[ad_1]
In Egypt, more and more young women are being criminalized for posting messages on the Internet. Her crime: crimes against public morals. It is not just about sexism, but about the arbitrariness of the state.
By Alexander Stenzel, ARD-Studio Cairo
Manar Sama is dancing a popular song at home. Her long dark hair falls over a short T-shirt, her lips are made up of red. She records the little private performance with her smartphone and then posts it on the internet. Manar’s dance performance is well received on the net. Receive thousands of likes on the TikTok video portal.
But not everyone is enthusiastic. Lawyer Ashraf Farahat finds Manar’s video offensive and reports on the young woman. The Cairo prosecutor obtained an arrest warrant for Manar, whose behavior allegedly caused great harm to Egyptian society.
“A girl must be shy”
Manar’s videos posted on TikTok are silly, funny, and innocuous by Western standards. But they are reprehensible for lawyer Farahat.
A girl’s honor is not limited to her virginity, she says, but to all her behavior: “A girl should be shameful. That is honor. If I show my body to other people, then I have no honor.”
The court follows this line of reasoning. Manar Sama is sentenced to three years in prison. It is irrelevant to the prosecutor and judge whether the reputation and honor of the family are harmed.
Sama first worked as a flight attendant, then discovered modeling and became an influencer on TikTok. Manar’s mother, Hayat Mohammed, is a religious woman with conservative values. Her daughter, she says, has not done anything lewd: “There is nothing that can be used against her. There are no frivolous photos.”
Manar is not the only young woman in Egypt to have been sentenced to prison for posting on the Internet. Sama El-Masry was also sentenced to three years in prison. The accusations were the same: too much bare skin, violation of public morals and family values. Sama’s attorney, Ashraf Nagy, appealed.
Arbitrary interpretation of “family values”
The paragraph on family values is an instrument of the judiciary that opens the door to arbitrariness, says Nagy: “What are family values? They differ from one family to another. Some parents leave their daughters unveiled with their hair loose, with shorts and a miniskirt. And there are other parents who don’t let their daughters go out without a scarf or full veil. “
None of the accused or convicted women was politically active or critical of society. As influencers, they have embarked on their own careers to become more financially independent. The judiciary has destroyed their life plans.
For the women’s rights activist Ghadeer Ahmed, the wave of lawsuits against young women has, in addition to specific oppression, also a sexist aspect: young men who post on TikTok are not accused. Man can post and show skin. Woman no.
And finally, says the activist for women’s rights, the sentences also try to cement social conditions in Egypt: “The state benefits because in this way the social system is preserved. Everyone in their place, everyone in their class – women listen to men and if they do not listen to men then we will intervene on this issue “.
TikTok videos fall under the scent of prostitution
Ghadeer Ahmed’s criticisms find little support in Egypt today. The media close to the government welcomed the actions of the judiciary and brought the young women closer to the prostitutes because they would have made money with their photographs “exposed” on the Internet. Many young Egyptians also view the appearances of their contemporaries on social media very critically, such as Menna Saber. These girls deserve to be locked up, he says: “In these videos they are stripping. One of them wears spaghetti straps and shorts. It doesn’t work.”
Plaintiff and attorney Ashraf Farahat has so far sued twelve women who have posted videos on TikTok. It’s about morality. And it’s about politics. Not in vain did he choose the slogan of his campaign: Make clean. “Our message to society is: correct your behavior.”
When asked, neither the prosecutor, nor the judge and the justice minister wanted to answer whether the sanctions imposed so far against displaced young women are proportionate.
You can see this post on Sunday at 7:20 pm on Weltspiegel.
