When Mawada Eladhm began posting videos on TikTok, she had no idea that being an online influencer in Egypt was so perilous. Despite having three million followers, she became the target of frequent derogatory comments on the popular video-sharing platform. In April, she appeared to acknowledge the situation, posting a clip showing her with dyed blue hair and lip-synching to a melancholic song from an old Egyptian TV series. The lyrics seemed to convey how she felt about her attackers: “This is a time when people have monsters deep inside their hearts.”

The next month, the nation’s Ministry of Interior issued a warrant for the 22-year-old’s arrest, accusing her of publishing videos and photographs that violated family values. Eladhm, who is the daughter of a retired policeman, fled her home in Cairo, but officers eventually found her in a suburb of the city by tracking her cellphone. She was sentenced in late July to two years in prison and fined nearly $19,000. 

Even Eladhm’s lawyer believes her to be guilty. “The police only arrested girls that misused apps,” Ahmed al-Bokheir told me during a telephone interview. “For example, girls are now using TikTok for online prostitution. These are the kind of girls that are being arrested.” 

Most of Eladhm’s videos feature her mouthing the words to pop songs or dancing to Arabic electronic music in fashionable dresses and crop tops. That wouldn’t be a crime in most countries, but in conservative Egypt she has become one of at least nine female TikTok users prosecuted in recent months on charges related to inciting debauchery and prostitution.