Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, Egypt's Nude Blogger, Defiant: 'I Stand By Everything'

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES: Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, the Egyptian blogger who shocked the Arab world with her nude pictures posted on Twitter, has broken cover to issue a defiant rebuttal on Facebook to accusations of insulting Islam, saying she does not "acknowledge any discriminatory law".

In a status update on Facebook, the 20-year-old activist reiterated her commitment to defend freedom of expression and civil rights, asserting it was her undeniable personal choice to publish naked pictures of herself on Twitter.

"I stand by every letter I wrote and every photo I published and will say that I don't acknowledge any laws that limit freedoms or are discriminatory if I was called for investigation," she wrote.
The Egyptian Coalition of Islamic Law Graduates filed a suit against Aliaa Elmahdy and her boyfriend, the blogger Kareem Amer, under charges of "violating morals, inciting indecency and insulting Islam."

The coalition's Facebook page called for Elmahdy and Amer to be punished according to Islamic law.
"The old constitution and the new declarations of the new one says Islamic law is the source of governing, therefore we asked for Islamic law penalties to be executed on the two bloggers," Ahmed Yehia, coordinator of the coalition, told Bikyamasr.com.

"It is an insult to the revolution as these two persons who pretend to be one of the revolutionists and asking for sexual freedoms. They are giving the uprising a bad name," he continued.

"It is our duty to fight corruption and this is a corruption case, people who are trying to corrupt society with foreign and unacceptable customs like the sexual freedom they ask for," continued Yehia. » | Gianluca Mezzofiore | Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Related here and here