Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Hello. I'm Assem. I'm Egyptian and currently live in the US. Today is Human Rights Day.
Unfortunately, for me -- a gay man -- in my home country I have absolutely no rights.
I don't have the right to live as a gay man - to live as who I am like everybody else.
As an Egyptian citizen, I am supposed to have the exact same rights as any other Egyptian
citizen. Gay or not gay, lesbian or not, it should not matter. Whats important is for
me to be able to live my life without fear, without humiliation, without being arrested
- without society and the government treating me like a criminal, or a deviant, or a sick
person. However, not only in Egypt but all over the Arab world, we are treated inhumanely.
A lot of people are still being arrested and detained/imprisoned just because they are
homosexual and not for anything else. Some of those who are arrested are tried (in court),
some are physically assaulted and/or tortured in prison or in police stations. I know a
lot of gay people in Egypt and in the Arab world who cannot be themselves (live as gay
people) and are always living in fear. They often wonder what will happen if they come
out or are outed? What will their family say/do? What will the community/society say/do to
them? Even if people, even if society thinks that being gay is 'wrong', people are entitled
to their own opinion. If folks believe that homosexuality is against their faith/religion,
they are free to think that. But people are not free and do not have the right to treat
me and other gay people in a bad/negative/horrific way. We are human beings just like anybody
else in society. We are not asking for something strange or for more than what other citizens
receive. We are asking for our ability to live our life in the society. We are already
living with you, within society. This is the thing people don't understand. Gay people
are already part of the Arab community. We are your siblings, your children.... You just
don't know that we are gay. My hope is that one day, every gay person will be able to
live his/her life as a gay person and that equality will prevail; that the universality
of human rights will be applied onto every single Egyptian and every single Arab citizen.