Two years in prison, plus fines of almost €16,000 ($ 18,800) each: that was the verdict handed down to two young Egyptian influencers by a Cairo court earlier this week. Three other young women were also sentenced to two years in prison, and on Wednesday another woman was fined and sentenced to three years for a similar conviction.
In their rulings, which can still be appealed, the judges accused the defendants of posting “indecent” dance videos and “violating the values and principles of the Egyptian family.“ The women incited “debauchery” and also encouraged human trafficking, according to the prosecution’s statement, which specifically named two of the defendants: Haneen Hossam, a 20-year-old student, and Mawada Eladhm, 22.
Both women are active on TikTok, a Chinese-operated platform for short mobile phone videos popular among young people. The women had garnered more than a million followers with their short 15-second clips, which showed them posing in or next to sports cars, dancing in their kitchens and making harmless jokes. The two women are often seen in heavy makeup, for Egyptian standards, sporting bright red lipstick and tight clothing. In photos posted to Twitter, however, they are bit more reserved. Hossam always wears a headscarf, while Eladhm goes bareheaded.
In their videos, they dance like young people used to do in clubs in the West, and in Egypt’s elite discos, before they were shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic — enjoying the music, enjoying life. But in Egypt’s predominantly conservative society, many people reject such displays.
Charges of ‘inciting debauchery and immorality’
In Egypt, people can be convicted on charges as vague as “abuse of social media” or “inciting debauchery and immorality.” All the women wanted to do was attract more followers, according to Eladhm’s lawyers.
“They just want followers. They are not part of any prostitution network, and did not know this is how their message would be perceived by prosecutors,” Samar Shabana, a member of the legal team, told international news agencies on Monday.
But the women were accused of promoting prostitution because they encouraged their followers to publish the videos on the Likee sharing platform, which pays authors based on the number of clicks they get.
There is nothing formally wrong with the verdict, said Nihad Abuel-Komsan, head of the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights and a lawyer. She told DW that the verdict is based on article 2 of the tightened communications legislation that has been in force since 2018. Under the law, charges can be brought against anyone who violates alleged social or family values. Abuel-Komsan argued, however, that the law is “wrong, erroneous and should be abolished.”
In one instance, the conditions of release issued by the U.S. District Court in Oregon for a defendant whose offense was “fail[ing] to comply with the lawful direction of federal police officers” stated that “Defendant may not attend any other protests, rallies, assemblies or public gatherings in the state of Oregon.”
The order further stated that any violation of the conditions of release may result in “the immediate issuance of a warrant for your arrest, a revocation of release, an order of detention, forfeiture of bond, and a prosecution for contempt of court and could result in a term of imprisonment, a fine, or both.”
According to the report, in several instances where the aforementioned conditions of release were not available at the time of a detainee’s release, Magistrate Judge John V. Acosta added the provision by hand.
Magistrate Judge Jolie A. Russo similarly added a handwritten protest ban provision to at least three of the 15 release orders she signed Monday.
Constitutional law experts were quick to call out the orders as direct violations of the First Amendment.
Senior staff attorney at the American Civil liberties Union (ACLU) Somil Trivedi told ProPublica that release conditions generally concern whether a defendant poses a risk of flight or threat to public safety.
“This is neither,” he said, calling the protest ban “sort of hilariously unconstitutional.”
Attorney Cristian Farias of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University compared the unconstitutionality of the provision to the one in the case of Donald Trump’s former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen.
“This was blatantly unconstitutional when they tried it on Michael Cohen, who was convicted of multiple felonies,” Farias wrote. “It’s even more so when the people being restrained from exercising First Amendment rights are merely facing accusations that may not stand up in court.”
University of Texas law professor Steve Vladeck called the condition “stunningly overbroad.”
“Let me deal with some of the particulars of the last few weeks. We knew when he was first hospitalized with COVID-19 that this was going to be a rough fight,” the statement read. “He had trouble breathing and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. We all prayed that the initial meds they gave him would get his breathing back to normal, but it became clear pretty quickly that he was in for a battle.”
The former politician was hospitalized for the coronavirus. The announcement stated that as recently as five days ago, Cain’s doctors were hopeful that he would recover, but the recovery would not be quick. It went on to say that he never was able quite to reach the “recovery stage.”
Cain had been at higher risk due to his age and previous battle with cancer.
“But there was so much more to him than the public saw, and certainly more than the media presented to you. Most people heard of Herman for the first time when he ran for president in 2011. What they didn’t know was his business background,” the statement said. “They didn’t know how he had started his career as a civilian employee of the Navy. It was funny to us because sometimes political pundits portrayed him as kind of a goof – having no idea that during his time working for the Navy, he was literally a rocket scientist.”
Before running for president in 2011, Cain worked as the CEO of Godfather’s Pizza.
Cain was treated for the coronavirus in Atlanta. Two weeks before falling ill, he attended President Donald Trump’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
“I realize people will speculate about the Tulsa rally, but Herman did a lot of traveling the past week, including to Arizona where cases are spiking,” Dan Calabrese, who has been editor of HermanCain.com, wrote on the website. “I don’t think there’s any way to trace this to the one specific contact that caused him to be infected. We’ll never know.”
This blog is mostly so I can vent my feelings and share my interests. Other than that, I am nothing special.
If you don't like Left Wing political thought and philosophy, all things related to horror, the supernatural, the grotesque, guns or the strange, then get the fuck out. I just warned you.
