[5][6] In 2010, Hegazi graduated from Thebas Academy with a bachelor's degree in information systems and the American University in Cairo Continuing Education Center in 2016.

[7][8][9] Hegazi identified as a communist and supported the Bread and Freedom Party while living in Egypt, and became involved with the Spring Socialist Network once in Canada.

"[12] On September 22, 2017, Sarah Hegazi attended a concert in Cairo for the Lebanese band Mashrou' Leila whose lead singer, Hamed Sinno, is openly gay.

[15] She was jailed for three months at Sayeda Zeinab police station where male agents incited inmates to beat her, and verbally and sexually assault her.

[21] In Egypt, where homosexuality is not outlawed explicitly in jurisprudence, detention and charges are made on the basis of the 1961 "Law on Combating Prostitution" that sanctions debauchery and sex work.

In October 2017, in the aftermath of the Mashrou' Leila's 2017 Cairo concert, a number of Egyptian members of the parliament submitted a law that sanctions homosexual acts with up to three years of prison.

The update authorized the police to infiltrate chat rooms and dating apps, to pretend to be gay men and women and ensnare members of the LGBT community.

[22] According to the Egyptian government, the law was updated to address modern developments and to stop the internet and social media users from encouraging vice and the practice of prostitution.

The LGBTQ+ community is posited as a national security threat by the Egyptian government, religious authorities, and political parties; this view is promoted by state-controlled media outlets.

[27][28][29] Hamed Sinno, the frontman of the Lebanese band Mashrou' Leila shared a tribute on their Facebook profile to Hegazi which read "الحرية لروحك", or "Freedom for your soul".

[30][33] The Canadian socialist magazine Spring published an obituary to Hegazi with Valerie Lannon writing: "I remember her saying 'I never felt so alive as during the revolution.'

[34] In Malta, the Allied Rainbow Communities and Moviment Graffitti commemorated Hegazi's death through a demonstration at the Egyptian Embassy and criticized the Maltese Government's designation of Egypt as a safe country to which refugees could be returned.

[49] John Greyson's 2021 experimental short documentary film International Dawn Chorus Day was created as a tribute to Hegazi and Shady Habash.

[52] There is a long history of LGBT people being erased and oppressed both specifically in Egypt and in the broader context of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

[59] Street murals and graffiti art commemorating Hegazi in the Jordanian capital Amman were speedily painted over after a social media uproar.

[63] Cheikh Rafiki, a Moroccan Muslim cleric, received death threats when he defended the memory of Hegazi from an online ISIL-related individual.