In July, an Egyptian woman decided to share her relationship status in a public Facebook post but did not get so much love for it.
Why?
Because she is a lesbian.
At the time, Dalia Al Farghal posted a status on the social media platform, sharing both her relationship status as well as her father's reaction to her coming out.
In it, she talked about how her father congratulated her for her relationship and how it wasn't something she expected at all, she says in a now viral BuzzFeed video originally shared on Aug. 24.
Farghal's initial 'coming out' post was published in both Arabic and English. A flood of hate messages soon followed.
"I was attacked by people ... and my dad got death threats and other hateful messages," Farghal says.
To the queer youth in the Middle East and North Africa: "Coming out isn't the only way to do it"
While homosexuality is not illegal in Egypt, according to The Guardian, police routinely arrest individuals based on decades-old prostitution and debauchery laws.
According to media reports from earlier this year, Egyptian police have even been targeting gay men through hookup apps like Grindr.
Having a strong support system is the number one key to coming out, Farghal advises.
"You need to find your supportive circle. If not, try to find people that you can relate to on the internet. Stay strong, and think positively."
In the video, she says she is the "most hated lesbian in Egypt"
The video is now viral, and people are loving it!
But not everyone is supportive, and Farghal has received hate messages as well. But, she's not letting it get to her.
Instead, and in another Facebook status, she addressed her critics, telling them that "the more you hate on me, the more support I get."
She also thanked all those who have stuck by her side and have allowed her to be the voice the LGBT community in the region needs.
"People like you change the world"
"You go girl! I'm on your team."
"I know for [a] fact that Egypt is a horrible place for the LGBTQ+ community," Farghal once wrote.
LGBTQ+ community in Egypt
Earlier this month, Egyptian trans woman Carla Massoud made international headlines after telling her story in a BBC Arabic report.
In the video, Massoud tells the world how she fled Egypt as an assigned-at-birth male only to become the confident, happily married woman that she is in Germany today.
"I left Egypt as a boy, but I had a dress in my luggage," she says, adding that the first thing she did when she arrived in Berlin was take off her masculine clothes and put on the dress.
And she isn't the first Egyptian transsexual to go public.
Renowned Egyptian transsexual actress Hanan Al-Tawil, who died in 2004 under mysterious circumstances, is credited with being the first openly transsexual Arab.
In 1988, Sally Mursi (née Sayyed) caused a stir in Egypt and the Muslim world after she went under the knife to become Sally, even leading the Grand Mufti at the time to intervene.
Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy released a fatwa making it spiritually legal for a transgendered individual to change to his or her appropriate gender.