Gay rights in egypt
How Egyptian police hunt LGBT people on dating apps
BBC News
In Egypt, homosexuality is highly stigmatised, and there have long been allegations that police are hunting LGBT 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 conscious 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 the tactics for tracking down LGBT people more sophisticated.
There is no explicit regulation against homosexuality in Egypt, but our investigation has found that the crime of "debauchery" - a sex work law - is being used to criminalise the LGBT community.
Transcripts submitted in police arrest reports show how officers are posing online to seek out - and in some cases allegedly fabricate evidence against - LGBT people looking for dates online.
They reveal how the police initiate message conversations with their targets.
Egypt is one of the most strategically essential Western allies in the Middle East and receives
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Last updated: 17 December 2024
Types of criminalisation
- Criminalises LGBT people
- Criminalises sexual activity between males
Summary
Same-sex sexual activity is prohibited under the Penal Code 1937 and Law 10/1961, which criminalises acts of ‘indecency’, ‘scandalous acts’, and ‘debauchery’. These provisions carry a maximum penalty of three years’ imprisonment and a fine. The local representation group Bedayaa reports that, in actual world, some are convicted to up to six years in prison. Only men are criminalised under this law.
These laws do not explicitly criminalise same-sex sexual activity but have been enforced, to varying degrees, against the LGBT group in recent decades. The provisions are of colonial origin, and their vagueness has allowed them to be applied to gay sexual activity over time.
There is substantial evidence of the law being enforced in recent years, with LGBT people being frequently subject to arrest, especially since 2013 following an incident in which a pride flag was raised at a concert (see below).
Ahmed El Hady has written and lobbied extensively on behalf of the Egyptian LGBTQ community, both at home and abroad. He is especially interested in creating a safer environment for LGBTQ Egyptians and framing their political aspirations as an integral part of the struggle for freedom in Egypt. Any discussion of rights, he argues, must incorporate LGBTQ rights. When Egypt’s trendy uprising broke out in January 2011, El Hady took a leave from his PhD program at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self Organization in Germany to participate in the revolution. He eventually completed his studies and now works at Princeton University, where he does pioneering study on closed-loop methodologies in neuroscience. He edited the first-ever reference work on the subject and innovated novel approaches to studying the brain. However, El Hady remains active in LGBTQ issues and continues to write and lobby extensively on behalf of the Egyptian LGBTQ collective. El Hady talked with Thanassis Cambanis at The Century Foundation in December 2018 about LGBTQ rights in Egypt and the wider world.
Thanassis Cambanis: What is the state of the LGBTQ community in Egypt right now?
Ahmed CAIRO — Two international rights groups called on Egyptian authorities on Saturday to halt their crackdown on people suspected of homosexuality following the waving of the LGBTQ rainbow flag at a recent concert in Cairo. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International also urged Egypt, a majority Muslim country of some 95 million people, to call off the anal examination of people detained on suspicion of homosexuality to determine whether they were engaged in same-sex sexual relations. They said the practice amounted to torture and called it “abhorrent” and scientifically unsound. Homosexuality is highly taboo in Egypt among Muslims and minority Christians alike, but it is not explicitly prohibited by law. Egypt regularly arrests gay men, with large police raids on private parties or locations such as common baths, restaurants and bars. In practice, they prosecute individuals under such charges as “immorality” and “debauchery.” Egypt arrested at least seven people last week after footage of the rainbow flag raising surfaced on social media. The incident took place during a Sept. 22 concert by Lebanese indie rock band M .
Human Rights Groups Urge Egypt to Halt Crackdown on Gays