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Journalism of Courage
Abir Sabri, celebrated for her alabaster skin, ebony hair, pouting lips and full figure, used to star in racy Egyptian TV shows and movies. Then, at the peak of her career a few years ago, she disappeared 8212; at least her face did. She began performing on Saudi-owned religious TV channels, with her face covered, chanting verses from the Quran. Conservative Saudi Arabian financiers promised her plenty of work, she says, as long as she cleaned up her act. 8220;It8217;s the Wahhabi investors,8221; she says, referring to the strict form of Sunni Islam prevalent in Saudi Arabia. 8220;Before, they invested in terrorism 8212; and now they put their money in culture and the arts.8221;
Egyptians deplore what they call the Saudisation of their culture. Egypt has long dominated the performing arts from Morocco to Iraq, but now petrodollar-flush Saudi investors are buying up the contracts of singers and actors, reshaping the TV and film industries and setting a media agenda rooted more in strict Saudi values than in those of freewheeling Egypt. 8220;As far as I8217;m concerned, this is the biggest problem in the Middle East right now,8221; says mobile-phone billionaire Naquib Sawiris. 8220;Egypt was always very liberal, very secular and very modern. Now8230;8221; He gestures from the window of his 26th-floor Cairo office: 8220;I8217;m looking at my country, and it8217;s not my country any longer. I feel like an alien here.8221;
Excerpted from Rod Nordland8217;s 8216;The last Egyptian belly dancer8217; in the latest Newsweek
