About Egypt

official name: Arab Republic of Egypt (Jumhuriyat Misr al-Arabiyah)
capital: Cairo
head of state: President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak
state: multi party democracy
population: 78,887,007 (July 2006 estimation)
independence: from Britain 1922
languages: Arabic (English and French widely understood)
religion: Muslim (mostly Sunni) 94%, Coptic (and other) Christian 6%
coptic spell to get a man
currency: Egyptian Pound

Legal wise

Penal Code
Homosexuality is not de jure illegal in Egypt. The criminal code provides stiff punishment for anyone that engages in sexual relations with anyone under the age of the eighteen. However, in the early part of the twenty-first century, homosexuality started to become a de facto illegal under various laws against Satanism, "offences against public morals and sensitivities" and "violating the teachings of religion and propagating depraved ideas and moral depravity."

In 2000, the police arrested two men after public outrage over news reports that they have formalized a same-sex marital contract. In May of 2001, the police raided a Cairo boat party, detaining sixty men before letting the foreigners go. The remaining fifty-two men -- the "Cairo 52" -- were arrested and tried on vaguely worded laws such as "violating the teachings of religion", "propagating depraved ideas", "contempt of religion" and "moral depravity." Although it is impossible to independently prove if such laws do exist on the books, as no current copy of the Egyptian penal code is readily available in English, the Human Rights Watch has translated and published portions of the penal code online.

The Cairo 52 were defended by international human rights organizations such as the Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International. However, they had no organized internal support, plead innocent, and were tried under the state security courts created in 1981 to combat militant religious fundamentalists. Members of the German parliament and the French President called upon the Egyptian government to respect the human rights of its LGBT citizens. Twenty-three of the defendants were sentenced to prison with hard labor, while the others were acquitted. More men have been arrested in various raids on homosexuals, although foreigners tend to be released quickly.

The Egyptian government's response to the international criticism was either to deny that they were persecuting LGBT people or to defend their policies by stating that homosexuality is a moral perversion.

Source: Wikipedia

Communication

main lines in use: 10,396,100 (2005)
cellular telephones: 14,045,134 (2005)
Internet hosts: 1,702 (2005)
Internet users: 5 million (2005)

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