Egyptian TikToker arrested in Saudi Arabia for alleged lesbian undertones in recent video

Tala Safwan says her clip was taken out of context to cause scandal

A popular Egyptian Tiktoker has been arrested in Saudi Arabia for a video that allegedly has sexually suggestive content with “lesbian undertones”.

Tala Safwan is a young social media influencer with five million followers on TikTok and around 800,000 subscribers on YouTube.

In a recent clip uploaded on YouTube, Ms Safwan invited a female friend to her house. Her subsequent words, where she reportedly says “no one will hear her scream” as “everyone will be asleep”, has been seen as sexually suggestive by some, and led to widespread outrage in the conservative country.

Soon, netizens trended a hashtag that translates to “Tala offends society” and demanded her arrest.

The Riyadh police arrested Ms Safwan on 25 July after the campaign against her gained momentum, describing her as a local resident “who appeared in a broadcast talking to another woman with sexual content and suggestiveness that could have a negative impact on public morality”.

The police did not name Ms Safwan in their announcement but included the video in question with her and her friend’s faces blurred.

Ms Safwan has denied that her video had any sexual subtext and said it had been misunderstood.

She alleged that only a part of the video was shared on social and it was taken out of context with the intention to cause a scandal.

Tala Safwan has five million followers on TikTok and around 800,000 subscribers on YouTube (Tala Safwan/YouTube)

The Egyptian influencer based in Saudi creates content directed at teenagers and young audiences in the strictly conservative kingdom.

Like several social media creators in the world, Ms Safwan makes humorous videos on topics of relationships, her life and issues sent by her followers.

Saudi Arabia has no laws regarding sexual orientation or gender identity. But sexual relations outside marriage, including homosexuality, can be punishable by flogging or death.

The incident is the latest to reflect the kingdom’s conservative views on LGBT+ matters, which is considered taboo in Saudi Arabia.

On Sunday, the Saudi media regulator demanded that YouTube remove offensive advertisements posted on the platform.

The platform continues “broadcast of content that is contrary to Islamic and societal values and principles, as well as the Kingdom’s media content regulations and YouTube Platform Policy”, the statement by Saudi Arabia’s General Commission for Audiovisual Media (GCAM) and Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) said.

In June, authorities in Saudi Arabia seized rainbow-themed children’s items from shops as they claimed that the colours encourage homosexuality. This followed Saudi Arabia’s ban on films that depict, or refer to, gay people.

Saudi Arabia lifted a 35-year-long ban on all cinemas in late 2017, as part of an effort to modernise the country in a project headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. But, while its laws on cinemas have been loosened in general, the kingdom has not been showing a number of newly-released popular films, like Doctor Strange in the Muliverse of Madness, over its fears that they “promote homosexuality”.