Who Is Afraid of Alia’s Nudity?
Sara Emiline AbuGhazal
Alia Al Mahdi, Nude Art, 2011
The absence of force, that’s the difference, that makes all the difference. Her ownership of her body as expressed by the photo, have led to the “Alia” frenzy, as the media hovers around her trying to abuse the topic as much as they can. And now that many activists ( men and women) have shamed her, denounced her, and went as far as exiling her from her rightful participation in the Egyptian revolution ( be it as simply the act of sleeping at the Midan El Tahrir), and now that a plead has been made against her to be sued infront of the “law” ( the same old Mubarak law in the admission of the same activists), we need to pay attention to the kind of revolution we are talking about, and the space that this revolution is opening up, or keeping closed.
What is so offensive about a woman owning her body? What is so threatening about a woman deciding to expose her body bare to the eyes of the “anonymous” others. I think some tend to forget that women’s bodies are a fixed symbol of possession in patriarchal societies, where everything else is negotiable: economy, social justice, election, and constitutions. The diverse sects of patriarchy renegotiate who takes what, what should gain more or less value. But never the women question. Women are to live as the inferior others.
Alia asks those viewing her body and condemning it to look at the mirror and burn their own bodies. She asks the person who can’t accept the body of the other, to not accept her/his own body, to mutilate it, burn it, and use force on it. As if the only way one’s body can exist freely, with out the judgement of others, is by using force on it.
She recognizes that ownership and freedom do require big productions, masses marching, and gunfire sprouting. She recognizes that the simple act of reclaiming your body, and understanding the need for the “other” to own her body, is an act of liberation and emancipation. Claiming ownership of one’s body can’t be a colonial agenda, for those insisting on it, body ownership is an instinctive act of freedom. Remember that “slavery is the act of owning other humans, human bodies and their workforce”. On a similar note, wasn’t the mutilation of Khaled Said’ body one of the main causes that started the revolution against the regime?
In Egypt, as everywhere in the Arab region, Alia’s photo is being used to terrorize vocal women and feminists. It has become the reason to silence women calling for immediate emancipation and freedom. It has become the example of how deviant the feminist and women’s right agenda really is, it can all be summed up in a nude picture. As ridiculous as it sounds for many of us, we shouldn’t be really provoked to the extent of denying Alia’s right to do what she needed to do to break free. We must not engage in it if we aren’t planning to deconstruct the attacking choirs and bringing them to face their own demon: their fear of seeing the female body free from their possession. Whatever the arguments are, Islamist or radical leftists, we should be steadfast, this is our body on the line here. These are the times where many of us have a great understanding that the only reason why patriarchy has been reproducing itself is because our bodies haven’t risen up to the challenge, we haven’t radicalized our bodies as much as we have radicalized our minds.
It’s a bit early to have a clear understanding of how Alia’s action will impact the discourses we carry as feminists, and even if this will bring many voices within the movement to “bare” themselves and finally stand in the light, allowing us to asses how many hypocrites are willing to compromise, for personal power or heroic “token” positions within our movements. If there is a lesson we ought to learn from Alia’s action and its reverberations, it is that what’s always been powerful about being a feminist is that we don’t comprise, and the many victories we’ve been gaining is exactly because patriarchy is always in the mood to compromise. We are in a position of power, and Alia’s action is one of the many expressions to re-emphasis this. Alia owning her body scared many, and this is exactly what should we paying attention to. How and why female bodies are greatly feared?
Category: Egyptian Revolution الثورة المصرية الشعبية, hereandthere من هنا وهناك
I think she is ahead of herself. She also called it a revolution which its not. She wants to reclaim her own body- she can but she can’t do it in the context of a group. I understand of course that in the Arab world it will be removing clothes that allows a woman to reclaim her body but here in the West that was a case at some point too but nudity came later in the revolution. It wasn’t step 1. This is my issue. The Arab world is so behind these aspects and you can’t expect nude photos to just pass.
Also, I think as feminists, it is our duty to come up with our own path of feminism.. as a group. There is something called “Western Feminism” and it’d be nice for us to see feminists in our region come up with their own theories, own ideas, and own path towards rights, freedoms etc. Nudity is a right but its not the rule to freedom.
Female temples for goddess al Lat for example were nude houses. thats how much nudity for us as arab women was part of our identity and history. Also, examine women’s spaces and hamam’s and see how nudity is a common practice.
Thats an interesting point Sara. Its why I have such interest in continuing my education in Lebanon in history. I need to learn these things. I think Arab culture is complicated anyway and the faces of the region vary which even more so require that we come up with our own theories anyway. Nudity was part of many cultures historically anyway and was a lot more accepted than now.
Sara this is an amazing article! thank you so much. Thank you for bringing Alia Al Mahdi’s art into attention! this is brilliant, powerful and amazing!
i think it is a bold attempt to bring sexuality into the public sphere with our bodies and not just our words, and thus I salute Sawt al-Niswa for standing behind Alia, who put her body where her mouth is.
great article, Sara. Keep sharing your analysis and your knowledge, we have so much to learn from you.
اعتقد انكن فقتدم بوصله التمييز بين الخطا والصواب لانكن لادين لكن ولاقيم وبالتالى لامباديء
Great job Sara,
Art is not only a nice piece, art depicts life, injustice, struggle. Many may not agree with Alia’s method but she is obviously comfortable with her body which is a most convincing tool .
thanks deems, we have so much to learn from each other, really.
Your intoductory paragraph is comprehensive and nicely put! It’s my FB status now.
Here we go again, the typical feminist talking points/hectoring of the Muslim world. So, the virginity test is not condemned by Muslims, was that what you wanted to say? Muslims enjoy killing women, raping them, beating them all in the name of Islam? Muslim women suffer so much that they need feminist like you to rescue them and strip them from veil, clothes, bras, and panties?
While Muslim women are fined for the audacity to wear niqab in France, denied citizenship in many countries because of her dress, you still hector about “patriarchal” society while forgetting you and your ilks were central in persecuting Muslim women.
This article is a wake up call for all Muslims that feminists should be fought. Their call to impose their values on Muslims and Islam should not be taken lightly.
No, ZP, that’s not what she said.
Freedom is about choice; the choice to be naked or the choice to wear a hijab. Many people say that “wearing a hijab isn’t a choice because society coerces them to do something they otherwise wouldn’t do.” But have you looked in the mirror, you Western Imperialists? A lot of women spend 1/24th to 1/12th of their entire lives on “getting ready” to look “presentable” to their world. Would they “choose” this if not for these same coercive pressures?
Focus not on clothes — or lack thereof — but on the ideas of patriarchal dominance and freedom of choice. It’s sad that the Islamists and conservatives (and the liberals who are distancing themselves from her) are reacting this way when their military junta is on the verge of simply changing faces rather than real revolutionary change.
Thanks, very interesting point of view. And I agree with Mariam re creating our own version of feminism.
Hi!
I’ve just heard about that subjet as I was checking my mail on my yahoo account…I’ve even opened her blog to watch it then the first thing that caught my attention was the warning put to inform peolpe about the offensive content of the page: this means that peolpe who made all those comments were elready conscious about what they were going to see and it means that they wanted to see her (they had the choice to see or not to see and everyone have chosen the first one) well this is the first point.
Then,I was sincerly chocked to see how people were reacting towards that atheist girl, mainly when I’ve remembered all the egyptian video clips and immoral movies that are daily normally shown on Egyptian TV’s and with the agreement of the government!!! how can peolpe applaud Haîfa Wehbi and Nancy Ajram and other sexy singers as they sing and dance in front of thousands of peolpe while wearing half-naked clothes and insult an atheist girl at the same time?
How can the government allow TV’s to diffuse publicly movies showing very offensive scenes (that I personnaly can never watch with my father or brother) then, talk about giving her a punishment?
Finally, is there a big difference between her art and the one I talked about above???
I really feel confused, however, I think she took a very big risk by acting this way…maybe she’s just too young to understand that life is not as simple as what she does imagine.
Dr N,S from Algeria
what a shame!!! No other comment!
sensationalism from the outset. I had to think really hard to find teh answer to the author’s question in the first paragraph. I failed to produce the right answer. But when I read it in the second paragraph, I thought how many fully clothed women live their lives not being owned by anyone. That’s a counter-example to your postulate rendering it useless. So I couldn’t read past that point. Don’t feed me crap about being scared of a naked body or that posing nude defines courage. Really? This is such a western tactic at robbing the true meaning of concepts such as posing nude is courageous and only naive feminists fall in the trap of adopting it. If she truly cares about the plight of women, she should have kept protesting and kept educating herself in the hope that one day she could speak to people in the language they understand to convince them. That’s because posing nude in a country where there’s a lot of conservative muslim (and christians) will not achieve the desired goal. It will only achieve fame and possibly fortune in the west. I have the courage to say that. And I am not scared of anything. Don’t fool yourself.
ZP: did it not occur to you that the author of the article might be Arabic and/or Muslim herself?
To ZP : You’re comparing things that can’t be : niqab and burkas are a sign of RELIGION that France cannot admit in public as it is a religious sign.
France is a laique country so in a laique country, no-one is supposed to show off his/her religion with such highly visible signs.
And it’s not just against muslims, for example, you’re not authorised to hide your face under a niqab for police recognizing reasons but you’re not even authorized to wear a highly visible christian cross if your catholic or a big 6 branches star if you jewish. So you see, it’s nothing about being against muslims.
In France, we just think that everyone can have the religion he/she wants, but in the same way, no-one is authorized to impose it to thze view of others. We think religion is a personnal matter, not a public one. Proselitism is forbidden here as no-one can impose it’s religion to another one.
France is a laique country.
If I take my personnal case as an example, I have NO religion. I think everyone can have the religion she/he wants, BUT shee/he cannot impose me a view of it by highly visible signs/garments/etc… This, is FREEDOM as well.
Concerning ALIAA MAGDA ELMAHDY, I think she did what she did because she wants to show everyone she needs FREEEDOM to do wants she wants. PERSONNAL FREEDOM OF THINKING has to be RESPECTED in any country.
I can admit, this was quite a shocking way to express her thoughts that to appear nude on the internet for some arabic people which are not used to see nudity, but anyway this is HER CHOICE and if you’re offended with nudity, just don’t try to see her pages, this is as simple as that. She didn’t impose her nudity in public without warning everyone, she just did it on the internet where people can CHOOSE to see her …or not.
Personnaly, she didn’t shocked me at all.
I think it was really courageous to dare it as an egyptian girl.
I deeply support her in her fights for women’s rights and freedoms. Men and women must be EQUAL.
As a french poet (Jean FERRAT) says : WOMAN IS MAN’S FUTURE.
feel free alia, I believe your voice was heared all over the world, people usually over dress to show up and get noticed, you did it the easiest way … you went nude… by the way you have a real nice figure….
Well put ZP. It is the western culture who makes women sex object in the name of art and culture. Our ‘feminists’ help them by such support. Pornography in the whole world is increasing and it is surely making women more as a sex toy.
Separating nudity and sex is a dangerous idea for the society as a whole. Religious people like the most of conservatives have helped us to merge them. This has helped humanity as we males and females are sexually more inclined towards each other due to just simple unveiling of body. Islam allows nudity between spouses in secrecy only, and thus we find body of each other extremely attractive. Such social conditioning has ‘increased’ ‘beauty’ or rather made ourselves more sensitive towards each other. This is or at least was really necessary for the survival of human being as sexual intercourse between males and females is must to ensure reproduction of human being, and sexual arousal by seeing someone’s body is fundamental in the process. Surely, Conservative Society has not done anything wrong there rather they have made it much more exciting by teaching us to conceal our body as social obligation.
I’m a non muslim so not really aware of the complex and wider issues of femiminity within the Arab or Muslim society. Britain had it’s own battles with women’s rights all through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries because in most societies women have played a subservient role to men. In Western societies this has improved but in our “tolerant” societies it has still taken many years and my understanding of Islamic society is that there much less tolerence to change. In some respects the British change has been a revolution but a slow one!
On a comment someone has discussed France. I should remind people that France is a secular society through choice and religion is largely excluded from the machinations of that society. My understanding of Islam was that Muslims are supposed to fit in with the societies they choose to live with. So why are France’s laws being challenged by Muslims? Secondly my limited understanding of Islam and the Quaran doesn’t make such garments as the niqab and abaya are not strictly laid down as obligatory and what constitutes “awrah” is more a cultural issue.
I’ve read and seen a lot of how the Taliban treated women and how their “society” saw the role of women and as a westerner I was disgusted and horrified. I’ve grown up in a modern western society where women have fought hard to gain equal opportunity and rights and to see women being treated such is terrible. Vive la revolution.
I am an Iranian and I want to look at the whole picture from another window.
In Egypt and other Arab countries blessed with Arab spring movements there is a struggle between seculars and Islamists. We were in the same situation just before the Islamic revolution in Iran more than 30 years ago.
At that time Islamists made an image that freedom will bring whores and naked women in the streets and would make every city in Iran a “sin city”. They used to refer to movies and pictures and all sources they could get or they could fake. That made the situation very difficult for seculars to win and eventually was one Of the main reasons people chose a regime we see now in Iran.
Freedom is not just the way you appear in public. It also represents the way you think, The way you speak and the war you work. Freedom is universal and very broad in spectrum.
This lady chose the worst time to represent only one aspect of freedom. The way she does it gives the best excuse to extremists and Islamists to warn a Moslem country a taste of what ” a true freedom ” would be.
With all due respect , I have this bad feeling that this move is a suspicious one to weaken the moderate groups in Arab countries in the upcoming elections and struggles ahead.
I am not fond of conspiracy theory but at best this lady chose the worst way and worst time to express her idea.
I’m not sure how– even if– Alia’s nudes will help feminists’ struggle in the Arab World. But regadless of the results, I bow down for this brave, young goddess, who is fearlessly practicing her right to exist.
Arabs are inherently sexist people. And it’s going to take radical measures for them to recognize women as fully autonomous beings who have sovreignty over their minds and bodies.
Dictators and politicians knew how to capitalize on society’s sexism. They knew the source of our honor was vaginas and virginity, not freedom and self-determination, so they abused us, while sponsoring our sexism with their state-sponsored propaganda. Look at Syrian drama or some Egyptian movies– women are treated like commodities.
But it’s time for a feminist spring in the Middle East. Time for the brave Alias to rise up and simply practice their right to exist.
@CommandantBODWow, Muslims wear Hijab based on their freedom, How can you talk such nonsense and justify torture against women who wants to wear Hijab based on their own will?
@ Miriam, just claiming Muslim and openly encouraging other to engage in Anti-Islamic act does not make anyone Muslim. And all Arabs are Not Muslim
It is so ridiculous to see that people justify harassing us just for wearing hijab which we love to ,and then encourage nudity in the name of freedom, eh?
Freedom for Nudity Only, but not for Hijab which has made males and females to be sensitive towards each other, and saved human beings from losing interest in each other.
That’s what is their own version of ‘freedom’ only for them but NOT for us, Hijabis. They can force us to stop wearing cloth, and that is how they propagate ‘freedom’.
Thank you for this article.
Thanks for continuing the dialogue about this brave act from such a young person. As a person who has dabbled in a clothing-optional lifestyle, I appreciate her bold attempt to express her freedom and identity through the “simple act” of shedding her clothes and taking full ownership of her body. She has rejected the shame and control that others would use to define and confine her. This is a very political act and one that I understand and support. I wish more people (women AND men) would take such bold steps to confront and provoke conversation about body, identity and sexuality in the public sphere. After all, the personal IS political and what do we have to lose…except our freedom!
@CommandantBOD
Lengthy explanations for why French people are bigots and racists(bring a new meaning to the phrase: justified bigots). Niqab is part of the belief system of some women. The reason you fined these women is because you racists can’t wrap your brain the idea that Muslim women choose to wear niqab.
Religion might not be a central part of your country (explained the way your country is) but it is a central part of Egyptian’s culture and statehood. If a Muslim man dared to live in France and married to more than one woman, he would have been incarcerated in France and all “Muslim men” in France would have been depicted as “barbarian, misogynist etc” but when an atheist living in a Muslim country posed nude and flaunt the law of the land, she is called courageous.
The author of this article is a byproduct of white racist women’s assumptions about Muslim men and culture. She channeled these white racist women’s assumptions while hiding behind her Arab skin. I really hope she is not a Muslim for Muslims do not need another white man’s extension to hector at them. We have had enough white man’s democracy in the Arab world.
It is absolutely HER thing, what she will publish or not. No one can say, what you have to do. Free country allow to their citizens live their lifes as they want. Eliminate violence, racism, but allow civic rights for all
Wow, it would be nothing here, but it takes a tremendous courage to do that there. Their problem is one sided polygamy, it is the problem with all Muslims, all this fuss, and the veils, and all the wars with them and all the rest of the world that hates them is all only because of their one way polygamy, nothing else, but doing this may make them think, who knows. Coodos to her! She is really courageous.
Sometimes, radical changes like Alia’s nudity becomes a catalyst for the gradual change to evolve, she may be ridiculed but she has taken the first step towards women’s freedom. Nudity is symbolic and should not be taken as vulgarity or fahashayee. She has paved the way at the cost of her own dignity, but serves a higher purpose of freedom in the long haul.
India went through the same, nudity was an expression of freedom once, but over the last 500 years, it’s lost and now nudity is not tolerated in the public, but it is there in the movies.
Mike Ghouse
Bravo Sara.
Good article
Tamara Bigley…
I cannot thank you enough for the article post.Thanks Again. Really Great….
An awesome article!
Being an artistic nude model myself, I’m familiar with the lines between degrading and empowering. I wasn’t particulary prone to the idea at all until I began doing it, and ever since have experienced a profound change in how I view myself, not only physically but in terms of self worth. I believe I wasn’t aware of how I had been conditioned to view my own body and sexuality until I had to look it in the face. Now, that was a contriversial step for ME, living on the West Coast… I cannot pretend to know what it would be like there, but I fully support her as a Woman, as a human, as a Temple of the Goddess.
Thank you for sharing this story
Salam,
I’ve never been here before, but googling the story of Alia Mahdi led me to this article.
By reading your comments, i’m wondering, is the Arab world left us no other way to show our rejection to our way of life? i’m sure that u all don’t think so, why Alia choose this way? is she really interested in showing her opinion in women rights? i don’t think so too, it’s obvious that she is a sex maniac, all what she is talking about is the women right to have sex, her last pronouncement was to the youth to do sex in front of the police offices, and her picture originally is about nudity and that she lost her virginity and that every women has the right to do sex -not that every woman has the right to live free-.
anyway, we all believe that what she did isn’t right, in the other hand, we were all concentrating on the fake goal of here act that she is a women rights defender, that’s why some of you saying “Well Done Alia”.
we are living in the Arab world, 90% of it are Muslims that refuses this, and 10% of other religions that also refuses this.
So wake please guys and don’t get fooled.
Hmm.. I am not sure what gratuitous nudity has to do with liberation of women. As a man I have no objections at all if all the hot women around me were to doff their clothes in the name of freedom to choose.
I also would not object if they agreed to jump into bed with me to emphasize their freedom to sleep around.
And that would liberate women exactly how? In the end I am not looking at Alia’s nude pictures not in awe of her liberation.. but rather in exactly the way that women do not want to be seen.
I understand the objective.. I agree with it: break stereotypes.. allow women freedom over their lives and their bodies. However the expression of this objective has done more harm than good. Anyone now talking in favour of it in Arab society or otherwise will be dismissed as an ‘Alia’.
In Pakistan we have a model Veena Malik who has decided to appear nude on the cover of an Indian men’s magazine. When the (inevitable) furor followed she took the tagline of “I’m standing up for women’s rights”. The real reason of course being economic… she pockets millions of rupees for the shoot.
Resorting to the oldest profession in the book is in no way a liberation. I’m sorry. I would rather celebrate those millions of women who have broken stereotypes by doing jobs only men did before… or have led movements for equal rights in inheritance etc.
Taking your clothes off so some men can wank off looking at you is not liberation. Still.. I’m not complaining.. please go right ahead and follow suit
At the first look at this picture i got very mad and i did say she is a bitch , but then i did look again and i start thinking , why she is doing this , you know what happen i start respect this lady because what ever she did it take allot its need some one has strong personality to do what she did , and yes we need wake up for how long we as middl east man we going to treat woman just as sex machine that need to stop . the lady she just trying to give message to all of us its personal opinion she is free to give the message at the way she want i thing all the lady’s should agree with her , this lady she is smart she maked all of us to think and talk about her i mean about why she did this is time to all of us to wake up and we should say thank’s aliaa really thank’s you stronger than any one in arab country atless you trying to say noooooooooo ,with your head is up.
“Arabs are inherently sexist people. And it’s going to take radical measures for them to recognize women as fully autonomous beings who have sovreignty over their minds and bodies.”
Being both French and Muslim I’d just like to ask people to please CALM DOWN with the racist comments !It’s plain stupid ! Just so you know darlings, Iran Affghanistan and all these East Asian countries if they are muslim are CERTAINLY NOT Arabic, thank you very much.
Sexuality has been an issue in western countries as well for a very long time, and in the renaissance, the open admiration of women and of their body was influenced by ARABIC LITERATURE. The road to freedom for women was extremely long, excruciatingly complicated and most of all NOT OVER. Let’s face it, nobody knows how to deal with nudity and sexuality. It’s always a tricky matter. Everybody’s trying to find a balance between too much and not enough. Westerners (and I include myself in this statement) are not more advanced, more educated, or better. We are just more LUCKY. In all western countries the feminist revolution took place extremely recently. In France, Great Britain, the United States and any so-called developped country, women have had the right to vote for less than a century. The French Revolution started in 1789 and it took almost two more centuries for women to try to rise to power. In the United States, when the constitution was first written “we the people of America” certainly did NOT include women. It took time. Arab countries need time to find their balance and honestly, I think as courageous as it might have been from Alia to pose nude, she didn’t really help the cause.
“If a Muslim man dared to live in France and married to more than one woman, he would have been incarcerated in France and all “Muslim men” in France would have been depicted as “barbarian, misogynist etc””
It actually happened and happens. If any man marries two or more women religiously in France, he would NOT be incarcerated. “Oh really?” you might say. Well yes, REALLY. That’s possible because the French government doesn’t recognize religious unions. Now if a woman sues her husband for getting remarried, then yes he might face prison and a fine (but hey if you’re muslim, don’t go behind your wife’s back to get remarried) but then again, you have to abide by the law of the country you choose to live in. Therefore, if one wishes to have several wives, one should do it in a country where it is legal. I’d like to add that France recognizes and authorizes polygamy for people coming from foreign countries where it is accepted. I would also like to point that in France most polygamous households are from the subsaharian region and not arabic countries.
My point originally was GIVE IT TIME guys!
Men fear the power of the female body, specifically the power to turn them on. They feel that if they see a little too much thigh, or a side of breast, they are then forced to think about sex (more than usual), and are then out of control of their own thoughts; possibly to lose control and attack sexually. And they believe it’s her fault, as a man is an animal with no sense of self-control. But really it’s that they feel they can be manipulated by it, and they don’t want women to wield that kind of power.
The religious in general are very sex-phobic, especially about any one but your own spouse. So they firmly believe that this kind of thing leads to sexual freedom and perversion outside of marriage. This is how they equate a woman’s body with evil influences.
But it’s the assumption that you cannot control yourself which is what’s wrong. When you stop ascribing an evil or satanic influence to every loss of self-control and take responsibility for your own actions, you are taking control of your own body, for good or evil, and understanding that they are your own actions and you control them, no one else.
This is an issue of integrity. It has to become a cultural phenomenon; which transcends religious and social barriers. Like the occupy movement. I think nudity is as good a way as any to achieve that. It shows ownership of one’s body like nothing else and accepting responsibility for one’s actions.
We have to force the world into a reality where someone isn’t abused or ostracized for the fact the wind blew their skirt up or they had a wardrobe malfunction, or a child ran out of the house in less clothes than desirable. People have to accept this reality. A woman in a bikini, or nude, is still the same thing as a woman clothed, she is a woman, nothing more or less, with the same rights as a man to do the same.
all this is well n good, but there are other ways to show ownership or watever. this wont look so cool when its your own sister, mother, daughter, wife. and then millions of sad ppl all over the world are oogling and doing what not while staring at the pic
I highly doubt things are going to get better any time soon for women in the Middle East. The “Arab Spring” is only going to make things worse, because now there isn’t that secular force (however oppressive in other respects) holding Islamic views somewhat at bay. Women are going to be more at the mercy of Islam whether they like it or not. And they probably won’t be able to move away, as Europe is starting to tighten its immigration in response to the disasters of mass Muslim immigration. About the only way out I can see is the appearance of some Attaturks or Mossadeghs, but that is highly unlikely.
“Female temples for goddess al Lat for example were nude houses.”
Oh, that’s REALLY going to go over well.
Thank you for this invigorating read. I invite you to read my post on the issue and other women who were undressed in postrevolutionary Egypt.
http://rwac-egypt.blogspot.com/2011/12/when-women-are-undressed.html