Egypt Arrests Belly Dancer over “Provocative” Art Form

In Egypt, a belly dancer was taken into custody on suspicion of violating public morals.

After being arrested at Cairo airport and charged with “using seduction techniques and provocative dancing to incite vice,” Italian-Egyptian dancer Linda Martino, who has over two million Instagram followers, faces a year of hard labor.

Although belly dancing is still popular in Egypt, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s hardline regime has a negative opinion of it, as seen by Martino’s detention and the subsequent arrests of other well-known belly dancers.

She is charged with intentionally displaying private parts of her body while wearing “indecent clothing, in clear violation of public morals and social values.”

Martino has requested that the Italian consulate become engaged in the issue and has defended belly dance as “an art.”

I am a dancer, and the videos that the charges are based on are typical; they depict a dance performance that does not contravene or transgress public decency,” she stated.

“I am an Italian citizen as well, and I am not sure why Egypt is doing this, but I am requesting that the Italian consulate step in at this time.”