Warning: This story contains sexually explicit material.
In the fall of 2011, thousands of Egyptians dressed in bandannas and draped in flags flooded Tahrir Square in one of the largest protests since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak.
Aliaa Elmahdy took a more radical approach to protest against Egypt’s transitional military leadership. She stripped down and posted the provocative photos on the Internet.
The 21-year-old became known as the nude photo revolutionary.
“The yellow rectangles on my eyes, mouth and sex organ resemble the censoring of our knowledge, expression and sexuality,” Elmahdy blogged in November 2011, her Arabic words translated by Egyptian news source Almasry Alyoum.
In January, Elmahdy followed up with more engaging posts, including artistic renderings of her naked body, information on a #NudePhotoRevolutionaries calendar, and links to a blog of an Iranian woman named Ziba Nawak who decided to take some not-safe-for-work
(NSFW) pictures herself in the name of freedom. Since then, Elmahdy has mostly kept quiet.
Then earlier this month, as the new Egyptian government was set to vote on a new constitution, Elmahdy and two other ladies returned once more, baring all. Only this time it was outside the Egyptian Embassy in Stockholm to protest against the Egyptian constitution, which “favours Islamists and tramples on the rights of women and minorities,” according to Reuters report.
The NSFW Vimeo video captures Elmahdy and two women from Femen, a feminist protest group, standing naked with phrases like “Apocalypse by murder” and “Sharia is not a constitution” written on their bodies. It has collected more than 185,000 plays and 27 comments from supporters.
“Respect and love to Aliaa and to Femen,” Erik commented on Vimeo. “i’ve been waiting for your actions for a while now. you are all amazing.”
Egypt’s new constitution was approved last week by 64 percent, Time reported. President Mohammed Morsi praised its passage as a historic moment for Egypt.
“We don’t want to return to an era of one opinion and fake, manufactured majorities,” Morsi said, according to the Associated Press. “The maturity and consciousness (of voters) heralds that Egypt has set on a path of democracy with no return “Regardless of the results, for the sake of building the nation, efforts must unite. There is no alternative to a dialogue that is now a necessity.”
Screengrab via Vimeo