By Brian Whitaker, originally on al-bab.com The massive police raid on a hammam (public bathhouse) in Cairo – instigated by a pro-regime TV channel – is the latest and most dramatic development in a crackdown against gay men that has been going on for months, even though homosexuality is not actually illegal in Egypt. It’s reminiscent of a similar crackdown by the Mubarak regime around 2001 (documented in a very detailed report by Human Rights Watch) which included the notorious Queen Boat trial. One difference between 2001 and now is the existence of social media. Whereas the Queen Boat victims had few public defenders in Egypt, there have been Arab and Egyptian voices openly condemning last weekend’s arrests, though they are undoubtedly still a small minority. Much of the wrath has been directed against TV presenter Mona Iraqi and her sordid efforts to expose a “den of perversion”. After initially boasting about her achievement on Facebook, Ms Iraqi has now back-tracked, claiming she was merely trying to promote sexual health in connection with World Aids Day. During the Mubarak regime’s crackdown in 2001, Human Rights Watch gathered information about 179 men…
