People who took to the streets in Egypt for an online dance challenge face penalties over allegations they endangered lives and contravened public decency laws, state media reported on Tuesday.
The dance craze flared up social media networks with video postings of people dancing in response to the so-called “Kiki challenge” to the song In My Feelings by Canadian singer Drake.
The challenge was initiated by an Instagram comedian known as the TheShiggyShow.
It involved people getting out of their cars and dancing to the song alongside the cars’ open door.
Videos of Egyptian celebrities, including popular goalkeeper Essam al-Hadary, as well as actresses Dina al-Sherbini and Yasmin Raees, went viral on the hashtag “Kiki”, now among the top trending hashtags in Egypt.
Some Egyptian dance enthusiasts went a step further, posting clips of themselves dancing to Egyptian songs.
A user posted a photograph of a man running alongside an overcrowded public bus, trying to catch it, with the caption reading: “We have another kiki challenge in Egypt.”
However, Egyptian officials were alarmed by the dancing spree.
The Middle East News Agency cited a warning by an unnamed Egyptian Ministry of the Interior official as saying the “Kiki challenge” dancers could be persecuted for contravening a traffic law.
The ministry official did not elaborate.
Local media said charges under the traffic law, including endangering lives and traffic disruption, can be punished by sentences of up to a year in prison and fines of up to 3,000 Egyptian pounds (US$167).
Religious officials viewed the challenge as a threat to the nation’s “long entrenched values and ethics.”
“The dance, which has spread like wildfire, violates social norms and ethics,” said Ahmed al-Malki, a researcher at al-Azhar, Sunni Muslim’s foremost religious institution. “The state has an inherent right to protect its citizens from whatever it views as harmful to them.”
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