Homosexuality is not de jure illegal in Egypt. However, in the early part of the twenty-first century, homosexuality started to become de facto illegal under a the wide scope of interpreting various articles of the Egyptian Penal Code and other regulations of Egyptian Public Policy related to the safeguard of Public Order & Public Morals". Such practices were an evolution of the controversial practice used by Egyptian Security to quell youth rebellion and lewd expression of individuality in the mid nineties under the banner of Satanism, official charges ranged from "offenses against public morals and sensitivities" to "violating the teachings of religion and propagating depraved ideas and moral depravity."