Arab gay tube
Queer Arab Films to Monitor During Pride Month [Updated for 2025]
It’s June, which means it’s LGBTQ Self-acceptance Month! This is a time to celebrate people of all sexual orientations and genders. Here at AFMI, we are of course celebrating by watching movies. People are often surprised to learn that queer Arab films and filmmakers openly exist, but they most certainly perform and this misconception makes it all the more important that we recognize and celebrate them. To celebrate Pride, we contain compiled a list of Arab films that tackle the stories and experiences of LGBTQIA people. This list is updated annually!
Feature Narrative Films
Film still from Alexandria…Why?
Alexandria…Why? (1979) dir. Youssef Chahine
Egypt / Drama / 133 min
Amid the poverty, death, and suffering caused by World War II, 18-year-old Yehia retreats into a private world of fantasy and longing. Obsessed with Hollywood, he dreams of studying filmmaking in America but struggles to pursue his dream, given the constraints of his life in the middle class and the horrors of war. There are several subplots take place throughout the film, one being that of an aristocratic man who kidnaps a y
Mina Gerges (MG), originally from Egypt, talks to us about reconciling both his gay and Arab identities
London, UK – 13 March 2019
PTF: Being gay and Arab places you in two sometimes conflicting cultures. What was that prefer, and how did it affect your sexual identity journey?
MG: I was born in Egypt and grew up in Abu Dhabi, and I emigrated to Canada when I was 11. Growing up meant comprehension that my self is extremely complex and intersectional, it’s made up of several marginalized, misunderstood communities that aren’t prevalent in Western culture, so growing up and coming out was complicated and alienating.
I grew up in a country where being queer is a taboo subject, where the only word for organism gay when I lived there was a negative pos. It made ruling myself feel fond a monumental challenge: how do I accept who I am when my identity is in direct opposition to the very foundation of Middle Eastern culture and Coptic identity, and how do I deal with the shame it’ll bring my family? Growing up, I felt tremendous shame because entity queer, Middle Eastern/North African, and Coptic felt like an illegitimate and confusing mix of identities.
It ju
.
.
.