The Global Search for Education: Rasha Younes on Facing the Myths about LGBTQ+
This month audiences can screen Facing the Myths on the Planet Classroom Network YouTube Channel. It is a short documentary film about LGBTQ+ youth living in the Middle East and North Africa. With intimacy and humor, the featured young activists (who speak in front of or hide behind the camera because they fear arrest and discrimination), literally pick out hurtful questions and comments from a wooden box and debunk their mistruths. Through their banter, the audience learns they share the same common core values we all want, such as acceptance, sexual freedom, and marriage. They feel that one doesn’t have to be ‘outed’ in order to be part of the gay community; and with emotional support, ‘love always wins.’
This feature is presented by the Arab Foundation for Freedoms and Equality (AFE) and Human Rights Watch, and curated for the Planet Classroom Network by SIMA Classroom. Rasha Younes is a researcher with the LGBT Rights Program at Human Rights Watch, investigating abuses against LGBT people in the Middle East and North Africa region.
The Global Search for Education is pleased to welcome Rasha Younes.
Rasha, why did the activists participate in this film if they knew there would possibly be onerous repercussions?
For queer and trans activists in the Middle East and North Africa region, self-censorship is a familiar struggle, and many are forced to hide who they are to navigate their daily lives. In this film, activists decided to speak out in the face of state-sponsored efforts to silence LGBTQ voices, to debunk the harmful myths around their identities, and share their experiences with other LGBTQ people in the region, letting them know they are not alone in facing the myths.
Their voices echo the resilience of LGBTQ people who have the courage to keep fighting for their rights to live and to love, despite the risks that this struggle carries. This film demonstrates how LGBTQ people in the region keep finding creative ways to combat discrimination and make their voices heard in the process — to continue resisting no matter what.
Do you have any advice for closeted LGBTQ members that live in Egypt or other highly conservative Arab countries?
Closeted or not, LGBTQ people in Egypt, as in many other countries in the region, face systemic discrimination and horrific abuses, including arrests, and even torture. The rejection of LGBTQ identities in society, emboldened by the anti-LGBTQ state rhetoric, can lead to LGBTQ people being ostracized from their families, losing their social safety nets, and being denied access to medical care, employment, and legal protection.
At the same time, LGBTQ rights activists have formed strong networks of resistance and solidarity that allow them to protect each other from violence. These spaces exist in every country in the region and are a lifeline for individuals struggling to find safe environments. My advice would be to seek these spaces and learn how to shield yourself from government surveillance, including online, by using only secure apps and resorting to trusted communities.
You have no obligation to tell anyone about your identity. This is yours to do what you feel comfortable with. But talk to friends, find your community, there are so many people looking for the same. Protect yourself, physically and mentally, and know that there are people and services out there to connect with. Do not isolate, and remember to be your own ally.
Since the time you had the idea for the film, has anything changed for the LGBTQ community in the Arab world?
Despite LGBTQ activists’ defiant resilience in advancing the rights of sexual and gender minorities in the face of state-sponsored repression, the climate around LGBTQ rights in the MENA region remains bleak as ever.
Shortly after our Facing the Myths film was shot, several activists in the video were banned from Lebanon, where it was filmed, because they had attended a conference there on LGBTQ issues. Border security officials accused them of “tainting Arab societies and morals.”
But as this film demonstrates, where there is oppression, there is resistance, whether public or underground. Uprisings in Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, and Tunisia have been periods of hope for human rights, including LGBTQ rights, which were front and center. LGBTQ people used the power of voice and presence in protests to demand their rights, putting their governments on notice that socioeconomic and legal reform needs to include marginalized groups.
Thank you Rasha!
C.M. Rubin and Rasha Younes
This month audiences can screen Facing the Myths on the Planet Classroom Network YouTube Channel. Facing the Myths is curated for Planet Classroom by SIMA Classroom.