Updated July 23, 2024 at 6 p.m.*
-Analysis-
CAIRO — “I have been sentenced to death by the public. I do not know what crime I committed to deserve the destruction of my life in this way. My life has been ruined, and no one seems to be showing any mercy… please, have mercy on me.”
With those words, Egyptian blogger and influencer Hadeer Abdel Razik joined a long line of Egyptian women who have been abused, sexually harassed, beaten, blackmailed and/or murdered, as part of rampant violence against women in the Arab world’s most populous country.
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Abdel Razik’s declaration followed the spread on social media of a video showing her and her husband enjoying their intimate time. She was forced to go online crying and pleading to stop distributing and watching the private video as her life was being ruined by a “stigma” that will haunt them forever.
“Watch before deleting” or “The Hadeer Abdel Razik’s Scandal” was the bait used by those violating the privacy of an Egyptian woman.
Her supposed crime is that she does not feel “shame” about her body and wants to live her normal life as a woman. She made TikTok videos as a fashionista; and was not ashamed of having sex with her husband.
Intimate time
But there is no normal life for Egyptian women influencers in a society that makes cracking down on women and their privacy its priority, under the pretext of societal values and morals.
Following the circulation of the “intimate time” video with her husband, Abdel Razik said she attempted suicide three times. She also failed to gain sympathy after she posted images of her divorce documents with her husband who was in the video.
Egyptian society does not tolerate such an act as enjoying having sex with her husband.
The Interior Ministry, which oversees police forces, didn’t comment or probe the video leak. The footage was leaked after police confiscated the phone following the arrest of Abdel Razik on charges of posting videos on TikTok that “violate the values of the Egyptian family.”
Abdel Razik received little support from free speech activists or social media users. The National Council for Women, a state-run agency supporting women, didn’t comment.
The trigger
Abdel Razik’s fiasco began on June 15 when she filed a police report, accusing a man of sexually harassing her. The man, in turn, filed a counter-report accusing her of posting videos on TikTok that violate the values of the Egyptian family.
Her lawyer, Yasser Saad, said police quickly investigated the man’s counter-claim. “They considered her report of harassment false,” Saad told Daraj. “She was arrested a day after her report against the man, whose identity has not been disclosed until now.”
Prosecutors determined that her Tik Tok video was “scandalous,” and accused her of exploiting social media to disseminate false rumors about people who’d harassed her, publishing indecent videos, and misusing social media.
She was released on June 20 pending investigation. And she said she will stop posting TikTok videos.
Two weeks later, a video showing her having sex with her husband appeared on social media. At the time, her phone was with the police, according to the lawyer.
Saad said that although her video was not public, prosecutors accused her of disseminating immorality, “because the executive and judicial authorities in Egypt are ready to accuse women in ready-made moral cases, even if they are not presented to the public.”
He added that “If Hadeer had not filed a harassment report against this man, her situation might not have reached this catastrophic level.”
False purity
The Egyptian criminal code criminalizes the publication of personal information, photos, or real videos online without the person’s permission. The suspects face defamation charges which are punished with imprisonment and fines up to 0.
Abdel Razik is now not only paying the price for being an Egyptian woman, but she is also paying the price for the new accusations in Egypt such as “violating the values of the Egyptian family” and “inciting debauchery.” She has been tried only for not being ashamed while having sex with her husband. Her case has exposed the “false purity” of Egyptian society.
The consequences of Abdel Razik case and other similar cases are likely to increase the isolation of women and create a hostile environment for them where basic rights are simply not protected.
*Originally published July 19, 2024, updated July 23, 2024 with multimedia content.
