Sarah Hegazi, a queer Egyptian activist who was imprisoned for waiving the rainbow flag at a concert in Egypt in 2017, took her own life on Sunday. Her suicide note is short, yet painful to read. She was just 30 years old. Being only one year older, I know how little of a taste of life that time is. Cruel and unfair are understatements to describe what was done to her.
This painting is my tribute to Sarah. It is based on my wife Allison's (and probably everyone's) favourite photo of Sarah, capturing that moment of joy and freedom when she raised her flag in pride. Allison and Sarah were acquainted, though not close. Sarah's arrest was part of a horrific crackdown on the queer community by the Egyptian government in reaction to the publication of photos from the concert, especially this one. It was this ensuing terror campaign that led to Allison spending the next two years in Cairo, documenting the lives of queer Egyptians. Sarah was released on bail in January 2018 and fled to Canada. Over the following year, the two of them spoke several times, and Sarah helped Allison make the connections necessary to her work. We are both devastated by Sarah's loss, and this painting is our small attempt to honour her memory. I know we are happy for the SCOTUS ruling in favor of LGBT Americans, but I feel that it is wrong that Sarah's name and the plight of queer people in other countries is largely ignored in English speaking media. Egyptian and Middle Eastern queer people suffer even more than we do, yet even when they arrive in the West we do not treat them with the kindness they deserve. I have never seen our queer organisations give these people a voice, help them become active members of our community. Same goes for the average queer Greek person. I am sure this is not because of malicious intent, but we need to change.
Here is a brief news summary about Sarah: https://www.gaytimes.co.uk/…/egyptian-lgbtq-rights-activis…/
Here is an article Sarah wrote about the events of 2017/18 (CW: brief description of torture): https://madamasr.com/…/a-year-after-the-rainbow-flag-cont…/…
If you can, please donate to Rainbow Railroad, a group that helps queer Egyptians escape Egypt https://www.rainbowrailroad.org/
or the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a group providing lawyers for LGBT people in Egypt. https://eipr.org/en