Sisi Is Persecuting, Prosecuting, and Publicly Shaming Egypt’s Gays

Mohamed was sitting in the steam room nursing his bad back when dozens of Egypt’s black-clad police officers burst into the downtown Cairo bathhouse with a TV crew in tow and started to arrest everyone. A few days before, friends of the married father of two had recommended the Turkish spa as treatment for his long-term joint and muscle troubles. The nighttime visit had proved to be a disastrous mistake.

Heavily armed riot police herded dozens of terrified men dressed in just the spa’s checkered towels through the changing rooms...