lesbian visibility Week is an opportunity to shed light on lesbian and transgender women and to raise their voices, who reject male dependency and heterosexual guardianship.
We can also consider this occasion a sanctuary for lesbians to feel safe, and to appear in a world that still treats them with discrimination and inequality, and deals with them with violence, marginalization, and persecution in many countries of the world, especially in the Middle East, in which women’s issues are often suppressed, Especially lesbian women, and not treating or marginalizing them, because it is a patriarchal society that views women as inferior just because they are women, so how about when they are lesbian women?
Women who present themselves outside the stereotypical classifications and gender structures accepted in society face severe abuse, and their lives are in danger, so it was necessary to celebrate the lesbian women who broke the walls of the iron closet that imprisons their truth.
And here we had to remember Sarah Hegazy, who chose on the morning of June 13, 2020, to leave our world, to put an end to her pain after all the hatred, injustice, discrimination, and oppression she was subjected to!
Sarah Hegazy, the queer activist, the lesbian, was arrested in her country, Egypt after she appeared publicly at the Mashrou’ Leila concert in Cairo in 2017 waving the gay flag!
Sarah was subjected to systematic torture, physical and psychological abuse, bullying, and societal ostracism!
Every detail of her story can be considered the story of a person who refused to submit to the rules of society, the story of a lesbian who decided to come out, the story of a refugee in a distant country who was killed by loneliness, alienation and the torment accumulated over the years, the story of a detained queer activist who got out of prison and under her smile was scars and trauma, it was difficult to overcome!
The story of a person who chose peace, and faced all the injustice and cruelty of the world with “but I forgive”! The phrase with which she concluded her last letter.
Sarah Hijazi’s life, her experience, her struggle, and even her death made her an icon of struggle, a symbol of lesbians and the LGBTQ+ community around the world, and her memory will remain present, and her spirit that chose to fly “The sky is prettier than the earth, and I want the sky” will remain flying in our sky, illuminating the path of the continuous struggle towards equality and safety.
We remember Sarah Hegazy, today and every day, and all the activists we lost on this path, and we stand in solidarity with lesbian, queer, and trans women, and we say, “This is your day… Let us celebrate with you and for you.“
Sami Al-Aghbashi |Queer activist and member of “GEM”
