On the 29th of November, Egyptian retired football pundit Mohammed Abutrika attacked the LGBT inclusion campaign, the Rainbowlaces in the English league. The 43 years old retired footballer who is accused by the Egyptian authorities of supporting terrorist organisations is much loved by Egyptian football fans. Not long after his statements the social media platforms were divided between two hashtags, Kolena Aboutrika (We’re all Aboutrika) and Msh Kolena Aboutrika (No, not all of us are Aboutrika).
Aboutrika said that he could not answer one of his three daughters when she asked him what the colours on the rainbow laces mean. He urged the Muslim players to boycott the Premier League’s Rainbow Laces. In his words he said “This is against human nature”. “dangerous ideology that is becoming nasty” He also added.
Nasser Elkhater, the CEO of Qatar 22 clearly stated to CNN on November 30th that nobody feels unsafe in Qatar and he assured the Australian player Josh Cavallo who expressed his concern over going to Qatar after becoming openly gay. Elkhater was straightforward about displaying affections in public and said “it’s frowned upon across the board”.
A few weeks before, and on November 5th, The well-known TV host Amr Adib has had a similar approach and took a part in attacking gays and LGBT+ inclusion. He said there is a trend on the new TV series and movies streamed on on-demand services such as Netflix. Adib seemed to be certainly annoyed by showing the LGBT+ individuals as normal people in these productions. He also warned Egyptian parents about what he described as the imposement of the gay lifestyle upon their kids.
Interestingly, Adib and Aboutrika represent two ends of the public figures spectrum in Egypt. The former is known to be an Elsisi supporter and a big fan of the army rule and the latter is on the “terrorism lists” and threatened with imprisonment upon his return to Egypt. Yet, both of them had very close positionality when it came to intolerance, especially towards the LGBT+ communities.
Since El-Sisi came to power he appeared to pay a very special interest to the media. In a leaked video in 2013 he mentioned how it is hard to build state-mouthpieces. A few years later, TV channels, news websites and newspapers were bought by a state-owned company and more than 549 websites were blocked without a clear justification according to the Freedom of Thoughts and Expression Law Firm. However, watching on-demand services has become more common and affordable among the younger generations. It might have become harder to follow independent news platforms that cover Egyptian affairs, but it, certainly, has become easier to follow modern international and inclusion-oriented TV shows. Sex Education, Elit and other shows with main gay characters were watched and followed by many Egyptians who now may not accept the idea of the alienation of gay men and LGBT+ persons in general as the state seem to wish.
The attack on the LGBT+ communities in Egypt is systematic and profound. Last widely known was in 2017, after Sarah Hijazi, who later died in her exile in Canada, raised the rainbow flag in a concert. Secret-police persons used LGBT+ dating websites and applications to trap users and charge them with debauchery or prostitution.
Aboutrika chose to say he was ashamed and did not know how to answer his daughter when she asked about the meaning of the rainbowlace colours. He obviously couldn't tell her that this represents diversity and inclusion as he likely doesn't believe in such a thing. Adib, too, despite his attempts to further himself as a liberal open-minded TV host, has failed to understand what does inclusion mean, and dismissed the struggle of the LGBT+ people in Egypt and countries with similar laws, and social settings. They both, despite their differences, agreed on hatred, and discrimination. They, both, succeeded to represent patriarchy in different formats, one militarial and the other religions.
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