LGBTQ activism in repressive contexts: the struggle for (in)visibility in Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey

ABSTRACT

Drawing on social movements and gender studies, the article aims at exploring repertoires of action articulated by LGBTQ communities in Egypt, Tunisia, and Turkey during and after the 2011 and 2013 protests. The aim is to disentangle how LGBTQ individuals mobilized in the MENA region and which role civil society organizations and digital technologies played in the development of such mobilizations. State repression on mobilizing structures, the relevance of digital networks in mobilization strategies, involving LGBTQ activists and individuals in the three countries, will be discussed. The empirical analysis draws on 44 semi-structured interviews carried out in Egypt, Tunisia, and Turkey between 2011 and 2020 focusing on repressive contexts, civil society activism, and digital networks. By doing so, the analysis aims also to shed light on the roles played by both meso-level organizations and digital technologies in triggering a range of diverse repertoires of action. If in the three countries LGBTQ communities have been disproportionally targeted by state and non-state repressive campaigns, in Egypt LGBTQ activists challenged repression thanks to the use of social networks as alternative venues for socialization, while in Tunisia and Turkey, LGBTQ activists, drawing upon more established meso-level mobilizing structures, built-up new strategies with the aim to increase their cooperation with other political challengers.

KEYWORDS:

• Social movements
• LGBT mobilizations
• protests
• informal groups
• MENA
• organizations

Acknowledgments

We thank Katia Pilati for her helpful and constructive suggestions which allowed us to strengthen our arguments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex, asexual, and other (LGBTQIA*) issues and identities have been addressed by scholars in diverse ways. To the purpose of this article, we use the umbrella term ‘LGBTQ’ to refer to people marginalized because of sexual orientations and/or gender identities that are deviant from cis-heteronormative frameworks.

2. The few investigations on LBGTQ activism in MENA during and after the 2011 uprisings may be complemented by studies on how mobilizations against gender-based violence and sexual harassment have evolved in the region since the so-called Arab Spring (El Ashmawy, 2017; Chafai, 2020; Rizzo et al., 2012).

3. Interviews 1–4 and 7–27, LGBTQ activists and supporters, Cairo, 2011–2014; Interviews 5–6, LGBTQ activists and supporters, Alexandria, 2014–2020; Interviews 28, 30–32 and 34–36, LGBTQ activists and supporters, Tunis, 2019–2020; Interview 29, LGBTQ activist, Sousse, 2019; Interview 33, LGBTQ activist, Sfax, 2019; Interviews 37–44, LGBTQ activists and supporters, Istanbul, 2019.

4. A third hypothesis concerns the diffusion of protests beyond national borders (Tarrow, 1996). This hypothesis will nonetheless not be considered in our paper, since our research focus concerns the innovation of LGBTQ repertoires of action within the national context.

5. More on digital surveillance in the MENA region at: https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/34672; https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/34672 [Last accessed 03.02.2022].

6. Drawing on Habermas (1989), the concept of public sphere is here to be understood as a discursive arena where different publics engage in discussions and contestations.

7. More information available at: http://turkishpolicy.com/article/879/turkeys-forays-into-the-middle-east [Last accessed 24.05.2021].

8. In Egypt and Tunisia, university campuses have been used as venues for youth movements. For example, supporters of the Revolutionary Socialists, including individual LGBTQ activists, formed the National Alliance for Change and Unions within universities in 2005 (Acconcia & Pilati, 2021).

9. The Gezi Park movement started as a protest against the government plans to rebuild Ottoman barracks and a shopping mall on the edge of Taksim Square. This decision entailed a dramatic escalation of events including the stigmatization of protesters as terrorists, arrests and exiles.

10. According to the Tunisian incumbent president the LGBTQ community is ‘receiving funds from abroad to corrupt the Islamic nation.’

11. See also https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/02/23/tunisia-police-arrest-use-violence-against-lgbti-activists. [Last accessed 21.09.2021].

12. https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/05/03/consent-or-no-anal-testing-tunisia-must-go.

13. The electoral committee rejected his candidacy without providing details.

14. See also: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/10/01/egypt-security-forces-abuse-torture-lgbt-people. [Last accessed 21.09.2021.]

15. Information available at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-rights-pride-idUSKCN0P80OQ20150628 [Last accessed 03.05.2021].

16. See also: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/03/20/egypts-denial-sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity [Last accessed 21.09.2021].

17. See also https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/08/04/clean-streets-faggots [Last time accessed 26.01.2022].

18. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55901951.

19. See also: https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/03/24/turkey-erdogans-onslaught-rights-and-democracy. [Last accessed 21.09.2021].

20. The concept of safe space emerged in both feminist and LGBTQ groups of the 1960s-70s (Kenney, 2001), and since then has been developed by both activists and scholars (The Roestone Collective, 2014). Safe spaces can be understood as venues – either physical, digital, or symbolic – where marginalized individuals can feel free from violence and harassment (The Roestone Collective, 2014). The concept has nonetheless been highly debated. Black and intersectional feminists have pointed out how so-called ‘safe spaces’ have often reproduced unequal power relations that particularly affect individuals that are marginalized along various inequality lines, such as black women or LGBTQ migrants. Activists have hence started to use the expression ‘safer spaces’ to acknowledge that such venues are not vary of power relations. See also https://splinternews.com/what-s-a-safe-space-a-look-at-the-phrases-50-year-hi-1793852786 [Last accessed 09.10.2021].

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Giuseppe Acconcia

Giuseppe Acconcia is a post-doctoral researcher and lecturer in Geopolitics of the Middle East at the University of Padua, Department of Political Science, Law, and International Studies (SPGI). He holds a PhD in Politics at the University of London (Goldsmiths). His research interests focus on social movements, state and transformation in the Middle East.

Aurora Perego

Aurora Perego is a PhD student in Sociology and Social Research at Trento University (Italy). Her PhD project investigates solidarity ties and cooperative efforts undertaken by LGBTQIA* civil society actors. Her research interests broadly concern alliances and coalitions created by social movement organizations, with particular attention to inter-organizational relations taking place at the intersections of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and class.

Lorenza Perini

Lorenza Perini is a researcher at the Department of Political Science, Law and International Studies (SPGI), University of Padua. She holds a PhD in Contemporary History and in Urban Planning. She teaches gender policies and globalization. She is a member of the Equal Opportunities Committee and the Gender Studies Research Centre (CEC) at the same University.