‘Sexual cupcakes’ in Cairo club trigger social media controversy, authorities react

CAIRO – 18 January 2021: Photos circulated on social media earlier this month showed a group of ladies in a famous club in Cairo eating cupcakes decorated with a 3D shape of genitals.

The pâtissier was arrested.

Social media users in Egypt have expressed outrage and authorities immediately acted, given that sculpting genitals or drawing naked pictures are viewed by most of people in the Arab country as highly unacceptable.

On January 10, a group of ladies gathered in the Gezira Sporting Club in the capital, to celebrate the birthday of one of them.

The cupcakes they brought were decorated with a 3D shape of male organs.

Pictures taken during the celebration found its way to social media and appeared, perhaps firstly, on a Facebook page carrying the club’s name. Amid public outrage, the page deleted the photos but could not prevent them from being published on other pages.

Social media users’ stances varied, with many of them defending the incident as “freedom”, others have fiercely attacked the club members involved and others mocked it.

سيدات كبار في السن اردن ان يكسرن روتين الحياه عملوا حفله صغيره علي اداهم مع بعضهم وجابو جاتوه علي شكل اعضاء جنسيه .واحد صورهم ونزل الصور نادي الجزيره وقف عضويتهم وناس قدمت بلاغات للنائب العام مش في الشخص اللي انتهك خصوصيتهن ..لا في السيدات انفسهن .

— Negad El Borai (@negadelborai) January 18, 2021

Lawyer Negad thinks those who took the photos and published them are those who should have been attacked and sued, not the club members involved in the incident.

انا مش فاهمة ليه الضجة دي عادي يعني ستات و ب ت have fun من غير ما يأذوا حد عادي مفروض مكنش يبقى public بس حصل و خلاص ايه الي حصل يعني دنيا اتهدت خلاص كل مشاكل مصر خلصت وجايين ماسكين في ده #نادي_الجزيره

— Lina (@linamoahmed21) January 18, 2021

Lina thinks people’s response on the incident was too much for the incident.

والله العظيم انا كل اللى مجننى الناس اللى بتدافع عن حيزابونات #نادي_الجزيره وبيقولوا خصوصية.. الخصوصية فى ببتهم مش فى العلن إن بُليتم فاستتروا

— ☞𝕲𝖍𝖆𝖉𝖆☜ ⁦♠️البديل⁩⁦♠️⁩ (@Zeronote2gmail1) January 18, 2021

Ghada criticizes those defending the women involved, saying that this kind of freedom should be only exercised in private places.

In response, police arrested the pastry chef, a woman, who made the cakes from her home in Cairo. Reportedly, she used her house to make this kind of cakes.

The Ministry of Youth ordered the formation of a legal committee to investigate the crisis and is set to announce the consequent decisions after a meeting on Wednesday.

Among the shocking images circulated on social media was a photo for the famous Egyptian swimmer, Soheir Al-Attar, 78, also a professor at the Faculty of Medicine, eating one of the cakes.