By Mirette Mabrouk
CAIRO: Apparently, we didn’t have enough on our plates.
The economy is trembling under the strain of nine months of uncertainty. Over 12,000 civilians have been subjected to military trials. We have less than two weeks to go before Egypt’s first democratic elections in living memory, burdened with an impossibly complicated and incoherent voting law. The main political parties are thrashing it out with each other and with the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) in the mud of political warfare.
And then, on Nov. 13, a young woman named Aliaa Al-Mahdy posted nude photographs of herself on her blog. There was also a photograph of a naked man, which looked vaguely like the subject of an art class, a couple of nude sketches and a couple of photographs that looked like publicity material for a soft-core pornographic film. Ms. Al-Mahdy claims that the posts are “echoing screams against a society of violence, racism, sexism, sexual harassment and hypocrisy.”
A young woman displaying nude photographs of herself would be jaw-dropping at any time in Egypt, a conservative society that has become more so over the past three decades. To be fair, if she’d been a university student in London or New York, she’d have dropped jaws there, too. Despite Ms. Mahdy’s not unreasonable assertions that Egyptian society is conservative and often hypocritical, there are very few societies that would have taken the photos with equanimity. In public situations, women tend to keep their clothes on in most countries.
Predictably, reaction has been overwhelming, with the 20-year-old mostly being insulted and censured. Censure, however, has not only come from the expected conservative ranks but from the ranks of the liberals she professes to represent. She appears not to have grasped the fact that it is possible for people to believe passionately in human rights and still feel that nudity is a state best reserved for museums, bedrooms and bathrooms.
The largest problem is Ms. Mahdy’s timing. Two weeks before the elections, with the parties polarized between secular and Islamist, a not inconsiderable chunk of the country is hopping from foot to foot between them, undecided. It’s doubtful that Ms. Mahdy, who describes herself as an atheist, has ever considered doing the Islamists any favors. Her actions, however, might have ensured that she has done just that, giving a not-so-gentle nudge to the undecided, towards the Islamist camp. One can almost hear the triumphant roars: “This, then, is what the liberals espouse. This is what they mean by a ‘civil state.’ Vote for the liberals! Have your children grow up to be Godless, promiscuous, exhibitionists! Islam really is the solution.”
It’s unclear exactly what she was trying to achieve. If she were trying to make a point about conservatism by exposing herself to voyeurism, it’s a little like protesting the death penalty by having a baby. The two actions may be opposite ends of the same spectrum, but they have nothing else to do with each other. And any argument must be presented in context: the photos are the only postings on the blog, so it’s hardly as if she had a long history of protesting the point. If the society she’s addressing is as repressed and hypocritical as she claims, then her actions are the debating equivalent of smacking your opponent across the face in the middle of the debate. It may be effective as a shock tactic — you’ll certainly get their attention — but it’s hardly likely that it will clarify, let alone carry, your argument.
For lovers of conspiracy theories — and Egyptians are huge fans of conspiracy theories — there are many juicy tidbits. There is the timing, directly before the elections. There is the fact that Ms Mahdy’s boyfriend is blogger Kareem Amer, who was imprisoned for insulting former president Hosni Mubarak and Islam (probably in that order). There’s also the fact that this was the only posting on her blog, so clearly the freedom of expression muse hadn’t moved her before. She’s being referred to in Western media as “female activist” but she isn’t known to any activist movements. The April 6 Youth Movement has frantically put out a statement that she isn’t a member of the movement.
Cynics smell an asylum request. Preferably, to a country where clothes are optional.
The incident will likely be forgotten sooner rather than later (the country has more important things on its mind) and it’s impossible to know whether it will have any significant effect at the polls.
The saddest thing about the affair is the amount of prurient interest it has attracted. At time of press, the blog had attracted over 1.5 million views. By contrast, a YouTube video featuring the story of Samira Ibrahim had less than 100,000 views. Ms. Ibrahim was one of the 17 women taken into detention by the military after the demonstrations of March 9, who were forced to undergo ‘virginity checks.’ Ibrahim is the only woman to have continued her legal fight to make the army accountable. So far, she has been stumped at every turn.
It says much about a society which latches on to the actions of one girl, because she chose to undress and provided many with a salacious amusement, but ignores the fight of another, who was abused and humiliated in public, while trying to defend that society’s right to self-determination and freedom. It may be that both girls are equally sincere. Why then, have they not received equal attention?
The simplest and most depressing answer may be that, no matter how conservative the society, sex sells. If those conservatives frothing at the mouth at Mahdy’s actions and calling her a prostitute place such a high premium on morals and female chastity, why are they not up in arms to defend Ibrahim’s? This society may claim be shocked by the actions of one girl, but it remains to be seen whether it deserves the sacrifice made by the other.
Mirette F. Mabrouk is a Nonresident Fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at The Brookings Institution. Twitter @mmabrouk
