Activists’ Testimonials of Violence Cases

There have been a lot of similarities between the various incidents of violence as observed from the participants’ testimonials; some of them are a result of online advocacy work while others are the result of the survivors’ sexual orientation and gender identities. The incidents were as follows: 1. One gay activist talked about the aftermath of a post he made about same-sex relationships as being normal, consensual relationships that society should acknowledge and approve of. He was met by a wave of hostile comments and hateful messages- especially from his friends and family- accusing him of advocating for sin and debauchery. The activist’s calm and poised approach of debating the idea was met by violence and unacceptance. He said the incident has caused a signifcant strain in the relationship between him and his family, not to mention its adverse psychological effect on him. 2. One gay activist who has been vocal about human and LGBTQI+ rights on social media since 2013 mentioned the time when he stood in solidarity with the community, when same-sex marriage was legalized in the USA, by adding the Rainbow fag flter to his profle picture. As a result, he received numerous threats, hate speech and sarcastic remarks that escalated to the point of publishing a picture of him with one of his ally friends in an effort to defame him and out him to his friends and family. He said that he felt in danger since he had some family members on his social media profle, and they were only aware of him being an ally and not a member of the community. Moreover, he mentioned another attack during the aftermath of the Mashrou Leila incident. He had shared a post about it which opened a dialogue about pride in the LGBTQI+ community. The post started circulating and attracting a wave of strangers commenting to the point that he had to disable the comments due to the gruesome nature of some of them. Afterwards, he knew that his name was given to the National Security by one of the detainees from the concert, which made him feel jeopardized. He decided to temporarily deactivate his social media accounts as a safety precaution. He explained that he has been publishing frequently some academic papers related to the topic of LGBTQI+ which makes him a constant target for online bullying and violence. He said that the nature of his work as an activist makes accepting such resistance and hatred a prerequisite for success. 3. An intersex activist mentioned that she was threatened, defamed and slandered after a picture of her and another activist was shared by the Egyptian Police’s Facebook page in the wake of the Mashrou’ Leila incident in 2017. She said that after the page has outed her and divulged her real name, she received numerous death threats and verbally abusive messages on her own personal account. She said she did not take any action against the offenders even though the magnitude of this problem has reached her family and caused her problems with them. In 2016, she was subjected to another incident of a similar nature; it was done and orchestrated by a group of people who started bullying her, shaming her

and threatening to out her wherever she goes. It reached the extent of being a security breach since they impersonated her online and threatened to physically attack her. 4. One gay activist mentioned that in the wake of the Mashrou Leila concert in 2017, he had participated in online debates and discussions about the subject, siding with the LGBTQI+ people, which invited a wave of hate speech, death threats and verbally abusive comments threatening to out him, follow him and physically harm him. Some of the comments were made by self-proclaimed police offcers who threatened to arrest him as well. The incident made him feel unsafe and compromised due to the intensity of the threats he received. He mentions another incident that happened in 2014, when he met someone who didn’t divulge his true identity but managed to convince him that he was an ally, till he was able to collect some important information about him such as his place of residence and some family members. At that point he revealed himself to be a police offcer, threatened him and extorted him for sexual intercourse. The survivor mentions that he has been bullied, stalked and threatened in order to agree to have intercourse with him. 5. One Lesbian activist mentioned that in 2014, during a time when she was struggling with accepting her own orientation, she made a post about LGBTQI+ rights which was met by hate speech, verbal harassment and sending unsolicited pornographic materials to her. One person posted on her own page in order to defame her. The incident left her unable to react- despite of its adverse psychological effect on her- as she thinks nothing will change if she

reacts. 6. One pansexual activist mentions that in 2017, an anonymous person created a fake account on Facebook and used it to get some personal data, including family members, about the activist. Then he threatened to out him and send his pictures to family and friends. The activist showed his indifference towards such a threat, and was able to log into some of his family members’ accounts (as they were all linked by the same email address) and indeed he found some messages sent to them that would out him, so he deleted the messages and blocked the fake account. Yet those pictures and messages made their way to his own brother who confronted him, but he denied and used his political activity as an excuse to justify why somebody would try to defame him. Yet still this incident caused his family’s attitude to change; they started keeping him under surveillance and violating his privacy. He mentions another incident that took place in 2014 when he was still exploring his own sexuality and starting his activism in the LGBTQI+ rights feld, he had a friend who started preaching against his actions, then he started a smear campaign against him in their mutual social circles. The situation was aggravated and reached the level of physical altercations in the area where he lives. He had to eventually deactivate his social media accounts temporarily. And even though he fought his offenders back, whether verbally or physically, he is still affected by the incident. 7. One activist fell victim to an online scam where he met someone who managed to win his trust and know about him and his sexual orientation. It started off as a friendship but soon this person started to extort the activist

sexually; threatening to out him and publish his personal photos unless he agrees to having sexual relations with him. The activist succumbed for years in fears of being outed and facing even more shame and stigma. But after a while he had to stop, so his offender did out him to all his friends and family and published his personal data and pictures online. The survivor had to seek some psychological assistance, get in touch with the Cyber Police and seek the support of his more-accepting friends and a local LGBTQI+ organization. Eventually he deactivated his account and had to live for quite some time with the fear of stigma, police prosecution and arrest. 8. One gay activist mentions that after the Mashrou Leila incident in 2017, one anonymous individual posted a picture of him in the concert, accompanied by his own name which was an extreme compromise to his safety especially since he hails from a small town where everyone knows everyone. A lot of people saw the post and reacted negatively and aggressively, resulting in propagating false information; that he himself was the one who raised the Rainbow fag. The picture itself had some famboyant features which resulted in him having to confne himself to his home for 2 months in fear of being pursued or attacked. He mentions another incident that happened in 2017, when he kept receiving threats on his personal mobile number regarding outing and arresting him. He soon found those messages shared on Facebook which triggered a bigger wave of threats of notifying the State Police, with continuous questioning about his religious beliefs and sexual orientation from various, unknown people. He was psychologically traumatized by the incident that he had to deactivate and seek his friends’ support. 9. One gay activist recalls an incident in 2018, when he made a post in a closed group that insinuated his nonconforming sexual orientation. As a result, he received a wave of insults, mockery and threats from various group members and even the admins. He received unsolicited pornographic material, but he did not react to the offenses in any way since he believed it was futile to try to change anything. He mentions another incident in 2017 when a Facebook friend shared a post of his in a Facebook group, prompting other members to start a smearing campaign against him. The incident was so aggressive and intense that he had to take a hiatus from online presence and LGBTQI+ advocacy altogether. 10. One gay activist refects on the origin behind all the hate speech against the LGBTQI+ community online. He says that conservative Egyptians habitually attack anyone of nonconforming sexual orientation of gender identity as they are perceived as a threat to those conservatives’ religiosity and masculinity. It might be nothing beyond boredom and thinking it to be the only “natural” thing to do. Yet he recognizes a clear increase in the rate of attacks following the infamous Mashrou Leila incident in 2017; when he himself has been subjected to endless threats, insults and attacks online. He said that he fell victim to continuous psychological stress and fear of being recognized in the streets by accident, while he maintained a strong, unrattled face in front of his offenders. 11. One gay activist mentioned that while using Grindr in 2017, he found a stranger sending him his own personal photos and telling him some sensitive, personal data about him. He sent him

unsolicited pornographic material, threatened to out him, stalked him and blackmailed him. He found no resort but to deactivate all his accounts out of fear of being outed and the social stigma that follows. 12. One queer activist mentions that after the Mashrou Leila incident in 2017, a picture of them holding the Pride fag in the concert was circulated on Twitter which forced them to leave their parents’ home for a while and deactivate all accounts. Even though their brother was not on Twitter, the picture had reached him and resulted in him attacking his sibling, calling them godless and immoral, and using their mother’s illness as a pretext for shaming them before cutting all ties with them. The survivor felt abandoned and scared of the social persecution and stigma, even after they went back to their parents’ home, they still felt unsafe as their brother could out them any moment. The incident has taken a great psychological toll on the survivor, but they did not react towards it as they think that nothing would change in case they did. 13. One gay activist mentions that in 2017, someone impersonated him on Grindr and used his own personal details and photos, which forced him to deactivate any online profle he had and seek assistance from his friends to report it. He mentions that this specifc type of violence is so widespread in the community and has already happened to many of his friends from the community. 14. One queer activist who is living with HIV mentions that in 2015, when some people became aware of their infection, they were insulted and shunned by many of their acquaintances on social media. They were psychologically affected by the incident and deactivated their online

profles in fear of the social stigma that follows those who are HIV+ 15. One Lesbian activist recalls receiving numerous unsolicited pornographic materials from strangers on social media in 2017. She kept blocking the accounts that send her that stuff, but she felt powerless to do anything beyond that as the majority of people condone attacking LGBTQI+ people in Egypt. 16. One gay activist mentions that in 2018, he received some threats on Saraha.com website from an anonymous individual who was aware of his sexual orientation. He was threatened to be outed and verbally abused by the anonymous sender. Yet he did not react as he could not fgure out who his attacker was. 17. One lesbian activist says that in 2017, her ex-partner threatened to out her to her friends and family in efforts to get her back after they broke up. The survivor felt a continuous psychological stress and anxiety that lasted for a considerable amount of time even after she deactivated and sought her friends’ support. 18. One queer activist mentions that in 2017, he was subjected to online bullying and threats to be outed to his friends and family by another LGBTQI+ individual over a difference in opinion. Soon enough the situation turned into an online battle between the survivor and his friends against the attacker and his friends, where they published personal photos and led bullying campaigns against each other. This episode of online bullying has greatly affected the survivor’s self-image and self-confdence. He mentions that he was subjected to a similar incident of bullying after going out on a date with someone, who did not fnd him attractive

and ended up bullying and mocking him online. 19. One gay activist mentions that in 2017, he met someone who studies with him in the same university on Grindr. But that colleague started to insult him due to his nonconforming gender identity. He also recalls that the same attacker used the same techniques with other community members of the same gender identity. He suffered from anxiety and fear of what this attacker could do since they both go to the same university which means that he could hurt him in real life. 20. One lesbian activist mentions that she fell victim to an online scam where a man impersonated a woman and started chatting with her, sending her photos until she started sending her own photos. That was when he revealed his true identity and started insulting her and threatening to out her and publish her photos. She blocked him, deactivated her account and was psychologically traumatized by the incident. She says that ever since then she must take extreme cautionary measures in her online presence. 21. One lesbian activist mentions that she was emotionally blackmailed for two years from 2015 to 2017 by a man impersonating a woman. He tried to extort her sexually and when he failed, he threatened to out her to family. He created various fake accounts to keep on stalking her, he tried to hack her profle and kept sending her unsolicited pornographic material. She felt oppressed and powerless and isolated herself which led her to depression. 22. One gay activist recalls that in 2017, one of his acquaintances got in touch with his sister and outed him to her anonymously. He was psychologically traumatized by this incident and started being paranoid of all his friends who knew about his sexual orientation. 23. One gay activist who is known for offering medical assistance was contacted by a person for medical advice. He then confessed his love to him, told him that he would like to absolve him from the sin of homosexuality, and that they could start a completely platonic relationship. He then took pictures of this conversation and forwarded it to his heterosexual acquaintances who cut all ties with him as a result. He also sent those snapshots to the activist’s family who was luckily aware and accepting of their son’s sexual orientation. The activist’s father started negotiating giving “hush money” to the offender. The activist was massively affected by the incident and had to seek psychological assistance. 24. One queer activist mentioned that they found out by accident that there was a person impersonating them on Grindr in 2017 and using their own personal photos. The incident took a massive toll on the activist’s psychological wellbeing and they had to seek support from friends.