A viral video showing a woman and teacher in Egypt dancing sparked a women’s rights debate after the teacher, Aya Youssef, was fired from her job.
The video which was captured and uploaded to YouTube without her permission shows her dancing alongside male colleagues on a boat cruise on the Nile.
For cultures where it’s normal and accepted for women to dance the video is very tame, but in religiously conservative Egypt the video angered many.
Posts on social media in response to the video accused Youssef of breaching Egypt’s conservative values and called for her to be fired. These calls were eventually answered, and Youssef was fired from the school where she had worked for several years.
Women's Rights
The decision to fire her, however, resulted in anger of its own and a flood of support for Youssef and women’s rights in Egypt.
The head of the Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights, Nihad Abu Al-Qumsan, encouraged Youssef to take legal action with the Ministry of Education and offered her a job at the rights organization.
Al-Qumsan said with sarcasm that, “We will ask the court about the correct dance rules, so that all women would conform to the right rules if they dance at their brother’s or their son’s weddings or at birthdays.”
Egyptian celebrities and actresses like Somaya El-Khashab voiced their support as well, and the deputy head of another school posted photos of herself dancing at her daughter’s wedding online in a show of solidarity with Youssef.
This outpour of public support ultimately led the school district where Youssef worked to backpedal on their decision to fire her and she was reinstated as a teacher.
But even with her job back the damage has been done and many of Youssef’s personal relationships have been upended. She told the Egyptian newspaper El-Watan that she would be taking legal action against the person responsible for the video who “defamed and ruined her home.”
