A famous Egyptian belly dancer has been put in prison. A court in Cairo, Egypt sentenced Sama el-Masry to three years behind bars. It also fined her 300,000 Egyptian pounds, which is about $18,500. Ms El-Masry was arrested by the police in Egypt in April. Police charged her with immorality after she posted videos on the video-sharing platform TikTok. The videos showed her performing various belly dances. Egypt has recently decided to crack down on social media posts. Egypt's Public Prosecution office accused Ms El-Masry of posting immoral pictures and videos on her social media accounts. It said she was guilty of breaking Egypt's morals because the videos were "sexually suggestive".

Sama el-Masry is 42 years old. As well as being a belly dancer, she is also an actress and starred in three successful movies. One of the movies was about the unfair treatment of female media workers. It created a lot of debate in Egypt about the rights of women in the workplace. She also got a lot of criticism in the past for posting videos on YouTube about her political views. One of the videos mocked former US President Barack Obama for his policy towards Egypt. A women's rights lawyer in Egypt defended Ms El-Masry. She said: "Our conservative society is struggling with technological changes which have created a completely different environment and mindsets."