(Deadline Detroit) Mohamed Abdou came to the U.S. for the freedom to be himself.
As a suspected gay man in Egypt, he faced a litany of horrors, including death threats, beatings and anal virginity tests — a practice in which military doctors check men’s anuses to determine if they’ve been penetrated, and which is considered torture by the United Nations.
But the 33-year-old Michigan resident says he continues to be punished for his sexual orientation. In a civil rights complaint recently filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Abdou alleges that he was harassed and fired for being gay by a largely Muslim-run charter school organization — Education Management and Networks (EMAN) — for which he worked as a teacher.
“Where I come from, gays like me get killed,” Abdou said. “I did not come here to get persecuted.”
