Lectured by Sisi on body weight, Egyptians respond with jokes

CAIRO: Egyptians on social media have been poking fun at comments from President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi calling out Egyptians for being overweight – the second time the former general has picked up on the subject in as many months.

When Health Minister Hala Zayed presented new numbers on the weight of Egyptians on Saturday, Sisi interrupted her.

“Why are we doing this to ourselves?” Sisi asked from the audience, refering to Egypt’s high obesity rate.

He then spoke for almost 20 minutes about how Egytians should exercise more.

Since then, memes imagining a security crackdown on corpulence have multiplied.

One pictured a woman being taken away by a police officer and telling him: “What’s wrong? I only gained two kilos.” — Reuters

Of about 17 million Egyptians who had their height and weight measured in a hepatitis C campaign, around 75 per cent were found to be overweight, Zayed said in her presentation.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says that 63 per cent of Egyptians are overweight, including nearly 36 per cent who are obese, one of the highest rates in the world.

Sisi said he sometimes sees obese people and thinks: “Why is she not taking care of herself?” and “can you walk like that?”

Nearly 30 per cent of Egypt’s population, which now numbers 98 million, live under the poverty line.