Nour Hesham Selim, son of the late Egyptian actor Hesham Selim, has opened up about his life in Portugal following his gender transition, sharing details of his journey from Nora, an 18-year-old girl, to Nour, a young man, in a fresh video posted to his Instagram story.
“The decision to transition wasn’t straightforward and I was hesitant,” Nour Hesham Selim said. “But the first time I looked at myself in the mirror, I felt like I was lost, and someone saved me.”
He continued: “In the Arab world, a girl transitioning to a boy is more accepted than a boy transitioning to a girl. I know many people who have faced difficulties because of that.”
Nour shared that the most difficult part of his experience has been loss. “I lost my father, my lover, and my friend,” he said, adding that his national ID still lists him as female. He now lives in Portugal, explaining, “Egypt doesn’t accept me.”
The video, which sparked widespread discussion when it was first posted on Instagram, also saw Nour defending the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals and sharing his opinion on the case of Sarah Hegazy, an Egyptian activist who died in 2020 after facing persecution for her sexual orientation.
“If someone accepts me but doesn’t accept my fellow human being, they are a hypocrite,” he stated in the video. “If someone accepts me but doesn’t accept Sarah Hegazy, they are a hypocrite. And if someone comes and says, ‘That’s against religion and Islam,’ no… that’s your religion and your life, and you’re free to think as you please, but don’t impose your religion on me or on Sarah.”
He went on to say: “Where is the humanity, people? If someone says, ‘You’re okay, but homosexuals are forbidden,’ I’ll tell you something: I didn’t have a hormonal imbalance or anything. This wasn’t a correction. it was a transition. So, in the eyes of God, what I did might be wrong, but all of you are saying, ‘Solid for you, Nour, you look stunning, and live happily,’ but Sarah Hegazy died, and may worms eat you.”
“Will you say that about me when I die? Fine, I don’t care. But if you drink, cheat, and do drugs, I’m no different than Sarah Hegazy. And if you don’t accept her, you don’t accept me, and if you don’t accept her, I don’t want you around me.”
