Video of man beaten for looking 'gay' met with shrugs in Cairo

Screen grab of an amateur video showing a young man being assaulted in Cairo because of his 'effeminate' look.

A young man is beaten by a gang of men who accuse him of being a homosexual because of his 'effeminate' looks. You may think that this type of scene, filmed in mid-June in Cairo by a passerby, would be enough to spark a public outcry. But in Egypt, the video barely caused a stir when it began spreading on social media networks.

The incident took place on Thursday, June 11, on the swanky Gameat el-Dowal street in the Egyptian capital. A man with long hair, a t-shirt and tight-fitting jeans is surrounded by a group of young men. One of them grabs him by the belt while another bellows: "No, no, to the side. Not in front of people". The young man is thrown towards the gutter, then one of the assailants slaps him. A few seconds later, the man is on the ground, moaning, while another of his attackers holds him firmly by the collar.

"It's as if the idea that he could be gay completely deprived him of his rights"

Ahmad Sanad, a passerby, filmed the scene and uploaded it to his Facebook page. He also added a commentary that details the circumstances of the attack. Here is an excerpt:

The man, who looked somewhat feminine, was strolling in the streets of Cairo yesterday in 'El Gameat Dowal' when he was attacked both verbally and physically by a group of homophobic young men because of his looks. The man, being unable to defend himself, was hit several times by people in the crowd who laughed and made fun of him. He tried to escape, but none of the taxis would stop to take him away. Onlookers also ignored his ordeal, as if the idea that he could be gay completely deprived him of his rights as a human being. This post isn't intended to defend the rights of homosexuals, but the basic rights of all human beings (...). If the people who attacked a dog were punished and imprisoned, how can we tolerate this kind of behaviour in our society?

On his Facebook page, Sanad also claimed to have tried to help the victim but that, confronted by a group of some 30 people, he was unable to do anything. Then a few days later, he deleted the video from his account. We tried contacting him to learn more about the attack, but without success.

"If the police get involved, it's worse"

I tried getting in touch with the person who filmed the incident, because he's the only one who tried protecting this man. In an email, he replied by saying that he had no idea what became of the young man afterwards. He just told me that two people had taken him away on a moped to try and save him. Some media outlets say that the authorities opened an investigation. But I doubt that. I hope, in any case, that the police didn't get involved, because when that happens it's always worse. They could rape or imprison him.

Lots of people who I know personally from the LGBT community have already told me about being attacked and raped, sometimes even inside police stations. But they don't dare press charges or speak out in public. They're scared and ashamed, because society looks down on them with contempt. Except for a few human rights activists, hardly anyone is going to defend them.

"LGBT people are tracked on social media networks"

For several months, the police have been mercilessly tracking down LGBT people. They trap them by using social media networks and meet-up applications that are used on smartphones.

For example, right now we're following the case of a young Syrian who was tricked in the same way. A police officer set up a fake date with him by using one such application. When the young man turned up, officers caught him and took him away in a car to Dokki police station [Editor's note: Dokki is a residential neighbourhood in Cairo]. Doctors carried out a 'medical test' on his anus, which was supposed to detect his homosexuality. The test is humiliating. It violated his intimacy. We also learnt from the lawyer that we've provided for the Syrian that the police have put together a report accusing him of 'debauchery', which they quickly passed on to the prosecutor's office. So he'll soon stand trial. We're extremely concerned for the well-being of this young, vulnerable Syrian, because he was welcomed in Egypt as a refugee. Not only that, but he's also registered with the United Nations Refugee Agency.

Just like supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood who have become scapegoats in the eyes of the authorities and the media, homosexuals have been handed over like fodder to mob justice. Both the public and the media are obsessed with these two topics.

In order to grasp the true scale of the anti-gay sentiment that reigns here, you've only got to look at the buzz created in the wake of a report by journalist Mona Iraqi. She filmed a police raid on a Cairo hammam that was depicted as being a 'gay den'... that she herself had told the police about! She shamelessly filmed the men's faces, putting both their lives and the lives of their families in danger. In a country with self-respect, she would be punished by the law, but in Egypt she's applauded.

Egyptian law doesn't forbid homosexuality. Despite that, during the last few months several people have been arrested at parties bringing together homosexuals, after which they have been accused of 'debauchery'. Last November, eight men were sentenced to three years of imprisonment with forced labour after appearing in a video celebrating an alleged gay marriage. And in May 2014, four men were arrested at a party thrown at an apartment in Nasr City, to the east of Cairo. One of them was given 12 years behind bars, the toughest sentence ever given to a homosexual in Egypt.