Cairo, Nov 3 (AFP\/APP):In past weeks, the story of an Egyptian pop star admitted into a rehabilitation facility has spilled beyond celebrity gossip, and sparked new debate on women’s rights in the conservative country.<\/p>\n
Sherine Abdel Wahab has long been a darling of Arab pop, but recent events have earned her the title of Egypt’s Britney Spears — not for her musical talent but because of her family’s efforts to portray her as unfit to manage her own affairs.<\/p>\n
Her fanbase was shocked when she appeared sporting a dramatic new buzzcut, but when she was admitted into a rehabilitation facility last month for an unspecified addiction it sparked a groundswell of debate.<\/p>\n
“I never would have expected that I would call Sherine Abdel Wahab Egypt’s Britney Spears, but this is what is happening,” former influential blogger Mahmoud Salem wrote on Facebook.<\/p>\n
“A rich and successful star and based on her choices and her haircut, people decided that she is not OK — her parents placed her in a facility against her will and say she is incompetent and in need of guardianship.”<\/p>\n
Questions of consent and coercion were raised in a country where, in 2021, the government proposed — without success — a draft bill aimed at restricting the rights of nearly 50 million Egyptian women by, for example, allowing their fathers or their brothers to annul their marriages.<\/p>\n
Nearly eight million women out of Egypt’s 104 million people were victims of violence committed by their partners or relatives, or by strangers in public spaces, according to a United Nations survey conducted in 2015.<\/p>\n
In the midst of the heated online discussion, conflicting versions of events have emerged from her family and her ex-husband, singer Hossam Habib.<\/p>\n
The Abdel Wahab family has accused her ex-husband of being violent and wanting to take advantage of the singer’s fame and money, which Habib denies.<\/p>\n
Abdel Wahab’s brother and Habib both spoke by phone on different days to tell their side of the story on the programme “al-Hekaya” anchored by Amr Adib, one of Egypt’s most watched talk show hosts.<\/p>\n
“My mother was begging me to save her from her addiction,” Mohammed Abdel Wahab said, accusing Habib of beating her and saying he had been forced to admit her into rehab.<\/p>\n
“I have never been violent towards a woman, and I never took a pound from Sherine,” her ex-husband replied.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cairo, Nov 3 (AFP\/APP):In past weeks, the story of an Egyptian pop star admitted into a rehabilitation facility has spilled beyond celebrity gossip, and sparked new debate on women’s rights in the conservative country. Sherine Abdel Wahab has long been a darling of Arab pop, […]<\/p>\n
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