Sarah Hegazi
Queer feminist / Activist
TW: Homophobia, torture, suicide
In 2017, Egyptian activist Sarah Hegazi rose to prominence after she was arrested and imprisoned for flying a rainbow flag at a Mashrou' Leila concert in Cairo. Her death by suicide in 2020, following years of PTSD and exile, sent shockwaves throughout the LGBTQ+ community around the world.
Sarah, the eldest of four children, was born in 1989. She was still young when her father died and she had to help her mother to raise her siblings, something she took very seriously. In 2010, she graduated with a bachelor's degree in Information Systems, but her education did not end there, and over the next few years she obtained certificates in everything from feminism and social justice to research methods and diversity in the workplace.
Sarah was an activist outside of education too, and was a known supporter of the Bread and Freedom Party - a democratic socialist party in Egypt that believed in wealth distribution. She was a vocal critic of Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, the President of Egypt since 2014 who has ruled with an iron fist. Donald Trump’s ‘favourite dictator,’ al-Sisi introduced controversial constitutional amendments in 2019 which would allow him to remain in power until 2030.
“Instead of building schools or parks, the regime is building prisons and jails [...] There is no political life now, just one voice which is that of the military, the system, the regime. There are no human rights, women’s rights, refugee rights, or rights for journalists.”
On 22 September 2017, Sarah attended a Mashrou' Leila concert, a Lebanese band whose lead singer, Hamed Sinno, is openly gay.
Sarah waved a rainbow flag in ‘an act of support and solidarity… for everyone who is oppressed.’
And with that, she and dozens of others (some say more than 100 people) were arrested for what the Egyptian state called ‘sexual deviance.’ Reports say that she was the only queer woman arrested, although it’s difficult to confirm this. Her friend, Ahmed Alaa, was also arrested and charged with ‘joining a group formed in contrary to the law.’
“It was a whole troop, a large number of armed officers, and all this just to arrest a single woman. We never thought that this would provoke such reactions.”
Sarah spent three months in jail ‘in a solitary cell with no fresh air, no talking, and no people’ where she developed depression and ‘lost the ability to make eye contact with people.’ She had ‘almost no visitors’ and described being subjected to electric shock. Later, she recalled being ‘sexually assaulted by inmates and tortured by prison officials’ for her sexual orientation. When she was released on bail, Sarah suffered PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).
As an openly queer woman in a country that arrested her for waving a flag, Sarah began to fear that she would be arrested again, so she fled to Canada.
Although Egypt does not explicitly outlaw homosexuality, it frequently uses charges of "public debauchery" in order to prosecute those who do not comply with societal prescriptions of sexual orientation and gender. (Source DW)
It was not an easy move. Leaving behind her friends and family was extremely hard, and made even more difficult when her mother died of cancer just a month after she arrived in Canada. Sarah was unable to be with her siblings to grieve. While glad for the asylum Canada offered her, she longed to return home. As writer and Assistant Professor of Global Studies, Ahmad Qais Munhazim pointed out:
“Queer Muslim refugees who make it to Western countries may find that rejection has followed them in a new form: Islamophobia. Meanwhile, in LGBTQ communities, being Muslim and queer is seen as paradoxical. As a result, queer and trans Muslims in exile in the West become outsiders twice over.”
On 13 June 2020, Sarah was found dead in her home. She was 30. In a note left behind she had written:
“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, you have been extremely cruel, but I forgive.”
A year later, a group of lesbian and queer feminists launched MENA Lesbian and Queer Women’s Pride Day in honour of Sarah and ‘all the women fighters we have lost on this path.’ It is also an annual opportunity to ‘shine a light on lesbian, queer, and transgender women in our societies’ - particularly those in the Middle East and North Africa - while also ‘challenging patriarchal dominions and cisgender guardianship.’
Around the world, women like Sarah, and the LGBTQ+ community at large, are being oppressed, arrested and murdered for loving who they love, and being who they are. Here in Ireland, homophobia is on the rise again and attacks on our trans sisters particularly, are commonplace. We must not give platforms to those who seek to ‘debate’ the human rights of LGBTQ+ people. We must call out homophobia in all its forms when we see it.
Helplines:
The National LGBT Helpline: Visit Website: www.lgbt.ie Call: 1890 929 539
Pieta House: Visit Website: www.pieta.ie Call: 1800 247 247
Samaritans: Visit Website: www.samaritans.org Call: 116 123
Your Mental Health: Visit Website: www.yourmentalhealth.ie
Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI): Visit Website: www.teni.ie Call: 01 873 35 75
Lesbian Line: Visit Website: www.dublinlesbianline.ie Call: 01 8729911
Sources:
‘LGBTQ activist Sarah Hegazi, exiled in Canada after torture in Egypt, dead at 30,’ online at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/sarah-hegazi-death-1.5614698 [accessed 21 June 2022].
‘Egyptian LGBT activist dies by suicide in Canada,’ online at: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/6/15/egyptian-lgbt-activist-dies-by-suicide-in-canada [accessed 21 June 2022].
‘Egyptian LGBT+ activist Sarah Hegazy, jailed for waving rainbow flag, dies at 30,’ online at: https://www.dw.com/en/egyptian-lgbt-activist-sarah-hegazy-jailed-for-waving-rainbow-flag-dies-at-30/a-53831469 [accessed 21 June 2022].
‘Suicide of Egyptian activist Sarah Hegazi exposes the ‘freedom and violence’ of LGBTQ Muslims in exile,’ online at: https://theconversation.com/suicide-of-egyptian-activist-sarah-hegazi-exposes-the-freedom-and-violence-of-lgbtq-muslims-in-exile-141268 [accessed 21 June 2022].
‘Lessons from Egypt’s counter-revolution for Sudan,’ online at: https://springmag.ca/interview-lessons-from-egypts-counter-revolution-for-sudan [accessed 21 June 2022].
‘Egypt President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi: Ruler with an iron grip,’ online at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-19256730 [accessed 21 June 2022].
‘After Crackdown, Egypt's LGBT Community Contemplates 'Dark Future’,’ online at: https://www.npr.org/2018/06/18/620110576/after-crackdown-egypts-lgbt-community-contemplates-dark-future?t=1592233234302&t=1655898819016 [accessed 22 June 2022].
‘First Annual MENA Lesbian and Queer Woman's Pride Day in Honor of Sarah Hegazi,’ online at: https://freedomhouse.org/article/first-annual-mena-lesbian-and-queer-womans-pride-day-honor-sarah-hegazi#:~:text=The%20movements%20and%20organizations%20that,Middle%20East%20and%20North%20Africa. [accessed 22 June 2022].
‘Poignant tributes for Sara Hegazy, the Egyptian activist tortured for flying a Pride flag, one year after her tragic death,’ online at: https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2021/06/14/sara-hegazy-egyptian-lgbt-activist-died-suicide-anniversary/ [accessed 22 June 2022].