The Egyptian singer Shyma has reportedly been jailed over the content of one of her music videos, with one scene in the offending video showing the singer ‘suggestively’ eating a banana.
Shyma – real name Shaimaa Ahmed – came under fire in Egypt after the music video for her song ‘I Have Issues’ was released last month, prompting outrage in the traditionally conservative country. The video racked up over a million views within the first few days of being posted online.
Shyma was arrested on November 18 following complaints from the public, according to police. Reports claimed that Shyma denied the accusations of “harming public morality”, apparently claiming that the video’s director, Mohamed Gamal, included the controversial scenes without her consent.
She was sentenced along with Gamal to two years in prison yesterday (December 13) for “inciting debauchery”. They were each fined 10,000 pounds (£420) by the Cairo court.
Both Shyma and Gamal can appeal the sentence. See clips from the video in question below.
After the video received negative headlines in Egypt last month, Shyma apologised for the clip in a now-deleted Facebook post. “I didn’t imagine all this would happen and that I would be subjected to such a strong attack from everyone, as a young singer … who has dreamt from a young age of being a singer,” she wrote.