Samia Ahmed Attia Abdel Rahman Hadaka, () known as Sama Elmasry, is an Egyptian actress, singer and belly dancer.

Career

She began to work at Mehwar TV Channel following her graduation from the Faculty of Arts and has also appeared in three cinema films since 2008.

Controversies

The 2011 film ''Ala Wahda We Nos (على واحدة ونص), written by Sama and also featuring Sama in the lead role and in criticism of the sexual exploitation of female media workers, was condemned by various segments of the Egyptian society.

Al-Azhar Al-Azhar Mosque (), known in Egypt simply as al-Azhar, is a mosque in Cairo, Egypt in the historic Islamic core of the city. Commissioned as the new capital of the Fatimid Caliphate in 970, it was the first mosque established in a city that ...

called on spectators to boycott the film for its allegedly obscene content and the journalists' union claimed that the film was degrading the profession. Action was taken by Sayed Khatab, the head of the Censorship Board of Artistic Works on the call of the journalists' union and a "revised" edition could be released by 14 March 2012. By 2013, Sama started to produce satirical

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

videos in criticism of the FJP government,

Muslim Brotherhood The Society of the Muslim Brothers ('' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar, Imam and schoolteacher Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Al-Banna's teachings s ...

, and other Islamist factions and with her fourth video, featuring her wearing a

headscarf A headscarf is a scarf covering most or all of the top of a person's, usually women's, hair and head, leaving the face uncovered. A headscarf is formed of a triangular cloth or a square cloth folded into a triangle, with which the head is cov ...

and also a

niqab A niqāb, niqab, or niqaab (; ), also known as a ruband () or rubandah (), is a long garment worn by some Muslim women in order to cover their entire body and face, excluding their eyes. It is an interpretation in Islam of the concept of ...

, she received death threats, because she was, "as a hooker, making fun of

hijab Hijab (, ) refers to head coverings worn by Women in Islam, Muslim women. Similar to the mitpaḥat/tichel or Snood (headgear), snood worn by religious married Jewish women, certain Christian head covering, headcoverings worn by some Christian w ...

". Sama gained international notoriety when her video criticising

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

's policy towards Egypt and declaring support for the stance of

Abdel Fattah el-Sisi Abdel Fattah Saeed Hussein Khalil El-Sisi (born 19 November 1954) is an Egyptian politician and retired military officer who has been serving as the sixth and current president of Egypt since 2014. After the 2011 Egyptian revolution and 201 ...

went viral on the Internet in early August 2013. In April 2014, she was detained "pending an investigation into an unlicensed television channel allegedly owned by her." This was because she had made a video mocking

Mortada Mansour Mortada Ahmed Mohamed Mansour (; born 17 June 1952 in Cairo) is an Egyptian lawyer who served as president of Zamalek SC in several tenures. Education and politics Mansour studied law at Ain Shams University, and graduated in 1974. He later work ...

, the head of the

Zamalek Zamalek ( , ''al zamalek'') is a ''qism'' (ward) within the West District (''hayy gharb'') in the Western Area of Cairo, Egypt. It is an affluent district on a man-made island which is geologically a part of the west bank of the Nile River, wit ...

sports club, whether because she disliked him, or because he briefly planned to run for president against al-Sisi. She sings "Ya Mortada, Ya Mortada" to the tune of the Arabo-Turkish song, "Ya Mustafa" with some suggestive lyrics, first in a long gown and then in a Zamalek football team t-shirt and playing with a soccer ball. She also mocked comedian Bassem Youssef. She was fined, but returned to the celebrity circuit and more outrageous videos. On 23 April 2020, she was sued for libel and defamation by an Egyptian TV presenter Reham Saeed. On the next day, she was arrested. On 27 June 2020, she was sentenced to serve three years in jail, and obligation to pay 300 thousand Egyptian pounds.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Masry, Sama 1976 births Living people Egyptian television actresses Egyptian film actresses People from Sharqia Governorate Egyptian female dancers Egyptian belly dancers