Culture of Love #2: Desire for sexual education in Egypt

Dating and love – that can be very beautiful but also very exhausting. Beautiful because you can meet a person who inspires you, with whom you can exchange closeness and intimacy. Exhausting because we live in a society that is becoming increasingly fast-paced, with sexist and racist stereotypes and norms. What are the experiences of people with migration and refugee experience in Germany when it comes to dating and love? Two people meet and thus also two (cultural) identities with different expectations, socialisations and experiences. Different wishes, freedoms and sometimes also languages. This can lead to misunderstandings, prejudices, new insights and commonalities. In our series “Culture of Love” we want to find out more.

“As a gay man, it’s very difficult to express your sexual identity in a conservative society.”

Khaled is 27 years old. He grew up in Alexandria in Egypt, and didn’t experience dating until he turned 18. As a gay man, it’s very difficult to express your sexual identity in a conservative society. Though Egyptian law does not forbid homosexuality, it is taboo and the Egyptian society judges it as such. At the young age of six, he realized his interest in boys was stronger than for girls, without knowing what that could mean exactly.