Egypt's prosecution referred singer and dancer Salma El-Fouly (aka Redha Fouly Khalifa) to a misdemeanor court on Monday, on charges of "inciting debauchery and immorality", the Ahram Arabic news website has reported.
The charges are related to a "seductive video" uploaded on YouTube last week. The video clip of a song called Seeb Eidy (“Don’t touch me”) featuring El-Fouly nearly spilling out of her top, was released on YouTube less than 10 days ago and has been viewed 1.8 million times.
El-Fouly was arrested and her case referred to court for urgent attention. El-Fouly will be detained for four days pending investigation while the first court session is scheduled to take place on Thursday, 28 May. Police chief Ahmed Baqly said that the video violates general ethics and everyone who worked on its launch should be presented to justice.
El-Fouly’s producer-partner Wael Desooki, who also appears in the video, fled to Tunis once the video began garnering attention in Egypt.
Just two months ago, belly dancer Safinaz was arrested for dancing around in a dress costumed from the Egyptian flag. It was considered an insult to Egypt, but was released on EGP 20,000 bail.
An Egyptian administrative court last Wednesday ordered that the prime minister take the necessary measures to censor pornography websites inside Egypt.
Committed crimes against good taste, maybe, but do you think she deserves four days of detention for the video?
You decide...
It's said that the scandalous Egyptian video was inspired by the original Indian version below, which is much more conservative and tasteful.
Editor’s note: This article has been edited from the source material.
