A TALE OF TWO OMARS

The grandson of iconic Egyptian actor Omar Sharif shares his coming-of-age as a gay man.

In this moving memoir, Sharif Jr., a Canadian actor and model, begins with the controversial coming-out letter he submitted to the Advocate in 2012, in which he expressed distress at being gay amid the political and social upheaval across Egypt. The essay became a viral sensation and further spurred the author’s work for “the movement for LGBTQ equality in the United States and across the globe.” His parents—Jewish Canadian mother and Arab father—divorced when he was a child, and he vividly depicts a youth traveling between Montreal and Egypt, interspersed with fond memories of later years spent with his famous grandfather, who accepted his grandson’s lifestyle unconditionally. When Sharif Sr.’s health began to decline due to Alzheimer’s, the author was there to support him, defend his reputation in the press, and care for him until his death in 2015. He chronicles years of painful bullying throughout school, leavened only by the spark of early attractions to men—even while some of those encounters ended darkly and involved sexual abuse. The memoir captivates with sharp cultural criticisms of the prejudices embedded in the Egyptian political landscape, which keeps gay citizens in a constant state of fear for their personal safety. Sharif laments that “too many are staying quiet as the whole of Egyptian society moves toward this monolithic entity I barely recognize.” He writes of making good use of his celebrity to advocate for human rights across oppressed communities, particularly those in Egypt “without a voice, without a face, and without an outlet.” The writing is direct, exquisitely personal, and most striking when the author addresses the intense internalized conflict between wanting to return to his homeland and the reality that exile is the only way to survive the repressive, anti-gay “new Egyptian paradigm.”

An inspirational chronicle of courageous LGBTQ+ advocacy in the face of official repression.