Freemuse Defending Artistic Freedom
A province in Egypt has ordered schools to replace images of Disney cartoon characters with images of military heroes, The New Arab reported on 25 September.
Alaa Marzouq, governor of Qalyubia province north of Cairo, said “We need to replace the images of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck with images of famous Egyptians and military martyrs so children look up to them as role models.”
“All these characters are US-made, while we have many honourable figures… who will deepen the children’s patriotism and love for the nation.”
It’s not the first time Mickey Mouse has drawn the ire of Egyptian authorities. In 2015, law student Amr Nohan was jailed for three years for doctoring an image of Egypt President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi wearing Mickey Mouse ears.
