Egypt court extends pop singer's detention over racy video

Egypt court extends pop singer's detention over racy video
Raunchy Egyptian pop singer Shyma will spend longer in jail, after a court extended her stay behind bars over 'promoting debauchery' for a racy music video.
2 min read
20 November, 2017
The video has since been removed from social media platforms [YouTube]
Egyptian pop singer Shyma Ahmad had her detention extended on Monday by a Cairo court after appearing wearing lingerie in a highly suggestive and raunchy music video. 

The 25-year-old singer - known by her stage name Shyma - was arrested on Saturday and set to remain in custody for four days ahead of a court hearing, local media reported.

Her lawyers on Monday requested to postpone the hearing until next week, which saw the court extend her imprisonment by seven days.

The young singer was detained on Friday on accusations of promoting debauchery in her latest music video "I Have Issues".

In the video, Shyma appears in a mock classroom, simulating sexual acts and chalks highly suggestive comments on a blackboard.

The video created a stir in conservative Egypt and has since been removed from social media platforms.

"Singer Shyma presents a lesson in depravity to youths," reported Youm 7 newspaper.

Many took to social media to voice their outrage.

"[In Egypt] we still have the thin line of morality which you don't have," a Facebook user said.

"So the director said that he didn't mean to refer to anything 'sexual' in the video. Leave everything aside. WHAT WAS THAT BIG FAT 69 doing on the board?!" a Twitter user said.

Prior to her arrest, the singer apologised to her fans claiming not to have anticipated the backlash.

"I apologise to all the people who saw the clip and were upset by it and took it in an inappropriate way," she said in a Facebook post on Thursday. 

"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 added.

Her Facebook page appears to have been down since the weekend and the video taken offline.