After 10 months in prison in 2020 for “corrupting families and inciting debauchery”, the two influencers Mawada al-Adham and Haneen Hossam were sentenced again to 6 and 10 years of imprisonment, which is a political persecution act according to the civil society.
”Incitement to debauchery and attack on family values,” thus the Cairo court justified the imprisonment of two influencers on TikTok and Instagram in 2020. At the end of June, the two young women were arrested again after posting videos of rape testimonies. This time they are accused of sexual exploitation of children … and pimping!
For these counts, Mawada al-Adham and Haneen Hossam were sentenced to six and ten years respectively. A heavy sentence, which even the courts have called “an example”. In Egypt, where the crackdown on social media and freedom of expression in general is rife, civil society is in turmoil.
“Political persecution” according to the committee of lawyers who mobilized to defend the two young women. Al-Adham and Hossam are among a dozen influencers arrested since 2020 for “indicting moral standards” in the country. The authoritarian government of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, which came to power in a bloody episode in Egyptian history, is entering new ground. The crackdown on influencers began in 2018. The imprisonment of Wael Abbas, Chadi Habache (who died in prison) and Sherif Gaber sparked a wave of protests, which in turn were violently suppressed. However, the manner in which al-Sisi came to power in Egypt is still a recent memory.
Influencers in Egypt, the new targets of al-Sisi’s totalitarianism
Indeed, it has been 8 years since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi killed more than 1,600 suspected members of the Muslim Brotherhood. After a coup d’état in which he arrested the late President Mohamed Morsi, winner of the 2012 presidential election, who also died in prison.
Since then, the “secular partners” who supported al-Sisi’s coup have met more or less the same fate. Thousands of journalists, bloggers and influencers have been arrested for various reasons. Hundreds have gone into exile. Including the phenomenon Bassem Youssef who, after a year of caricature of President Morsi, only saw his program “Al-Bernameg” closed and his life threatened under al-Sisi.
All the popularly called “private” television stations, whose editorial lines supported al-Sisi during the coup, have been banned. Currently the Egyptian state only tolerates pro-government media. And it’s social media’s turn. While some manage to dodge arrests by broadcasting from abroad, Egyptian influencers critical of social issues find themselves behind bars.
On June 8, Rinad Imad, another influencer, was sentenced to 3 years in prison. Three men who worked for Mawada al-Adham are said to be accomplices, and were sentenced to 6 years in prison as well. In 2019, footballer Mohamed Aboutrika was charged with terrorism and convicted in absentia. Officials of several NGOs fled Egypt after the death under torture of Italian student Giulio Regeni. According to Amnesty International, more than 43,000 people were prosecuted or sentenced for political reasons during al-Sisi’s tenure. 500 people have “disappeared” and are presumed dead. Human Rights Watch denounces much higher figures.
