The Ismailiya Economic Court has set Sept. 16 for its verdict in the case against Basant Rahmy, a 24-year-old former Cairo Opera House ballet dancer and performing artist accused of “misusing social media and undermining the values of the Egyptian family.”
In her first comments since the verdict date was set Rahmy described to her shock to Al Manassa, as she was turned from “a victim who asked for protection into a defendant whose life and mental health have been destroyed,” noting that when she went to the police for help, they detained her instead.
The case dates back to last May, when Rahmy posted a video appealing to the Ministry of Interior after she was assaulted by a fellow dancer in her performance troupe at a hotel in Sharm El-Sheikh
At the time, Rahmy went to the police station to file a report over the assault, only to be blindsided when officers confiscated her phone and detained her. The colleague who had attacked her had gotten there first, accusing Rahmy of posting indecent dance videos to her TikTok account.
The assault case was eventually settled through reconciliation. But Rahmy then found herself under investigation in a separate report, filed against her by a criminal investigations officer who attached roughly 25 videos and photos pulled from her personal Facebook and TikTok accounts, accusing her of “misusing social media and undermining the values of the Egyptian family.”
The Public Prosecution ordered her held for four days, pending investigation, before an appeals judge later released her on bail of 5,000 Egyptian pounds (84$).
Rahmy told Al Manassa she couldn’t hide her anxiety at having to wait two more weeks for the case to be resolved, when she had expected acquittal at the very first hearing. “This has dragged on for far too long, and I just wanted it to end. My nerves have been shattered these past few months, and it’s only gotten worse as the hearings got closer.”
Three months on, it’s clear from talking to Rahmy that she still has not recovered from what happened.
She denied the interior ministry’s claim, made in a statement announcing legal action against her, that she had profited from the videos, saying she showed the prosecutor her phone to prove she had no e-wallet and no TikTok earnings at all. The videos, she explained to Al Manassa, were posted purely to promote her work and her art.
Rahmy was baffled by accusations that, in her view, do not fit the nature of her work at all. “There’s a misunderstanding. Some people took me for a belly dancer and left comments like ‘you deserve what happened to you!’”
“With all due respect to belly dancers — and I completely reject the idea that their profession justifies violating their privacy or searching them — I dance ballet, classical, and folk dance, which is part of this country’s heritage. Egypt’s heritage.”
She pointed out that she has taken part in official state events before, including the opening ceremony of the Grand Egyptian Museum. “So why is this happening to me? The beach videos are just ordinary clips…the kind every girl posts. And if swimsuits are banned, why isn’t everyone else who wears one to the beach getting arrested?”
Rahmy at the Grand Egyptian Museum opening ceremony, November 2, 2025Fabrication
Fatma Serag, the lawyer representing Rahmy on behalf of the “the Law and Her” initiative, said the defense laid out substantive arguments for acquittal at trial. Chief among them: proof of Rahmy’s university enrollment, certificates of appreciation from Cairo University and various arts festivals, and documentation of her work with the Opera House’s performing-arts troupe between 2023 and 2025.
Serag told Al Manassa she had also disproven the interior ministry’s claim that Rahmy profited from the TikTok videos: investigations by the criminal investigations department found no e-wallets linked to any platform on her accounts. Just nine hundred Egyptian pounds (about $18) in a VodafoneCash wallet, she explained.
“We used that trivial sum to refute the accusation,” Serag added. “It doesn’t make sense that someone would earn just nine hundred pounds from posting dozens of videos.”
Rahmy’s lawyer said her defense also hinged on exposing fabrications and contradictions in Rahmy’s arrest report. “The report claimed Basant was arrested at the Delta Sharm tourist village, when in fact she was apprehended inside the Sharm El-Sheikh police station, while she was filing a report against the very colleague who’d reported her to the police. We also argued that the search of her phone and accounts was invalid, since it wasn’t authorized in advance by the Public Prosecution, and was carried out by an investigations officer without any specialized technicians involved.”
Serag believes the case reflects a wider pattern of targeting women online through vague accusations tied to “morals and values.”
“We keep seeing the same phrase come up in these investigation reports, and that the arrest was part of a targeted Interior Ministry campaign to monitor female content creators,” she said. “That tells us we’re looking at a systematic campaign, not isolated incidents.”
She also criticized Article 25 of the Anti-Cybercrime Law, which covers “violations of the values of the Egyptian family,” calling it unconstitutionally vague and a tool of intimidation, echoing earlier calls from rights groups for the prosecution and the interior ministry to stop pursuing content creators.
While hoping for an acquittal, Serag said she has no way of predicting the verdict and is prepared for any outcome, including conviction. “We’ll appeal, and Basant will still have two more levels of litigation open to her,” she said.
Rahmy, for her part, is hoping for a not-guilty verdict that puts an end to what she calls her ordeal.
“I just want my life back, and to see my future. I’ve signed on for a new play opening soon in Cairo, and the first thing I’ll do once I’m acquitted is go to the beach. I feel like my freedom is restricted even outside the cell.”
