Shrouk El-Attar

Shrouk El-Attar is an electronics engineering consultant and a PCB design expert who was born in Egypt and has been living in the United Kingdom as a refugee since 2007. She is an activist for refugee rights in the UK, and for LGBT rights in her native Egypt.

El-Attar performs as a belly dancer in an act called "Dancing Queer ", to raise funds for legal defense fees for LGBT people in Egypt, and to help with relocation for those persecuted and at risk because of their gender or sexuality.

El-Attar was one of the women chosen by the BBC in 2018 as one of the 100 Most Influential Women in the World, and was selected by the Institution of Engineering and Technology as a 2021 Young Woman Engineer of the Year. In 2024, she was recognized as one of the Top 5 Electronics Engineering Entrepreneurs in the UK by Electronics Weekly magazine and one of the Top 24 British Role Models in Science, Technology, Mathematics, and Engineering (STEM).

Childhood and refugee status Shrouk El-Attar grew up in Alexandria, Egypt. She realized her sexual interest in women at a young age, but was put off by people in her immediate surroundings, such as teachers, who told her that homosexuality was a "terrible sin".

El-Attar arrived in the UK in 2007, at the age of 15, together with her mother and siblings. However, their asylum claim was rejected, and they were deported during an immigration dawn raid on her family home while she was staying at a friend's house. El-Attar was eventually granted asylum because of her LGBT status.

In March 2018, Shrouk was awarded Young Woman of the Year 2018 by the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, for her work on behalf of refugee rights in the UK. After this incident, Egypt's Supreme Council for Media Regulation decided to ban 'all forms of promotion or sympathy towards the LGBT community on media outlets, on account of it being a 'shameful disease'. Unless an LGBTQ+ individual is going live to 'show repentance and remorse over their sexuality,' they're not to be portrayed in a positive light.

El-Attar has taken her performance all over the UK, as well as internationally, to places such as France, the Netherlands and Japan.

Engineering career and STEM outreach El-Attar is an electronics engineering consultant and PCB design expert. She completed her bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering at Cardiff University.

El-Attar expressed that as a teenager, not being allowed to study engineering at university due to being an asylum seeker strongly impacted her mental health - and that despite this, she became a STEM Ambassador in 2011. Her most recent STEM outreach activity is teaching mathematics to refugee children. BBC's 100 Women, 2018 Young Woman Engineer of the Year Awards - WES Prize Winner 2020 Engineering Bright Spark Award by RS Components 2022 The Institution of Mechanical Engineers's Verena Holmes Award 2022 Top 24 Role Models in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics by the Association for Black and Ethnic Minority Engineers 2024 Top 5 Electronics Engineering Entrepreneurs in the UK by Electronics Weekly Magazine 2024