Haneen Hossam, a famous Egyptian Tiktoker with more than 900,000 followers, has been sentenced to three years in prison after being accused of ‘human trafficking’ and exploiting young girls for money by encouraging them to make money through sharing live videos on different sharing platforms.
The influencer was arrested for the first time in April 2020, when she called on her women followers, inviting them to join a video-sharing platform called Likee to broadcast live videos and make a few extra bucks.
Cairo’s Economic Court accused Hossam of violating values and principles, and thus sentenced her to two years in prison and fined her 300,000 Egyptian pounds, which equates to $16,100. However, according to BBC News, an appeals court acquitted Hossam in January 2020 and she was released the following month but prosecutors then proceeded to introduce the more serious charge of human trafficking.
Later on in June, the social media sensation was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in jail; it is worthy of note that she was granted a retrial which did not turn out to be successful seeing that she still walked away with a three-year sentence and a fine worth 200,000 Egyptian pounds ($10,800).
We can’t help but think that this decision is an attack on the human right to freedom and Hossam isn’t the only female influencer who has suffered this injustice. A dozen of other digital figures in Egypt have faced the same fate for motivating girls and women to monetize their online presence, a phenomenon that takes place every day around the world without such harsh consequences.
Mai El-Sadany, who is a US-based human rights lawyer in addition to being the director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, shared her opinion on the matter in the following tweet:
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