In Egypt, Citroën withdraws an ad inciting harassment of women

For several days, the automobile company Citroën and the Egyptian star singer Amr Diab have been at the heart of a controversy. Accused of promoting the harassment of women in the Arab country most affected by this scourge, the firm withdrew an advertising clip on Thursday.

In a video spot, the 60-year-old singer, who has been the author of the summer hit for decades throughout the Arab world for decades, takes a picture of a passerby using a camera installed in his rearview mirror. In this scene, it is clear that this woman did not give her consent, which does not prevent the singer from smiling while looking at the snapshot he just stole. And then invite the woman to join him for a drive.

“How could this ad have been validated? “

Immediately, social networks took over the scene for a few seconds, in a country where, according to the Arab Barometer, around 90% of women between 18 and 39 years old said they had been harassed in 2019. “Photographing a woman without her consent is murky . You encourage sexual harassment, ”writes for example to the French company women’s rights activist Reem Abdellatif on Twitter.

“How could this ad have been validated? That is the problem. It shows that no one on the team ever wondered if this was appropriate, and no one ever thought “maybe something’s wrong here?” “, Gets carried away for his part Ahmed Tawfiikk, who writes in an Instagram post from Citroën Egypt.

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Amr Diab in the viewfinder of Internet users

In the middle of the night on Thursday, the company issued a statement. “We were informed that a scene (…) had been perceived as not appropriate,” she writes. “We have decided to withdraw this version of the advertisement (…) and we offer our sincere apologies to all the offended communities”.

Internet users continue to point the finger at the silence of Amr Diab. “People look at him like an idol and he knows very well that Egyptian women face permanent danger, it’s shocking that he did not see the problem in the scenario,” Mena, a user, loses his temper. from Twitter.

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