Egyptians decry prominent newspaper for offending Ukrainian women

Over the past 24 hours, Egyptian social media users opened fire on a prominent partisan newspaper for disrespecting Ukrainian women following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, the Arabic-language sister publication of The New Arab, reported on Friday.

On Thursday, the website of the Al-Wafd newspaper, which is affiliated to a political party under the same name, purportedly run a story centred on Egyptian men's comments on Ukrainian women being available soon for marriage. It was entitled: “Our homes are open for you, Egyptians’ humor challenge war... waiting for Ukrainian girls.”

In the social media post about the story, the paper wrote: “A piece of advice, don’t rush to get married, there will be beautiful Ukrainian immigrants and refugees available soon enough.”

Following widespread criticism of Wafd on social media, the article in question was removed from the newspaper's portal, yet many had already saved screenshots of it and posted it online. 

A Twitter user, apparently from Egypt, wrote: “Wafd newspaper and the fall into the abyss, following [online] trends... It has turned into a disgrace to journalism.”

Celebrities reacted as well.

Egyptian actor Fathy Abdel-Wahab tweeted: “A shameful act, defaming, and inappropriate… #Slaves_of_the_trend.”

Meanwhile, lawyer Tarek Al-Awady called on the Supreme Council for Media Regulation, an independent body that oversees the conduct of media outlets, to take action against the daily, while attaching a screenshot of the controversial post.  

Awady wrote on Twitter: “This is very shameful. There must be a clear action. This is not humor. This is rudeness… war… people die… dozens of touristic trips to Egypt called off… shame on [you].”

The Wafd editors could not be reached for comment by the time of publishing.