A viral video of a teacher belly dancing has spurred a national debate in Egypt. Aya Yousef, a teacher, was sacked from her job after a colleague filmed her dancing without her consent at a work social event.
Footage exhibits her dancing to the music with male teachers. Belly dancing is said to have originated in Pharaonic times. But it is now frowned upon for women to dance in public. Yousef’s video, in which she wears an Islamic headscarf and a long-sleeved dress for a daytime river trip, appears very tame by Western standards. However, because it has been widely shared on Arab social media in the last week, it has spurred fury among Egyptian conservatives.
Ten minutes on the boat in the Nile cost me my life
Yousef was then sacked by the elementary school in Dakahlia Governorate in the Nile Delta, where she had taught Arabic for several years. She has pledged never to dance again and has declared that she contemplated suicide during her recent ordeal. “Ten minutes on the boat in the Nile cost me my life,” she told journalists. Women’s rights activists in Egypt also spoke out strongly. Claiming that the teacher did nothing wrong and was the victim of a witch hunt.
In support of her and defence of personal liberties, the representative head of another school shared pictures of herself dancing at her daughter’s wedding on social media. Dr Nihad Abu Qumsan, the director of the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights, offered Ms Yousef a job in her office. And asked her to carry her agreement from the education ministry to file a legitimate complaint against her dismissal. The teacher claimed the affair was a “violation of [her] privacy.” She claimed that she did not dance in front of students or at a public institution and that she planned to prosecute the individual who filmed the tape last month.
