succulent Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dramatica 13,698 Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 20 minutes ago, alsemanche said: I'm trying to post news about this kind of issues on here as often as I can. We're underrepresented on every single platform, so I might as well do my share of the job and post wherever I can. When I look at the LGBTQ+ rights in the world I'm saddened and angered by the fact that a whole continent and region are homophobic. We need to do something, this has to change during our lifetime, I won't accept to pass on this to next generation to deal with. What can we do? I didn't ask for a free ride, I only asked you to show me a real good time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alsemanche 97,808 Posted June 16, 2020 Author Share Posted June 16, 2020 Mashrou' Leila's lead singer, Hamed Sinno, posted a heartbreaking message about Sarah's passing: "I’m sorry this is taking a minute, but I haven’t been able to articulate my thoughts about Sara’s death. To be honest, my thoughts are constantly interrupted by stabs of resurfacing trauma. I suspect this is the same reason I haven’t been able to write a song in years, but that’s irrelevant. I realize a lot of people are waiting for me to say something, but what can I say now that I haven’t been saying for years? Why should my opinion matter anyway? Many are quick to point out mental illness, and her depression, but pathologizing mental illness does nothing to explain why some of us are afflicted and others are not. Mental illness does not exist in a void. It is a product of structural violence. The power of heteropatriarchal capitalism is the way it inhabits the body. We are born into trauma, and we carry it with us wherever we go. “Minorities” show higher death rates in every kind of “natural” death. We have higher rates of diabetes, heart disease, respiratory failure, cancer, anything. You name it. That is what trauma does to the body. That is what hate does to the body. The thought that someone can leave a society that keeps trying to kill them, and still carry that society inside them, still be moved to taking their own lives, chills me to the bone, as I reflect on my own exile, and the exile of the people I love. We spend the first part of our lives demanding air in our homelands, and then we leave to countries where we are promised air, only to find out we were robbed of lungs. Continuing to not address the structural inequality that produces this much suffering is a crime. We might not actively be contributing to it, but we actively benefit from it. That too is murder. I have nothing to say that we don’t all already know. My opinion as always doesn’t matter. What is this ridiculous thirst for commentary from “celebrities?” Why do you need me to say anything for you to get angry? Why do you need performative politics to validate your subjectivity? Am I allowed to grieve for a minute before I’m skewered for not responding “fast enough.” I was once deluded enough in my optimism that I honestly believed music could change the world. I honestly believed that if people saw that I, a *******, loved, and cried, and suffered, and laughed, and danced, and fought for Palestine, and fought masculinity, and fought racism, and fought capitalism, and fought and fought and fought and fought and fought I honestly thought they’d understand that I was human. That we were human. I got away with it for long enough that I started to believe my own optimism, and so did others, and they suffered for it. Her blood is on my hands as much as it is on yours. It should have been me in that prison cell. I apologize if I gave anyone hope that they’ll one day see us as human. The truth is, they’ve always known we’re human. That’s why they pretend to be doing god’s bidding when they kill us. I don’t know what to make of the amount of hate I’ve seen over the last two days. We are a society that thinks it can speak for god. We are a society that thinks it can correct gods creations. We are a society that murders the innocent and spits on their graves before they’re even buried. None of this is gods will. None of this is religion. This is a society of murderers using god to justify their bigotry. What is this god you believe in who creates anything or anyone less than perfect? What is this god who condones this kind of hatred? What is this god you believe in who needs you, a repugnant loathsome maggot, to correct god’s work? To my young lgbtq+ following, you are god’s creation, as much as anyone else is. You are perfect. You are beautiful. You are loved. You deserve better. To everyone else, I leave you with Sara’s last words: السما احلى من الأرض، وأنا عاوزه السما مش الأرض The sky is sweeter than the earth, and I need the sky not the earth." Source: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10223708256917615&id=1328501785 Soft, soothing, and succulent Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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