Egypt gay entrapment via app a sign of authorities' desperation

Egyptian authorities are luring gay men to hotel rooms using dating app Grindr and then arresting them, as an obsession with "penetration" and a violent crackdown on sexual minorities continues.

Dozens of police reports unearthed by Dalia Abdel-Hameed, a gender rights researcher with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights,  outline a "cultivation" technique where potential targets are seduced through dating apps to come to places such as hotel rooms, and then immediately arrested.

"It's related to the fact that men are using apps more than women and an obsession of who is being penetrated," Ms Abdel-Hameed said.

"There is this penetration mania in Egypt due to religious reasons, mostly."

Caution online

Transgender woman Jasmine, 25, says the public discourse on loyalist media has been the latest in a series of debilitating incidents that haunt her.

"Every day just leaving home is an unpleasant experience. From the stares of disgust to the swearing, people treat me as if I am an alien from another planet. I am estranged from society at large," she told Fairfax Media, preferring to use a pseudonym for fear of repercussions amid a climate of transphobia as well as homophobia. Read more via Sydney Morning Herald