A Russian belly dancer has been arrested by Egyptian police for dancing in too ‘incisive’ a manner while she was entertaining an audience in a nightclub.
Ekaterina Andreeva, 31-year-old belly dancer, who uses the stage name Gawhara, was dancing in Giza in north-western Egypt but was arrested after a video of her dancing surfaced online.
While the crowd at the club seemed excited by her dancing, Egyptian police were less impressed as they arrested her on suspicion of inciting young people to disobedience and immorality.
The video, taken by someone in the crowd, shows Andreeva busting her moves in a low-cut dress which has no back and is split up her right side.
Ekaterina, from Perm Krai in Russia’s Volga federal district, is captured jiggling her hips and whirling her breasts while the crowd whoop and cheer.
Although the audience was clearly having fun, the local authorities looked upon her dancing a little less kindly.
Egyptian prosecutor Hatim Fadl said: “Rules for the dance performance oblige the performer to wear underwear of any colour but beige.
“Gawhara did not have any underwear, and of course it was provocative.”
Ekaterina, who runs a dance studio in Moscow with her husband, has since been released on bail to the tune of 5,000 EGP (£204/$283).
The dancer has been temporarily banned from dancing while her case is being reviewed, according to local reports.
A friend of Ekaterina’s, known only as Anton, told reporters that the belly dancer’s employers are currently working with lawyers to resolve the issue.
Entertainers are regularly caught out by Egypt’s strict anti-immorality laws, many of which are euphemistic and open to interpretation.
Last November, an Egyptian pop singer was sentenced to two years in prison for ‘inciting debauchery’ by starring in a raunchy video for one of her songs.
Former Arab Idol contestant Shyma – real name Shaimaa Ahmed – was found guilty of inciting debauchery and publishing an indecent film. She was also fined 10,000 Egyptian pounds (£420/$585) for the video, according to local news sources.
The video for Shyma’s song ‘I Have Issues’ showed Shyma dancing in clothes and in underwear before pouring milk over a banana and eating it, licking an apple and suggestively tasting the icing on a piece of chocolate cake.
Gawhara isn’t even the first belly dancer to be hit by Egyptian laws. In 2015, two bellydancers were arrested and sentenced to six months in prison for similar charges.
