Egyptian women are being arrested on charges such as overlooking ‘public morals’ and ‘undermining family morals’

A TikTok influencer named Salma Elshimy was arrested at Cairo International Airport on April 3, 2023, as she was returning from Dubai. She was charged with inciting ‘debauchery’ and ‘violating family values’ through her social media posts, with the public prosecutor ordering that she be detained for four days on charges of ‘spreading immorality’ and publishing videos and photographs that ‘contradict social morals and values’.

Elshimy has been arrested before; she was previously detained for a month in December 2020 and released on bail. During that arrest, she had posted photographs of herself in ancient Egyptian dress outside the Pyramid of Djoser, which was denounced by local media for “exploiting the cultural value of the antiquities in inappropriate Pharaonic clothes”.

Rights activists claim that the Egyptian government has arrested more than a dozen female influencers since 2020, including Haneen Hossam and Mawada al-Adham, who were jailed for social media posts deemed to violate ‘public morals’. Hossam was accused of ‘human trafficking’ after telling her 1.3 million followers that young girls could earn money through social media posts.

The arrests of female influencers have been widely criticized by human rights organizations, with Rothna Begum, a senior women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, stating that ‘arresting women and girls on very vague grounds simply for posting videos and photos of themselves on social media sites is discriminatory and directly violates their right to free expression’. Begum also noted that ‘policing women’s peaceful conduct online smacks of a new effort to control women’s use of public spaces.’

The arrest of Elshimy is just one of many examples of the Egyptian government cracking down on women and girls who post content online that is deemed to violate ‘public morals’ and ‘undermine family values’ under a 2018 cyber crime law. If found guilty, Elshimy faces up to five years in prison and €8,000 ($8,700) in fines for ‘violating public morality’, and a further six months in jail and up to €3,000 for ‘infringing on family principles and values in Egyptian society’.