SEATTLE – As a miller raised in Egypt, Noha Mahgoub could choose what to wearlocal organizers called it “Pride Match”in colors related to his sexual orientation or ethnic identity. The 43-year-old Democratic congressional aide – one of the top staffers in Washington state government – chose the latter, arriving in a red Egypt national team jersey, a black hat emblazoned with YALLA and tricolor face paint, white and black.
“I’ve seen Pride shirts. I’ve seen pictures of Pride’s face,” he observed from the crowd minutes before the national anthem began to play around Lumen Stadium. “It’s been great, but I see Egypt and Iran and a lot of people cheering for their countries and singing their songs.”
Indeed, despite FIFA’s announcement that rainbow flags would be allowed on the pitch, few were seen when the match started. Instead, the stadiums were filled with the colors of the two Middle Eastern countries on the field, including many pre-revolutionary lion-and-sun flags.that FIFA has tried to banunder the stadium’s code of conduct which prohibits political displays.
Mahgoub had seen the Egyptian national team in person only once before, as a child, when the team was in the process of qualifying for the 1990 World Cup. Since then, Mahgoub and his family moved to Washington state, where he said the local Egyptian-American community has been buoyed by new arrivals coming to work at Seattle-based technology companies.
“You know how it is, you start calling everybody your cousins — a lot of your cousins that I wasn’t related to,” Mahgoub said. “Well, I think most of them are here.”
