The Egyptian state continues to forcefully combat liberal ideas, especially those that embrace diversity in gender and sexual orientation. Today marks two years since LGBTIQ people, activists and allies unfurled a Pride flag at the 22 September 2017 Cairo concert of the Lebanese rock band Mashrou’ Leila (whose lead vocalist is openly gay). This simple action led to a violent backlash which continues to this day.

Seventy-six people were arrested in the following months – individuals who raised the flag but also other people who are or were perceived to be LGBTIQ, and activists seen to be supporting the community. Forced anal examinations were carried out in the crackdown to supposedly determine whether arrested men had engaged in gay sex. International human rights groupes condemned this as torture.

The state’s attacks reflected how it treats political activists as terrorists. Both Ahmad Alaa, a 21-year-old law student and blogger, and Sarah Hijazi, member of left-leaning Aysh wa Horriya (the Bread and Freedom Party), posted photos of themselves on Facebook holding a Pride flag at the concert. They were charged with belonging to “a transgressive group”, “subverting the constitution”, “immorality” and “debauchery”.

After spending 90 days in detention, Alaa and Hijazi (independently) fled to Canada to seek asylum. Meanwhile, the state’s backlash has also targeted LGBTIQ people in general. Already, the average number of LGBTIQ people arrested in Egypt each year, between 2013 and 2017, was five times that of the preceding 13 years (2000-2012), according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, where I work as a researcher. It rose from an average of 14 to 66 people a year.

However, these figures, which do not include the ‘rainbow flag’ arrests, are mere indicators of the scale of criminalisation – with this information under the firm grip of state security, the real number of LGBTIQ people arrested each year remains unknown to the public. It would be easier to count the number of lawyers who are willing to defend these cases. Those I spoke to described harassment at police stations and criticism from other lawyers to “stop dishonoring the revolution”.