Amira El-Noshokaty treads the increasingly confused line between promotion and exploitation Children in adult clothes and make-up are belly dancing. These are not kids playing at home but the young stars of Spicy Baby, a musical band that has taken Egypt and the Arab world by storm. The songs they sing, particularly their big hit Baba fein? (Where's your daddy?) have been widely debated over the past year. However, these stars aged eight to 11 gyrating on stage also pose more complex questions related to children's rights and the exploitation of minors. "Well, it's not as if we designed the children' clothes," said Hamada El-Beialy, founder and manager of Spicy Baby. "We bought the outfits from local children's stores." El-Beialy later goes on to acquiesce, "At the beginning we made mistakes, including the choice of dress and belly dancing. Now we have a special dancing coach and the children are dressed more appropriately." Prompted by months of public debate the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM) finally held three meetings last month with the Child and Family Programmes Committee at the Radio and Television Union to discuss the issue of commercial exploitation of children. Spicy Baby performed in over 30 concerts in the Gulf last summer. And while the local media has accused the band of performing at private parties, El-Beialy denies that they sang outside the framework of the Dubai Summer Festival and Jeddah Festival. "We do not do private parties," stated El-Beialy. According to Moushira Khattab, secretary-general of the NCCM, talented children should be nurtured through academic, non-commercial cultural channels. However, commercial performances offer the temptations of fame, money and glamour. As cinema critic Rafiq Al-Saban noted, "While the commercial usage of children has increased lately, history is full of examples of this kind: Shirley Temple who saved Fox from bankruptcy and Gretta Garbo, not to mention our very own Fairouz and others." The deal seems to go as follows: the children get the fame, their parents the money. In an attempt to reverse the pattern US actor Macaulay Culkin filed a lawsuit against his parents upon reaching the age of 21, asking for the millions of dollars he had earned while a minor. Mohamed Hassan, a public relations manager at a pharmaceutical company and father of Spicy Baby members Norhan and Dolly argues that there are more than simply financial considerations at stake for parents. "My daughters are talented. They are at the top of their classes and singing encourages them to excel in school. I want my daughters to be famous," explained Hassan. So far the children involved in Spicy Baby seem content. "We started singing about a year ago," said eight-year-old Dolly. "We co-write the lyrics. We have to like it. I love to sing, I am very happy. I wasn't afraid [to perform]. People are very happy with us and they make us sign autographs." Shady is a second-year primary student. "I go home, finish my homework and then if we have time we phone one another and go out. We're just normal kids, you know," he told the Weekly. But according to some the band is breaking the law. Mohamed Noureddin, head of the General Administration for Juveniles Protection pointed out that the Unified Child Law (1996) prohibits the employment of minors under the age of 14. "These children are no amateurs and they are getting paid to perform. Besides, the law clearly states that a child should not work more than six hours a day including rest and meal times which should not be less than an hour. The same article says that children should not work between 8pm and 7am." The Ministry of Interior Affairs has filed a complaint this year against El-Beialy, along with the managers of three other child bands. If found guilty the managers' permit to perform could be revoked. El-Beialy is not worried. "I have a working permit for my band, the official consent of their parents and a permit from the Musicians' Syndicate renewed every three months," argued El-Beialy. "The article in the Child Law prohibiting those under the age of 14 from working is inapplicable in the arts. In this case the children are not paid for their work; it is considered an outlet for their talent. It is not a commercial thing. There is no law that marks the talent of your child. We are talking about a contract between the parent and a certain body which is not illegal," Noureddin argued. The parents of young artists are equally indignant. "Why doesn't the law prohibit directors from recruiting children to appear in plays that run nightly until 2am," asks Talat El- Sharqawi, a schoolteacher and father of eight-year-old Spicy Baby member Shadi. "Our children do not stay up that late. Our one-hour concerts are usually held on a Friday during the school year," added El-Sharqawi , who says he accompanies his son on all his concert tours, which are usually held during summer breaks and official school holidays. "Do you know who acted in the main commercial of the NCCM against early marriages and female genital mutilation? Both Ziad and Noran. So why do they use my band members if they are against us?" El-Beialy asked. But the legality or not of the band's performances is only one issue. Others are concerned that Spicy Baby promotes an inappropriate, if not downright exploitative, image of children. Yet the band was selected to sing for the World Cup 2010 committee and has also participated in January's annual Police Celebrations. Moreover, they have recently starred in a film, put their first album on the market, co-acted in a play and have held numerous concerts in Cairo. The bottom line is that while the specialists debate what is politically correct and in line with children's rights, the public is calling for more. Al-Saban notes that where children are central to a performance, preserving the innocence of the young must also be a central concern. "It's the role of the family to protect children," he says. "Preserving the innocence of the young is the responsibility of the old." Which lends added resonance to the lyrics of Spicy Baby's hit "Where's your daddy?".
