SWD 43

Dictator sea-beasts and 2 Egyptian prisoners of conscience: Sarah Hegazi, Shady Habash

Art: Begun mid-December 2020; completed January 2, 2021
Framed, 42.5 in. H x 17 W [107.95 cm H x 43.18 W]
Media: Pencil, gouache, inks, colored pencil, crayon, stitched thread, twine

Sarah Hegazi was born in 1989. In 2017 she was arrested, imprisoned and tortured for having waved a rainbow gay pride flag at a concert in Cairo. Three years later, on June 14, 2020, in exile in Canada, she committed suicide in Canada, age 30. A letter she had written, in Arabic, circulated on social media after her death:

"To my siblings – I tried to survive and I failed, forgive me.
To my friends – the experience was harsh and I am too weak to resist it, forgive me.
To the world – you were cruel to a great extent, but I forgive.”
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Shady Habash was born August 21, 1995. In 2006 he began operating a photo and videography business in Cairo in 2006. In March 2018, following his having made a video that mocked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, he was imprisoned without trial. On May 2, 2002, he died in Tora Prison in Cairo. He was 24 years of age.
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The English translation of the artified writing in Arabic, pictorially drawn in the largest of the allegorical sea-beasts: dictator sea-beast

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Amnesty International’s website page, 2018: Human rights in the Mideast and North Africa:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/research/2019/02/human-rights-in-the-middle-east-and-north-africa-2018/

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To donate to Amnesty International, USA: https://donate.amnestyusa.org/page/54178/donate/1?ac=WPSGG01&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=paidbranddonor&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIu-bil4yA7gIVuD6tBh3WfglXEAAYASABEgIeePD_BwE

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TAGS:
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