Pop star Sherine Abdel Wahab jailed in Egypt for ‘fake news’ after joking about catching parasites from polluted River Nile
Egyptian courts jailed the singer after she joked to fans that the River Nile is polluted, and they should drink bottled water instead
POP star Sherine Abdel Wahab has been jailed in Egypt for "fake news" after she made a joke about catching parasites in the River Nile.
The singer was given six months after joking the Nile was polluted, which prosecutors used to accuse her of insulting the state.
The singer made the comments when a fan had asked to sing one of her popular songs referring to drinking from the river to which she playfully suggested that it's safer to drink bottled water instead.
"Drinking from the Nile will get me schistosomiasis," she said.
The singer was referring to a disease caused by parasitic flatworms called schistosomes which penetrate the skin after coming into contact with infested water.
"Drink Evian instead," she joked.
A second singer, Laila Amer, was also sentenced by Egyptian courts to two years for inciting debauchery and immorality with a music video in which she plays a downtrodden but belly-dancing housewife, complaining to her husband about his bossy mother.
The name of the song, Bos Omak is a play on words with Arabic profanity "kos omak" meaning "your mother's vagina".
The singers have been sentenced as their behaviour is deemed threatening to society as the country grows increasingly repressive.
The charges are not uncommon in matters of morality in conservative Egypt.
But it comes at a time when free speech in general is under assault by authorities and tolerance for different opinions is reaching an all-time low ahead of the presidential election this month.
President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is set to win after other potential candidates were forced out of the race.
While Egypt maintains relatively vibrant arts and music scenes and is far more liberal than Gulf Arab countries, prosecutions for moral issues have grown under el-Sissi's leadership, which has ushered in the country's fiercest crackdown on dissent and freedoms in its modern history
"Fundamentally this is a conservative regime that seeks in part to ground its legitimacy in its ability to defend the country's 'moral code,'" said Timothy Kaldas of the U.S.-based Tahrir Institute.
"It reflects a long-term effort to demonstrate it's no less committed to morality than the Islamists it has displaced."
Is the River Nile polluted?
The River Nile is one of the longest rivers in the world, crossing through eleven countries including Egypt, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, and Eritrea.
According to as Egypt is the most populous, agricultural and industrial country in the river basin, most sewage releases into the river in Lower Egypt.
However, lakes in northern Egypt are affected by drainage of polluted water and this affects the diversity of their fish, phytoplank-ton and other micro-organisms.
Nile pollutants are derived from sources such as industrial wastewater, oil pollution, municipal wastewater, agricultural drainage and include natural cyanotoxins.