When an egyptian journo asked leo “what about your Oscar?”

In early 2014, a then unknown Mona Al Beheiri set the Internet ablaze with her impassioned plea to Obama, requesting him to shut up his ‘mouse’. Al Beheiri, in imperfect English, made her case on camera: “Listen your Obama, we are Egyptian women. You are, listen Obama, Shut up your mouse (mouth), shut up your mouse Obama! Sisi, yes, Sisi, yes. Morsi, no, Morsi, no.” This, of course, gave the hecklers something to work with, and if you search for ‘Shut up Your Mouse Obama’ online, hilarious remixes pop up. Egyptians were both embarrassed as well as amused. Then, al-Beheiri came to Dubai. In May 2014, she was a star at the Arab Women’s Forum at Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai. was at the event where she was received with wild applause. When Beheiri then took the microphone, she received an even more enthusiastic response. Yes, there were critics, even in the audience that day — one who stood up and called her ignorant to her face. To which she said, “I apologise. But I am not ignorant. My English may not be good but I know what is happening to my country, and I have a right to object.” Who cares about the parodies online, Beheiri basically won our hearts that day. First-time Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio was stumped earlier this year at the Academy Awards when a young Egyptian journalist — who made it a point to mention that she was the first from the country to cover the Academy Awards ceremony — asked him a hanging-in-the-air question. “I’m a first Egyptian journalist covering Oscars from here, and what about the first Oscars for you?” Abdel Moneim asked DiCaprio. The actor, who finally won for looked mighty amused. “For your Oscar,” the journalist repeated. “Yeah, it feels amazing,” DiCaprio said. The room filled with laughter. Social media exploded. Egyptians came down heavily on her for being ill-prepared. Of course, the clip trended wildly on Twitter. nivriti @khaleejtimes.com