Young Egyptian pop singer Shyma sentenced to jail for 'offensive' music video

Shaimaa Ahmed, aka Shyma, an Egyptian pop-singer, has been sentenced to two years in prison by a court in Cairo over the content of one of her music videos. One of the scenes in the ‘offending’ video shows the 21-year-old singer ‘suggestively’ eating a banana. Shyma first came under fire after the music video for her song ‘I Have Issues’ was released last month in November. The song’s music video prompted outrage in the traditionally conservative country of Egypt. In the video, she appears in a mock classroom licking an apple and appearing to mimic fellatio on a banana in front of a chalkboard scrawled with “Class #69”. The video racked up over a million views within the first few days of being posted online. [caption id=“attachment_4258615” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Egyptian pop star Shyma during a performance.[/caption] Shyma was first arrested on November 18 following complaints from the public, according to the police. Back then, Shyma had denied the accusations of “harming public morality”. Shyma also claimed that the video’s director, Mohamed Gamal, included the controversial scenes without her consent. Shyma apologized for the video in a Facebook post and said she had not anticipated the backlash. “I didn’t imagine all this would happen and that I would be subjected to such a strong attack from everyone, as a young singer…who has dreamt from a young age of being a singer,” she wrote. On Wednesday, Shyma, along with Gamal, was sentenced to two years in prison for “inciting debauchery”. They have each been fined 10,000 Egyptian pounds by the Cairo court. Both Shyma and Gamal can appeal the sentence. You can watch the controversial video below.