The Arab regimes just don't do humour do they? .....
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| Helwan Battle Memes |
...... In Egypt, what started as a joke argument between two friendly facebook users about which of them was 'the real Batman,' has resulted in the arrest of the two plus two other organisers of a joke fight in costume.
It all started when the two men jokingly each claimed that they were the 'real batman' and a third user suggested that he was the 'real batman', and suggested that they set up a 'battle royale' and "fight a battle" in Cairo's Helwan district on the night of the 13th of August to "solve this issue". Soon tens of others claimed that they were the 'real batman' and vowed to attend to decide who was the 'real batman.'
So the "Helwan Real Batman Battle" was agreed in front of Helwan Metro station, and the the event's description "Whoever is still alive is the real Batman," became a catchy tag on Facebook. It soon spawned a tidal wave of memes, jokes and quotes, plus a tik tok film, and even attracted reactions from Egyptian celebrities who enjoyed the joke ....
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| Helwan Hospitals Got In To The Spirit Of The Joke |
...... even the local hospital memed that they were ready. The joke soon spread over the Arab world ....
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| Iraqi Batman Gutted To Miss Battle Royal |
Until a regime little butt lick called Lamis Elhadidy, an Egyptian TV presenter on the pro-government satellite channels CBC and ONTV, decided to sound warnings on the event.
Firstly she decided to link the events chosen date to the ninth anniversary of the bloody crackdown that followed the militaries overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi and raised Sisi to power. She acknowledge that it had started as a joke, but warned her viewers against "taking such things lightly." She also pointed out that no application for a permit from the authorities for the event had been made, which made it illegal if more than ten people attended.
Helwan has been the scene of some regime resistance, with the terrorist “Helwan Brigades” based there. Recently the Security Criminal Court sentence 10 to death and 56 others to life imprisonment for carrying out premeditated deadly attacks on police personnel and civilians, while under orders from these brigades.
Despite popular beliefs to the contrary in Egypt, social media is monitored by an interior ministry department, 24 hours a day in the country. So the authorities arrested the four men and charged them with "planning a riot" and "using reactions... to make money" ... the four could face fines and or jail terms if convicted ... a harsh price for an innocent joke in Egypt.
Too many Westerners don't realise when they holiday in countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, or Turkey what these regimes really are. In any of them, arbitrary arrest without due process or false charges can be laid before compliant courts.
ReplyDeleteYou people should think more before going on holidays about who or what your tourist money supports.
Your right of course, but people just want cheap holidays and don't care about the politics of that. Tourists are generally treated better than locals by the police/court .... unless you insult the president e.g. In Turkey/Egypt etc. For myself, I stopped going to Turkey when I saw the nature of the Islamic regime (and have never been to Egypt, Tunisia etc).
DeleteThanks for thought provoking comment.