Intervention: Saleem Haddad on the death of Sarah Hegazy

This is the audio version of Saleem Haddad's reaction to the death of Sarah Hegazy, which he posted on Instagram and which I'm re-posting here with permission. 

Sarah Hegazy was a Queer activist from Egypt who was arrested after being one of many who raised a rainbow flag at a concert by Mashrou3 Leila in Cairo in 2017. She was tortured in Sisi's jail, driven to exile and sought asylum in Canada. She took her own life a few days ago.

The Sisi regime has since used that event as an excuse to crack down on Egypt's LGBTQ population, a crackdown which continues to this day. 

The silence of straight Arabs in Egypt, the MENA region and the rest of the world is complicity. 

You can also listen to the episode on Sarah by The Queer Arabs Podcast.

“Society clapped for the regime when it arrested me and Ahmed Alaa.” Sarah Hegazy, from her 2018 article translated into English by Mada Masr. Read here: https://madamasr.com/en/2020/06/15/opinion/u/a-year-after-the-rainbow-flag-controversy

Story of the case from NPR: https://www.npr.org/2018/06/18/620110576/after-crackdown-egypts-lgbt-community-contemplates-dark-future

I've interviewed Saleem Haddad previously (episode 18).