Forever We Shall Stand

Sarah hears the crowd cheer she has tears in her eyes and see that she has defeated her loneliness although she is not in her country. She has hope in her heart by hearing her speech she will reach her homeland people’s hearts. She hears the round of applause and raises her hand to silent the crowd.

Thank you for being here and accepting me, I have waited for acceptance for a while. My courageous act paid off. Our people have a long battle to fight. We are all brave; queer or not queer we all have struggles and battles that we face every day. Stay Strong my LGBTQ people we have won many battles, but we also have many battles that we have not won yet by losing many lives. But they forever stay within our hearts and motivate us to become better versions of ourselves. We must not let our failures stop us; matter fact let use that as our motivation to defeat whatever we are facing. We are all warriors and winners; we win every day by facing our daily struggles. By raising the pride flag in my country, I broke down many stigmas. Homophobia still exists all over the world and we have evidence that LGBTQ has been shown across many generations and in many civilizations. Yet, homophobia still exist nowadays. We must defeat homophobia throughout the whole world. By standing amongst ourselves and others to show to show we exist. Let us build our strength by becoming one loving and peaceful nation.

I am an Egyptian Queer Muslim socialist, writer, feminist and activist. I am quote involved in my beloved community. I am born from a conservative family, although we share different views, we are not much different from each other. I am not only involved in the LGBTQ community I like to get involved with social justice in my country. I will like to see justice all over the world were all different communities are accepted and not have to be afraid. We the people must unite and defeat hatred from all over the world. It all starts with a small idea or a act of kindness to defeat hatred. I believe in society as a whole that we can empower hatred and replace it with love. LETS SAY NO TO HATRED AND EMBRACE LOVE. I would like to show that we are proud Muslims and not the Muslims that are shown in American television. I want the world to see we are peaceful and regular human beings just like everyone around the world. Our religion Islam promotes peace, but some people have misinterpreted the text from the Quran for their own political agenda. The average Muslim is just like any person around the world, we enjoy music, dance and many more activities. As I went to a concert, although I got in trouble for showing my identity and my pride, we still enjoy our lives. Homophobias exist all over the world and it is time to diminish it and accept people however they identify.

I have had faced many difficulties and it did not stop me from owning my identity. Let us all do the same; lets own ourselves and be who we proudly are. Although we may have our differences, but we have the same blood color which is red. Let us defeat bloodshed and embrace peace and love. ONE LOVE. ONE NATION WE STAND!! The crowd cheered and applauded for Sarah and she had tears in her eyes and whispered, “We will win, In Sha Allah (God-willing).

Sarah Hegazi  graduated  with a bachelor's degree in Information Systems, in 2010. In 2016 she graduated from the American University in Cairo Continuing Education Center. She was also a feminist. She was involved in social justice not only LGBTQ rights. She is inspiration to us all and it’s sad that we lost a fellow queer member from our community. Regardless if she was from a different country. After her imprisonment she was diagnosed with PTSD. People with PTSD suffer stress after trauma they have experienced such as intense flashback, trembling, nightmare, panic and anxiety in sleep and when awake. She got permission to live in Canada as she seeks asylum after her traumatic jail experience in Egypt. Sarah was 30 years old when she committed suicide in the summer.

Loneliness is a slow death, which a lot of people do not realize. Feeling left out and not having anybody to reach out is a sign of being helpless. When your own community which you so dearly love throws you away, it makes you feel helpless and a desire to come back but cannot. This story is about a Queer Muslim Activist who got arrested in her country for raising the pride flag at a concert. The cops arrested for sexual deviance; she was in jail for three months. While spending her time in jail she was assaulted, sexually assaulted and raped. After facing all those tortures, she seeks asylum in a different country, but felt homesick and lonely. She committed suicide in June as she could not face the pain and was tired of the world. She left a note saying "To my siblings – I tried to survive, and I failed, forgive me. To my friends – the experience was harsh, and I am too weak to resist it, forgive me. To the world – you were cruel to a great extent, but I forgive."

It is a sad reality we all face; a sense of weakness but a few overcome the weakness, and some are unfortunate. They overcome their weakness with the support of family and friends. I believe she could have made history as a queer activist as she was courageous to raise the flag in a homophobic country. Her courage has been shown all over the world; but unfortunately, she did not live to see it. She lives through our spirit and will forever shine for her courageous act. It’s a sad reality that we lost a live let’s continue to spread love and not hatred.