Egyptian authorities can’t stomach belly dancers in school

DUBAI: Two education officials from Giza were suspended on Friday by Egypt’s education authorities after footage of belly dancers performing at the school went viral.

The video shows three belly dancers performing at a party in honor of top students at Lycée Al-Haram school. The dean of the school has been suspended pending investigation, Azza Shaaban, a spokesman for the Education Ministry, said in a statement. He added that the ministry’s undersecretary for the school district has also been suspended for attending the event.

“Hiring belly dancers to perform inside a school is a matter that violates traditions and educational rules,” the spokesman said.

Shaaban added that the ongoing inquiry’s findings will be sent to Education Minister Tareq Shawqi, who will “take the necessary measures.”

The school apologized in an online statement, calling its decision to book belly dancers for the party an “error.”

Last year, a video that purported to show images of a belly dancer on an LED screen hung over an Egyptian mosque caused outrage on social media when media outlet Mekameleen TV shared it to Facebook.

News outlet Youm7 reported that the featured building was the Sultan Al-Ashraf Qaytbay mosque in Cairo but added that the head of the Islamic and Coptic Monuments Department, Saeed Helmy Ezzat, claimed the video was fake.