Egyptian authorities have since 2020 carried out a campaign to silence female social media influencers, using a cybercrime law to detain them on vague charges such as violating “public morals” and “undermining family values”. Last week, TikTok celebrity Salma Elshimy became the latest in a growing list of women to fall foul of the authorities over social media posts.
Elshimy had just landed at Cairo International Airport when she was arrested on April 3 on charges of inciting “debauchery” and “violating family values” through her social media posts. The Egyptian model and influencer with an audience of 3.3 million TikTok followers was returning from a trip to Dubai, where she filed a residency application ahead of a planned move.
Her arrest was reported by a photographer from the United Arab Emirates, who informed the Egyptian news website Mada. According to Qatar-based Middle East Monitor, Egypt’s public prosecutor ordered that she be detained for four days on charges of “spreading immorality” and publishing videos and photographs that “contradict social morals and values”.
Lawyer Hany Sameh, a member of the Lawyers Syndicate’s committee on freedoms who has worked on similar cases in the past, described the accusations against Elshimy as “vague”. In an interview with Mada, he said they stemmed from “vestiges of regressive male chauvinism that is uncompromising against women”.
Such arrests are increasingly common in President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s Egypt, noted Amr Magdi, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a Twitter post last week. “Egyptian authorities arrested yet another female influencer for 'debauchery' just because she posts photos we see in everyday life and TVs,” he wrote, adding that arrests of women on “morality” charges “have skyrocketed” under al-Sisi.
Jeune Afrique: Egypte - Russie / Young Africa: Egypt - Russia
Jeune Afrique: Egypte – Russie / Young Africa: Egypt – Russia
Jeune Afrique: L’Égypte et la Russie réaffirment leur proximité – Young Africa: Egypt and Russia reaffirm their closeness
Le représentant spécial au Moyen-Orient de Vladimir Poutine a échangé avec le président égyptien Abdel Fattah al-Sissi. Moscou et Le Caire désirent encore renforcer leurs relations.
Vladimir Putin’s special…
“ La Guerra fredda aveva un senso. Fu una guerra ideologica in cui il vincitore, verosimilmente, avrebbe imposto al nemico sconfitto, per usare parole ormai screditate dal troppo uso, la propria filosofia e i propri valori. Può sembrare retorico, ma vi era in quello scontro fra giganti una certa nobiltà. Due grandi idee – la dittatura del proletariato e il capitalismo democratico – offrivano al mondo due strade diverse verso un futuro migliore. Le due diverse prospettive hanno creato speranze, attese, impegno e sacrifici che non sarebbe giusto ignorare.
Oggi ogni traccia di nobiltà è scomparsa. Il comunismo è fallito e, come accade sempre in queste circostanze, la memoria collettiva ricorda soltanto le sue pagine peggiori: i massacri della fase rivoluzionaria, la fame ucraina, la persecuzione del clero, le purghe, i gulag, il lavoro coatto, i popoli trasferiti con la forza da una regione all’altra. La democrazia capitalista non è in migliori condizioni. Il trasferimento del potere economico dai produttori di beni ai produttori di denaro ha enormemente allargato il divario fra gli immensamente ricchi e i drammaticamente poveri. Il denaro governa le campagne elettorali. Le grandi piaghe della prima metà del Novecento – nazionalismo, militarismo, razzismo – si sono nuovamente aperte. Il linguaggio della competizione politica è diventato becero e volgare. Le convention americane sono diventate un circo equestre in cui i candidati esibiscono i muscoli della loro retorica. Il meritato riposo e un busto nel Pantheon della nazione, che attendevano gli uomini di Stato alla fine della loro carriera politica, sono stati sostituiti da posti nei consigli d’amministrazione, laute consulenze e conferenze generosamente retribuite (come i 225.000 dollari pagati da Goldman Sachs a Hillary Clinton per un dibattito dopo i suoi quattro anni al Dipartimento di Stato). Anziché affidarsi a leader saggi e prudenti, molti popoli sembrano preferire i demagoghi, i tribuni della plebe, i caudillos.
Anche Putin appartiene per molti aspetti a un club frequentato da Erdoğan, Al Sisi, Orbán, Jaroslaw Kaczyński, Bibi Netanyahu, Xi Jinping, Lukašenko, per non parlare dei loro numerosi cugini in Africa e in Asia. Ma ha anche altre caratteristiche.
Deve governare un enorme spazio geografico popolato da una moltitudine di gruppi nazionali e religiosi. È il leader di un grande Paese che ha interessi legittimi e ambizioni comprensibili. È responsabile di una potenza che è anche un tassello indispensabile per l’amministrazione di un mondo caotico e pericoloso. Possiamo deplorare molti aspetti del suo carattere e della sua politica. Ma vedo sempre meno persone in Occidente che abbiano il diritto di impartirgli lezioni di democrazia. Occorrono 541 giorni per formare un governo in Belgio. Occorrono due elezioni politiche a distanza di sei mesi per formare un governo in Spagna. Occorrono tre commissioni bicamerali e due riforme costituzionali approvate dal Parlamento, ma sottoposte a referendum popolare, per cercare di modificare la costituzione in Italia. Nell’Unione Europea sono sempre più numerosi i cittadini che invocano il ritorno alle sovranità nazionali, ma in alcuni Stati nazionali (Belgio, Gran Bretagna, Spagna) la sovranità nazionale è contestata da regioni che chiedono il diritto di secessione. Mi chiedo: la democrazia è ancora un modello virtuoso che l’Europa delle democrazie malate e gli Stati Uniti delle sciagurate avventure mediorientali e del nuovo razzismo hanno il diritto di proporre alla Russia? “
Sergio Romano, Putin e la ricostruzione della grande Russia, Longanesi, 2016¹. [Libro elettronico]
Raskin launches probe into closed DOJ investigation of Trump-Egypt ties
by Rebecca Beitsch
The Hill
Sept. 3, 2024
House Democrats have launched a probe into former President Trump’s alleged acceptance of $10 million from the Egyptian government during his 2016 presidential campaign, as well as whether allies quashed a subsequent investigation into the matter.
A spokesperson for Donald Trump blamed “Deep State Trump-haters and bad faith actors” for a bombshell report on Friday about a secret criminal investigation into whether Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, the authoritarian ruler of Egypt, sought to give the former president $10m during his victorious 2016 White House run.
“The investigation referenced found no wrongdoing and was closed,” Steven Cheung told the Washington Post, which published the report on Friday.
“None of the allegations or insinuations being reported on have any basis in fact. The Washington Post is consistently played for suckers by Deep State Trump-haters and bad faith actors peddling hoaxes and shams.”
The deep state conspiracy theory holds that a permanent, shadow government of agents, operatives and bureaucrats exists to thwart Trump. One of the theory’s chief propagators, Steve Bannon, has said it is “for nut cases”. Nonetheless, it remains popular on the US right and among Trump’s aides.
Bannon was Trump’s campaign chair in 2016. According to the Post, five days before Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, an organisation linked to Egyptian intelligence services withdrew $10m from a Cairo bank.
“Inside the state-run National Bank of Egypt,” the Post said, “employees were soon busy placing bundles of $100 bills into two large bags.”
Four men “carried away the bags, which US officials later described in sealed court filings as weighing a combined 200 pounds and containing what was then a sizable share of Egypt’s reserve of US currency”.
According to the Post, US federal investigators learned of the withdrawal in 2019, by which time they had spent two years investigating CIA intelligence that indicated Sisi sought to give Trump $10m.
Such a contribution would potentially have violated federal law regarding foreign donations.
A Washington Post report from August 2nd reveals that Egyptian’s autocratic leader Abdel Fatah al-Sisi sought to give Donald Trump $10M during his 2016 run for the Presidency that he was successful.
See Also:
MMFA: Broadcast news and major papers failed to cover WaPo report of possible Egyptian bribery involving Trump
Israel announces its Gaza endgame: Ethnic cleansing as ‘humanitarianism’
Israeli leaders, from PM Benjamin Netanyahu and FM Eli Cohen on down, have repeatedly made it clear since October 7 that they intend to ethnically cleanse Gaza. No matter how many times they say it, people still refuse to believe them. Capitalizing on this, Israel is now presenting ethnic cleansing as “humanitarian option.” In my latest for Mondoweiss, I explain what they’re doing and how the…
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad meeting Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia after the Arab Summit on Gaza today, 11 November 2023
my sister is doing a hunger games movie marathon and I joined her for mockingjay part 1 and I was literally crying watching it cos most of it fully went over my head as a kid and now I’m older and I just see so much of our reality in it. it was never too far fetched