CAIRO: Controversial Egyptian blogger Aliaa Mahdy, who posed completely naked and posted the image on her personal blog launched a campaign last week, calling on men in the country to wear the headscarf in solidarity with women. Although the Facebook page was taken down after it was hit by massive amounts of complaints, the blogger, dubbed “Nude Revolutionary” blogger Mahdy said she will relaunch the page within the coming days. The Coalition of Islamic law graduates filed a case against activist Mahdy and her boyfriend, and blogger, Kareem Amer, shortly after the nude photo appeared, accusing them of “violating morals, inciting indecency and insulting Islam.” The report, which was submitted to the general prosecutor, said the activist published a nude picture of herself “trying to spread her obscene ideology through the nude pictures.” The report was published in full on the coalition's Facebook page, called for Mahdy and Amer to be punished according to Islamic law. “The old constitution and the new declarations of the new one says Islamic law is the source of governing, therefore we asked for Islamic law penalties to be executed on the two bloggers,” Ahmed Yehia, coordinator of the coalition told Bikyamasr.com. “It is an insult to the revolution as these two persons who pretend to be one of the revolutionists and asking for sexual freedoms, they are giving the uprising a bad name,” he continued. Her reasons for launching the Facebook project, “Wearing Hijab in Solidarity with Women,” which kicked off on November 1, are similar to those of why her naked picture was published. She says she started the project because “many people deny that the hijab discriminates between women and men.” A statement posted on the group's Arabic-language Facebook page before the page was removed said that “Those who call on women to wear hijab should not attack men if they chose to wear the hijab” and calls on men to upload their photos. BM
