Controversy in Egypt as university student posts nude pic in blog

Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, a university student from Cairo, is either courageous or foolhardy but either way, I salute her. In order to make a political statement concerning freedom of expression in Egypt, she recently chose to post a full frontal nude picture of herself on her blog.

Here are three different news articles covering the story...

Female student’s naked posts tear the veil from face of secular Egypt

Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, Egypt Activist, Poses Naked, Sparks Outrage

Egyptian activist poses nude, inciting furor

Here is a link to her blog.

I find it interesting that Ms Elmahdy has been criticised by both conservatives and liberals!

Well as we all know, the nude human body is by far the most dangerous out of all the dangerous things in the world.

Shes pretty hot.

Which has zero to do with anything.

Heh, yeah. The difference in their social/political spectrum from ours is pretty stark. Also a strong reminder of the difference between democracy and freedom.

Is it really? SG's politics are liberal and feminist, but I'm sure we've all encountered liberal feminists who decry all porn, including this site, as being evilly exploitive. Is that so different?

I concur. I find her decision to share that photo on her blog brave.

Those are complete opposites, though. Liberal feminists who decry porn do it because they view it as an affront to women--something that men should not be allowed to ogle. Liberal Egyptians who decry the naked female form do so because they view it as an affront to men--something women should not be allowed to display.

I'm so glad that we have an expert like you on hand to explain the thought processes of Egyptian liberals to us.

Do you actually think that none of the liberals you speak of consider porn to be an affront to women?

This attitude of "oh, those funny third-world countries where even their liberals dislike porn ... that's so quaint!" is simply absurd. Virtually all of the SGs are from developed Western countries; ask them whether criticism of what they do comes solely from conservatives and see what they tell you.

mingol, I didn't claim to be an expert. Egypt isn't a third-world country, and I didn't imply it was. I didn't say it was quaint. I didn't, in point of fact, belittle anyone or anything. If I had the energy, I'd stop and attempt to explain what I did say in greater detail, so that we could come to a mutual understanding whether or not we ultimately agreed. As I don't have the energy: fuck off.

No, you just posted a sweeping generalization about What Egyptian Liberals Think, and then got butthurt when I disagreed with it.

Hey, it’s been nice talking to you too, sugar tits.

Oh, fuck it.

Yeah, I posted a generalization on Egyptian liberals. I also posted a generalization of US/western liberals. I recognize that those generalizations are subject to the same fallacies as any generalization, but I think that as generalizations they are fairly accurate. Feel free to provide evidence that those generalizations are, generally, false; I'm more than willing to admit I'm wrong if I am in fact wrong. But I didn't get "butthurt" because you disagreed with me. I got "butthurt" because you painted me as someone who was dismissive towards Egypt and Egyptian politics and ignorant of the country's financial situation. Where in the fuck did I cop an "attitude" towards Egypt? Be specific.

But, hey, since you can't be specific, since no attitude was copped until you all but spat on me for daring to point out that there are, in fact, pretty big differences between a nation where many liberals are aghast that a woman would display her naked body versus a nation where most liberals are not aghast at the many women who display their naked bodies: fuck off. I'm not the one starting shit, here, and I'm certainly not the one making unwarranted assumptions about how other people think.

I think mingol's point might be restated as: "Source, please?"

We can take as given your characterisation of Liberal (Western) feminists and just request some corroboration of your claims re liberal Egyptians.

A primary source would be the articles that have been linked so far, and the many other similar articles available. Two quotes that struck me:

There are, of course, also quotes like the statement by Aliaa's boyfriend:

And for the (relatively) centrist view:

So it's clear that the range of positions doesn't only range from ultraconservative to merely very conservative, but it also seems pretty clear that that does describe a significant portion of the spectrum. And "merely very conservative" also seems to pretty accurately describe the portion of the political spectrum which describes itself as liberal while decrying female nudity.

It seems likely to me that much of that falls more in line with the last quote--that many Egyptian liberals who are decrying Aliaa's posts are doing so because they fear that her actions will push votes towards the more conservative candidates, rather than because they personally feel such displays should be censored. Political positioning rather than core belief, in other words. But even that, to me, leans a lot more conservative than the majority of western liberals. Though I've seen evidence recently that I might be wrong on that point.

Thank you, Mr. Nikon.

I can imagine lots of blokes in Egypt checking out her nude pic, having a good old fap over it and then rushing to her blog to post abusive remarks about how she is immoral and a wh0re etc (small-minded people are hypocritical like that all over the world fom Egypt to the USA to the UK, heh heh).
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One other point that occurs to me is that, although when something like this occurs people are quick to blame it on Islamic conservatism and to breathe a sigh of relief that we live in a much more liberal society, I sometimes think that there is a somewhat anti-liberal undercurrent even in the UK and USA and other 'Western' nations. I mean, many people think of pornography (even soft core stuff) as somehow shameful and I've come across a few stories (and some have been discussed here on the Current Events Board) where someone has lost a job as a school teacher because it emerged that they had a past as a porn model. Maybe in 'The West' we dont sentence people to be flogged but there are still people who have hang-ups and who think that those hang-ups should be reflected in the law. Here UK I remember how, the Labour MP Claire Short had a long-running campaign to try to get Page 3 banned (when she tried to debate it in parliament, the other MPs simply laughed at her).

Also, many people automatically assume that any representation of nudity or partial nudity is pornography.

Oh most definitely, at least in the US. Our country seems to have a puritanical streak still running strong through our collective subconscious. It extends well beyond sexuality, like how it's somehow less harmful to glorify killing where children might grow up watching it but boobs will obviously scar them for life. Or look at the long term trend of fad dieting, where people believe that depriving themselves of something naughty will pay off for them. It all goes back to the same core concept.

Some musings regarding Puritans and British History spoilered because not relevant to the thread...

Interesting.

Good for her and very brave. I give this girl a lot of credit for taking a stand.

Read the comments on Aliaa Magda Elmahdy's facebook page

The expected stupid, rude, and embarrassing comments are present.