Last week, Mat Nashed reported on how the Egyptian authorities are targeting young female social media influencers.

Mawada Eladhm and Hanin Hossam are just two of at least nine young women in the country to have recently received prison terms and heavy fines for posting videos on platforms including TikTok and Instagram.

All were charged with “violating family values” and inciting debauchery under a controversial cybercrime bill passed by the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in August 2018. This week, the Egyptian state went one step further, passing an order from the prosecutor general and a Cairo criminal court to freeze Eladhm and Hossam’s funds.

“When it comes to Egypt, the issue is the cybercrime law that is extending and legalizing the oppression of the state towards its own citizens from the physical space to online,” said Mohamad Najem, executive director of the Middle East and North Africa digital rights NGO SMEX.