28 March, 2024

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Feminist blogger just passed five million hits with her full frontal nude shot

By Colombo Telegraph –

Wearing nothing but a pair of stockings, red ribbon in her hair and a pair of flat red shoes, the black and white shot would not look out of place in a nude photography book.

Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, a 20-year old university student from Cairo, has sparked outrage in the Middle East with the controversial full-length image, posted on her blog October 23, 2011. But this is no ordinary art project. It is the work of a feminist Egyptian activist who is making a bold and potentially dangerous statement.

It has since received 3 million hits and thousands flooded the site with insults. Some denounced Elmahdy as a ‘prostitute’ and ‘mentally sick’ or urged police to arrest her. Elmahdy’s posting is almost unheard of in a country where nudity is strongly frowned upon – even as an art form and could lead to her being jailed.

Most women in the Muslim majority Egypt wear the headscarf and even those who don’t rarely wear clothes exposing the arms or legs in public. On her arabic blog, Aliaa defends her actions, writing: ‘Hide all art books and smash naked archaeological statues. ‘Then take off your clothes and look at yourselves in the mirror, then burn your body that you so despise to get rid of your sexual complexes forever, before subjecting me to your bigoted insults or denying my freedom of expression.’

But her attempts at protesting limits on free expression may have backfired. Rather than garner support from the Liberals hoping to win the November 28th election, they are keen to distance themselves from the blogger. They fear she will taint them in the eyes of deeply conservative Egyptians and, ruining their chances at competing with fundamentalist Islamic parties.

Egypt, a nation of some 85 million people, is polarised between Islamists and liberals ahead of the elections, the first since the February downfall of former President Hosni Mubarak.

Members of the most hardline Islamic movement, the Salafis, have warned voters that liberals will corrupt Egypt’s morals. ‘This hurts the entire secular current in front of those calling themselves the people of virtue,’ Sayyed el-Qimni, a prominent self-described secular figure, said referring to Islamists. ‘It’s is a double disaster. Because I am liberal and I believe in the right of personal freedom, I can’t interfere,’ El-Qimni said on Egyptian TV.  The April 6 movement, one of the most prominent liberal activist groups that led the 18-day uprising against Mubarak, issued a statement denying claims by some on the web that Elmahdy is a member of the group.

The posting prompted furious discussions on internet social media sites, with pages for and against her put up on Facebook. One activist, Ahmed Awadallah, praised her in a Tweet, writing, ‘I’m totally taken back by her bravery.’ A supporter, who identified himself as Emad Nasr Zikri, wrote in a comment on Elmahdy’s blog, ‘We need to learn how to separate between nudity and sex.’ He said that before fundamentalist influence in Egypt, ‘there were nude models in art school for students to draw’.

Elmahdy and her boyfriend Kareem Amer, also a controversial blogger, have challenged Egypt’s social conventions before.

Earlier this year, they posted mobile phone video footage of themselves debating with managers of a public park who threw them out for public displays of affection.

Amer spent four years in prison for blog posting deemed insulting to Islam and for calling Mubarak a ‘symbol of tyranny’.

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Latest comments

  • 1
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    She is breve, we are with you girl!

  • 0
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    One day you will win!! hope you will save your life!

  • 0
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    Can’t see what the fuss is all about. Should I get excited by looking at a chimpanzee in the zoo. Some people are just crazy with their imagination.

  • 0
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    her act is bold in the context of Islamic fundamentalism,

  • 0
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    humans are the only animals who are ashamed of their own body, that is why they cover themselves up.

    • 0
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      why not you go undress from today???….

  • 0
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    This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our Comment policy.For more detail see our Comment policy

  • 0
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    5 miilion would include those who just want to see a full frontal nude, the curious, the voyeurs, the feminists and anti-femisist, most of the chouvinists

  • 0
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    Seems like a very vanilla photograph to attract so much attention!

  • 0
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    It dosent matter you are fat, thin, ugly or whatever. Nudity have a market. That’s not the point. We will not see the Muslims get their bolts tighten for a another few generations. That’s a fact.

  • 0
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    Bravo!!1 Keep it up. Muslim world cannot suppress the women for ever in the name of relegion.

  • 0
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    Yes girl, we are prepared to listen to what you have to say. What is required is to decode her nudity to decipher the message conveyed.

  • 0
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    she wanted to become civilize or just born….i

  • 0
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    All for insanity,can anyone who agrees with what she has done stand by her even if he/she has to pay the ultimate prise.?

  • 0
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    You are a great woman, This is how the people should fight for there freedom. There is no valger issue that some one will try to discorage you. But go a head and fight for it.

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