Egyptian actresses trolled over niqab, bikini photos

Egyptian actresses Nelly Karim (R) and Hala Shiha. (Photo courtesy: social media)
Updated 29 August 2017
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Egyptian actresses trolled over niqab, bikini photos

CAIRO: Egyptian actresses Nelly Karim and Hala Shiha have been criticized over pictures they posted on social media, slamming them for what they were wearing.
Karim was recently shamed for posting a picture of herself wearing a bikini on the beach. While this week, former actress Shiha is said to have been criticized after sharing the first picture of her wearing an Islamic face veil or niqab. 
“When actors post pictures on their personal social media accounts, they understand that those platforms are public and thus, should be prepared that a backlash may follow,” Art critic Magda Khairallah said in comments to Arab News.  
Bikini backlash 
Trolls began posting comments aimed at Karim when she shared a photo of her holidaying at one of Egypt’s Red Sea resorts earlier this month. 
Despite a non-provocative pose and showing little of her body, some users said Karim should not have posted the image at all.
 

 

A post shared by Nelly Karim (@nellykarim_official) on

Comments included: “We did not expect that from a star like you,” while another said: “I used to respect you, why did you do this?” and: “why are you wearing a bikini?” 
But some also defended her, saying she was free to wear what she wanted, adding that she “looked beautiful,” and telling her to ignore the criticism. 
Niqab controversy  
Meanwhile Shiha, who quit acting several years ago to focus on religion, shared a photo on Facebook of her wearing the niqab. 
Shiha shared the photo after being out of the public eye for several years, sparking backlash among users who questioned her wearing it.  
Some users began attacking her, saying she looked like a “trash bag.” Others were skeptical about her identity, because her face was covered. 
In response Shiha asked users to avoid the hatred and negativity.
She had quit acting years ago while at the peak of her career. She first decided to wear the headscarf in her 2006 film “Kamil El Awsaf.” 
At the time, fans embraced her new appearance. Later Shiha left the acting scene and traveled to the United States where she preaches Islam.
Public trolling
Art critic Khairallah said actors should be ready to accept all kinds of reactions when sharing posts with the public. 
“Social media for actors would allow them to better promote themselves to reach a wider audience, if done right.” 
“I personally think that Karim’s picture was normal, given that she was wearing what people usually do on the beach,” Khairallah said. 
“But some people are not aware of the fine line between an actor’s lifestyle and beliefs in their private life, and try too hard to force their opinions on them.”   
And the critic said fans may have been surprised by Shiha’s decision to post a picture of her wearing a niqab in public. 
Khairallah said several actresses in Egypt who had quit their careers and were veiled, had since disappeared from the media appearances.  
“People may have reacted that way because they are suspicious towards the message she could be trying to convey through her photo, questioning the timing and the purpose.”
“But throwing impolite comments at her the way we saw is definitely unacceptable.” 


Couples tie the knot during a festival on an Amsterdam ring road

Updated 21 June 2025
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Couples tie the knot during a festival on an Amsterdam ring road

  • “It just seemed like super fun idea,” Lisowska said
  • “It’s a nice party we didn’t have to organize,” said Iozzelli

AMSTERDAM: Securing a coveted slot to exchange wedding rings on Amsterdam’s usually traffic-choked ring road seemed like a good omen for Zuzanna Lisowska and Yuri Iozzelli’s future life together.

“It just seemed like super fun idea,” Lisowska said. “And, you know, statistics were on our side. There were 400 couples who wanted to do it, so we feel really lucky to have been chosen.”

Friends and total strangers cheered and clapped as they told each other “I do!” as part of a day-long festival on parts of the A10 highway that circles the Dutch capital closed to traffic for the day.

“It’s a nice party we didn’t have to organize,” said Iozzelli.

Their only regret was not being able to bring their pet rabbit. “It was too hot,” Lisowska said after exchanging rings with Iozzelli.

The city that is known for partying said that some 600,000 people tried to get access to the ring road festival last month when more than 200,000 free tickets were made available.

Curious city folk, from parents pushing strollers to students and grandparents, stopped to watch the weddings and enjoyed the one-off opportunity to see the road without the usual cacophony of cars.

Among them was communications student Kyra Smit.

“It’s really fun because it’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” she said. “It’s so fun that you can say to people, wow, I’m married on the rings, so I really like this.”

The day was packed with events from music performances to readings, meetups and a fun run, shortened because of the heat. Organizers even placed a temporary forest of more than 8,000 trees on the blacktop.

The municipality laid on extra water taps and places where revellers could slap on sun block as temperatures soared to 30 degrees Celsius (86F) and upwards on the road surface.

The city’s official birthday is Oct. 27, reflecting the first time a variant of its name was used in an official document, and is staging celebratory events in the year leading up to that date. The festival on the ring road is the biggest so far and gave Amsterdam residents a new view of their ring road.

“It’s quite strange because normally you drive here and now you’re walking, so that’s a totally different situation,” said Marjolein de Bruijne, who works close to the A10.


Indians stretch, breathe and balance to mark International Day of Yoga

Updated 21 June 2025
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Indians stretch, breathe and balance to mark International Day of Yoga

  • Yoga is one of India’s most successful cultural exports after Bollywood

NEW DELHI: Tens of thousands of people across India stretched in public parks and on sandy beaches Saturday to mark the 11th International Day of Yoga.
The mass yoga sessions were held in many Indian states, where crowds attempted various poses and practiced breathing exercises. Indian military personnel also performed yoga in the icy heights of Siachen Glacier in the Himalayas and on naval ships anchored in the Bay of Bengal.
Similar sessions were planned in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia.
“I feel that yoga keeps us spiritually fit, mentally fit and helps us manage stress. That’s why I feel that people should take out at least 30 minutes every day for yoga to keep themselves fit,” said Rajiv Ranjan, who participated in an event in the Indian capital of New Delhi.
Yoga is one of India’s most successful cultural exports after Bollywood. It has also been enlisted for diplomacy under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has harnessed it for cultural soft power as the country takes on a larger role in world affairs.
Modi persuaded the UN to designate the annual International Day of Yoga in 2014. The theme this year was “Yoga for One Earth, One Health.”
Modi performed yoga among a seaside crowd in the southern city of Visakhapatnam city, and said “Yoga leads us on a journey toward oneness with world.” Amid a checkerboard of yoga mats covering the beach, Modi took his spot on a mat and did breathing exercises, backbends and other poses.
“Let this Yoga Day mark the beginning of Yoga for humanity 2.0, where inner peace becomes global policy,” he said.
As Modi has pushed yoga, ministers, government officials and Indian military personnel have gone on social media to show themselves folding in different poses.
In capital New Delhi, scores of people from all walks of life and age groups gathered at the sprawling Lodhi Gardens, following an instructor on stage.
“Yoga for me is like balancing between inner world and outer world,” said Siddharth Maheshwari, a startup manager who joined the event.


Netherlands returns 119 looted artifacts known as Benin Bronzes to Nigeria

Updated 20 June 2025
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Netherlands returns 119 looted artifacts known as Benin Bronzes to Nigeria

ABUJA, Nigeria: The Netherlands on Thursday returned 119 artifacts looted from Nigeria, including human and animal figures, plaques, royal regalia and a bell.
The artifacts, known as the Benin Bronzes and mostly housed in a museum in the city of Leiden, were looted in the late 19th century by British soldiers.
In recent years, museums across Europe and North America have moved to address ownership disputes over artifacts looted during the colonial era. They were returned at the request of Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments.
During the handover ceremony in Edo State, Oba Ewuare II, the monarch and custodian of Benin culture, described the return of the artifacts as a “divine intervention.” The Benin Bronzes were returned at the request of Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments.
The restitution is a testament to the power of prayer and determination, the monarch said.
The Dutch government is committed to returning artifacts that do not belong to the country, said Marieke Van Bommel, director of the Wereld Museum.
Olugbile Holloway, the commission’s director, said the return of 119 artifacts marks the largest single repatriation to date and that his organization is working hard to recover more items looted during colonial times.
Nigeria formally requested the return of hundreds of objects from museums around the world in 2022. Some 72 objects were returned from a London museum that year while 31 were returned from a museum in Rhode Island.
The Benin Bronzes were stolen in 1897 when British forces under the command of Sir Henry Rawson sacked the Benin kingdom and forced Ovonramwen Nogbaisi, the monarch at the time, into a six-month exile. Benin is located in modern-day southern Nigeria.


Napoleon’s iconic bicorne hat and personal treasures expected to fetch millions in Paris

Updated 20 June 2025
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Napoleon’s iconic bicorne hat and personal treasures expected to fetch millions in Paris

PARIS: After Hollywood’s “Napoleon” exposed the legendary emperor to a new generation, over 100 relics — which shaped empires, broke hearts and spawned centuries of fascination — are on display in Paris ahead of what experts call one of the most important Napoleonic auctions ever staged.
His battered military hat. A sleeve from his red velvet coat. Even the divorce papers that ended one of history’s most tormented romances — with Josephine, the empress who haunted him to the end.
Two centuries after his downfall, Napoleon remains both revered and controversial in France — but above all, unavoidable. Polls have shown that many admire his vision and achievements, while others condemn his wars and authoritarian rule. Nearly all agree his legacy still shapes the nation.
“These are not just museum pieces. They’re fragments of a life that changed history,” said Louis-Xavier Joseph, Sotheby’s head of European furniture, who helped assemble the trove. “You can literally hold a piece of Napoleon’s world in your hand.”
From battlefields to boudoirs
The auction — aiming to make in excess of 7 million euros  — is a biography in objects. The centerpiece is Napoleon’s iconic bicorne hat, the black felt chapeau he wore in battle — with wings parallel to his shoulders — so soldiers and enemies could spot him instantly through the gunpowder haze.
“Put a bicorne on a table, and people think of Napoleon immediately,” Joseph said. “It’s like the laurel crown of Julius Caesar.”
The hat is estimated to sell for at least over half a million dollars.
For all the pageantry — throne, swords, the Grand Eagle of the Legion of Honor — the auction’s true power comes from its intimacy. It includes the handwritten codicil of Napoleon’s final will, composed in paranoia and illness on Saint Helena.
There is the heartbreakingly personal: the red portfolio that once contained his divorce decree from Josephine, the religious marriage certificate that formalized their love and a dressing table designed for the empress. Her famed mirror reflects the ambition and tragedy of their alliance.
“Napoleon was a great lover; his letters that he wrote are full of fervor, of love, of passion,” Joseph said. “It was also a man who paid attention to his image. Maybe one of the first to be so careful of his image, both public and private.”
A new generation of exposure
The auction’s timing is cinematic. The 2023 biopic grossed over $220 million worldwide and reanimated Napoleon’s myth for a TikTok generation hungry for stories of ambition, downfall and doomed romance.
The auction preview is open to the public, running through June 24, with the auction set for June 25.
Not far from the Arc de Triomphe monument dedicated to the general’s victories, Djamal Oussedik, 22, shrugged: “Everyone grows up with Napoleon, for better or worse. Some people admire him, others blame him for everything. But to see his hat and his bed, you remember he was a real man, not just a legend.”
“You can’t escape him, even if you wanted to. He’s part of being French,” said teacher Laure Mallet, 51.
History as spectacle
The exhibition is a spectacle crafted by celebrity designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, famed for dressing Lady Gaga and Pope John Paul II.
“I wanted to electrify history,” Castelbajac said. “This isn’t a mausoleum, it’s a pop culture installation. Today’s collectors buy a Napoleon artifact the way they’d buy a guitar from Jimi Hendrix. They want a cabinet of curiosities.”
He’s filled the show with fog, hypnotic music and immersive rooms. One is inspired by the camouflage colors of Fontainebleau. Another is anchored by Napoleon’s legendary folding bed. “I create the fog in the entrance of the Sotheby’s building because the elements of nature were an accomplice to Napoleon’s strategy,” the designer said.
Castelbajac, who said his ancestor fought in Napoleon’s Russian campaign, brought a personal touch. “I covered the emperor’s bed in original canvas. You can feel he was just alone, facing all he had built. There’s a ghostly presence.”
He even created something Napoleon only dreamed of. “Napoleon always wanted a green flag instead of the blue, white, red tricolore of the revolution,” he said, smiling. “He never got one. So I made it for Sotheby’s.”


Trump shows off giant new flagpoles, boasts of them as ‘the largest you’ll ever see’

Updated 19 June 2025
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Trump shows off giant new flagpoles, boasts of them as ‘the largest you’ll ever see’

  • At 27 meters tall, the flagpoles are nowhere close to the world’s tallest, including one from Jeddah

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump took time out Wednesday from deliberating on whether to bomb Iran to unveil two huge new flagpoles that he claimed are among the best in the world.
Trump, 79, saluted as a giant Stars and Stripes flag was raised on one of the 88-foot (27-meter) poles in a brief ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House.
The billionaire real estate tycoon, who built his career on brash displays of wealth, said he was personally paying for each of the $50,000 poles.
And he could not resist some nationalistic hyperbole about the size and quality of the new additions.
“This is about the largest you’ll ever see,” Trump told reporters. “These are the best poles anywhere in the country — in the world actually.”eeeeee
The poles are, however, 12 feet shorter than originally advertised by the White House, which said when it announced Trump’s plan in April that they would be 100 feet tall.

They are also nowhere close to the world's tallest flagpoles, including Saudi Arabia's (561-feet (171-meter) high Jeddah Flagpole, which was completed in September 2014, this was previously the world record holder for several years.

Trump also said the pole on the South Lawn — the famed expanse of grass with a vista that leads to the Jefferson Memorial — was “very far” from where Marine One lands, when asked if it could cause any issues for the helicopter.

WORLD'S TALLEST FLAGPOLES

1. Egypt's Cairo flagpole (New Administrative Capital, Cairo: 201.952 meters (662.57 feet) - completed in December 2021.

2. Azerbaijan's National Flag Square flagpole 2 (Baku, Azerbaijan): 191 meters (626.64 feet) unveiled in August 2024.

3. Saint Petersburg Flagpoles (Saint Petersburg, Russia): 175 meters (574 feet) - unveiled in June 2023.

4. Jeddah Flagpole (King Abdullah Square, Jeddah): 171 meters (561 feet) - completed in September 2014.

5. Dushanbe Flagpole (Dushanbe, Tajikistan): 165 meters (541 feet) - completed in May 2011. 6. Kijong-dong Flagpole (Kijong-dong, North Korea): 160 meters (525 feet) - Built in 1982, this flagpole held the record for the tallest for many years.

( Source: Google Gemini compilation)

The second flagpole was being installed on the North Lawn at the front of the White House.
The giant flags are the latest part of Trump’s sweeping makeover of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue since he returned to power in January.
The Republican is paving over the famed Rose Garden and has blitzed the Oval Office with gaudy gold decorations. He also has plans to build a new ballroom.
For the flag-raising ceremony, Trump was accompanied by a group including Charles Kushner, the new US ambassador to France and father of Trump’s son-in-law.

Kushner, a real estate executive who spent time in federal prison after pleading guilty in 2004 to tax evasion, among other crimes, was pardoned by Trump in 2020, near the end of his first term.

Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka in 2009, served as the president’s adviser during his first term, notably on conflict in the Middle East. The Middle East overshadowed the debut of Trump’s new flagpoles, with the president facing a series of questions from reporters about whether the United States would join Israel’s airstrikes on Iran.
“I may do it, I may not do it,” Trump said when asked.