Egyptian Actresses Harassed While Filming a Scene in Hungary

According to Nile FM, Egyptian actresses Heba and Mona Abdel Ghany were victims of harassment and islamophobia in Budapest, Hungary, while filming their series Fok El Sahab.

So the story goes like this, while filming a scene in a park, a bigot approached them, pointed at their veils, and started shouting. The actresses claim that he then yelled, “what are you wearing?’’ Heba and Mona insisted that wearing the veil is a freedom of choice, but they couldn’t really talk to him because he was mostly speaking Hungarian. The ladies asked a crew member of theirs who speaks Hungarian to tell the man that they would call the police if he continued harassing them.

It’s really ironic that this happened while they were filming a scene where Heba’s character in the TV show is harassed for the exact same reason; wearing a veil.

Heba, who’s not even veiled in real life, was really touched by the situation, and said that, “first world countries... accept to see two men kissing in the street and I’m forced to respect their freedom but he doesn’t respect that I’m doing my job and that I’m veiled. I’m not veiled in real life, but now I consider myself veiled,” she said.

The sisters have released a video on Facebook describing what really went down, where you can see the man in question:In recent times, Islam and Hungary haven't exactly had the best relationship; in January 2018, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban claimed that “Muslim invaders’’ are not running for their lives, while referring to refugees who are mostly fleeing war-torn Syria. Hungary, a country with few Muslims (only 5,000!) generally sees Islam in a bad way; according to The Washington Post, 72% of Hungarians see Islam in a negative light, the highest proportion of any European country.

Main Image from Nile FM