(AP) An Egyptian court sentenced several young women to two years in prison Monday for posting indecent dance videos on TikTok in a fraught case that critics describe as a further crackdown on self-expression in the conservative society.
The prosecution statement named just two of the defendants 20-year-old student Haneen Hossam and 22-year-old Mawada Eladhm and said the other three helped run their social media accounts.
Both women recently vaulted to TikTok fame, amassing millions of followers for their video snippets set to catchy Egyptian club-pop tracks.
But their social media stardom became their undoing in Egypt, where citizens can land in prison for vague crimes such as misusing social media, disseminating fake news, or inciting debauchery and immorality.Eladhms lawyer, Ahmed el-Bahkeri, confirmed the sentencing.
A widely circulated online petition described the arrests as a systematic crackdown that targets low-income women, and urged authorities to free the nine young women detained in recent months for posting TikTok videos.