EgyptAir to analyse its inflight movies

Published on 25/01/2013 00:00

Egypt’s national airline has said it will analyse its inflight movies to make sure they respect “Egyptian values and customs”, ­following a complaint by a Muslim Brotherhood member during a flight.

EgyptAir said the film had been turned off at the request of Ahmed Fahmy, the speaker of Egypt’s upper house of parliament and a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party.

In a statement, EgyptAir said he had “expressed reservations about one of the scenes” in the movie.

The statement did not name the film, but local media identified it as Arees Mama, or Mother’s Suitor, a decades-old movie starring the Egyptian actress Nelly. Al-Masry Al-Youm, a newspaper, said Mr Fahmy had taken offence at scenes of intimacy.

The case is likely to fuel concerns about the extent to which the Muslim Brotherhood, which propelled president Mohamed Morsi to power in an election last year, could use its new position of power to curb freedom of expression.