A few days ago, actor Hesham Selim decided to openly speak about his son Nour on Egyptian TV channel Al Qahera Wal Nas. Later, father and son joined the “Jaafar Talk” programme of the Deutsche Welle TV channel to tell their story. The peculiarity of this is that 26-year-old Nour is undergoing the last phases of a transition process, that lasted eight years and will end with sex reassignment surgery.
The interview, as one can imagine, caused some commotion, and received the support of the LGBTQIA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex, and asexual) community — not only in Egypt, but in the Middle East at large. This support, however, was not unconditional.
Trans activist Malak Al-Kashef, among others, pointed out how Hesham Selim declared that if the transition process had been the other way around (male to female), there would have been more complications in the acceptance process. Thereby perpetuating the idea that being a woman (cisgender or otherwise) is a degrading condition within society. The man, cis or trans (it seems irrelevant, here) has an active role in society and appears to be the pillar on which a family is based, and would therefore require more respect and acceptance.
As I was saying, the news was widely commented not only in Egypt but in the whole region. It’s particularly interesting to note the answers that Lebanese actress Nadine El Rassi gave to comedian and presenter Hisham Haddad in an interview released in the following days. Asked about the possibility of accepting a “change” in her son’s gender, El Rassi replied that she will consider it if and when that would happen, without taking a prejudiced position from the start. The actress stated that children are supposed to be out in the world, not to hide behind their mothers, and any “choice” deserves love and support.
BouKerch
translation by Martino Sorbaro
©2020 Il Grande Colibrì
image: Il Grande Colibrì
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