The Return of Khaled Youssef : The elephants in the room

Famous Egyptian director and former MP Khaled Youssef returned back from Paris after nearly two years of self-exile following his sex-related scandal in winter 2019.

Since his return to Cairo, he is hailed in the Egyptian mainstream media as this great opposition figure who is patriotic enough to oppose the country locally and not from abroad. 

Already his return is regarded on how things are shifting Cairo and more spaces are being given to opposition and its figures. "Ironically, Youssef is Nasserite and those guys I do not really consider as true opposition considering their main icon is the source of authoritarianism in the country so far" 

Youssef was busy doing interviews whether on MBC Masr or news websites praising the change in the country in the past two years.

An edited photo of Khaled Youssef in Alamein earlier this month

Ironically Youssef returned back to Egypt briefly last March to mourn his brother who passed away and participated in his funeral then returned back to Paris.

He is also busy professionally as he announced that h had plans with the United Media Service to direct a historical film about the 1973 war as well as a TV series aside from his film he was inspired to make about Arab women expats in Paris. 

Now I do not have any problem with his return but I got a problem that since his return he did not even bother to speak a word about those women who were involved with him in that sex scandal that no one speaks about publicly anymore. 

Till now he did not apologize or speak a word to support those ladies who were detained pending investigation as he was in Paris.

The only woman he spoke about fondly is his wife, who to be honest had to face hell with his ongoing drama from time to time.

Ironically as far as I remember those ladies including young actresses told and presented proof to the prosecution while the investigations that they were his wives.

Now, if they were his ex-wives then it is from decency to speak about them too with respect and in support especially after the hell, they have been through whether officially or unofficially.

Those ladies were publicly lynched in the media and social media.

They were detained 15 days pending ongoing investigations on charges of prostitution, inciting debauchery and obscenity online before release !!

I won’t say that their lives had been destroyed because their life went on. One of them married a  footballer and the other continued in Showbiz but the stain is still there as they were the weakest link in the whole affair. 

Interestingly he did not even speak about the other elephants in the room either aka on why those videos were made or how or why they were smuggled or whether he used his position as well known director to stalk young actresses as claimed.

Most of the so-called leftist, liberals and Nasserite figures are hailing his return but do not dare to address those elephants in the room sadly.

Already a bunch of those figures met last week and they faced hell from feminists and other activists who did not like this hero reception for someone who did not care for others. 

Some of them justified their visit to Youssef while others boldly defended him “The Nasserites”

I know some of those figures always give us lectures day and night about how misogynistic the Islamists are especially the Salafists accusing them of looking to women as a piece of meat.

I do not see any difference.

Ironically Pro-regime supporters gave them hell too online for supporting a so-called womanizer/immoral pervert like Youssef proving that those so-opposition figures are dirty bastards that should not be trusted 

Politicians and activists must not be selfish and must respect other people especially if they claim to take the people’s side, the women’s side; if they claim to be defenders of human rights.

Khaled Youssef is a human and he makes mistakes as well as sins too, it is good that he admits that his current wife is a hero to stuck around all this time but he owes to those ex-wives, even if they were flings an apology before playing the martyr or the leader role.

Anyhow it seems to be that the #MeToo moment in the Egyptian cinema has not fully come yet.