Abla Fahita
Abla Fahita (Egyptian Arabic: ابله فاهيتا IPA: [ˈʔɑblɑ fæˈhiːtæ], "abla" means "aunt/sister", "fahita" comes from fajita) is a puppet character from Egypt. The character regularly appears on Egyptian television since 2010. Erin Cunningham of the Washington Post compared Abla Fahita to a Muppet. Dalia Kholaif of Al Jazeera wrote that Abla Fahita "gained popularity for its off-beat expressions in mocking developments in Egypt". The character has a daughter, Karkura.
In December 2013 Abla Fahita had appeared on a Vodafone Egypt advert. In this advert she is looking for the SIM card of her deceased husband. Vodafone, a British company, is Egypt's largest mobile service provider.
A youth regime apologist in Egypt accused the advertisement of being a coded message for a planned attack on a shopping complex. The Egyptian prosecutor general asked the state prosecution service to carry out an investigation into the character. The conspiracy theorist, Ahmed Zebidar or Ahmed Spider, filed a complaint against Vodafone Egypt and stated his intention to have the character imprisoned. The accuser, Ahmed Spider, is a supporter of Hosni Mubarak. The puppet was accused of being a British agent, and the accusations stated that the advert had Muslim Brotherhood messages. Egyptian government officials questioned Vodafone executives, and an article in Slate stated that the government had "reportedly" asked those executives to report to court in the near future.
A Twitter stream named #FreeFahita advocated in favor of the character. In January 2014 Abla Fahita and her accuser, Spider, were interviewed on a live primetime TV show on Capital Broadcast Center (CBC) via skype and over the phone, respectively. Abla Fahita denied that there were coded messages in the advert.The Economist wrote that "By and large, Egyptians have poured scorn and ridicule on all this silly talk." and news.com.au wrote that "The official investigation into the puppet has been widely mocked." Cunningham wrote that "The investigation of the puppet is an extreme sign of a climate of fear and paranoia in Egypt that has intensified in recent weeks."
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