In statements made on Wednesday, an Egyptian lawmaker said her country must toughen legislation on homosexuals.
Speaking to online news site Parlamany, Shadia Thabet said she's planning to propose a draft law under which "immorality and debauchery" jail terms would carry up to 10 years.
Thabet explained her proposal comes as a response to people openly raising the LGBTQ pride flag at a Mashrou' Laila concert held in Cairo last week.
"What happened at the concert can't be accepted by society. Openly expressing your pride in being a homosexual isn't a human right," Thabet said.
"How can they openly boast about their sins? They shouldn't even talk about human rights, they should just get the hell away from us," she added.
A crackdown on homosexuals in Egypt
Thabet's comments come a few days after several people who purportedly raised the LGBTQ pride flag at a Mashrou' Leila concert were >arrested on Monday.
Prior to that, the Egyptian Syndicate of Musicians announced its plans to >ban the Lebanese band from performing in the country altogether.
"Such deviant art corrupts our traditions, values, and society ... We will not allow this to happen," the syndicate's lawyer Dr. Reda Rajab said.
Mashrou' Leila sings about LGBTQ themes and has an openly gay lead singer. It has also been banned from performing in >Jordan twice for the same reasons.
Not an isolated incident
This certainly isn't the first crackdown on homosexuals in Egypt.
In fact, oppressive campaigns of the kind date back to 2001, when police >raided the Queen Boat - a floating disco on the Nile - arresting 52 gay Egyptian men.
The men were forced to undergo anal examinations to see if they had engaged in sexual intercourse. The incident drew widespread criticism from human rights groups at the time.
While homosexuality is not illegal in Egypt, police routinely arrest individuals using 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.