by egypttoday.com — CAIRO – 3 June 2018: Egyptian Attorney General Nabil Sadek ordered on Sunday to hold a Lebanese citizen, Mona al-Mazbouh, in detention for four days pending investigations over accusation of “insulting Egyptian people and the president”, amid calls from the Egyptian parliamentarians to bar her from entering Egypt. Her arrest came before her departure from Cairo International Airport, as per a decision issued by the Egyptian General Prosecution after a number of Egyptian lawyers filed lawsuits against her, Egypt’s state-owned news agency MENA reported on Sunday. On May 29, Egyptian authorities arrested Mazbouh over posting a video on her Facebook account talking about several situations that triggered her anger while spending her vacation in Cairo.

In her video, Mazbouh described Egyptians as the “dirtiest people” on earth, and used other disrespectful and insulting phrases. She also insulted Egyptian Uber drivers as “SOB” and described Egypt as “the state of pimps…and the state of beggars” after speaking about being harassed by two Egyptian men in the upscale district of Zamalek, Cairo. Mazbouh added in the video that she visited Egypt four times and every time she felt more resentment toward the country, adding that she was robbed two years ago when she was in Alexandria. The Lebanese citizen also described President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi as “unjust”, spitting on the Egyptians and insulting Egyptian women. Before being arrested, Mazbouh posted a second video on her Facebook account apologizing to some people, saying that the first video was not public on her account and one of her friends took the video and spread it on social media. “I definitely didn’t mean to offend all Egyptians, and never meant to say anything about the country’s political affairs,” Mazbouh stated in her second video. She added that most of her first video was in the Lebanese accent, and that is why most Egyptians didn’t get what she was saying correctly. She also denied all the claims about being paid for recording the video. “I love all Egyptians and I love this country, that’s why I visited it more than once and I keep coming back,” Mazbouh concluded. A number of Egyptian lawmakers of the House of Representatives called for barring Mazbouh from entering Egypt. “It is inappropriate to keep Mazbouh in Egypt after insulting Egyptian women,” said Galila Othman, a member of the Media and Culture Committee of the Parliament. Othman asked for imposing entry ban on Mazbhouh. “Mazbouh is a very bad example of Lebanese women and does not represent the respect and good taste of Lebanese people,” said parliamentarian Nousela Abul Amr, calling for barring her from entering Egypt.

Egypt Today contacted the Lebanese Embassy in Cairo on Sunday regarding Mazbouh’s case and is waiting for a response. On May 11, security forces arrested a woman called Amal Fathy Abdel-Tawab who was reported to be a member of April 6 Youth Movement and was detained for six days pending investigations over accusations of defamation, insulting the Egyptian state and assaulting Banque Misr employees. Abdel-Tawab started a live video on her Facebook page, while angrily-telling a situation that happened to her as she was finishing a routine procedure for reactivating her bank account; she started to mention several bureaucratic situations that delayed the procedures for a long time. She added that she faced verbal sexual harassment and finally started to assault everyone in the bank. Abdel-Tawab’s video was full of inappropriate words and insults against the state, police, Egyptians and even herself.