Publication: Amroos
Publication Type: Quarterly
Date: December 2018
Publisher:
Mesahat Foundation for Sexual and Gender Diversity in the Nile Valley (Egypt and Sudan)
Copyrights: All rights reserved to Mesahat Foundation for Sexual and Gender Diversity in the Nile Valley (Egypt and Sudan)
Inside the third edition of "Amroos" we discuss the topic "Health" inside the LGBTQI+ community; psychological, physical or sexual health. In this edition we are trying to highlight everything related to health within the LGBTQI+ community from the perspective of everyone belongs to the LGBTQI+ community. We wish you enjoy the 3rd edition of Amroos.
*Publisher’ s note: All the names and incidents mentioned here are at the writer’ s sole discretion.
Are you there? .. Whoever is reading this? This is not my life story; I am much more than what I have experienced. This is not a story about my outing. This is a story about my aggressors. The aggressors who participated in and abused my outing The few names mentioned in this article are real because they are the ones who deserve to be outed. They are the ones who deserve to be shamed. So will you step into my world for no matter how long this piece will take for you to read? Understand? Feel?
This story happened in 2014 when I was still an undergraduate in University finishing my Bachelor’s in Psychology. I used to be a very proud student; proud of my progressive University, proud to be a part of a humanitarian department, I looked up to my professors who taught me that human beings are precious; that each individual is special and we, as future psychologists, should respect the individuality and collectiveness of clients, and work to protect and preserve their dignity.
I used to be so proud of the institution that nurtured my knowledge so much so
that I have had the passion to begin a small group on campus, with the help of other mates, as a safe space for students with diverse genders and sexualities to communicate. Thinking that my University; with its administration and professors will protect my autonomy as a young adult
I will not tell in great detail what happened that day because this story is not about how I was outed or the violence that I have encountered from family members, rather the violence I encountered from a professor who I studied under her supervision along with future colleagues of psychiatrists and psychologists.
Saturday 23rd of August, 2014 and I don’t remember any other dates.
My family, my mother and uncle, found out about my sexuality. After a day-long beating, I accidentally listened into a conversation between mother and uncle. My mother said she called one of my professors [who happened to be my sister’s therapist]. My mother wanted a counseling session as she just discovered that her daughter is gay and doesn’t
know how to ‘deal’ with the situation.
My esteemed teacher, Professor Ola Morsy. The M.D. and MSc in Neurology & Psychiatry, and well-known-on-campus professor who walked the campus with a rainbow sticker on her binder and a safespace sticker on her office door. My professor apparently had informed mother with ‘my activities’ on campus and how I’m involved with ‘a similar crowd’
Mother ended her conversation with uncle contemplating ‘curative measures’ like locking me up at home, circumcision and marriage I didn’t think, I couldn’t think, I didn’t have a phone to call any of my friends for help, and my mother had prevented my sisters, at that point, from talking to me.
I found myself, at the closest chance, gathering every bit of alcohol I had hid away in my closet and all kinds of antidepressants in the house, and ingested everything.
I don’t know what happened after that, I’m not sure if those flashes I remember were true; some glimpses of being taken somewhere in a car, being changed out of soiled clothes, being held in a room surrounded by hospital beds and I swear it smelled like death.
Entering the facility
I woke up to a nurse calling out my name asking me to get undressed for examination. I was asked to strip down and my entire body was naked. I was checked for bruises and scars. I found all the piercings over my body were already gone Someone had already seen my naked body and touched it
I don’t remember uttering any words. I don’t even remember being sober enough to ask where I was. I eventually slept for what felt like an eternity and
sobered up to an empty room. I got out looking for anyone to find myself in the women’s ward in a psychiatric facility; the same facility that the esteemed professor worked in.
I asked to talk to my mother, they told me I can’t. I asked to talk to any of my sisters, I asked to make just one phone call, but they also said no and asked me to simmer down till a doctor can come see me.
I tried to control my panic and sat down for a few hours trying to make sense of what has happened A nurse directed me to a small office where I found my mother waiting with a doctor.
The doctor asked me if I knew why I am here. I didn’t reply. He said that he heard from my mother and sister that I am homosexual “lūṭiyya” he said.
“We can have you treated if you were cooperative” he added I, by turn, said nothing. I looked at mother with tears in her eyes looking at a sheet of paper. They talked about some form I need to sign because ‘legally’, I can’t be kept there I took the paper trying to comprehend what sort of consent they needed me to sign. The paper stated that I am consenting to be admitted for depression and substance addiction. I found myself crumbling the paper,
throwing it away and left the room. But as it later turned out, it didn’t really matter whether or not I had given my consent I was held against my will anyway. There were no proof I attempted suicide either; otherwise there would have been a police officer documenting for a police report. [Attempted suicide in Egypt is illegal and can lead to 6-months imprisonment]
My file had me admitted for depression, substance abuse and addiction while my blood and urine tests were clean. My case was assigned to the owner of the hospital; Dr Ahmed Okasha M D , Ph.D. in Psychiatry, The honorary fellow (2005), previous president (2002-2005) and previous Chairman of the Review and Ethics Committee (2011-2014) of World Psychiatric Association (WPA), The International Distinguished Fellow of The American Psychology Association (APA). My case was assigned to him personally. Although my deepest of wishes for these happenings are to become a full narration of every single step I took in that facility, every single conversation I had with all the women staying in that ward; patients and nurses, every encounter I had with every doctor, and every therapy session I had with the doctors who handled my case, I cannot remember dates, days, hours or how long I had been there. I was the sole patient in the ward who wasn’t allowed books, papers or pens. I only have a clear recollection of how much time I spent there in hindsight; only after I’d been released, I was able to determine how long I wasted away in there for
A special thank you to the doublefaced Professor
“I just don’t think you’re masculine enough to be gay, you’re only confused…”
I stepped into the common office of the women’s ward as a nurse told me someone was waiting for me there. I entered the room to see Dr. Morsy waiting for me
I had mixed feelings; she’s my dear teacher, the one who once stood in class in front of all students and said homosexuality is not a disease and how individuals of non-conforming genders and sexualities should be respected and treated with dignity. The one who also ratted me out to my mother.
I took a seat and she explained to me how she’s here on a friendly basis because ‘technically’ she cannot see me in the facility while she is a psychiatrist in the University’s clinic. I asked her to help me explain to my mother that it’s not a disease to be gay She, by turn, expressed how she thinks that lesbian, “dykes” as she said, have certain mannerisms that I simply don’t own. She said they walked and talked in certain ways.
She leaned back in her seat and asked me after a long pause..
“When you are watching a hot kissing scene on TV Let’s say between George Clooney and Julia Roberts, do you imagine yourself as George or Julia?”
Of course I’d choose Julia Roberts!
IT’S JULIA RO-BERTS!
She, then, insightfully concluded that I am ‘too feminine’ to be gay and I am suffering from an ‘identity crisis’. Dr. Morsy ,then, jotted down a few notes in my file and closed it for good.
A tribute to the head nurse of the women’s ward; the first to call me a deviant ‘shaza’
A token of my appreciation to the Okasha’s medical staff whose questions- on my ‘deviant’ sexuality, sex habits and if I was molested as a child- managed to violate every inch of privacy and dignity I had had left.
During my stay, I eventually got used to the nurses’ harassments Hearing some words uttered under their breaths; sharmoota, shaza..etc,, having the bathroom door opened wide to the ward hallway and left open while I was in the shower I complained at the beginning to on-call doctors, but the usual responses were along the lines of questioning my sanity and if I was paranoid. I eventually made my peace with it; I would come out of the shower naked in front of the nurses and close the door again. I occasionally made sexual passes at nurses; I admittedly cat-called nurses too. Eventually they left me alone a few weeks into my stay.
On-call doctors in Okasha’s facility briefly see patients every day; to see if a patient is in distress and needed immediate counseling or change in medications. For some reason, my file was one that triggered the doctors’ interest I was seen by all on-call doctors during day and night shifts, day in and day out that it became a routine for me. My first encounter with an on-call doctor, the first question I was bombarded with was how often I get the urge to masturbate
“I am of course assuming that you touch yourself, I mean, what would stop you?”he added, condescendingly.
When I questioned the relevancy of his question and his interest in the subject matter as I am obviously suffering from much more urgent issues related to selfharm and an attempted suicide, he added that deviancy “Shozuz” is much more urgent than attempting suicide as my existence is a social disease.
Following said encounter, different doctors asked to see me every day They all were very insistent to see me. I managed to pretend I was asleep when it was time for on-call doctors to see patients, but most insisted every time for the nurses to wake me up For each brief encounter each doctor was curious about different matters.
Do you have a problem finding boyfriends?
Do you have sexual experiences with
men? Were they traumatizing for you?
How often do you get horny?
Do you like rough or normal sex?
“Did someone touch you when you were a child?
Was it your father?
Your uncle? Your half-brother?
Was it your mother? Your cousin? Your aunt?
Do you think you’re repressing these memories?
Are you circumcised? Have your parents considered circumcision?”
Another day, another on-call doctor asked to see me I made the unfortunate mistake of asking when I get to leave and how they had no right keeping me here and ask irrelevant, outrageous questions. She, by turn, questioned my self-entitlement and called me abnormal, a burden on society and bringing shame to my family who should have done much more than bring me here.
The Lead Psychologist: Susan El Kholi,
head of Okasha’s Psychology Department
On our first session, Dr. Susan took out a large binder with many scattered papers
After administering IQ testing and cognitive assessments, she took out the final paper. God help me, I can’t recall which test was it exactly for how astonished I was from most of its questions
Would you rather..
Be a nurse or a boxer?
Watch football or ballet?
Wear a black T-shirt or a red T-shirt? Choose..
Are you attracted to males or females? Have male friends or female friends?
Yes or No
Do you try to be in control of relationships?
After what seemed like eternity of similar questions, Dr. Susan raised her eyebrows that remained raised for most of our conversations. She said with complete confidence that since I am a feminine woman, then I should be attracted to men and anything short of such should be discussed in our therapy goals
Dr. Susan and I had a very strange rapport. She is an old woman with whom it became harder for me to talk back. I used reason for most of our sessions, but reason wasn’t always the best approach as she yelled quite a lot in therapy and I never liked loud voices.
I spent most of the first 3 weeks reasoning, talking back and arguing while most patients in Okasha’s facility spend a range between 23 weeks. It was around my third week and they were nowhere near releasing me. I spent many sessions with Dr. Susan working on therapy goals that included suicidal ideations, self-harm, self-esteem, and her top priority; homosexual deviance through cognitive behavior therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a technique used to identify and argue against unrealistic, unhelpful thoughts to develop healthy problem solving skills to ultimately change unwanted behaviors like self-harm. However, Okasha’s staff uses CBT to also treat homosexuality provided that the patient is seeking help. In advertising for CBT as treatment for
homosexuality, as how Heba Kotb (M.D PHD. Sexologist and family therapist) in the Egyptian media discusses it, the patient’s willingness is a very important factor otherwise they will not be able to alter their “cognition”, and in turn, behavior. If you want to practice your deviancy ’Shozuz’, then you should leave this country in peace and go live in the west” - Said Dr. Susan in one of our sessions. It was towards my third week when I began to change my narrative with the story of how I had developed a romantic relationship with a brother of one of the women in the ward and I had utterly, and magically stopped having any sort of attraction towards women The surreal part was how Dr Susan simply believed I was serious Then, we finally started focusing on the actual therapy goals.
Dr. Ahmed Okasha
“Have you put ice on your pussy?”
My encounters with Dr Okasha himself were few, brief, and mainly related to medication follow-ups. These encounters were attended by all on-call doctors and the lead psychologist on my case; Dr. Susan Kholi. Only two encounters stuck with me; the first session and the last
On our first session, in the tiny single office of the women’s ward, sat Dr. Okasha in the office chair, myself in the other single seat in the room while the rest of the doctors stood around us.
“So you are the suicide case that defends the homosexuals ‘mthlyeen’ right? They no longer call them deviants ‘shawaz’ - he said, chuckling.
I answered that we both know that it is not a disease, and they have no right poking me with questions on what gayness is or calling me a deviant.
“If you can’t stop something, you better enjoy it. On the Psychology of rapists, If you’re being raped, you better open your legs wider for the rapists and ask them to enter you, because fighting will only excite them” – He said while other doctors burst into laughter; some wholeheartedly and others nervously
My final encounter with Dr. Okasha was two days after I got released from the hospital. This encounter was in his office; the only one we had where we were alone in the room. After checking on medications and the termination session with Dr. Suzan, Dr Okasha wondered if I had calmed down now and asked if I had put ice on my pussy “kossek” he said I remember very well how I was unsure about how to respond or react, but Dr Okasha turned around, picked up his phone and jotted down my last prescription, waving his hand to me to show myself out.
I never told you what happened inside the walls of that hospital, because I know it will haunt you forever
I am sorry dear mother for how you’ve fallen a victim of a medical scam; I know very well the thousands you paid to put me there. You must have felt desperate. I am sorry you felt the need for doctors to tell you how to ‘deal’ with your daughter, while we never needed a third party to speak.
I am sorry dear mother for how you’ve fallen a victim of a society that tells you to despise the likes of me, while I know well how much you love me.
I’m sorry you’ve fallen a victim for a society that tells you parenting and love means violence.
I know how much the whole-of-it took out of you, out of both of us.
I am privileged because my family didn’t decide to kill me, rape me, circumcise me, do a virginity test or marry me off. I am privileged because the facility I was admitted to only used coercion, and didn’t use aversion therapy or practice intensive conversion therapy I’m privileged because I’m a psychologist and I knew enough to keep sane. I am privileged because I was able to overcome this trauma although the process took me years and I am still suffering the remnants of social anxiety. LBQ women in Egypt go through many struggles that go unheard. I will never be able to talk on other women’s behalf, but I am also privileged for having the platform and your time to read my story
What Intersexuality means:
When a child is born, with a glance at its genitals the doctor determines its entire life path with one word; ‘boy or girl’. That’s what people are used to Black and white with no shades in between. But in some cases, it’s not that easy for doctors to decide. And that’s when the child is born Intersex.
First, What does it mean to be an intersex person? It means to be born with some variances from the stereotypical notions of gender (Male and Female), Those differences may be either chromosomal; by carrying both masculine and feminine genetic makeup, or physical; by having both male and female genitals. And that is the shade of gray that turns everything around.
The Medical society’s take on being Intersex in Egypt:
Intersex cases usually vary and cannot be limited to one form or pattern. That’s why not all cases can be observed at an early age. However, cases with obvious deformity can be observed at birth, such as the clear presence of both sexual organs, or the presence of one of the organs in a vague or deformed condition
Usually, what happens in Egypt and the Arab countries with these cases is that
the parents decide on surgical intervention to determine the sex according to their personal wishes or the doctor suggestion of the sex that tests show most They then mold the child’s path according to the sex they 'chose'.
Take the case of ‘H. T.’; a child of less than 15 years old, whose parents decided on surgical intervention, proved how medically and humanely unethical this act is and demonstrated the suffering it causes by taking his/her own life. Although 'some' may be consistent with the sex that has been chosen for them and grow up healthily, this is but a stroke of luck and does not disprove the harm of the act. Only one out of ten children born intersex is given the right to reach puberty and then determine their own identity. In other cases, which are difficult to observe at birth, they grow with a disturbed psyche because they live in a body inconsistent with the reality of their gender. Their condition is usually observed in adulthood, when the nature of their bodies changes unexpectedly. The afflicted individual is observed by a medical specialist, followed by radiation and some tests to ascertain his condition.They are then admitted to a psychiatrist to prepare them psychologically to accept their condition and determine the sex they are
more inclined towards Psychological rehabilitation is the most important stage in the sex reassignment process.
The case of ‘A. M.’-who suffered after his surgeries of depression, post-traumatic denial and attempted suicide, resulting in him staying in a psychiatric facility for months- proves the importance of this stage, which unfortunately is not sufficiently cared for in Egypt. (Note: Some cases may refuse to undergo a correction even after psychological rehabilitation because they do not feel like belonging to any sex.) In all cases, the child must be given the right to reach puberty and then determine their own identity with the help of a psychiatrist, and unconditional support from their parents.
How our society treats intersex people:
Our Arab society generally finds it hard to accept anything that is different from that of the majority. Exclusion and ostracism are always used with those who are different, especially those who lie out of the stereotypical gender standards and gender roles.
That’s why intersex people suffered, and still suffer from marginalization and rejection, despite the medical, legal and religious recognition.
In primitive societies, Intersex people are seen as cursed or demonic. So they are killed immediately
“I went through a difficult trip during my childhood, here in my town... Here they kill intersex children believing they are fighting the Devil.” Says B.Sh. on her life in her hometown after fleeing it to a safer community
And in Egypt and the Arab societies,
even though their status is acknowledged and legitimized by legal texts, they are still viewed as a disgrace in society. This either prompts them to eventually kill themselves or puts them in a troubled state of mind of rejecting themselves. Therefore, psychological support and societal inclusion are as important as medical support during the phase of corrective measurements.
The complexity of an Intersex’s sexual life:
It is not easy for intersex people to have a partner before the correction, and usually they only think of having a relationship after surgery.
Sometimes, those who have not figured out their condition feel that something is wrong when they try to have sex, or that they cannot reach orgasm. In some cases there was late procreation for married couples.
After surgery, things usually go well despite the feeling that a person may be less than ideal, which sometimes can make them become hesitant and selfconscious about the experience.
But this is not always the case It depends on the person's situation and his acceptance of himself, although he gets enough support to reach the stage of satisfaction with his body.
As for sexual orientation, it can be really confusing, as ---you cannot possibly determine whether you’re homosexual or heterosexual if you don’t know what gender you identify with even up until reaching puberty and starting to develop sexual drive; a situation many intersex
people find themselves in.
Sexual orientation is not related to sexual identity in one way or another.
For example "M" is a young man who underwent corrective surgery after having lived as a girl for 15-years. Despite his turbulent adolescence, he ended up married to a woman after years of surgery. It is worth mentioning that he was rejected more than once by the girl's parents, but they got married in the end. Moreover, after continuously worrying that he may be impotent, he has now two children.
And 'A' who suffered from a similar condition to our first case, got a boyfriend and lived a stable life, aside from the fact that he hasn’t had the surgery yet.
And "S." tried to live for a long time as a heterosexual man but she always found herself attracted to men and she knew perfectly well that there was something still inexplicable about her, she felt that she is not just a 'gay man ' Deep in her heart, she knew the she wasn’t even a man at all.
There is also “E.”, who lived his life confused as a lesbian girl, then as a transgender, then discovered at the age of 25 that he is in fact an intersex.
All of these different cases clearly show us that sexual orientation is completely unrelated to sexual identity or gender, and there is not one definite, rigid mold that can include all cases of intersexuality.
Most people aren’t really afraid of their next doctor visit, they aren’t expecting their trust to be broken, they aren’t forced to go to a doctor that they know very well means them harm, and even if they are, oftentimes their fears don’t become a reality.
These however are commonplace fears of the mentally ill folks, and they do commonly turn real, although that possibility becomes progressively higher among the LGBTQ+ community members. Especially when you are a Trans person because most of the time you have no option other than transparency and visibility.
Let’s briefly discuss the state of mental healthcare in Egypt.
The percentage of government expenditure allocated to mental healthcare out of the total healthcare budget is 1%; 70% of which goes towards psychiatric hospitals. Moreover, the ratio of psychiatrists to population is 1 to every 100,000, and it’s even less for psychologists and social workers. This is based on a 2012 report. And I doubt that much has changed since then.
As usual, there’s a great
dependency on medicine, and on hospitalization specifically. Therapy is considered a secondary tool. And that in itself is a major misdeed based on recent opinions in the psychiatric community.
Besides,I did not want to discuss thisas it brings back painful memories- but I feel obliged to; Physical, Psychological and Sexual abuse are very common in psychiatric hospitals, and the stigma that surrounds mental illness makes all the violence passable.
Up until recently, there was no real supervision on psychiatric hospitals; specifically the private ones, and thankfully that has changed. I haven’t been able to gather enough information about that unfortunately, yet basically what I have heard is there’s currently a public committee that oversees all psychiatric hospitals
Now to describe the average experience of Trans people with the mental healthcare system in Egypt with one word, I would say “abominable”.
Try to picture this, and know that this is but one personal testimony and not a representative of the different experiences of all Trans people.
You are a Trans person, you are a child, it’s possible that you’ll feel strange and different and it’s possible that you
won’t. If you do, it’s possible that you’ll be more prone to introversion to an extent. As you pass through childhood you may feel that you don’t fit in. Childhood is over, it’s puberty and now what happens? It’s possible that you’ll suffer from gender dysphoria; which is- to put it simplythe psychological aftermath of having a conflict between your biologically assigned sex and the sex you identify with. The degree of severity varies from one person to another and may never even happen. If you learn that you are Trans around this time or even prior to it, you may tell your parents, their reaction will determine the probability of you dealing with further complications such as more common mental illnesses
(Depres sion, Anxiety, etc...).
What’s even
worse, if you don’t tell them, it’s still very possible that you’ll deal with these issues added to them; feeling at loss and out of place. Conversely, in the case of not figuring out that you are Trans or not being able to come out until adulthood; if you have dysphoria you are going to suffer in silence, if you don’t suffer from it
you’ll still feel at loss and out of place. Oh yes, the feeling of loss exists in all cases. Now let’s address your place in the society, and how it impacts your mental health. In Egypt your identity as a trans-person is flat out refused by society as a whole, the severity of the violence you are going to face will depend on your ability to pass; if your appearance is close to the widely accepted standards of the gender you identify as, you are going to fare better than those who aren’t (Note: Only in the case of binary genders). If you aren’t perceived as a Cisgender person in any way, it’s going to be bad. Sometimes you’ll reach a state of severe isolation. Stemming from fear and inability to deal with the horror of being on the streets, this also will contribute to the deterioration of your mental health, and if you have mental illnesses, their severity will compound as expected And it has been said countless times before; social discrimination is directly linked to the deterioration of mental health, yet Transphobic people refuse to listen, and strongly hold on to the claim that we are insane. Yes, in fact a lot of us have mental illnesses, and the primary catalyst was them.. Now what if you have other mental illnesses? Less common ones, like Bipolar disorder, Schizophrenia, Bpd and PTSD, etc…? This will play a major role in your experience with mental healthcare providers. An example of this is a recent experience of mine So you see, I was involuntarily hospitalized for about a
month under my own family’s volition. The doctors were entirely unprofessional and unethical. They took advantage of the fact that I have bipolar disorder; they wanted to see if I was psychotic, and if me being Trans was a delusion. I have to mention that this was done despite a previous decision from another hospital that my parents tried to admit me in around the same period, that I wasn’t in fact experiencing any psychotic symptoms, neither was I experiencing symptoms of any other type of bipolar episodes.
This isn’t an uncommon rhetoric
See, if you want to get the official documents that “Confirm” that you are Trans- yes, confirm- as if we are awaiting validation from anyone else. You have to prove that you are mentally stable; you have to prove that you don’t have psychosis, that you aren’t hallucinating in one way or another being Trans I wonder, don’t these doctors expect that Trans people will most definitely have mental illnesses? Are they not aware of how society and the surrounding environment eat away at one’s mental health? I wonder if our medical schools are up to any sort of globally credible standards. And honestly I am certain they are not.
Oh and needless to say, if you are Trans and are being admitted into a psychiatric hospital, you’ll be put into the ward which isn’t compatible with your gender identity, this will of course make your chances of sexual violence skyrocket. And in the case of trans-feminine people, rape may be a lurking danger.
Personally, I believe peer support is extremely important. Also, and this is rather unfortunate, but being well-connected is crucial; there are some organizations that offer mental healthcare services, and in most cases they have the ability to provide good care. And if you aren’t able to connect with any of these, ask your fellow trans-people for the friendly doctors. I know our condition in the world right now is very far from perfect However, solidarity should be our priority; to know well who amongst us is most vulnerable, and protect them at all costs.
I have imprisoned my body in that tiny dark space, a space that is no more than 2 meters into which I threw myself. Thought it’s the end, the end of an incomprehensible suffering, it forced me to make a decision that may as well be the end of everything. How calming it is to make noisy, disruptive thoughts shut up for seconds, yet those great moments don’t last forever I started feeling distressed, didn’t know if the distress came from inside or because of feeling confined to a small space.. started feeling the darkness, the darkness I have
been always fearing since I was a child. I started screaming and asking for help, moved insanely and never thought of what I was doing; all I could think about now was that I had to get out of here, I couldn’t live in that lifeless place. I’m not in a cell, a trench or even a grave .. I’m in the closet.
It has been 30 years since I was born, in a party of family and friends, a colorful cake having candles equals the number I have spent on this grey spot in the world was laid in front of me. After taking a deep breath and getting ready to blow the candles, a friend stopped me and asked me to “make a wish“, so I closed my eyes and wished in an inaudible voice“ I wish that goddamn closet gets shattered.“
A few days later I started thinking about the wish I made on my birthday will it come true one day ?. that took me to “ who built that closet?“ and the answer was “ me”; I did this, I’m the one who got himself into that cursed area. I did that because I was afraid and anxious Afraid of my relatives, the society and my mother! I have always been exceptionally worried about if my mother knew more than anyone else. I don’t know how she would react when she knows that her only son does what the sinful “ lot flok “ were doing.
I was raised in a religious family where it could get extreme sometimes. When I was 10 years old my family forced me to recite Quran, and in a relatively
short time I memorized half of it. Then I became a teenager and started exploring my sexuality which should pretty much deliver me to hell; according to what I heard the Imam say at one of the after-prayer meetings that I attended. I felt so scared, scared that I would rot in hell forever just because I like men overthinking and anxiety pushed me to become a loner, an outsider. I didn’t want to see any men in order not to fantasize about any of them and end up at the pit of hell. I became such an anxious, depressed, socially awkward and self-internalizing homophobe. Yes, I hated myself for having feeling for my same sex, I hated every day I woke up and found myself breathing; same suffering , fear, anxiety and compulsive thoughts Thinking about how to end all of that. Well, death will end all of that. But what if that doesn’t happen soon, should I do it myself ? Yet again, suicide is forbidden. Should I kill myself and never even get a whiff of Heaven? That’s when the suicidal thoughts started creeping up on me ever so suddenly!!
I found myself thinking about how to end
my own life; jump over a high building, take a lot of pills or opt for the painful way and slash my wrists? But do I have enough courage to do it? I don’t think so, I couldn’t get out of that stupid closet which is the main reason of that endless suffering in the first place. So, I will never have the guts to hurt myself. How do I get out of this maze?
Being in the closet became something I can’t live with anymore, despite that being in the closet would keep me safe from hurting myself or my beloved ones. But I found out that being in the closet is hurting me more than I thought. In the beginning, the closet was the place where I hide everything I fear, yet after a while I found that I’m willingly trapping myself into it and losing my way out. Although it seemed like a safe space, as time passed I felt that self-flagellation is eating away at my soul; everything became darker, every morning the space tightened up. My body couldn’t move anymore, couldn’t survive my daily struggles. So antidepressants, tranquilizers and sleeping pills became my daily main course.
Staying inside that dark hole affected my whole life; paralyzed me, made me lose faith in myself and everything around me, my family, whoever used to be my friends and even my own beliefs. Many times I stood in my balcony, looked down and started counting how long it would my body take to embrace the ground I found out that it may take a few seconds since I’m staying on such a high floor. Once, I summoned up all the pow
er left inside me and decided to do what I have been fearing for years, the moment I have always wanted, when everything will stop and these sounds inside my head will shut up forever I stepped on the fence while telling myself “ don’t be a coward, there is no better chance than this one” hesitated a lot to do it. My feet got slippery over the fence but I was able to throw my body inside, in the opposite way from which I intended it to go. I was panicking and it took me a few seconds to fully realize that I’m inside the balcony not on the other side. I took a long look to the fence and started crying. Was I crying because I almost died and I was not ready? Or because in my own eyes I became that coward who couldn’t take the leap or get out of the closet?
Staying that long in the closet felt like as though I forgot the feeling of the sun on my face after endless cold, rainy mornings.
It’s not easy for a person to be born a woman in The Middle East, particularly in Egypt. There’s this very specific plan for raising girls correctly according to the Egyptian society from the very early days of childhood. The idea is to control everything in her life and to prepare her for such roles like being a good future wife, child-bearer and maybe also a source of income for that future family or to just be a housewife. These are the recurring thoughts of men and sadly sometimes of women regarding women’s role in the Egyptian society. All of course lie under the assumption that men knows what is best for women and that women are helpless without men figuring things out for them
We could mention a few things about women’s lives in Egypt. Take discrimination on a domestic level as an example; she might find her parents allow some things for her brothers and the same things are forbidden for her under the pretense “They are allowed to do that because they are men and you are a woman not a man. Another thing is the harassment she faces almost every day in the streets, or public transportation, or even at her work. At work, most of the times she is treated as an inferior to her fellow men with nothing to set her apart in the eyes of her colleagues but maybe her physical appearance.
We can then consider women super heroes after all, because it’s hard to maintain their mental and
psychological health and to have a functional social life and a healthy emotional life after dealing with all the previously mentioned ordeals
What if you were a lesbian woman in Egypt?
In general, as soon as someone finds out about their homosexuality, they immediately go through this inner conflict; with their religion or beliefs and with the society because of the feeling of alienation that they get from their surroundings
We mentioned before why it’s not easy to be a woman in Egypt with all that pressure on her just for being a woman, we can add another load and that is being a lesbian woman who is attracted to other women which means that now she has to prepare herself to lead a double life.
It will look like you are going to talk about someone who is Schizophrenic and actually it’s exactly like this But this kind of schizophrenia is self-inflicted in a way that she has to induce it or control it according to her surrounding circumstances.
One life is her usual life among her family and friends or her co-workers and what she chooses to show them from her personality that they are familiar with.
And there is this other life that she is trying to hide, because it’s not easy at all to come out, announce one’s sexuality and its deviance from the perfect plan that the society had already set out for her
This double life makes her always under pressure, a lot of stress and constant fear, because she has to be careful with how she acts and how she speaks to keep this life hidden and stop things from getting mixed up with her in either lives, so this caution is there to keep any suspicious away from her while dealing with her parents, friends, neighbors or her work or study place. And between this and that, there’s this feeling of identity loss and hypocrisy
For women, these secret lives are their true lives, because finally she can be herself and feel safe among other women like her, and I don’t mean by women like her regarding sexual orientation only, no, I mean they all lead the same double life too; only different stories and circumstances. At least they can show their interests in other women and to be in a relationship when they find one. But, when their circumstances are this close to each other, does that mean that now they are in their safe zone and it will not going to have any negative effects on them?
Of course not! With all this confusion we sometimes find that there are some women who have lost their sense of direction in life. So we find some women who have projected the thoughts and the actions of the patriarchal society on other women like themselves, may be for them this stems out of a need for embracing one’s self to feed this hole or emptiness inside them Moreover, we find those who don’t accept themselves and their homosexuality yet are still conflicted and depressed. Sometimes all of this leads them to hurt themselves or each other with their relationships with each other, whether this relationship is friendship, love or even only physical.
Unhealthy relationships are defined as “relationships in which physical, sexual, psychological, or emotional violence takes place ”
If any woman felt threatened by any kinds of these signs from her partner, then she must end this relationship immediately. If a woman or a girl stayed in these kinds of relationships, she is always exposed to the danger of being controlled by her partner, of feeling less confident about herself, of being underestimated and abused, of always thinking or feeling that anything she does is wrong and of changing herself to satisfy her partner All of this could lead to mental and physical health deterioration, because the relationship then has become violent, whether verbally or physically violent to the point where
harassment and abuse aren’t far from possible.
But the big disaster lies in not talking about these violence things, and now these things are an additional secret to bear in her secret life
It’s hard to empathize with the behavior of the female abuser; is it because she has a troubled life with a lot of issues that she couldn’t handle and didn’t get help when she needed? Or is there no excuse for her violent behavior and this is strictly on her and her conscience?
And for the girl or woman who get abused, one doesn’t simply understand why she is silent about getting abused and keeps it a secret? Is she afraid or embarrassed or does she love her partner so much and try to convince herself that these violent actions from her partner is a form of love too or maybe she thinks that she had done something wrong and she deserves to be punished?.
The worst thing is to choose to stay in these kinds of relationships because you are hoping for the other person to change and for everything to change. And yes I know it’s hard to leave someone you love when you have struggled to find them in the first place, but when you feel threatened and unsafe in this relationship or with that person and the whole thing is dangerous for you, then you must choose your own physical and mental well-being and leave So, you always have to ask yourself “is this relationship good and safe for me or not?”
And if you were in one of these toxic relationships before and you are having or suffering from any kind of a trauma, then you should definitely ask for help and see a specialist if you had to.
The improvement of our mental and phys
health is a key factor in our struggle
It is an indisputable fact that Health is of a paramount importance to all individuals alike It is an essential factor for an individual towards wellbeing. Physical health affects the psyche, mental health also affects the body. In many cases, it affects the immune system, mood, sleep, physical movement, communication with others, work, social and practical life.
In general, we lack adequate awareness of the constituents of mental and physical health in Egypt We also lack enough comprehensive services provided by the State; from health insurance to fully equipped and clean hospitals that are suitable for the people.
If found, their prices and costs are not affordable for the average citizen.
We still urgently need to increase the number of qualified doctors eligible to provide medical care for members of the LGBTQ community without prejudice or giving reins to their religious, cultural or personal tendencies and bias at the expens e of thei r
commitment to the professional and medical code of ethics.
This article doesn’t completely deny the existence of such professional and qualified doctors, but rather alludes to the scarcity of their presence in the status quo of the LGBTQ society.
As for physical and sexual health, it is common for fear and anxiety to arise among members of the LGBTQ community due to the stigmatization and prejudice they face in the event of seeking medical care in the government hospitals by medical personnel or nurses, especially if they contracted a sexually transmitted disease or infection. All the above hinder them or make them extremely hesitant about seeking medical assistance. Consequently, this contributes to worsening their mental and physical state
Nowadays, any member of the society may experience psychological crises due to the harsh living conditions in Egypt
Many of us go thr o
ugh psychological pressures due to the grinding economic situation, the tumultuous political atmosphere, the deterioration of freedoms and the unspeakable social ordeals.
However, the situation is more difficult for minorities - especially sexual minorities such as homosexuals, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender and transsexual people and all those who do not conform with common social stereotypes such as queer people among others- because of the stigmatization inflicted upon them by State and nonState factors.
It is hard to fathom how these individual thrive under punitive laws that criminalize their gender expression and sexual identities or practices, and could
also lead to their imprisonment or subjecting them to verbal and physical forms of violence and stigmatization Not to mention the rejection and hatred of the society and the media and the incitement practiced in the media against them.
The media incites the State to take actions against the LGBTQ and demonizes them which can contribute to their persecution and sparks violence against them when they are being portrayed as perverts who spread corruption, indecency, debauchery, and deviations in the society.
Last but not least, the domestic and familial pressure they may go through could amount to violence, disowning the homosexual or transgender family member and sometimes murder. There are also cases of coercive marriage to a heterosexual person from the opposite sex or corrective rape in the case of lesbian women
All of this have a negative impact on mental and physical health and cause a number of mental and physical illnesses such as: trauma, a sense of inferiority and humiliation among the members of the community so much so that some of them could commit suicide (if the situation exacerbates) or at best suffer from depression.
They eventually may be in a situation where they are coerced to escape and leave their families or flee their country and seek asylum in countries that may respect their personal, sexual and gender freedom or at least offer an alternative protection.
Apart from the security apparatus crackdowns on gay and transgender people in Egypt through social networks and applications or places where they gather (gay cruising areas are known to be an easy target for the police), there are entrapments and ambushes set by heterosexual persons in order to obtain
material gains from their gay victims.
The perpetrators of such crimes pretend to be gay, then force their victims to sign checks or steal their phones and money and at times they can blackmail them with videos or photographs. The members of the LGBTQ stand fragile and helpless in dealing with this ordeal, as opposed to their heterosexual peers. As the victims in our community can not resort to the police to report the perpetrators due to fear of stigmatization and prosecution if they are found out to be gay and have been robbed by individuals whom they met through online dating applications for homosexuals.
I was personally subjected to that situation, where I was unable to seek help from the police and I still feel oppressed and traumatized because I couldn’t preserve my rights and report the perpetrator The ongoing media incitement against the LGBTQ community augments their fear, shame and state of helplessness; hopelessness, isolation and depression. Such an agony is similar to the feeling of a frightened heterosexual girl who refrains from or hesitates a hundred times before leaving her house because of male sexual harassment in the street and the lack of a safe space to live in peace
I once witnessed an effeminate gay boy get subjected to bullying by a group of overly “masculine” youths who beat him for no reason other than that his gender expression seemed to be contradictory to the prevalent stereotypes; that is, acting or walking in a feminine manner. Of course, the police did not intervene to protect him
My friends and I were also attacked verbally by a group of young heterosexuals who directed homophobic slurs at us, in addition to dozens of other, even worse experiences and examples of violence that were recounted to me by my friends and acquaintances. We may neglect the need to preserve our mental health and psychological wellbeing because of the preoccupation with the details of life, but there is an urgent need for us to invest in improving our mental health and to increase our awareness of that need. Civil society activists or groups working for LGBTQ rights should intensify their work in the legal, health, and psychosocial support groups and build networks with psychiatrists who do not suffer from homophobia and sympathize with members of the LGBT (in other words, forming allies)
There are numerous activist groups that work hard under difficult security conditions and social pressures. However, there is an urgent need to achieve more successes in this area due to the lack of awareness among many LGBTQ persons of sexually transmitted diseases and sexual health in general.
I have met many gays who suffer from a notable lack of sexual health information and found that some of them are married to women while engaging in sexual activities with male partners without the use of condoms under the pretext that sexual pleasure is not fulfilled when they use condoms.
Some gay individuals believe that the main point behind using condoms or
committing to safe sex practices is usually HIV, underestimating other sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea, syphilis, HPV, hepatitis B, herpes, pubic lice (Crabs), etc
Further, there is a need to raise awareness and correct the misconceptions spread among the LGBTQ community itself with regard to people living with HIV. We ought to support those suffering from the affliction, encourage them to take medicines, help improve their mental health and sensitize them to abide by safe sex for the purpose of protection in general.
As a conclusion to all of the above, it is noteworthy to point out the need to provide mental and physical health care in a fair, safe, and non-stigmatizing manner for the members of the LGBT community and to raise awareness among them because the healthier and more aware we are, the stronger we become and thus can complement our struggle for greater rights and more gains
The psychological state of the person affects the immune system in a large way. Sorrow and depression weakens the immunity system and its ability to resist diseases. Therefore, people who have negative thoughts about their illness have little or no recovery. The general state of mind also affects the performance of the immunity system. A person with defeatist thoughts about his illness contributes to weakening his immunity, and vice versa
Depression could also cause autoimmune diseases; under this condition, the immunity attacks other body organs as if they were external threats, which results in various complications.
I know it's not easy, but if we can overcome anxiety and depression by exercising sports, engaging in our favorite recreational activities such as reading, listening to our favorite music, or talking a walk and talking to close friends. All of this can help improve mood, psyche and immunity.
We often wander aimlessly in our relationships regardless of their kinds, forever drawn to love, falling into its abyss and then tirelessly trying again to get back up and start from a clean slate. We wait for a loved one to help us fulfill our destinies; and in the process of building a foundation of a close relationship, we exert our best efforts mentally, physically and emotionally. All for the sake of what we think will fill the void within ourselves. Indeed, our need for love and belonging reigns supreme on all of our emotional urges and desires, it’s the cornerstone of mental wellbeing. Yet love doesn’t always come as a relief, it doesn’t always follow the ideal picture you’ve painted ourselves of it being the remedy for all our ordeals.
The philosopher Robert Solomon describes love as a very mundane matter, far from being an answer to all life’s dilemmas, yet it can be in some occasions catastrophic in its consequences. This articles mainly speaks about the affliction of relationships; specifically in the LGBTQ+ community This is not because it is inherently afflicted as a community; it’s because it is a community whose stories often go unheard.
The Tragedy of toxic relationships:
If we are to define toxic relationships in layman’s terms, we have its definition in the Urban Dictionary: "a relationship between two or more individuals in a state of constant and intense debate and conflict, in a breakable relationship, but they are still willing to maintain it "
As the LGBTQ community is made up of humans, they have the same problems as any other human being. But as I have already noted, problems take place in our lives, which need to be expressed, acknowledged, and discussed especially in cases such as Arab societies, namely a "quasireligious" society such as Egypt’s. In this case we find that the essence of this toxicity in relationships is present and common in all cases whether homosexual or heterosexual, since the aspects and manifestations of the toxic relationship follow a clear, repetitive pattern which we will explain later
After a long struggle, Osama's fight with cancer finally came to an end with full recovery. He had abandoned everything, or rather everything abandoned him. It started with his job and studies in the media field which his very distinctive charisma enabled him to conquer, then it was his family and beloved friends who drifted away from him in an implicit surrender to the absurdity of life and inevitability of death.Yet Osama actually wasn’t alone, he had a lover who dedicated himself to him through thick and thin. This other man chose to stay around rather than pursue a different, less problematic relationship. The relationship came to an end when Osama had a change of heart after his recovery Of course as Osama recovered it became only expected that he would at least be grateful for his ex’s sacrifices., but this does not happen most of the time.
In this example, it is evident that Osama here is the “toxic” person whose effect on the relationship is progressively destructive. His partner is the one who does most of the sacrifices; not because he is superhuman, but rather due to the inescapable hold that the toxic person has over his victim. Toxic people are usually very charismatic, charming and attractive, yet they are also sociopath who are unaware of their affliction, unable to demonstrate feelings or accept input from others. They only plot on their own to reach the results they hope for. Therefore, the pattern is clear when it co
mes toxic relationships; a relationship that is lacks harmony or balance when it comes to expressing feelings and/or appreciating them, lack of openness among the two parties and belittling the feelings of the abused side by the abuser. The abused is constantly patronized especially in front of friends and family in order for the abuser to get a sense of control over the relationship. All of these are signs of a majorly defective relationship that could take its toll on the people in it emotionally, psychologically and even physically And here comes the most important and last question; why does this happen? whose fault is it? And where do we go from here?
There is no doubt that there is always a way out of any problem, even with relationship problems. It should be taken into consideration that both the abused and the abuser are victims in a sense; the abuser is unable to identify his diagnosis, he is inherently narcissistic and aggressive. And he is in dire need of a confrontation from the abused party. "The most important thing you have to do if you engage in that kind of harmful relationships is to be comfortable with your feelings and get comfortable with expressing them" says Dr. Clinton Malcolm, author of The Relationship Between Toxicity and How to Change It: Health, Comfort and Daily Life. Moreover, he stressed on the importance of identifying one’s values and objectives when it comes to what they want from a relationship, setting clear boundaries for healthy relationship dynamics and
generally being practical about it. Only when the issue seems persistent, only when the basis of a healthy relationship- which is balance and unconditional love- seems missing, that is when one should end the relationship immediately for the good of all parties involved.
Confusion, anxiety and depression start from a very young age, they evolve into complete detachment from the self and the others; a physical and psychological struggle shaping the life of a transgender person where salvation begins with a psychological assessment, which may eventually lead to actual physical transitioning using methods such as: hormonal replacement therapy ”HRT” or/and reassignment surgery Such process can take a few years to complete and no one gets through it alone or without the help of medical staff usually which is comprised of an endocrinologist, a psychologist and a surgeon.
Transgender people seek out psychological help mostly to gain the approval needed to continue with their physical transition, beside to control the associated depression and anxiety related to their condition. We should mention here that those psychological imbalances are not inherent in transgender people and are triggered only in societies with low tolerance to any divergence from the norm. Psychological assessment may also help in better understanding gender identity and all that is related to it.
In Egypt, things don’t go that smoothly; as most doctors of any specialty even psychology don’t know what gender dysphoria is and the few that are aware of the condition are mostly of a severely old school and biased mentality. The psychological assessment process for a trans individual In Egypt can last up to 2 years with no logical reasons at all but only to try so hard to make the person change his mind! First,
a year of antipsychotic drugs are prescribed to trans people whose reported side effects can include drowsiness, being sleepy or having headache and negatively affecting their life quality. Moreover, some doctors still believe in old theories like Freud’s “Penis Envy” and discuss it with their patients, and some do an EEG for no specific reasons at all but cashing in more money. It is disgusting how trans people are being treated as a genie-pig. What’s worse, some parents pay to the doctor to write false reports entailing that the transgender person Is psychotic in order to prevent them from having a surgery. Due to all of that, the journey of psychological assessment which should have the relief for trans individuals became another obstruct to their transition.
If a trans person finally got to have the psychological report now they can have a follow up with an endocrinologist but sadly it is not that easy to achieve, only a small number of specialists are available and, mainly centralized in large cities like Cairo and Alexandria. To understand this journey more intimately, let’s look at the case of one transman; taking Testosterone relies on two factors: whether the recipient has removed the ovaries or not (in other words, whether he has any internal source of hormonal production in general), and whether his other physical functions work in a healthy way enough to start the hormonal therapy.
In order to evaluate this, analyses must be performed periodically before and during the treatment, especially during the first year it is necessary to send these tests to the endocrinologist to determine the appropriate dose for the patient, which often comes in the form of intramuscular injection every 3 weeks.
The first changes caused by hormonal
therapy are often the increase in the thickness of the vocal cords and thus the roughness of the sound, increased facial and body hair, increased clitoral volume, stoppage of the menstrual cycle, increased muscle mass and a more masculine body fat distribution pattern. These changes run their course in a period of three to five years, but this does not mean discontinuing hormonal replacement therapy. If the ovaries are removed, there is no sufficient source of the Estrogen and Testosterone hormones in the body This can lead to health risks such as osteoporosis and severe mood changes.
There are side effects of “HRT”, such as:
• Excessive numbers of red blood cells "Polycythemia " This may lead to the formation of blood clots or heart failure.
It is necessary to perform a complete blood picture every 3 months in the first year and then every 6 months in the subsequent years, if the situation is stable to follow up on such problems and treat them at the beginning.
• Increased Cholesterol Level , which increases the risk of heart disease and atherosclerosis
• Hypertension, it is therefore advisable to measure the blood pressure regularly.
• Testosterone therapy can cause alterations in liver function tests, cholestatic jaundice, and hepatocellular neoplasms (rare).
Specifically, the use of orallyadministered C-17 alpha alkylated testosterone has been associated with such complications, in addition to being associated with hepatocellular carcinoma and hepatic adenomas. Oral use of C-17 alpha alkylated testosterone is therefore generally discouraged. In some case, injectable, transdermal, buccal, and pellet delivery methods are thought to significantly lower such risks. No matter which testosterone delivery method is being used, it is prudent to screen the
user with liver function tests to monitor the overall health of the liver. There are many other risks that cannot be listed here only, which require continuous follow-up with several doctors of different specialties and of course this care is largely lacking in Egypt. Those fighters face a lot of difficulties in such process due to the lack of understanding among the medical staff, some are even afraid to go to the doctors in general because of what they are subjected to ranging from bullying and inhumane treatment all the way to questions asked only to satisfy curiosity without looking at the patient's condition.
It is recommended that the removal of the uterus and ovaries is done within five years of the start of hormonal therapy, as there are some doubts about the development of ovarian and uterine tumors after this period of HRT, despite the lack of evidence so far to prove or deny these doubts. However, it has become a preventive measure, as a lot of trans-men skip the necessary tests to detect such tumors, whether due to the embarrassment of going to a gynecologist or because of the lack of understanding and consideration of the trans people situation in Egypt. That’s why, many of them resort to starting hormone therapy without any medical supervision.
The situation in Egypt is completely dissociated from human rights. Transgender people can’t simply go to a doctor to get a prescription for the flu without experiencing severe anxiety at least Now, imagine their health condition with all the required amount of tests, psychological follow-up and surgical operations that require special attention. Clinicians who are conciliatory and sympathetic to the situation are scarce and often charge more money. It is a prison that does not seem escapable. The situation is not improving, it is getting more turbulent and will apparently remain so for years to come
Death is no longer a threat coming from the haters and the extremists; but the negligence of some medical personnel which is shamefully justified by many doctors as well.
To sum up, if you are a trans person in Egypt and do not have money or have relations to the medical staff, your life is indeed in danger
He sat alone by the beach, silent and sorrowful. A hundred thoughts came rushing through his head: “across that sea, there’s home, there’s everyone I love, my memories, my friends, and family among other people. There are so many things I miss, chief among them, there’s him. The only person I felt something for in a really long time, he gets me like no other, I can sit and stare at him for hours, I love our arguments and conversations, I love watching him talk and do things. There’s nothing I don’t like about him except the fact that he is a “he”; It is not the guy’s fault, it is destiny that put both of us in Egypt, where love is a crime and discrimination is for all!”
He looks at the empty spot right next to him, wishing he was here by his side on the beautiful European beach Things would have been totally different! Yes, he was sent here to gain more experience and get a better training, to become one of select few getting ready to be the best He is getting closer more and more to the center of the ruling class of Egypt, the closer he gets the more scared he gets about when they find out about his sexual orientation. However, here he could express himself, they do not care much if the one he is texting and talking about all the time is a “he” not a “she” as he claims every time he talks about him. They would not fire him or take legal action t if they knew he is bisexual and of course they only care about how good he is at what he does. He wondered why he missed home this much especially since he traveled many
times before, what is different this time?! Maybe homesickness was a fair price to pay for abandoning who he loves at home, but how about the things he hates?!
“Why do I miss home?! Am I happy in Egypt?! What do I have there to miss!? I have money more than I could want to spend in a lifetime, yet this did not protect me from feeling miserable for the poor who eat from garbage and kill themselves – literally – because of how hard it has become to make a living in Egypt. My money is of no worth compared to the guilt I feel for those who do not have it, knowing that I am part of the system crushing them. No cop could stop me anywhere; I am being respected thanks to my uniform by every authority at home. Thanks to my job, I can do anything I fancy doing, yet thanks to my job as well, I cannot be free to choose my partner and be with the one I love.
Thanks to living in Egypt, I now feel like I have two personalities and it is killing me: I have to pretend to be heterosexual fearing what may happen if they see the real person behind that mask. I cannot even go to a psychiatrist and discuss it, not only because of the stigma that would follow me should my colleagues find out, but also it would jeopardize my whole career and everything I have worked for my entire life if my superiors found out. They taught us not to trust anyone; why should I trust a psychiatrist then?! I have then to face the stressful burden of being in Egypt and deal with it on my own, I
have to work out my dilemma by myself: I have everything but I do not have my freedom ”
“Life in Egypt has become so unhealthy that needs to be studied, diagnosed and prescribed a cure. We are not talking here about the contaminated food or the non-potable drinking water, we are talking about mental and psychiatric health; we cannot stand living in it, we yearn to leave to some place where love is not a crime. It was about time that I should decide; has life in Egypt or being an Egyptian become a disease?! Is it healthy to live in such a country?! Is it fair to give up our freedom lest we feel homesick when we leave?! What if we gave in to our instinct of homecoming; would we miss our freedom that we tasted when we left as much as we missed home?!”
A few months ago, this guy decided to leave more than a decade of hard work in Europe behind and move back to Egypt even though he used to have one of the finest European passports and a job everyone dreams of there! However, he always felt something was missing; he missed the dark bars of his hometown, the narrow alleys, the crowded streets and more than anything, his people there! He believed Egypt is still the same country he left more than 10 years ago, he believed that an annual visit for a couple of weeks is enough to build an updated image about life in Egypt! For a few months he lived here, happily,
he could stand the bureaucratic endeavors thrown his way. Yet it wasn’t long before he flew back to Europe! Egypt brought out the worst in him; he suffered to start his own business, an endless line of bribery, interference by the military and of course a forceful partnership in business before it even starts Suddenly, everything he missed in Egypt became a despicable nightmare so much so that he gave up all the money he threw here and flew back to Europe. Europe became his home now, the one he longed for! It is the place where he discovered his hidden powers, it is the place he felt human.
The relationship between Egypt and its citizens became so abusive, it resembles that in the “Fifty shades of Grey”movie, where one lover is desperate for a touch of affection from the other, so she puts up with all his violence and abuse, hoping that someday things would get better And as time passes, she gets acquainted and used to torture that she asks for it at some point. It became more or less resembling the well-known phenomenon of “Stockholm Syndrome” where the victim tries to justify, find excuse and may go as far as sympathizing with and defending their capturer! Yes, leaving home may be horrible, missing your people and everything you have known may be a cause for suffering However, isn’t it a fair price to pay for your mental health!? In Egypt, people living with so many diseases, afraid of seeking treatment due to the accompanying social stigma; they would rather die than let shame and ostracism eat them alive!
In Egypt you have to follow the code of conduct for social norms, no matter how faulty and sick it itself is! And do not you dare and object, then you are a deviant and you get shunned! Is not a life of freedom, safety and free speech worth sacrificing a life of whatever we have been enduring in
Egypt since we developed the ability to read the news?! Maybe we all have to leave some time at least to fight, express ourselves on behalf of those who are trapped here and cannot follow our lead, then we will have to put aside our yearning towards home. Maybe the struggle would pay off someday and we will raise the flags of love and equality all over this land. Maybe homesickness is bitter, but oppression is way worse!
Bangambiki Habyarimana said in the Book of Wisdom: “Home is where you feel more welcome, more secure, have more rights and where you are loved. This place can be any place even away from what your birthplace” So maybe home is not where we are born, neither is it where all of our memories are! There are so many things that we can recreate, rebuild and replace. But our freedom, hence our mental health, definitely cannot be found here in Egypt and cannot be disposed of either.
An article was published in October 2017 by Professor of Egyptian History at the University of Cambridge, Khaled Fahmy, entitled "Constants, Rights and Rainbow”. He spoke about the historical development of communities' perspective on with the issue of homosexuality. This article comes as part of the response to the campaign against the LGBTQ+ Egyptian society following the events of the infamous Mashrou Leila concert in Cairo, which resulted in a wide array of arrests amongst LGBTQ community members in Egypt as well as systematic media campaigns to demonize them and show them as a threat to national security and societal harmony; a conspiracy From the West against Egypt, which is what Dr. Fahmy refuted in his article
What is truly remarkable about Dr. Fahmy’s article is his reference to the evolution of the Egyptian society's perception of homosexuals and unproductive sexual relations (unproductive with regards to breeding offspring) in general and to the body itself, regardless of its gender. Khalid Fahmy explains in his article that the society's view of sex and the human
body was not always a political and medical issue, but that the presence of homosexuals in the Egyptian society was very familiar especially in the pubs of Cairo and its suburbs. In "The customs and traditions of modern Egyptians," by William Edward Lane, He describes men in women's attire who practice dancing instead of "ghawazi” or female dancers who, of course, are women and might find it difficult to move with the flexibility of some men. These men in women's clothes used to dance in nightclubs and were known as "al-Khawlat" Of course, this was a demeaning profession, similar to prostitution, but what is noticeable here is that they were legal and the society wasn’t particularly aggressive or punitive. There was no desire to arrest, kill or abuse members of different gender identities, which is completely different from the situation since the days of Muhammad Ali till our modern days.
Modernity in the world has generally been associated with a bitter history of policing and controlling bodies. Modernity, whose primary theme is production and the communities’ shift from resource scarcity to abundance, has been aiming at productivity even in
sexual relations. Because of this, there is a model of the typical form of body disposition, which of course is the productive form that ends with procreation. Not only to meet the needs of production but also to cover mainly the consumption needs created by said production and supply and to maintain a market of an unemployed class ensuring lower labor cost and higher production rates for the new capitalist class emerging on the exhausted shoulders of the old feudal class.
In his book The History of Sexuality, the French philosopher Michel Foucault chronicles the concept of anomalies, the idea of what is abnormal and what is acceptable in European societies, and how the state used legislation produced by the European bourgeois class to restrict sexual freedoms and govern the relationships between the common people. Religion, of course, played a major role in Europe then, as it does in Egypt today to establish the idea of what is sane and innate nature and what is the opposite of nature and instinct, but what seems also influential here is the notion of institutionalised medicine. Ancient medicine was not systematic and was limited to a range of medical discoveries and herbal treatments and legacy recipes. Moreover, in the middle ages, there was a record of prescriptions and a description of various symptoms and diseases passed on across
generations. However, in a society aimed at retaining individuals as consumers, the preservation of bodies became necessary. Hence, medicine becoming a field witnessing exponential growth, with a goal of defining what is “natural”.
What might seem surprising to many here is that the modern medical concept of disease is explicitly limited to the impediment to survival. Disease in modern medicine is all that harms survival, and in turn, the high rates of production Therefore, from a philosophical standpoint, science has stood ultimately unable to define the meaning of disease mainly because it does not know what is natural. Does natural only comprise what is most common and familiar in nature or is everything created by nature- whether rare or often- natural by definition?! In modern societies that understand only the relations of production and consumption, it was necessary to define disease at the time as anything that violates the productive spirit of nature. For that reason, European medical institutions have begun to play an important role in characterizing homosexuality as a disease, as these relationships do not necessarily result in children. It did not stop here, but began to expand through observing the chain of diseases that are linked to homosexuality and justifying it as a natural consequence of any and every homosexual relationship possible. This reminds us of the war which the conservative American Right fought against AIDS patients and homosexuals generally in the 1970s and their refusal to allocate a budget for AIDS testing as they wrote it off as divine punishment for those who were in the crosshairs of the Lord.
We will not be surprised when we notice that it is a situation very reminiscent of the one in Egypt. In mid 19th century, Clotte Beck, the chief physician of the Army of Muhammad Ali in Egypt,
reported the spread of syphilis among Egyptian officers because of the absence of a law that forces female sexworkers to undergo medical examinations. The soldiers then had to replace them with " something even more vile and against the human nature by directing their attention towards the young boys who under the pretense of dancing would do what could not be mentioned." The practice of refusing to call it directly homosexuality in this context reminds us of the writings of Michel Foucault on how the mere descriptions of sexual acts became so heinous that only hints and gestures are employed instead just for the sake of amplifying the “taboo”. Clotte then sought to issue a law criminalizing homosexual relations and prostitution in Egypt, which was done in the 1940s by the Anti-Prostitution Law, and succeeded in closing the brothels, but failed to eliminate prostitution. Eventually, this led to the passing of legislation in the Sixties of the last century criminalizing all sexual relations with material return and all kinds of relations that lie under the exhaustive realm of debauchery (which is the legal description of homosexuality), in another gesture of only alluding to but never mentioning homosexuality to maximize the concept of sin.
It is clear then that the medical institutions were not always on the same side as gay men as they are now after the American Psychiatric Association lifted homosexuality from the list of psychiatric illnesses. Medical institutions were not supportive of everything that existed in nature, and this seemed to change only because of the struggles of countless homosexuals who sacrificed their lives not only to win their right to exist but to expose the politics behind all medical stances and practices, and to uncover the collusion between those medical institutions and political bodies as servants of Capitalistic notions of production.
This does not imply failure of medicine itself or science itself to hold its ground as the primary method of analysis and knowledge-assimilation, but rather the failure of the institutions that fund and support science in solving the dilemmas of mankind and only prioritizing its political agenda.
One of these dilemmas is the medical institutions’ attitude regarding the gender and sexual orientation divide; in spite of the existence of an alternative “Queer” theory that views gender and sexuality preferences as malleable, everchanging human attributes, there has been this incessant tendency within the medical society to use rigid labels to pinpoint where everyone lies on any spectrum This approach has proven its uselessness as an explanation for how these things happen, morph and change in real life.
From here I conclude that the ideal struggle must build itself on freedom and exercising the right to our own bodies, not as a social tool but as a completely free choice. Human Liberation is a goal in itself that should not adhere to any of those scientific standards that failed us once and might do that again. The human right to self-determination and choices for oneself and one’s body must be driven by a natural, instinctive and even carnal force Yes, homosexuality can be defended as a sin and lauded by anyone who doesn’t mind being viewed as a sinner! The right to commit what the majority believes is wrong is the origin of the concept of emancipation and freedom There is no need to acquire a permit from educated medical groups who spend their lives classifying individuals into cages to practise what in the end is only our nature.
Sources:
1- Constants, Rights and RainbowKhaled Fahmy
2- History of sexuality - Michel Foucault
For decades the world has been fighting this vicious virus; since it started attacking the human race, the medical community has made it their responsibility to stop it, doing their best controlling its spread, promising a world
without it by the year 2030. HIV has been a risk and a nightmare that everyone fears However, there comes a time when we should ask: is it as scary as people make it seem?!
In 1981 when it first showed up, doctors in the United States of America had no name for it or its syndrome as they had no enough information about it. However the media did not spare the chance to demonize and sensationalize the disease. What’s worse is that they called it “GRID”, which stands for “Gay Related Immune Deficiency”! Although the CDC has called it temporarily the 4H disease (as they noticed it was mainly diagnosed in Homosexuals, Haitians, Heroin addicts and hemophiliacs)
A year later, doctors managed to isolate
the virus and gather more information about the new high-risk disease, calling the syndrome officially AIDS, short for “Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome” and for the virus to be abbreviated HIV, or “ Human Immunodeficiency Virus”. it was no longer related to the gay community, they were proven innocent from every accusation thrown at them because of it.
In Egypt, more than 25 years after the western world and the medical community had set the guidelines of this disease, we still find so many rumors and misconceptions related to it; chief among them is, whoever gets infected with HIV means necessarily that they have AIDS! So, to get deeper into this we need to understand the difference; HIV is an infective agent; it has to invade a specific living cell to survive. Like many infections, it can cause death if not managed properly, and anyone can be exposed to it However, some of us- due to many factors- may fall victims to its infection, yet, this does not mean that they have AIDS, which is a combination of infection – mainly opportunistic – that takes advantage of an exhausted immune system by HIV’s ramifications and attacks the different systems of the human body, leading eventually to death if not managed and treated properly. This takes us to a very important point: HIV is a completely controllable virus,
anyone with HIV can take pills (in Egypt there is one or two prescribed medications given for free by the ministry of health) and sooner or later they can reach a level of having the virus below detection level and live totally like a HIV negative person with intact immune system, bearing in mind that they have to keep on taking their medication daily.
Second among the worst rumors dealt around and related to HIV/AIDS is that whoever is diagnosed with it has just received a death sentence! This also is totally untrue! According to the World Health Organization (WHO), HIV/AIDS, has not been listed among the top 10 most common causes of death globally! Even in Egypt itself, it was not listed –according to CDC – in the top 10 causes of death! There is a higher risk for an Egyptian to die of a heart disease, liver or chest disease or even a road accident than to die with HIV/AIDS! Yet, Egyptians turn a blind eye to the disasters their community is plagued with due to corruption and the poor health care system then blame those who fight HIV/ AIDS for whatever health issues they are facing and convince themselves that whoever has HIV/AIDS is just destined to die!
Third among the worst lies related to HIV/AIDS is that it only comes to those who are sexually active, and namely LGBTQI+ people!
This has been proven wrong in July, 1982 when doctors announced that the virus can be transmitted through vaginal sex, which means that for about a year everyone
believed the horrible name “GRID” due to bad press and lack of knowledge! So, 25 years later and Egyptians still believe that only LGBTQI+ people live with HIV and heterosexuals are not at risk What is even worse, is the fact that HIV can be transmitted through needle sharing, which means addicts run the same risk as people who practice unsafe sex!
Fourth among the lies, is related to how the virus itself gets transmitted and passes from one person to another, people use the pretense of “The virus can be transmitted only through contaminated body fluids” to claim as many ways as they can think of for its transmission; some even let their imagination run wild and say that kissing transmits the virus which is totally not true. First, saliva can kill the virus yet oral sex might lead to an infection under the very strict condition of the passage of an infected body fluid – blood, preejaculate, vaginal fluids or semen –making its way through an open wound or an ulcer to the sexual partner, keeping in mind that there should be a high amount of the virus there Also the virus cannot survive outside the human body, a spilled contaminated fluid cannot transfer the virus if it touched your skin by accident, as long as you wash it off as soon as possible to make sure it does not find its way to the inside of your body! Other fluids like tears and saliva cannot under any circumstances transfer the infection. So, wipe off an HIV+’s tears and fear nothing, they are
fighting a battle most of us know nothing about!
Fifth of those ignorant lies, is that women with HIV cannot get pregnant or give birth! The rumor itself is so horrible it can wreck homes and destroy lives, the fact that women with HIV cannot get pregnant or give birth has been obsolete for years now! A woman with HIV can easily get it under control, as long as she is taking her medication, gets her viral load – amount of the virus in blood – under detection level, sticks to the instructions given by the doctor, she can give birth to a perfectly healthy baby! And when it comes to breastfeeding, as breast milk can transmit the virus, there are so many alternatives and they are available to everyone! The list of lies and rumors about HIV/AIDS could go on and on, and the community’s ignorance and intolerance towards HIV fighters is extreme. A few months ago, a whole neighborhood in Egypt attacked a woman and demanded her to evacuate and leave her apartment for a rumor spread that she has HIV, later the woman killed herself!
It is time one should wonder; if the world’s greatest powers made it their responsibility to end the suffering, spent billions of dollars on research and finding new treatments and spread awareness and information about the hateful disease, how to protect oneself from it, help those fighting it and get treatment if need be along with easy access to any question that may come to one’s mind regarding it? why are there people who try to make it impossible to achieve the global goal of A World without HIV in 2030!?
I think a lot of people think that sexually transmitted diseases can be transmitted exclusively in a specific type of sexual intercourse, However it has been scientifically proven that sexual diseases can be transmitted through any sexual relationship whether heterosexual or homoseuxual. The one difference lies in the types of diseases that can be sexually transmitted. So we will target mainly sexually transmitted diseases resulting from lesbian relationships What’s sexual transmitted infections (STIs) : Diseases that are mainly transmitted from having sex with an infected person, whether vaginally, orally or rectally. But some sexually transmitted diseases can be transmitted through touching such as Herpes and HPV, which can be transmitted by touching the affected areas of the patient
Sexually transmitted diseases are divided into curable diseases and incurable diseases: Curable Diseases
Gonorrhea
Chlamydia
Trichomoniasis
Scabies
Pubic Lice
In order to talk about treatment and prevention methods, we need to talk about when you should be worried or go to the doctor, so you should know what normal or abnormal is:
Vaginal Discharge is one of the problems experienced by women and girls and cause them discomfort, either because of their abundance or their smell and are known and common to more than 60% of females. These Vaginal Discharges consist mainly of:
• Uterine albumin: A natural, white, viscous fluid that is completely egg white-like, odourless, leaves the fabrics easily when washed
• During the first week after the period cycle, there is a lack of vaginal secretions.
• Two weeks after the beginning of the menstrual cycle, the amount of Discharge is increased and it is thin and white, clear and slippery as raw egg whites, but they become yellowish-brown in color.
:
• Vaginal acidity sometimes decreases for multiple reasons, including different hormones like during the period cycle, some infections occur
• The pathological secretions are smelly or may cause itching or vaginal burning that vary in severity or they are many and of a thick white color such as cheese or green color.
• Abnormal vaginal secretions typically have an unpleasant odor. There is also severe itching, change in its natural color. These secretions may accompany some blood, increase in quantity, severe pain during intercourse, and pain and burning during or after urination These symptoms can also occur due to:
• Frequent vaginal washing causing dehydration and the appearance of vaginal infections
• Infection with intestinal worms where they move out of the anus to the vagina
• Use of some sprays to get rid of unpleasant odors that increase vaginal infections
• Diabetes mellitus
• Intake of some medications that reduce acidity within the vagina.
• Lack of vitamins
• Wearing tight, especially non-cotton clothing
• The existence of some fungi and bacteria such as Chlamydia.
Now we will talk about curable diseases and symptoms and how to deal with them:
• Vaginal bacteria:
Vaginal inflammation is a result of the increase in the number of bacteria in the vagina and usually occurs for the following reasons:
1. Excessive sexual activity
2 Use of a large vaginal shower in excess
3. Use of a lot of soap in excess
4. Use of sex toys in excess
The symptoms are usually as follows: abnormal secretions – burning and itching – an unpleasant smell of secretions – possible redness in the vagina and surrounding skin area
There are ways to prevent the occurrence of vaginal bacteria: (Avoid the use of soap and vaginal showers frequently – change the sanitary pads every little while during the menstrual cycle – avoid sexual intercourse without the means of protection –strengthen your immunity)
How to treat vaginal bacteria at home: (a cup of warm water with an apple cider vinegar and use as an external vaginal shower then dry the area well using soft paper napkins)
• Syphilis:
It is a very contagious disease transmitted through sexual intercourse, including oral or rectal sex and may, sometimes, be transmitted by even a long passionate kiss, or by close physical contact with a person with the disease. Infected people often do not know that they are infected and are transporting the disease to people who are sexually connected.
Pregnant women with syphilis can transfer the disease to the fetus. In this case it is called congenital syphilis or birth
Which causes malformations of the baby, and may even lead to his death
Syphilis is not transmitted by toilets, door handles, swimming pool, hot tubs or food utensils.
Symptoms:
Symptoms are divided into three stages: the first syphilis and this is possible to be discovered by a sore or several ulcers somewhere, these ulcers are painless and may be circular and rigid and usually we can think that it is a normal wound and it heals alone in 3 or 6 weeks and this is an introduction
For the second stage of the disease and it happens with a rash and ulcers in the mouth and the vagina and the anus and the rash may be red or brown in the palm or in the foot heat and the body can occur and inflammation of the throat and headache and underweight and then the symptoms disappear and the patient enters in the late third stage and will show the nails.
After a while it is affected by the nervous system such as poor movement and paralysis and loss of sight and failure in organs that lead to death.
The good is that it can be treated but must do the necessary analysis to ensure that it is the analysis of syphilis nowadays, such as: RPR Test and (VDRL) are tests It is quick but it can show false positive results in rapid tests in viral infections so if the result is positive you should make sure with analyses such as TPHA and FTA-ABS are more specific and more expensive and can treat syphilis using antibiotics including penicillin
• Chancroid :
Chancroid is a sexually transmitted disease that causes painful sores on the genitals
Symptoms: The disease affects the genitals and begins as a bump in the form of inflamed and red-colored abscess and filled with pus
And the good news is that he can be treated with antibiotics.
• Gonorrhea:
Gonorrhea is an infection caused by sexually transmitted bacteria that can infect both males and females. Gonorrhea often affects the urethra, anus or throat. For females, gonorrhea may also affect the cervix.
Symptoms: (Burning in the urine – increased vaginal secretions – bleeding between menstrual cycles – if the infection in the anus will show secretions, itching, bleeding and the process of the output will be very painful)
The severity of the disease lies in the fact that it can cause chronic pelvic inflammation or lead to infertility in the long run but can be treated with antibiotics prescribed by the doctor
• Chlamydia:
Chlamydia is a sexually transmitted disease caused by a bacterium called chlamydia. Chlamydia can infect the urethra (the tube that leads from the bladder to the outside), the vagina/cervix, the anus or the eyes. It is a treatable disease, but if it is not processed quickly it can lead to infertility. The diagnosis is made by analyzing the urine or doing a swab of the vagina
Symptoms:
Some patients do not exhibit symptoms and some show signs and symptoms associated with chlamydia infection as follows:
1. Feeling of heartburn and pain when urinating.
2. Pain in the abdominal sorrow and secretions in the anus area.
3 Pain associated with sexual intercourse
4 Symptoms similar to symptoms of hepatitis as pain in the abdominal and pelvic area and high temperature.
5. Vaginal secretions.
6. Bleeding between menstrual cycles and after intercourse. Symptoms often appear after 1-3 weeks of exposure to bacteria
Treatment:
1. The treatment of chlamydia infection may include the description of certain medications such as antibiotics.
2. Usually cured within one or two weeks of treatment.
3. The two partners must take treatment.
• Trichomoniasis:
Trichomoniasis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by a parasite. If women are infected, trichomoniasis can cause smelly vaginal secretions, itching in the genital area and pain when urinating. Men with trichomoniasis usually do not suffer any symptoms. Pregnant women with trichomoniasis may be exposed to an increased risk of premature birth of their children
Symptoms:
Not many women and most men with trichomoniasis suffer from symptoms, at least initially. Signs of trichomoniasis and its symptoms in women include:
• Heavy and smelly vaginal secretions may be white, gray, yellow or green
• Redness of the genitals and feeling of heartburn and itching
• Pain when urinating
Treatment:
The most common treatment for trichomoniasis on the intake of one large dose of metronidazole (Flagyl, Tindamax)
• Scabies:
Scabies is transmitted by a parasite called Sarkupitts scabay penetrates the female parasite skin and is a small tunnel under the skin where it lays its eggs until hatch
Symptoms:
-Red-colored small grains abound particularly around the navel, between the fingers of the hand
-severe itching especially during the night.
-The appearance of small gray lines and zigzag on the skin (this is the tunnel where the female lays eggs).
-Small blisters on the skin and severe hemrash scratches. A person with scabies must take all his or her precautions, so that the disease does not spread to other people. Wash and clean all clothes properly, at high temperatures, and with sterile materials that eliminate this moth. Make sure you bathe well before using medications Sterilization of all parts of the house so that the infection does not infect others.
• Pubic Lice:
Pubic lice are small parasites that dig under the skin and feed on the blood if we are infected with pubic lice, we can sometimes see it with the naked eye, like small white spots on pubic hair. Although pubic lice are annoying, it is treatable.
Symptoms:
People with pubic lice often suffer from itching in the genital area or the anus after five days of initial infection, and the itching at night becomes more intense, and other common symptoms of pubic lice include: low fever Irritability Energy shortages Pale bluish spots near the sting
Treatment:
The basic pubic lice treatment is personal hygiene, the cleanliness of the clothes and bed linen, the non-prescription topical lotions and shampoos can be used to remove pubic lice from the body, these treatments include permethrin products, and the doctor should be asked about the safe products for use in Pregnancy and lactation, the treatment of pubic lice may require the washing of pubic hair if the injury is mild, but the medical medication is also necessary if the topical solutions are not successful, and even after successful treatment, a few stubborn lice eggs may be clinging to the hair, so any residual residue should be removed using tweezers. Home remedies, such as shaving and hot baths, are not effective in the treatment of pubic lice, and pubic lice can easily survive after using regular soap and water You must also cleanse the entire house, clean the bathroom using Candida (chlorine), wash all towels, bed linen, and clothes in hot water, and dry them using heat, if you cannot wash or clean a certain piece of clothing, put it in a plastic bag closed for 72 hours.
• Acquired ImmunoDeficiency Syndrome (AIDS/HIV):
Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV) is a chronic disease that poses a significant risk to human life, resulting from the infection of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
Unlike many viruses, this virus cannot be completely disposed of as soon as it is infected, it remains in the body for life, and the immune deficiency virus attacks the body's immune system, especially CD4 cells (from T lymphocytes) that contribute to the human body's resistance to infection, if du n treatment, this virus will reduce the number of these cells, making the body more susceptible to different infections and cancerous tumors associated with infection,
Over time, the virus is able to eliminate a large number of CD4 cells so that the body cannot resist infection and opportunistic tumors, at which point the patient has reached the last stage of HIV infection: AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome).
Symptoms:
Symptoms of AIDS in detail the symptoms of AIDS can be divided by its multiple stages and are as follows
Early stages:
The disease does not show signs of AIDS, its initial symptoms are similar to those of the flu and quickly begin to disappear after two to four weeks from the moment of infection with the virus, the symptoms of AIDS at this stage are: the onset of rash. Fever is a high temperature of the body
Swelling occurs in the lymphatic glands area. Feeling pain in the throat, headaches.
The final stages of the disease, which are after 10 years and more exposure to the virus in the first stage, and the symptoms of AIDS begin to emerge and more dangerously and when it reaches this stage called HIV aids
When the disease worsens and develops, its adverse effects on the immune system in the infected body are significantly weakened, thus making it a very vulnerable prey for various diseases and opportunistic infections,
Symptoms that occur at this stage are: chronic diarrhea, the body temperature rises to above thirty-eight degrees Celsius and is accompanied by a feeling of fever and chills, severe shortness of breath during the breathing process, night hyperhidrosis, confusion and vision disorder, dry cough, loss of body weight to a large degree, feeling of head pain and headache, appearance of white wounds or dots in the mouth and tongue.
In the most advanced stages of the disease, other additional symptoms are shown: excessive night sweats, Chronic diarrhea occurs, Feeling of constant fatigue without explaining its cause, Fever, chills and body temperature rise dramatically, and the display continues to show up for several weeks, persistence of swelling of the lymph nodes for a period of more than three months.
AIDS is not transmitted by:
1 Workplace participation
2. Eating and drinking with a person living with the virus
3. Playing and touching the body and sweat
4. Participation in the use of bathrooms
5. Handshake and hugging
6 Kisses
7. Spray sneezing and cough
8. Insects and mosquitoes
• Genital herpes:
It is a very contagious disease, transmitted by sex, the pathogen is a herpes simplex virus that enters the body through small incisions found in the skin or in tissues that secrete mucus. Sex is the most prevalent method of transmission of the disease. Genital herpes, which affects the genital organs, is a very common disease and can affect both men and women
Genital herpes infection is a frequent injury and has no completely traumatic treatment, and may cause embarrassment and psychological suffering to those infected. However, a person's infection with genital herpes does not mean that he or she should abstain from having sex. The two partners, one of which has genital herpes, can prevent infection and prevent the transmission of the herpes virus from the infected person to the healthy person, by means of precaution and the use of certain types of prevention.
Symptoms:
Pain, rash, itching and excess sensitivity in the genital area. Most people with herpes simplex virus (HSV) do not know that they are infected, because they do not feel any signs or symptoms The signs and symptoms of HIV infection are often very mild, to the point where the person is not feeling it at all. The first shift is usually the hardest. While there are people who do not suffer from a second (repeated) seizure, there are others who may return and repeat their seizures for 40 years since the onset of the first seizure.
Treatment:
There is not, until now, a complete cure for genital herpes. However, there is a treatment that includes oral antiretroviral drugs
All medications are used to accelerate wound healing and to reduce the frequency of repeated seizures. In addition, the correct, permanent and constant intake of medicines on a daily basis reduces the possibility of a partner's sexual intercourse with herpes
A disease caused by a virus and transmitted there are 3 species that causes the genital acacia and cancer places are very genital and other
Symptoms:
In most cases, the immune system in the body defeats the human papilloma virus (HPV) infection before the infection leads to the formation of warts. However, warts differ in appearance when they appear according to the type of human papilloma virus (HPV) responsible for their formation.
Treatment: Although no medication is available to treat the HPV, yet the positive aspect is the fact that the inflammation disappears on its own, without any need for any treatment. If this is not the case and there is a need to give a treatment, there are many different and varied therapeutic alternatives against the human papilloma virus (HPV). In addition, the greater the number of people receiving HIV vaccine, the lower the incidence of HIV.
To date, the treatment of human papilloma virus (HPV) is concentrated in the treatment of associated symptoms and the treatment of infection (inflammation) caused by
1 Use of condoms or female during sexual intercourse
2.Openness and communication between the two partners if any of them carry any sexual illness before the sexual intercourse so that the necessary vaccinations or means of prevention are taken.
3. It is preferable to make analyses and tests for sexually transmitted diseases every period of time (every 6 months)
4. Consult a specialist if any strange symptoms appear and follow up with him