People go to jail for bad, bad things like selling drugs or robbing banks or murder or fraud. But for eating a piece of fruit with a bit of a suggestive twinkle in your eye? I wouldn't say that's on the same scale of things.
However, in some conservative countries, promoting racy behaviour is seen as a legitimate crime that can have you fined and behind bars for a few years if you're unlucky. Just like this singer from Egypt, who's been apprehended for seductively eating a banana in one of her music videos.
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21-year-old Shaimaa Ahmed caused nothing short of an
uproar after releasing the video for her single I Have Issues. The video attracted over a million views all within a few days of its release. The video is no longer online. The singer, whose stage name is Shyma, is seen dancing in her underwear in a classroom of adult men, in front of a blackboard
In the video, the singer, who is known professionally as Shyma, is seen dancing in her underwear in front of a classroom of adult men ("Class #69", according to what's written on the blackboard behind her) and teases them with various items of food.
She licks peanut butter off her finger, tongues an apple and pours milk over a banana (?) before unpeeling it and eating it in a suggestive way.
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The overtly sexualised video where the singer seems to be attempting to seduce her audience by demonstrating sexual acts with the various props is not really anything new in Western music, however, was not tolerated in the conservative country of
Egypt. The deeply religious society is known as one of the least free countries in the world and is also in the bottom 15 of countries in the Gender Gap Report.
Following complaints about the video, the little-known singer was arrested on November 18. She has been given a two-year
jail sentence for “inciting debauchery” for appearing in the video in her underwear and performing seductive acts on the banana. She was also fined 10,000 Egyptian pounds ($560) by the Cairo court.
Mohamed Gamal, the director of the music video, received the same two-year prison sentence. They were both accused of inciting debauchery as well as producing a video harming public morality.
After the video was released, it caused a stir in social media and was widely discussed in national media and on TV talkshows. One newspaper Youm 7 wrote: "Singer Shyma presents a lesson in depravity to youths.”
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The singer posted to Facebook at the time, apologising for the video and promised to stick to "true art" from then on.
“I didn’t imagine all this would happen and that I would be subjected to such a strong attack from everyone, as a young singer … who has dreamt from a young age of being a singer,” she wrote.
Shyma reportedly also denied the accusations at first, saying the director included the controversial scenes without her consent. It's still possible for the two defendants to appeal the verdict to a higher court. The wide-ranging morality laws under the Egyptian president have been used to apprehend a number of different artists in recent years.
Yikes! Remember to eat your fruits and vegetables with dignity next time you're there, folks.
