A UK-based Egyptian refugee and activist is belly dancing in drag to protest Egypt's treatment of LGBTQ+ people.
Openly lesbian student Shrouk El-Attar, who this year , has been performing in France, the Netherlands, and Japan in order to raise money so that asylum seekers in the UK can afford quality educations, while protesting - a reality El-Attar knows all too well.
“I just thought that everyone likes girls; boys like girls, girls like girls, everyone likes girls – why wouldn’t you? They smell nice, they look great!” she said in an.
When she was nine, El-Attar overheard a teacher saying that homosexuality was a sin.
“I didn’t want to be that horrible person who was going to burn in hell,” she said.
While homosexuality is not specifically outlawed in Egypt, under morality laws members of the LGBTIQ+ community can face punishments of up to 17 years in prison.
"I really 110 per cent believe I wouldn't be alive if I was living (in Egypt) the same way I'm living here now," said El-Attar.
She continued: "Life for LGBT people in Egypt can be really difficult. We are forced into marriages, forced into having children, forced into having sex with people we don't want to have sex with."
Arriving in Britain in 2007, El-Attar and her family were initially deported after their asylum claim was rejected. However, El-Attar's LGBTIQ+ status meant she was eventually granted asylum.
