It didn’t take long for internet users to become incensed over an advertisement posted online by Citroën, as reported by the Huff Post. The ad refers to the C4 model driven by the country’s pop star, Amr Diab. With more than 30 albums released by him, Amr Diab, dubbed the “father of Mediterranean music”, is very popular in Egypt, but he is now at the focus of controversy, as is the French car manufacturer.
In this video, while driving his car, he uses a camera in his rear-view mirror to photograph a female pedestrian walking past his bonnet. He then invites her to get into his car. The problem is that this performance allegedly encourages harassment of women. In any case, the Egyptian-American journalist and women’s rights activist Reem Abdellatif has denounced this. She called the ads “appalling” and said, “Photographing a woman without her consent is disgusting. You are encouraging sexual harassment,” referring to Citroën.
The commercial is all the more controversial because, according to the Arab Barometer cited by the Huff Post, 90% of women aged 18 to 39 said they had already been harassed. “Who would have thought it would be a good idea to make a commercial admitting sexual harassment in a country where 98% of women said they had been harassed at some point in their lives?” said Reem Abdellatif. For his part, book author Ahmed Tawfiikk still wonders how the film crews did not realise that the message was not “appropriate”.
In view of the extent of the controversy, Citroën reacted on the night of Wednesday to Thursday December the 30th. The French car manufacturer decided to remove “this version of the commercial” and apologised “sincerely to all offended populations”. Citroën also regrets “the misinterpretation of this clip”. Amr Diab himself is under fire for remaining silent. However, in July, the penalties for sexual harassment in the country were strengthened.
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