People’s reactions upset me: “Disobedient Waleed” Photoshopper

CAIRO – 28 March 2018: “We always joke this way. People have never exaggerated it before. I swear [Egyptian] people are naive. They just publish anything,” Mohamed Al-Sherif, who Photoshopped the “Disobedient Waleed Al-Sherif” picture told Egypt Today.

“Disobedient Waleed Al-Sherif,” Egypt’s funniest and most circulated picture on social media outlets in the past days of a pro-Abdel Fatah al-Sisi banner was recently discovered to be Photoshopped.

The Photoshopped image is of a family banner that shows one of its members Waleed, who taints his family name for not supporting Sisi in the election.

Mohamed Al-Sherif, who created the picture, said he was just joking with his cousin, and he was disappointed of people’s reactions. “I got upset, and I think Waleed got upset too. People insulted him. This is bad.”



Sherif explained that the joke was just meant to be circulated among their family members. However, someone, perhaps not a Facebook friend, downloaded the picture and published it for a wide audience of viewers, Sherif said.

Sherif’s followers increased from some 1,000 followers, according to him, to more than 11,400, following the published picture. Sherif said that many people have chatted with him and asked him questions about his job. “This made me happy,” he said. However, he added that many people have insulted him after he said that it was just a joke.

"Disobedient Waleed" later posted on his Facebook a picture of his inked finger, saying jokingly, "they want to drive a wedge between us, Mr. President; I swear I voted for you.”

Although Waleed’s post was public, it disappeared from his timeline in the past few hours. Egypt Today could not determine whether the post was deleted or whether the user’s privacy settings have been changed, as attempts to contact Waleed have failed.

Sherif said that Waleed voted even before the secret was revealed. He added that people’s insults were because of the joke, not for being a Sisi supporter.