“Calm Confessions”. The blog of Aliaa Magda Elmahdy.

The entire Arabic internet community is on fire over the decision of young Egyptian student Aliaa Magda Elmahdy to upload a personal nude photo of herself on her blog to claim a meaningful freedom of expression. On the eve of a historic Islamist victory in the upcoming elections, this unprecedented gesture - for the Arab world - was intended to denounce the "violent, hypocritical, racist and sexist Egyptian society, where nudity is absent from art books, where painting classes are held without nude models and where ancient statues are destroyed". Friends of Aliaa, who declares herself "atheist and an atheist", fear her life may be threatened, but for now, despite all the publicity given to the nude photo, she has not been targeted by Salafists - the fundamentalist Muslims with increasing influence in the country. However, by overcoming two absolute taboos in Egyptian society - the naked body and asceticism - she has managed to rally around her a large number of young people who are suffocating in conservative Arab societies.