Egyptians feel hurt by an Egyptian film about Egypt

• Censorship and Moral Panics

Egyptian blockbuster The Yacoubian Building, which looks at corruption, fundamentalism, prostitution, homosexuality, and drugs in central Cairo, is facing demands for cuts from Egyptian MPs.

Following complaints from 112 MPs, the Egyptian parliament has set up a committee to review the film and decide what to cut.

“This film is spreading obscenity and debauchery, which is totally against Egyptian moral values,” independent MP Mustafa Bakri told the Associated Press. “As a citizen I felt hurt when I watched it.”

The first thought that springs to mind is that MPs are probably not the best people to decide what cuts should be made to a film that criticises them, among others. Second thought is one that really should have occurred Mustafa Bakri – if you’re going to be hurt by watching a film, don’t go and watch it.

The film, which features some of Egypt’s most popular stars, is based on a novel by Cairo dentist Alaa al-Aswani which became the Arab world’s best seller and has been sold openly in Egypt for four years.

In soap opera style, the book gives a warts-and-all portrait of modern Egypt through the lives of the inhabitants of a Cairo apartment block.

There is a womanising aristocrat, a corrupt nouveau-riche politician, a young woman who is sexually harassed at work and a highly educated youth who becomes a terrorist after being turned down for a job in the police because he comes from a poor family.

The most controversial of all, though, is Hatim Rasheed, a cultured newspaper editor with a taste for Nubian men. He falls in love with a young married policeman who feels guilty about the relationship and eventually murders him.

The book – and, I assume, the film at least to some extent – blurs fiction with reality with several of the characters – including the corrupt politician and the gay editor – bearing a striking resemblance to prominent real-life Egyptians.

Homosexuality has figured in several Egyptian books and films over the years, but with the recent growth of religiousity, attitudes in the country have been hardening.

Same-sex acts are not illegal in Egypt but laws against “debauchery” and “immoral advertising” are used to bring charges.

In the popular Egyptian press, homosexuality is often portrayed as a western “disease” that can be caught from foreigners.

In 2001, more than 50 men described as “satanists” were put on trial following a police raid on the Queen Boat, a floating nightclub that was popular with gay men. They were said to have imported their “perverse ideas” from Europe.

In other cases documented by Human Rights Watch, undercover police have used the internet to entrap gay men, as well as getting informers to invite them to parties where they were arrested.

So it appears that the problem with this film is essentially that it challenges untrue populist prejudices.