Comment on Egypt's gays go deeper underground, fearing crackdown

Egypt's gays go deeper underground, fearing crackdown

There to film it all was an Egyptian television presenter, who claims she actually triggered the raid by tipping off police about alleged homosexual activity in the bathhouse. Activists say that by cracking down on gays, the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi aims to boost its credentials as a protector of morals and religious values in a competition with its rival, the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists. Around 150 men this year have been arrested or are on trial in connection with homosexuality, the highest number in more than a decade, said Scott Long, an American activist and researcher on gay rights. The men arrested in the bath, Long said, so far have been unable to hire lawyers since private lawyers refuse such cases and even rights groups are keeping a distance since they already fear being targeted by the government. In Egypt — where both the Muslim majority and Christian minority are deeply conservative — homosexuality is strongly taboo, and a gay rights movement has never really been able to gain any traction. Amid the pro-democracy atmosphere sparked by the 2011 uprising that ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak, many gays felt cautious optimism, though they feared the rise of Islamists. Last month, an Egyptian court sentenced eight men to three years in prison on charges of "inciting debauchery" after they appeared in a video taken during a party on a Nile boat in which they appeared to exchange rings in what prosecutors alleged was a same-sex wedding. After coming under heavy criticism, el-Iraqi denied that homosexuality was the target of her program, saying on her Facebook page on Thursday that it meant to address "sex trafficking in a public place" and that her and the police's actions "were taken to prevent a crime that even Western countries prohibit by law."

 

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