Story By: Basant Essam, Sub-Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash
A famous American belly dancer in Egypt has sparked outrage after posting snaps of her posing outside a major mosque in Cairo in a low-cut dress.
The belly dancer and instructor, who goes by the stage name Shahrzad and does not reveal her real name, shared images of her wearing a colourful dress with a slit up the front outside the Mosque of Muhammad Ali in the Citadel of Cairo.
Shahrzad, who boasts 231,000 followers on Instagram, accompanied the photos with the message: “Beautiful evening at the Salah El Din Citadel. I will never lose my awe and excitement of being able to live in a place with so much history.”
However, the curvy dancer’s post caused anger among netizens who pointed out that taking such photos outside a mosque is inappropriate.
On Instagram one user wrote: “Shooting in the mosque, OMG!”
While another added: “A loss for Egypt and the mosques of Egypt.”
Earlier this year, Russian belly dancer Ekaterina Andreeva, better known as Johara (Jewel), caused anger in Egypt earlier this year when she posed for snaps in a mosque courtyard in the Egyptian town of Hurghada.
Belly dancing has been popular among Egyptians for decades, however, in recent years it has been frowned upon as too risque. As a result, the number of local performers has decreased while foreign belly dancers dominate the scene in the country.
