Miral Mokhtar, Egypt
I knew I was a lesbian from a very young age. I’m 23 now but when I was younger, I loved a classmate in school and as we grew older, I loved her even more. I didn’t even know that this kind of love meant I could be a lesbian because there was no language in Egypt around that. Before I started high school, someone told me that the way I felt meant I could be a lesbian and in an effort to not be a lesbian, I tried to be more religious but that didn’t work. I started doing more research on it in secrecy so I wouldn’t get caught. I learned that elsewhere in the world it was okay to be LGBTQ but I knew that in Egypt nobody would accept me because being a homosexual is a crime and I could get killed.
I started doing more underground activism but in Egypt it’s very hard because you could be in serious danger if someone finds out you’re gay. Around the time of my activism, I met my partner Nouran on Instagram. I DM’d Nouran and she let me know that she loved my paintings. At that time, Nouran didn’t know that I was a lesbian, but while we were chatting we ended up telling each other. Eventually we met in real life and started dating.
I eventually began to do a lot of underground LGBTQ activism and my family eventually found out that I was a lesbian. My dad wanted me to get a virginity test and threatened to kill me. I knew my life was in danger and I ran away from my family. The only things I took with me were my paintings. Nouran and I kept traveling and hid in different parts of Egypt and tried to leave the country toward safety but our visas kept getting rejected. We eventually heard of Rainbow Railroad who connected us to a local organization and we finally got accepted to travel to Canada as refugees.We arrived in Toronto in June of 2018 and soon after from all the stress I fainted on the subway and was recommended to get heart surgery. It wasn’t until February 2019 that we received our refugee status. We live here together now and are soon applying for Permanent Residency. Even though we are here, we still face a lot of stress related to employment and also housing challenges because very few people accept lesbian couples who are newcomers and being supported by Ontario Works.
PhotoGRAPHED by
Ibtehaj is a graduate of the Chemical Engineering program at McMaster University. He is passionate about photography and sports. His focus as a photographer is on bringing small details to light using the right composition.