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Africa North
Birthday suit blogger reported to Egypt's general prosecutor
2011-11-20
[Al Ahram] Blogger and feminist Aliaa El-Mahdy has begun to face a backlash in Egyptian society after a nude photo she took of herself and posted online spreads and catches local and international media attention. Lawsuits against her have been filed.

A group of Islamic law graduates reported Aliaa El-Mahdy and her boyfriend, blogger Karim Amer, to the general prosecutor on Thursday, accusing them of spreading immorality and debauchery along with contempt of religion, demanding that they be punished according to Islamic law.

Another lawyer, Nafisa Abdel Fatah, reported El-Mahdy and Amer to the general prosecutor Friday, also accusing them of spreading immorality. Abdel Fatah told Youm7 website that El-Mahdy and Amer encouraged the spread of the nude photo, aside from being lovers outside of wedlock in defiance of religious and social traditions.

Liberal powers and parties in Egypt expressed their concern at the backlash, which comes shortly before parliamentary elections where liberal parties are facing stiff competition from Islamist parties.

Renowned liberal writer Siyad El-Qamni slammed what El-Mahdy had done, describing her as a mentally disturbed girl. El-Mahdy fired back at on her Twitter account, describing him as a "coward" who backed off from his liberal opinions when he received threats from radical Islamists.

El-Mahdy, a 20-year-old mass communications student at the American University in Cairo posted the nude photo on her personal blog, "A Rebel's Scream," last month. They caught attention when retweeted on the Twitter social network, creating intense debate among Egyptian and Arab Twitter users.

Not less than 2,500,000 have visited El-Mahdy's blog after the post was initially spread on Twitter.
Posted by:Fred

#9  I'm sure the general prosecutor is carefully reviewing the evidence. Again and again and again...
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2011-11-20 18:38  

#8  If she wore a scarf covering her hair, all would be forgiven.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2011-11-20 17:17  

#7  >Nothing titillating about the photo

Really?

It's a pretty, naked woman with sexy red shoes! I was titillated.
Posted by: Scooter McGruder   2011-11-20 14:19  

#6  Nothing titillating about the photo, and she wasn't obviously much into showing her femalenitude to the world.

Her whole deportment is like, "You saw me nekkid. Happy now?"
Posted by: badanov   2011-11-20 10:44  

#5  It's all about the red ruby slippers.
Posted by: Skidmark   2011-11-20 10:01  

#4  The young woman really hit a home run with that picture. It reminds the secularists that everything they enjoy in society is under threat from the Islamists, and it reminds women that if the Islamists win, their freedoms are gone and they are reduced to living like property, slaves, and farm animals again.

Under the heel of ignorant, peasant "Arabs", not the more elite, urbane and sophisticated Egyptians they imagine themselves to be.

The ugly secret of the Islamic world is that they are utterly obsessed with pr0nography, and are some of its biggest per capita consumers. Given that, the knee jerk reaction to her picture is the height of hypocrisy, and they know it is.

Here is the actual picture, which shows her nude. It is NSFW, but otherwise tame.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2011-11-20 09:32  

#3  Coming slightly later, an analysis of web surfing on government computers.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2011-11-20 09:21  

#2  Coming soon: another meaning for 2.5 million hits.
Posted by: 2Sealys   2011-11-20 07:52  

#1  Beats getting murdered by one's own family.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2011-11-20 03:07  

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