Egyptian female state radio host assaulted, insulted at work by boss for demanding rights

An Egyptian senior host working for state radio was reportedly beaten up at the workplace by her boss over the weekend after she had repeatedly called for her delated financial rights and criticised alleged corruption at the state radio and TV union, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, the sister company of The New Arab, reported.

Amany Sabah has been aggressively hit and dragged on the floor by her superior Hani Amasha while screaming in pain and shock, the report added.

The incident was filmed by Sabah, while her boss, Amasha, dared her to keep filming the incident in the presence of one of their colleagues named Yasser.

However, the actual physical assault is not quite clear in the low-quality footage taken by a mobile phone and circulated by social media activists.

In the video, Amasha proceeded to insult Sabah and threatened that she will meet the same fate as her detained friend, TV presenter Hala Fahmy.

Fahmy had been charged with "disseminating false news and being a member of an illegal group," the same charges faced by another state media journalist named Safaa Al-Korbigi. Both women have been detained since the end of April, pending further investigations into the charges against them.

In a post hours ago on Sabah’s Facebook page on Tuesday, Sabah called on the president of the National Council for Women Maya Morsi and Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouli to open an investigation into the incident.

Meanwhile, the state-run National Media Authority, surprisingly one of the entities Sabah had slammed earlier, has opened an investigation into the assault.

The incident sent shockwaves across Egypt's social media platforms.

"What do you think of this repulsion?" wondered former deputy head of state-run Nile TV international Shahira Amin.

"A manager gives himself the right to beat up and drag an announcer, a woman, and tells her he will teach her a lesson. You are such ****," the prominent journalist added.   

Alluding to the incident, an Egyptian engineer also noted on Twitter: "Nobody has rights in a country run by the military."

Since the 25 January revolution erupted in 2011, several journalists have exposed alleged corruption at the headquarters of the Radio and Television Union, the country's state-run broadcaster at Cairo's almost six-decade-old Maspero building.  

Meanwhile, for the fifth time in less than two months, the supreme state security prosecution renewed Wednesday Fahmy's detention for 15 days, pending further investigations into the terrorism-related case against her.

In 2021, Egypt has been ranked the world's third-worst jailer of journalists by the Committee to Protect Journalists, with at least 60 reporters currently locked up.