Sarah Hegazy con la bandera LGTBI.

Lee este texto en castellano, francés, árabe y farsi.

Sarah’s parting message on her instagram page shows her lying in a park and the caption states, “the sky is better than Earth and I am choosing the sky”. In choosing the sky, Sarah chose a freedom she was not afforded on Earth. In her life, she strove for liberation and in her death she found it. As we mourn the loss of a sister, friend, and comrade we keep the spirit of her final words in mind. The spirit of bodily self determination and dignity. In her goodbye letter on Saturday, June 13th, 2020, Sarah holds the cruelty of the world accountable and yet she forgives. Let us learn from Sarah. Defiance takes many forms. Sarah hoisted the rainbow flag at the Mashrou’ Leila concert with hope and joy. Inspired by the Egyptian revolution, she cultivated a politic to stand against authoritarian regimes of all kinds. She was first and foremost a communist. Her anti-state activism lead to her detention, interrogation, torture, electric shocks, solitary confinement, exile from her home in Egypt, and separation from her mother, siblings, and friends. The trauma that Sarah experienced took its toll. When she arrived in Canada, she was haunted by those horrific experiences. This is a story we hear all too often as repressive regimes the world over use these tactics as an attempt to silence resistance. Around the world, we are seeing revolution and counter revolution, a true battle of whose lives are valued. Sarah’s death is a testament to the horrendous cruelty and oppression facing countless marginalized people.

In this moment of agony, we will remember Sarah’s fierce opposition to state violence, policing, and capitalism. She came to this land, named “Canada” by the same white colonizers who have shaped a global lie about gay inclusion and homonationalism. This same lie fuels neoliberalism and continues imperialist agendas that plague the world, using LGBT rights as a shield. Complacent dictators implement structures that kill people in prisons, at work, and on the streets. The heteropatriarchy that led to her death is no coincidence. At the time of Sarah’s arrival, the Trudeau government was exalted on the world stage for its acceptance and treatment of refugees from the Middle East. Just a few years later, we see how shallow the committment was for these queer refugees. The support structures that were needed for their resettlement were essentially non-existent. We see mass poverty, unemployment, lower standards of living, wide spread trauma, and a lack of appropriate mental health resources. By taking in refugees, Canada performs as a saviour of human rights on the world stage, while ignoring the conditions in which refugees like Sarah live. The world powers sit and watch through their imperialist, orientalist lens. To challenge the status quo is to challenge the power structures that uphold tyranny. To challenge the status quo is to challenge power, and that is what Sarah did at the expense of her further isolation and alienation.

The gruesome effects of physical and psychological torture have scarred too many prisoners. All prisoners are political prisoners, and now more than ever, it is clear that the police and militarized state power are the culprits. From Turtle Island to the Middle East, we reject these institutions that protect the powerful and wealthy at our expense. We reject their lies that try to use LGBT rights as a way to legitimize and pinkwash apartheid, colonialism, and neoliberalism. In this “postcolonial” context, we reject the forces that limit our choices between religious fundamentalism, Western intervention, and authoritarianism. Sarah was part of the Egyptian revolution that attempted to create possibilities outside these limits. Sarah believed that through the act of resistance, we would find ways of creating a new just society.

While we can point the finger at the Egyptian police, interrogators, and torturers for causing this tragedy, we also hold the Canadian government accountable for its lacklustre support of refugees and their role in international wars. This is a moment to kindle international solidarity among all those fighting for liberation and self-determination. In the coming days, a range of emotions and thoughts will emerge including: rage, sadness, guilt, shame, happy memories, and longing for better days.

Let us be inspired by Sarah’s contagious smile, her fierce opposition to authoritarianism and heteropatriarchy, and her endless imagination for possibilities of a world that we can build for all of us. In Sarah’s parting image, she chose to lay her cheek against the grass with the sky above her, with the continuing hope of finding liberation, except this time it is in another plain. As we mourn Sarah on this plain, let us continue her work in the struggle for liberation.

Beloved sister, friend, and comrade, rest in peace and power Sarah.

Until we are all free,
Arab Queers on stolen Tkaronto and Tiohtià:ke land