Rania Youseff’s outfit at the Cairo international film festival has sparked debate on the country’s conservatism

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

An Egyptian actor facing trial on public obscenity charges for wearing a revealing dress has said she didn’t mean to offend anyone.

In a Facebook post made late on Saturday, Rania Youssef said she may have misjudged how people would react to the dress she wore at the closing ceremony of this year’s Cairo international film festival, which revealed her legs through embroidered transparent fabric.

In choosing that dress, she said, she had referred to fashion designers who may have been influenced by the tastes and standards at international film festivals.

“I want to repeat my commitment to the values and ethics we have been raised by in Egyptian society,” said Youssef, who did not apologise in her statement.

Images of Youssef at the event were widely shared on social media, prompting a group of lawyers to file a complaint to the chief prosecutor, who quickly sent the actor to trial. Many complaints languish for months or longer before any action is taken, so the swift action betrays the urgency of the desire to appease those that took offence. Youssef is due in court on 12 January.

British student who took photo from plane faces Egypt spying trial Read more

The case is the latest instance of ostensibly secular authorities embracing religious conservatism in Muslim-majority Egypt, where the military — then led by the current president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi — overthrew a freely elected but divisive Islamist president in 2013.

Elected to office in 2014, Sisi has since overseen a crackdown that saw thousands of Islamists and many secular, pro-democracy activists imprisoned, and reversed gains won by a popular 2011 uprising that toppled the 29-year rule of autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt’s actors’ guild said in a statement that it intended to investigate and discipline actors who wore “inappropriate” attire during the opening and closing ceremonies of the week-long film festival, arguing that they clashed with “the traditions, values and ethics of society”.

“Although we absolutely believe in the personal freedom of artists, we appeal to everyone to shoulder their responsibilities toward the fans who appreciate their art and view them as role models,” said the weekend statement. “That should compel them to exercise a minimum level of commitment to society’s public values.”

Youssef’s dress and news of her impending trial have dominated the conversation on social media networks over the weekend. On Sunday, they made the front page of several newspapers and became the topic of several op-eds.

While some on social media denounced the actor’s “immodesty”, others criticised the judicial system for bowing to conservatives, noting the lack of progress in redressing homelessness, corruption and the sexual harassment of women.

“A nation is jolted by a revealing dress at a festival but is not infuriated by a million children sleeping rough and scavenging in trash bins for food,” opinion writer Khaled Montaser tweeted.

Emad Hussein, editor of the independent daily Al-Shorouk, said Youssef had every right, in theory, to wear whatever dress she chose, but that her “grave mistake” was that it “looked more like a swimsuit”.

“There is a law that prohibits offending the public but, more importantly, there are societal values that need to be respected,” he wrote on Sunday.