Does this phone camera scare you, Mr Sisi?
Does this phone camera scare you, Mr Sisi?
Activists are taking to social media and posting phone-wielding selfies to support an online campaign demanding the release of four detained members of satirical performance group Street Children.
3 min read
12 May, 2016
![Atfal Shawarea Egyptian band [Facebook]](https://www.newarab.com/sites/default/files/media/images/8221049A-C7C2-410C-B953-02E3B3EC4118.jpg "Atfal Shawarea Egyptian band [Facebook]")
Police arrested four members of the group on Tuesday [Facebook]
Egyptian activists took to social media on Thursday to support an online campaign demanding the release of four detained members of a satirical street group whose gonzo video clips mocked the country's general-turned-president, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi.
The campaign comes after police on Monday arrested four members of the group Awlad el-Shawarea, or Street Children.
A fifth member was arrested over the weekend but was later released on bail. The performers are facing several charges, including inciting terror attacks and street protests as well as insulting state institutions.
The campaign comes after police on Monday arrested four members of the group Awlad el-Shawarea, or Street Children.
A fifth member was arrested over the weekend but was later released on bail. The performers are facing several charges, including inciting terror attacks and street protests as well as insulting state institutions.
Recent clips by the group were entitled "al-Sisi, my president, made things worse," and "leave" - a popular chant during the 2011 uprising that forced autocrat Hosni Mubarak to step down.
There were also videos mocking the president's habit of ending speeches with "Long live Egypt!" and his recent reference to advice by his late mother to "never to covet what belongs to others".
Activists began tweeting and Facebooking pictures of themselves holding their phones with the hashtag #الحريه_لأطفال_الشوارع (Freedom for street kids), adding the caption: "Does this phone camera scare you?"
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Translation: Laughing is not wrong... And if it bothers you, stop being a joke then people will stop laughing at you
Translation: Street Children taught us a lesson. There’s no need for a media outlet, all you need is a phone with a camera and with that you can scare the most powerful of men. #we_are_all_street_kids
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Translation: Camera phones scare you?
Translation: [Let the] messages from our camera phones scare you #we_are_all_street_kids #freedom_to_all_detainees #freedom_for_egypt #down_with_the_military_rule
Beside activists, famous Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef - often described as the Jon Stewart of Egypt - also lent his weight to the online campaign. Youssef's show was taken off the air when freedoms significantly diminished after then-military chief Sisi ousted Egypt's first freely elected leader, the Islamist Mohammed Morsi, in July 2013.
"If you truly are not scared of anyone, let them go free," Youssef posted, referring to the streets performers - and alluding to Sisi's recent repeated assertions that "no-one scares" him.
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| Translation: [Let the] camera phone scare you #freedom_for_street_kids |
Egyptian actor Amr Waked, who played the rich Arab chieftain in the widely acclaimed 2012 movie Salmon Fishing in The Yemen, also got involved.
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| Translation: [Let the] camera phone scare you #freedom_for_street_kids |
Sisi officially took office in June 2014, nearly a year after Morsi's ousting. He has since overseen the arrest of thousands of Morsi's supporters as well as scores of pro-democracy activists who fuelled the 2011 uprising.
Under his rule, many freedoms won as a result of the uprising have been eroded while a personality cult around Sisi has emerged.
The Egyptian leader has recently faced a wave of protests over his announcement last month that his government intended to surrender control over two strategic Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia. The protests were met with one of the biggest rounds of arrests in the past two years.
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