Egyptian security forces have arrested a pastry chef who provided cupcakes with penis decorations for a private birthday party at a sports club in a wealthy Cairo neighborhood.
In the latest example of the Egyptian state’s attempts to control public morality, which tends to target women, the female chef was arrested at home after partygoers shared photos of cupcakes with Gezira club members and social media.
State media reported that security forces identified the baker after taking statements from eyewitnesses.
The case came to the attention of the Minister for Youth and Sports, Dr. Ashraf Sobhy, who oversees clubs such as Gezira. Sobhy said his department would form a committee to investigate the incident and punish the alleged perpetrators.
The bakery was questioned by the same court that recently tried Egyptian actor Rania Youssef on charges of “contempt for Islam and violation of the values of the Egyptian family,” after commenting on his own physique during a television program.
Earlier this month, two influential TikTok women who served prison sentences last year for “violating family values” and harming public morals were acquitted.
In June 2020, the famous belly dancer Sama El Masry was imprisoned for three years and fined 300,000 Egyptian pounds (the equivalent of 14,025 pounds) for violating family values and “immorality”.
Egyptian tabloids enjoyed posting photos of cupcakes with faded offensive decorations. Egypt’s largest state newspaper, Al Ahram, described the garments as “indecent and immoral.”
Timothy E Kaldas of the Tahrir Institute for Middle Eastern Politics said: “At one level it is difficult not to be initially struck by the absurdity of penis cupcakes that attract the attention of state prosecutors, police investigators, members of parliament and regime-controlled press. At the root of the problem is not banning sexuality in the public sphere, but restricting sexuality that is beyond the control of men. ”
Al Masry Al Youm reported that the pastry chef cried when he arrived at a prosecutor’s office in Cairo. According to the newspaper, she told interrogators that the club’s owners “came to my store and handed me pictures of my genitals and asked me for cakes in these forms.”
After questioning the prosecutors, the baker was released on bail of EGP 5,000 (GBP 233).