What does flight from repression look like if repression crosses borders? For the LGBTQ+ individuals and the women of North Africa, refuge is no protection. Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia have made transnational repression a means of state control, taking state violence across their borders by way of legal instruments, surveillance, and propaganda. Governments within them have built an apparatus that criminalizes opposition, polices identity, and sees to it that even the flight of the oppressed places them within their reach. It is a deliberate process: the oppressed are monitored online, targeted by amorphous morality legislation, and, in many cases, tracked and arrested off their native soil. This piece explores the ways these regimes collaborate to silence oppressed communities by manipulating legal apparatuses, practicing digital surveillance, and utilizing state propaganda. These are not disconnected patterns—they are woven into a web of repression that must be challenged with urgent opposition.
Legal and Institutional Mechanisms of Repression
Egypt: Digital Crackdowns and State Surveillance
Egypt has digitized repression to monitor, entrap, and prosecute feminist and LGBTQ+ people. The regime, under the rule of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, uses advanced monitoring tools to monitor social media. The regime commonly uses dating apps, entrapment, and oppressive cybercrime laws to arrest and prosecute queer individuals. The regime systematically uses dating apps, such as WhosHere and Grindr, to entrap LGBT individuals. Undercover officers posing as potential dates to engage in interactions to entice individuals to in-person appointments, only to arrest them. The regime manipulates the available laws—namely, the laws on “debauchery”—to arrest people and prosecute them for sexual-related offences, despite the absence of apparent evidence. The regime, in other circumstances, supposedly fabricates interactions and manipulates images to entrap LGBT people into committing offences they did not. A victim testified how the cops altered images to give the impression they are explicit, leading to his wrongful arrest and detention.
Beyond digital monitoring, Egypt uses expansive and imprecise morality laws to silence opposition. Articles 178 and 269 of the Penal Code criminalize “habitual debauchery” and “indecency in public places” and are commonly used to persecute the LGBTQ+ community. Women are also increasingly targeted under the same pretenses. The clampdown often comes in the form of allegations of spreading immorality or offending public morality, resulting in arrest and prosecution.
Significantly, TikTok content creators like Haneen Hossam and Mawada al-Adham were arrested in 2020 under allegations of spreading immorality through content. Hossam faced allegations of spreading prostitution by urging women to use social media to earn money, and al-Adham faced allegations because she shared satirical content. Both received prison terms of two years and fines worth 300,000 Egyptian pounds (about $18,750) for “violating family values and principles.”
The repression by the state comes in the ease of the cybercrime law, most notably Article 25, under which the use of technology to “infringe on any family principles or values in Egyptian society” is criminalized, and the offending party faces prison and heavy fines. The state does not necessarily require a crime to repress—its agents manufacture the crime. The objective isn’t merely to punish the person involved, but to establish a precedent, and to make the point unmistakable, that any exercise outside the bounds of the state’s sanctioned norms will not be countenanced.
Libya: The Public Morality Protection Agency and the Criminalization of Dissent
In Libya, the government-backed militia and government institutions collaborate to suppress the rights of the LGBTQ+ and the rights of women, normally under the cover of protecting ‘public morality.’ The institution of the Public Morality Protection Agency, a government-backed body whose function is to impose repression based on sexual orientation and gender, has extended crackdowns under the guise of safeguarding ‘traditional’ values. This institution has been empowered to monitor and control social behavior. Importantly, in November 2024, the Government of National Unity’s Acting Interior Minister, Emad Trabelsi, expressed intentions to reinstate the ‘morality police’ to enforce measures such as the mandatory veiling of women, bans on ‘bizarre’ hairstyles among men, and restrictions on interactions between genders. Trabelsi also reaffirmed the GNU’s directive, issued in April 2023, which prohibits women and girls from traveling abroad unless accompanied by a male guardian. These policies closely resemble those of authoritarian theocracies, reinforcing rigid gender stereotypes through force and coercion.
Simultaneously, LGBTQ+ individuals in Libya are subjected to public humiliation, forced confession, and prolonged detention. Homosexuality is criminalized under the Penal Code (1953) in Article 407, and the crime warrants up to five years’ imprisonment. In September 2023, the Internal Security Agency (ISA) carried out a campaign resulting in the detention of at least 19 people, intensifying the clampdown on the freedom to think, express oneself, and beliefs. The ISA accused the people of “religious, intellectual, and moral deviations” and targeted individuals perceived to be in opposition to the dominant Madkhali-Salafist ideology patronized by the General Authority for Endowments and Islamic Affairs (Awqaf).
The operation was in support of a broader effort to “protect virtue and purify society,” detailed in a May 2023 decree by Awqaf. The detainees, who are overwhelmingly members of the LGBTIQ+ community, underwent extreme abuses, including forced disappearance, incommunicado detention, and torture. The majority were forced to confess under pressure, and their confessions were later broadcast in ISA-produced videos. The allegations included “illicit sexual intercourse,” “blasphemy,” and “apostasy,” which are offenses carrying penalties of up to life imprisonment and even the death penalty under Libyan law. The ISA operates to eliminate any identity that does not conform to the rigidly defined vision of its leaders.
Libyan repression also extends beyond its borders. The government has used extradition and deportation to silence those who flee, pressuring Tunisian authorities to repatriate Libyan feminist and LGBTQ+ refugees under the pretext that they are victims of human trafficking. This labeling serves to obscure their political persecution and justify their forced return to dangerous conditions.
Tunisia: Legal Harassment and the Erosion of Freedoms
Tunisia was long seen to be a model of North African democratization, but under the rule of President Kais Saied, the erosion of human rights and democratic freedoms in the country has become the reality. Ironically, as a previous constitutional law professor, misuse of law is his tool of first resort—incarcerating attorneys, activists, journalists—those who dare to challenge him. Since his coup in July 2021, Saied systematically dismantled the democratic architecture, undermined the independence of the judiciary, and amplified repression against civil society, activists, and journalists. Women’s rights movements and human rights organizations report the increase in the use of the law to harass feminist campaigners, members of the opposition, and members of the media. The government employed defamation laws, arbitrary detention, and politically motivated investigations to silence the opposition, and the climate of censorship and fear ensued.
For example, lawyer Sonia Dahmani received a prison sentence in July 2024 to a year because of what she stated during an appearance on the telly, also under Decree 54. Saadia Mosbah, the Mnemty anti-racism association head, was arrested in May 2024, after the condemnation by President Saied, labeling the migrant support organizations as ‘mercenary and traitors.’ The above events refer to the increase in the use of the law to silence the opposition and the reduction in freedoms in Tunisia. Tunisia, in the last few weeks, upped the persecution of social media influencers, most significantly from TikTok and Instagram, under the pretext of maintaining ‘public decency.’ From October 31 to November 6, 2024, at least seven influencers, all having enormous followings, received prison terms between 18 months and half a year.” These sentences were based on provisions from the penal code and the telecommunications code, targeting content deemed contrary to public morals. This wave of repression follows directives from Justice Minister Leila Jaffel, who authorized legal proceedings against individuals producing or disseminating material perceived as harmful to moral values. Among those prosecuted was Lady Samara, a prominent Instagram influencer with over one million followers. She was sentenced to three years and two months in prison for making sexual comments in her content. Her case exemplifies the Tunisian government’s broader efforts to regulate online expression and enforce conservative moral standards, actions that have been criticized for suppressing freedom of speech and targeting individuals based on subjective interpretations of decency.
LGBTQ+ activists have faced increasing brutality. Although Tunisia was one of the few Arab countries where LGBTQ+ organizations operated openly, police repression has escalated. Between September 26, 2024, and January 31, 2025, Tunisian authorities arrested at least 84 individuals—primarily gay men and transgender women—in major cities such as Tunis, Hammamet, Sousse, and El Kef. These arrests were carried out solely based on individuals’ actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. Those detained were subjected to arbitrary detention and prosecution under Article 230 of the Penal Code, which criminalizes consensual same-sex relationships. Many individuals reported that police illegally searched their phones to collect evidence against them. This crackdown followed a large-scale online campaign that began on September 13, 2024, spreading homophobic and transphobic hate speech across various social media platforms, including those supporting President Kais Saied. Mainstream media also amplified the rhetoric, airing inflammatory messages from prominent TV and radio hosts who attacked LGBTI organizations and called for the arrest of activists.
Transnational Repression: A Cross-Border Threat
The coordination between North African regimes to suppress opposition beyond their borders marks a troubling escalation of state repression. Governments in the region have expanded their efforts to silence dissent abroad through intelligence-sharing, legal tactics, and direct collaboration with host countries. Exiled activists, journalists, and marginalized groups—including LGBTIQ+ individuals and women fleeing domestic violence—have increasingly found themselves pursued beyond their home countries, denied protection, and, in many cases, forcibly returned to face persecution.
Under Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, the Libyan regime has intensified the persecution of feminist campaigners, LGBTQ+ refugees, and escapees from domestic violence, spreading to neighboring Tunisia. Transnational repression in the Libyan-Tunisian cooperation case implies detention and repatriation to Libya, in which the refugees are exposed to gross abuses of human rights. It also witnessed allegations surface about the cooperation between the Tunisian government and the smuggling of migrants to Libya. These migrants are forced into labor, sexual exploitation, and other abuses when they are returned to Libya. Women who are departing to escape domestic violence and seek refuge in Tunisia are also forced back. The forced returns are framed by the Minister of interior, Eltrabelsi, in terms of rescue missions to rescue the victims of human trafficking. This framing disqualifies the legitimate status of the people who are departing because they are exposed to persecution and gender-based violence. The Libyan government, by framing them as criminals or people who are trafficked, tries to disqualify the legitimacy of the people’s experience and to legitimate detention and abuse in case of return.
The security cooperation between North African countries isn’t new, with the North African Regional Capability (NARC) being an example. It is a defense cooperation program involving Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Mauritania, and the Sahrawi Republic. This alliance aims to strengthen regional security through joint training and intelligence sharing, which could potentially lead to the spread of security practices among its member states. Through collaborations like NARC, neighboring countries work together to tackle shared security challenges. While the main objective of such cooperation is to combat threats such as terrorism, it also provides a platform for the exchange of methodologies that could be used to suppress dissent. The close security ties and training programs create a channel through which such practices could be shared. By exchanging intelligence and detaining exiles, these governments suppress movements advocating for human rights, gender equality, and LGBTQ+ rights across borders.
The Role of State-Backed Propaganda and Public Manipulation
The use of propaganda to legitimate repression at the transnational level is a core tool in the toolbox of authoritarian regimes, whereby the controlled mass media and connected private networks construct discourses criminalizing feminism, opposition, and identifications associated with the LGBTQ+ community. The regimes skillfully develop disinformation strategies to discredit the activists, who are typically framed in terms of existential threats to “traditional values” or “national security.” This strategy constructs an atmosphere of enmity justifying the regime’s use of force and repressing civil society.
Egyptian state media, in turn, historically has a track record of demonizing activists by framing them in terms of Western conspiracies. Following the 2017 arrest and torture of queer activist Sarah Hegazi, the Egyptian media presented her as part of an “outside plot” to debilitate Egyptian young people. The same narrative echoed among clerics and security officials, who sounded the warning about the “importation of deviant ideologies.” The same narrative has spilled into reporting in Libya and Tunisia, where the same sites often parrot Egypt’s framing of LGBTQ+ advocacy as outside intrusion and not a just cause.
Similarly, in Libya, security forces’ controlled channels, and security-agency-affiliated social media, commonly air anti-queer and anti-feminist rhetoric. Libyan media in 2022 propagated disinformation about “LGBTQ+ foreign agents” spreading sexual deviance under the cover of human rights activity and civil society. This narrative served to legitimate mass arrest and forced disappearance of activists. State-aligned Libyan social media influencers and “journalists” are also working to advance violence, outing and harassing activists, and spreading so-called Western-backed agendas. The same narrative picked up by the Tunisian media, labeling feminist and LGBTQ+ activists “threats to the Tunisian identity” and “infiltrators.”
Tunisia, despite the image of a comparatively progressive society in the years following 2011, also welcomed the return to the limelight of anti-feminist and anti-LGBTQ+ propaganda in the face of escalating social movements. From the later 2010s, the totalitarian regimes’ language gained ground among the public and private media in Tunisia to describe feminist and LGBTQ+ activists as “threats to the Tunisian identity” and “infiltrators” who attempt to disintegrate the morality of the nation. The language peaked in the 2019 elections, when conservative politicians and commentators accused the activists of being internationally sponsored to impose “moral degeneration.” The dominance by President Kais Saied further empowered the discourses by the state against the activists, seen in his speeches blaming the civil society movements for the economic downturn in the country and alluding to the need to “purge” the nation from the influence of the outside world.
Across these countries, the use also spills into other channels. State-supported accounts and troll networks utilize social media to become a battlefield to intimidate, harass, and disinform the activists. The spreading of conspiracy theories—such as the theory that feminist movements are agents employed by Western intelligence, and gay and lesbian rights movements are covers for overseas spying—spreads an air of fear and rationalizes the repression by the states. This kind of propaganda serves not only as a political control tool but actually incites real-life violence, such as the arrest, torture, and forced expulsion from the homeland of the activists. Through the invention of such lies, the regimes actually divert public discourse from immediate socio-economic and political issues.
Instead of concentrating on the resolution of employment, corruption, and abuses of human rights issues, they divert the frustration in society to marginalized segments, attributing the root cause of instability to them. This strategy, in addition to sustaining the repressive policies, also promotes cooperation between the repressive states in the region, promoting a shared repression playbook. This repression trend globally serves to reinforce the overall strategy among the regimes in the region: by militarizing the regime’s public relations around gender and sexuality, they legitimate local repression, in addition to developing a border-crossing mechanism to suppress opposition. This activity, in addition to being ideational, actually impacts security and law-making, making the activist community in the region all the more vulnerable.
Resistance and Strategies for Transnational Solidarity
To strengthen resistance movements and the security of the activists, some strategic priorities are to be put in place. The first priority is to enhance digital security through the training of communication tools, encrypted channels, and proper digital hygiene practices. Considering the threats from state monitoring and cyberattacks, cooperation with cyber security networks offers the necessary tools to protect the activists and the networks. Building broader networks across borders is also essential, and greater cooperation between North African and diasporic activists could increase the exchange of resources, advocacy, and emergency assistance.
Establishing regional coalitions with defined strategies for documentation, legal assistance, and protection mechanisms will sustain movements in repressive situations. Continuing to provide legal assistance and strategic lawsuits to challenge politically inspired extraditions and other abuses of human rights must remain a priority. International human rights networks and legal support units must cooperate to bring the case to the regional and global courts so that the proper protection is extended to the asylum seekers and the exiled activists. Lobbying host nations to establish tighter protection from deportations saves people from forced return to life-threatening situations. Public and media advocacy are also essential in countering the disinformation by the state and exposing the violation of people’s human rights. Investing in other, independent sources of the mass media, collaborating with international journalists, and teaching the use of the mass media to the activists provides voice to marginalized citizens and uncovers the persistence of repression.
The health and well-being of the activists also must be considered, because long-term persecution and forced displacement are enough to severely impair the psyche. Community-based counseling, safe shelter, and emergency support programs are all means to provide the necessary support and assistance to sustain long-term resistance. Through the above recommendations, the people who support the activists and the activists are in a position to sustain pressure, build solidarity, and push to achieve real change in North Africa.
Conclusion
Transnational repression in North Africa isn’t the unintended byproduct of authoritarian regimes—more so, a deliberate and systemic regime of control. Through the criminalization of the LGBTQI+ community, the regulation of the presentation of gender, and the use of the law to silence opposition, Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia created an integrated mechanism to root out political and social deviance. The ability to communicate and cooperate across borders, share intel, and intimidate neighboring states into deporting activists serves to reinforce the need for a transnational resistance strategy. There is no silver bullet, only unmistakable directions. Legal advocacy, cyber security education, and global coalition-building are necessary tools in overthrowing such oppressive regimes. Combating the disinformation from the state through independent reporting and global public awareness drives are just as necessary. And above all, ensuring the persecuted are accessible to obtain shelter, legal recourse, and emergency assistance is an immediate priority. Oppression is systemic. Resisting must be. The question isn’t if repression will continue—but if we shall meet it with the force it deserves.
