20-year-old college student Aliaa Magda Elmahdy has sparked outrage in Egypt by posting naked photos of herself to her blog as a protest against the country's conservative culture. Wearing nothing but a pair of stockings, red ribbon in her hair and a pair of flat red shoes, the black and white shot would not look out of place in a nude photography book.
Nudity is strongly frowned upon in Egyptian society, even as an art form. Elmahdy's posting is almost unheard of in a country where most women in the Muslim majority wear the headscarf and even those who don't rarely wear clothes exposing the arms or legs in public.
The New York Times reports that the blog contains a written explanaton of the protest:
"Try nude models who worked in Fine Art Faculties in the early 1970s, hide all art books and smash naked archaeological statues," read the statement, alluding to some recent protests staged here by ultra-conservative Islamists known as Salafis. "Then take off your clothes and look at yourselves in the mirror, then burn your body that you so despise to get rid of your sexual complexes forever, before subjecting me to your bigoted insults or denying my freedom of expression."
Most women in the Muslim majority Egypt wear the headscarf and even those who don't rarely wear clothes exposing the arms or legs in public. On her arabic blog, Aliaa defends her actions, writing: 'Hide all art books and smash naked archaeological statues. CONTINUE READING ALIAA MAGDA ELMAHDY BLOG:
Nudity is strongly frowned upon in Egyptian society, even as an art form. Elmahdy's posting is almost unheard of in a country where most women in the Muslim majority wear the headscarf and even those who don't rarely wear clothes exposing the arms or legs in public.
The New York Times reports that the blog contains a written explanaton of the protest:
"Try nude models who worked in Fine Art Faculties in the early 1970s, hide all art books and smash naked archaeological statues," read the statement, alluding to some recent protests staged here by ultra-conservative Islamists known as Salafis. "Then take off your clothes and look at yourselves in the mirror, then burn your body that you so despise to get rid of your sexual complexes forever, before subjecting me to your bigoted insults or denying my freedom of expression."
Most women in the Muslim majority Egypt wear the headscarf and even those who don't rarely wear clothes exposing the arms or legs in public. On her arabic blog, Aliaa defends her actions, writing: 'Hide all art books and smash naked archaeological statues. CONTINUE READING ALIAA MAGDA ELMAHDY BLOG:
No comments:
Post a Comment