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Sexy stars push limits in Egypt By Heather Sharp BBC News, Cairo
As part of a series on young people in the Middle East, the BBC News website looks at how increasingly raunchy female singers have caused controversy in Egypt.
Ruby is one of the most talked about female pop stars in Egypt
Glamorous and smouldering, a gyrating singer pouts from the screen as a catchy Arabic pop song blasts from the TV speakers.
Music videos - or "video clips" as they are known - are the visual wallpaper of choice in the cafes, shops and discos frequented by Egypt's young people.
And as popular female stars reveal more and more flesh, controversy has inevitably grown in Egypt's mainly Muslim society.
'Tasteful'
Ruby is one of the most-talked about performers. She is Egyptian, rather than from more liberal Lebanon like many current stars. Her raunchy moves, bare midriff and revealing clothing have had conservative MPs clamouring for a ban.
Raphael, 25, is a fan: "I like Ruby. She dances like there ain't nobody watching. She doesn't care about the camera, she's just out there dancing," he says.
But many other young people, both male and female, say she is pushing it too far. Ahmed Esmat, 17, says she is "mis-using her body".
"If the video clip doesn't have some kind of strip dancing it won't get popular - but not every one likes to watch this.
"When a couple of friends discuss the clips, they watch and enjoy them, but then they start to say: 'This not singing - it's covered up pornography.'"
Ruby's producer Sherif Sabri is well used to this debate. He says Ruby's video clips are "artistic, tasteful and rhythmic".
"Sexual is a good word, but I would say really it's more sensual," he says.
He says it is other artists, not Ruby, who are pushing social boundaries: "I think she started a trend, which has not been followed correctly. I definitely don't agree with the way some imitate these videos. A lot of it is very vulgar."
'Reflecting change'
Egyptian culture was relatively liberal in the 1970s but swung towards conservatism in the 1990s - although there are now signs of a counter swing.
While daring young women a generation ago wore miniskirts, now tight T-shirts and low-waisted jeans are considered adventurous.
English Literature student Injie Swailam, 19, says stars like Ruby are wrongly blamed for the growing liberalism.
Injie Swailam, student, 19
"I love Ruby. She's reflecting how our culture is now changing. Our community is a closed community, but now people are starting to wear really tight stuff - and they are going out to nightclubs.
"When society sees someone saying the truth, people don't want to admit the change," she says.
Music videos have been popular in the Arab world for years.
But with the recent explosion in satellite television stations across the Middle East, their influence has increased dramatically. Stars used to make video clips - now video clips make stars.
The clips' popularity among the young has triggered much social introspection.
'Free relationships'
Mohammed Ajami, 30, is an assistant university lecturer in English. He says the stars' clothing and dance styles "spread like fire" among his students.
"They memorise the lyrics by heart, and they forget about anything else. Their culture is a mixture of bad influences that lead them away from Islam.
"They have no dreams except feeding these kinds of instincts or living like their fellows in the West," he says.
"They gain the bad things from the Western culture - like free relationships between men and women," he says.
Amal Abdul Hadi, a feminist activist at the New Women's Foundation, sees the trend partly as a reaction to political marginalisation.
"I think they want to affiliate to something - to express themselves, but within a situation where expressing yourself politically is nearly closed."
She also considers it a reaction to the conservative climate - but an unhealthy one.
"I don't agree that commodifying and objectifying women's bodies is better than conservatism. I can't compare between the two evils. I personally think it's also creating a backlash - a reactionary reflex."
'Take-away sandwiches'
Questions of Westernisation and Arab identity also come up. Injie comments that boys now like Ruby with her dark hair and Egyptian features, whereas Western, often blonde, women have long been high on the list of objects of desire.
Raphael says he thinks Middle Eastern women are "the most beautiful on the planet".
"I think they want to prove to the world that they can do these things - it's not about singing, it's about Westernising," he says.
And while Mohammed Ajami says Western culture plays a strong role, he does not blame it: "The West just offered us this as a product and we naively bought it."
However, while Ruby, Lebanon's Nancy Ajram and similar singers tend to be popular with teenagers, several young people in their twenties express frustration at the video clip explosion.
"These things are like take-away sandwiches," says Mohammed Selim, 27, who follows Egypt's underground music scene in his work for a Cairo events publication.
Mohammed Selim, 27, works on Cairo listings publication
"I think we are very, very bored of everything that's being produced - music, literature and politics," he says. "It's like eating food which is half-chewed. We want to experiment - we want something new."
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How sexy stars are inspiring the Arab high street
Young people in the Arab world have copied popular singers for years, but the phenomena is reaching new heights on the latest wave of photogenic female stars.
Teenage girls pester parents to help them recreate the look of Lebanon's Nancy Ajram (left).
And as stars like Egypt's Ruby (right) become increasingly racy, the clothes in the shops have been getting raunchier.
Copying Nancy
Fatima Mohammed (right), 17, and her friend live in Sharjah, UAE, where alcohol is banned and women usually wear veils and long cloaks in public.
"Nancy is my favourite Arabic singer. I love her style and singing. I copy her.
"We take pictures of her dresses to the tailors and get that style made. They are a bit skimpy, but we wear them for weddings when only the ladies are there.
"I know all the lyrics. My friend slept over last night. We turned the music up and danced."
Nancy's gelabiya
Mr Arabi Omar sells gelabiyas - traditional Arab garments for women. His most popular product ever is the gelabiya worn by Nancy Agram in a recent video (right, poster in his Cairo shop).
He has sold 1,000 from his own shop and says another three million have been sold worldwide.
"The suppliers have run out of sequins because they have all been used to make Nancy gelabiyas!
"A lot of girls buy it, go home, put it on, take a picture on their mobile phone and send it to me."
Eliss's make-up
George M Youssef is the owner of Farah hairdresser in west Cairo.
"Video clips are definitely having a big effect.
"The Lebanese star Eliss is particularly influential – it’s about her make-up.
"About 50% of my clients come here and say: ‘I need that make-up, give me that make-up.' It’s been going on for about three years."
Sparkly underwear
Pusy Samir Mohamed is 19 and works in a small lingerie shop in Cairo Mall, where underwear is getting sparklier and more daring by the season.
She says provocative music videos - "video clips" - are inspiring increasing numbers of her customers to buy more adventurous underwear.
"The clips have had an effect on lingerie and on outer clothing," she says.
Most of her customers are women aged 19-30, who often buy in bulk ahead of their wedding night.
Belly dancing
Pusy’s shop also sells belly dancing outfits, which she says are growing in popularity.
A hit TV series has boosted the popularity of the tradition of a bride buying herself an outfit as a gift to her new husband, she says.
Each day she serves one or two men who say they are buying for their wives – "though you can never be sure if they’re really married," she adds.
Words and images by Heather Sharp
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You are (still) able to post pictures on this and on the cooking forum; on the others the option was already disabled.
Posts: 30135 | From: The owner of this website killed ES....... | Registered: Feb 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Tigerlily: You are (still) able to post pictures on this and on the cooking forum; on the others the option was already disabled.
Thanks Lily, I didn't realize that. Posts: 84 | Registered: Aug 2004
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I have a feeling that Ruby's ass has a central nervous system of its own. It moves and pulls Ruby behind it. I wonder if it reacts to light like a paramecium.
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