A famous belly dancer has been put in prison. A court in Egypt sentenced Sama el-Masry to three years behind bars. It also fined her about $18,500. The police arrested her in April. They charged her with immorality after she posted videos on the website TikTok. The videos showed her doing various belly dances. Egypt is cracking down on social media posts. Officials accused Ms El-Masry of posting "immoral" pictures and videos on her social media accounts. They said she was guilty of breaking Egypt's morals because the videos were "sexually suggestive".
Sama el-Masry is 42 years old. She is a belly dancer and an actress. She starred in three big movies. One of them was about the unfair treatment of female workers. It created a lot of debate in Egypt about the rights of women in the workplace. She also got a lot of criticism in the past for posting videos about her political views. One of the videos mocked former US President Barack Obama. A women's rights lawyer who defended Ms El-Masry said: "Our conservative society is struggling with technological changes which have created a completely different environment."