New Delhi: A teacher in Egypt was sacked, and her husband divorced her immediately after a video of her belly dancing was circulated on social media.
A BBC report said the incident has sparked a national debate in the country, with those supporting him saying he did nothing wrong and who were questioning his “values”.
According to the report, Aya Yousef was dancing on a boat on the Nile River with her companions and one of them clicked a video.
The teacher has alleged that the colleague filmed her without permission.
The video shows Yousef wearing a headscarf and long-sleeved dress, moving to music in the presence of male teaching staff, the report said.
Belly-dancing is said to date back to the Pharaonic period, but women who dance in public are preferred in present-day Egypt.
“I lost my life on a boat in the Nile for ten minutes,” Yusuf is quoted as saying.
The report also said that after being sacked and divorced, she contemplated taking her own life.
Egyptian conservatives did not take the video well and strongly criticized it. A Twitter user commented: “It clearly expresses the bad times we live in!! Anything is allowed.”
Another person said: “Education in Egypt has reached a low level.”
The BBC report said that Yousef, however, told reporters that he did not dance at any public function or in front of his students.
according to the report, Yusuf Worked in the Dakalia Governorate in the Nile Delta, where he taught Arabic.
Women’s rights activists in Egypt have come out in support of her after she was fired. They insist that the teacher is the victim of a witch hunt. Other women have shared their dancing pictures to support Yusef.
The head of Egypt’s Women’s Rights Center Dr Nihad Abu Kumsan offered her the job, the BBC report said, and also asked her to bring her education ministry contract so that a legal complaint could be filed against her dismissal.
Reportedly, this could trigger a rethink on the part of local authorities who have now assigned Yousef to a new school.
The report states that she has said that filming her without permission and sharing the video on social media is a violation of her privacy and she plans to sue the person responsible for it.
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