When Dutch Jewish filmmaker Evelyn Markus introduced Queerguru (via Email) to Dolly a young woman in Egypt, who lives in a severely oppressive society as a lesbian and atheist, we immediately knew we wanted to share her story.
Her heartbreaking tale of trying simply to exist and being true to her self is incredibly moving : beaten and burned at age 12 by her mother for kissing a girl : raped by her so-called best male friend when she opened up to him about her depression,
Dolly has a BA in social sciences and becoming a journalist is one of her dreams, and you sense her generous spirit in wanting a better life for all LGBTQ people in her country.
Currently Queerguru is read in 46 countries, and sadly Egypt is not one yet. We hope the people there …. and just as important , you too ….. will want to share Dolly’s story
QG: Dolly is it technically illegal to be gay in Egypt or do they use general laws to persecute you?
D: We don’t actually have laws against gays but that doesn’t stop the Authorities for putting anyone they suspect of being gay into prison
QG: With a Trial?
D: Sometimes they are given a trial and sometimes not. The police are so powerful they can put anyone in jail if they do not like them. If we try and speak up and say we have a right to be gay, they will punish us . They will torture us in jail, harassing us, and often raping us.
QG: Is it like Iran where gays are still executed ?
D: They don’t execute us, but there are people here in Egypt who want to kill ‘gays’ and atheists. They try to push the Government to make a Law so they can, and my fear is that they will succeed.
QG: So that is a double edge threat to you personally as you are both gay and atheist. What is the official religion of Egypt then?
D: It is Muslim.
QG: Dolly let’s talk about you for a moment. You are a 24 year old lesbian & atheist, are you ‘out’ to your parents?
D: My mother knew about my sexuality when I was 12 or 13 years old. She discovered me kissing a girl and she immediately told the girls parents. The moment she finished school they forced her into an arranged marriage
Meanwhile my mother beat me and burned me as she claimed I was inhabited by an evil soul. |
QG: What age was your ‘girlfriend’ when she was forced to marry?
D: 14 years old
QG: Why didn’t you own mother force you to marry too?
D: Because she wanted me to continue my studies. She wanted me to marry at a young age and she threatened me that if she ever caught me again with a girl than she would marry me off.
“That and she would force me to have female genital mutilation too”
QG: What about your father?
D: He had left when I was very young because he hated girls. He wanted a son instead of me.
QG: So now you are 24 as we said earlier with a B.A degree, do you still live at home with your mother?
D: Yes.
QG: So you are totally closeted at home?
D: Yes, she doesn’t allow me to have any friends.
QG: You live in Alexandria, is there any sort of LGBTQ community there?
D: Maybe a very small one, but I have no connection with anyone there.
QG: I read recently that the Egyptian Authorities have been trying to trap LGBTQ people through Social Media . What is that all about?
D: That happened to me once and I was fooled. I didn’t know at first they were Police, but I soon found out . This was when I still had a Facebook page on which I was openly gay. This ‘girl’ contacted me and we corresponded online for a while , and then as I was suspicious I confronted her to confirm her real identity or I would block her.
She responded a few days later and told me if I didn’t continue she would report me as being gay to the Police . I really panicked and shut down my FB for a while. When I reopened it she was still there stalking me again …… and threatened to expose me again. So I closed my FB again for a time, and luckily next time I opened, she had gone. But it was all very scary
QG: We also get the possibility of being pursued by someone with a fake Social Media profile, but you have a much worse dilemma as you could be chased by police trying to entrap you. Do you know why the Egyptian police do this?
D: They want to imprison everyone who is ‘different’ that they can . Anyone who is not ‘straight,’ and white as they are also very racist too.
QG: Do any LGBTQ communities around the world help you at all, or are you just stranded on your own?
D: We are standing totally on our own. I had a lot of depression in the past.
I turned to my best friend to share my problems with him, and he ended up raping me?
QG: He raped you!
D: Yes, he knew I was a lesbian, but he took advantage of my depression. I went to a psychiatrist because I was in a bad way and having nightmares etc. His response was to to medicate me so he could fix and stop me being both gay and and an atheist which made me feel so much worse.
This is when I actually attempted suicide.
I just read in the paper this week about a gay man who succeeded in ending his own life because he could no longer face all those people who hate us for just being who we are.
QG: Did you tell your mother you were raped?
D: No …..(big sigh)
QG: Because she wouldn’t have supported you?
D : She will never support me . She wouldn’t care that I was raped, although she may care that I lost my virginity
QG: What’s the possibility of a happy future for you there, or will you eventually have to choose to leave Egypt for good just to survive?
D: I will have to make a choice. If I want a happy life and not be hunted or persecuted and be able to safely walk out in the street without recriminations I will need to work out a plan.
QG: I am sure that will not be easy for you, but a much better option than staying at home waiting for your mother and society to accept LGBTQ community. Or do you ever see the possibility for real change in Egypt in your lifetime?
D: No
QG: What’s the worse thing you fear about continuing to live there?
D: Just the sheer fact that they want to get rid of us, If not by jail then by compulsory imposing conversion therapy treatments . The Parliament wants to ban EVERYTHING gay including websites so they can claim that there are NO homosexuals in Egypt.
QG: Dolly, what do you think LGBTQ communities across the globe should be doing to help our brothers and sisters in Egypt?
D: Try to support us publicly . Try to stop the Authorities hunting us and making fake FB profiles to trap us . Anything you can do to help us make them stop …..please. Help make them accept us …… we are not asking for same sex marriage as that is years away …. but just basic acceptance of the right to lead our own lives.
We are not allowed LGBT organizations of our own to speak up for us, so all this brutality and hatred still exists unchecked. Up till now?
PLEASE share this story as much as you can :
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
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and we will pass all requests on to Dolly,