Omar Sharif Jr. First Egyptian to Ever Come Out

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Omar Sharif Jr. grandson to international actor Omar Sharif and Egyptian actress Fatin Hamama just published an article in which he officially comes out of the closet and identifies himself as "half jew" because his maternal grandparents were both Jewish.


I believe that most Egyptians will merely regard him as a the male counterpart of Aliaa El Mahdy, the girl who got nekkid for a photo shoot on her blog. But since Aliaa had some boob to show the hungry male audience, her blog went viral in a matter of a few hours.

Omar Sharif's pictures are less provocative and well, let's face it homosexuality is hands down (no pun intended) THE biggest taboo in Egypt, and perhaps all of the Arab world.

Omar is, as far as I know, the first Egyptian to ever identify himself as gay. i doubt that he will find support among Egypt's pseudo liberals, because no one in Egypt would want to be caught dead supporting homosexuality. Homophobia is identified as the accepted social norm around here, and the treatment that the 'unholy' homosexuals deserve.

What I find most astonishing is that Omar Sharif Jr. identifies himself as Egyptian. Most gay Egyptians I know that got the chance to skip town and acquire another nationality have completely denounced their Egyptian-ness--but not Omar. He even thinks he can come back to Egypt and be welcomed here one day.

Omar Sharif Jr. says that he writes this article as a "litmus test" calling for a reaction from his fellow Egyptians. He wonders if he is welcome in Egypt.

What do you think?