Lessons from Egypt

by Abby Dees in Thinking Out Loud | 0 comments

2011 will be known, in large part, for the Arab Spring. From my Los Angeles home, I felt such camaraderie with those brave, ordinary people who, as if on cue, came together to oust dictators and call for democracy. In Egypt, the word “Tahrir,” which once meant only the busy downtown square of cell phone retailers, restaurants, tony hotels and the grand Egyptian Museum, now refers to the revolutionary fire that brought down Mubarek and continues to burn into a profoundly uncertain future.

I’m fortunate that I actually got to see Tahrir last month — both the place and the expression on Egyptian faces as they debate hotly over bubbling Sheesha pipes and sweet, thick black coffee about what comes next. Egyptians are impassioned and opinionated about most things and their new democracy is definitely not coming quietly. I’m hopeful, but like everyone I spoke to, also very worried.

Tahrir is definitely inspiring. How can I not compare it to our American origin story? We are taught that democracy is synonymous with freedom and progress. Now that anything is possible in Egypt, LGBT rights must be part of the discussion, right?

They’re not.

As I traveled discreetly with my partner, calling her “my friend” through clenched teeth and looking vainly for subtle signs anywhere that we weren’t the only gays in town, I felt like I’d time-traveled to the ’50s.

Egypt rightly prides itself on its sophistication and comfortable coexistence of different ideas. Homosexuality is not, per se, illegal. But Egypt is a Muslim country as a matter of law. Subjective notions of what is indecent or offensive to Islam have been used to randomly imprison LGBT people. You might remember the “Cairo 52,” half of whom were sentenced in 2001 to hard labor for partying on a boat while gay. Dozens have since been arrested and brutally sentenced for crimes as innocuous as posting on dating sites. There are worse places to be gay (Uganda springs to mind), but few countries match Egypt for its total suppression of mere conversation about LGBT rights.

But everything that came before January 2012 could change tomorrow. While the military, for now, retains a tenuous grip on things, elections have begun for the country’s new parliament and who will best represent the needs of the people in drafting the new constitution.

Democracy is not magic, as our high school textbooks suggest. Democracy in a country with dwindling resources, crushing poverty, 25 percent illiteracy and a nonexistent government infrastructure (detritus of countrywide corruption) looks a lot like mob rule. The liberal party’s talk of secularism and vague freedoms means little when you can’t afford propane to heat your food, and the only people who seem willing to help are the religious groups canvassing your village and providing discount fuel. Freedom implies choice.

To most Egyptians, there are no real choices. Except perhaps the choice between the fundamentalist Salafists, who would remove women from public life completely, and the much more moderate Muslim Brotherhood who have, more or less, promised to maintain the civil rights status quo. The Muslim Brotherhood are in the lead, mostly because they have their act together and it’s better than the alternative. But the Salafists are not far behind with a shocking 30 percent of the vote. Remember that only a generation ago, few Egyptian women even covered their heads.

I’ve always believed that LGBT rights are inextricably connected to women’s rights and the end of rigid gender roles. As I watch Egypt retreat into more conservative religiosity for a sense of security, I know a reversal of women’s rights is inevitable. I’m unable to imagine how LGBT rights in this environment could be anything more than a secret dream for now.

Already knowing the answer, I asked my Egyptian guide if I was being pessimistic. He said no. Egyptians just aren’t ready. At home, I’d dismiss such a statement as mealy-mouthed cowardice. Not so in Egypt, or likely any place with a desperate and uneducated populace — I see that democracy can fast-track regression just as easily as it can bring progress. How can I not see the same fact at play right here at home? But, I hope I’m wrong. Inshallah!