Italian belly dancer arrested in Egypt for offending public morals

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While belly dancing has its roots in the Middle East, an Italian woman was accused of offending public morals and arrested by Egyptian authorities last month.

Sohila Tarek Hassan Haggag, who belly dances under the name Linda Martino and is a social media influencer with more than 2.2 million Instagram followers, was arrested at the Cairo airport on her way to Dubai two weeks ago, according to Italian news service ANSA, citing a la Repubblica newspaper report.

Haggag was born in Egypt but is a naturalized citizen after she married an Italian, the report said. However, the government in Cairo considers her an Egyptian.

She has yet to have a court hearing.

Haggag was accused of being in possession of large sums of money that authorities allege were from the proceeds of “activities liable to instigate depravity.”

The indictment said officials investigating a cabaret on Egypt’s North Coast allege Haggag “appeared in indecent clothing, deliberately exposing sensitive areas of her body, in clear violation of public morals and social values.”

They also accuse the sensual dancer of using “seduction techniques and provocative dances to incite vice.”

According to the report, Haggag is one of several women arrested in Egypt in the past five years as the country cracks down on the cultural dance under the rule of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, a retired military officer who has been in power since 2014.

Another belly dancer, Katerina Andreeva, was sentenced to a year in prison with hard labour after she was charged with the same offences.

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There has been a push among top belly dancers in the country to have the artform recognized as a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage art.

Amie Sultan, an Egyptian actress who is also one of the country’s best-known belly dancers, has led the push to have its reputation restored.

“In the interest of reclaiming a dying art form that belongs to this country’s vast history and is being subjected to abuse and cultural appropriation, we have to confront the tragedy of losing artistic ownership, something that is part of the fabric of society,” Sultan wrote in lifestyle website Cairo Scene back in 2021.