"Refused to shake hands with a young man"... Actor Ahmed Abdelaziz sparks controversy in Egypt.

Arab Sea Newspaper - Special

**Arab Gulf News - Reports:** A circulating video clip of Ahmed Abdelaziz ignoring a young man who approached him to shake hands has sparked controversy in Egypt, especially since this is not the first incident of its kind for the famous Egyptian artist and the top star of the nineties. The controversy prompted the artist Ahmed Abdelaziz to issue a statement saying: "Recently, a video clip has been circulating that was misunderstood, as if I refused to shake hands with a young man from the audience. The truth is that the situation was very fast." He added: "I was late entering the event and was running to get on the elevator and go up to the show's location. When I saw him standing, I thought he was clearing the way for me and that he was one of the organizers, and I didn't realize he was extending his hand to shake." The Egyptian artist concluded his statement by saying: "I have never refused a greeting or a photo with anyone from my audience. On the contrary, I always see you as the reason for my success, and your love is my greatest support. What happened was a misunderstanding, and I hope people understand that there are quick moments that can be misinterpreted. I am one of you." However, the statement caused a division among the audience, some of whom were convinced by it, while others accused him of repeating the situation, referring to another video clip that spread a few months ago, in which "Abdelaziz" got angry at a person with "special needs" who tried to shake his hand and scolded him, saying: "Take your hand away." [https://www.facebook.com/share/1CWfVhYjEf/](https://www.facebook.com/share/1CWfVhYjEf/) A number of "Ahmed Abdelaziz's" followers wrote on his Facebook page, confirming their confidence in him, with comments such as: "We trust your good judgment," "You are an example of a respectable artist," and "Our love for you does not waver." While others wrote on the same page: "Your incidents are increasing, artist," "You were away from the spotlight, and now your true colors are showing," and "It's not your first incident... you need to be humble with the audience who put you in your place." The former director of the Port Said Film Festival and art critic, Mustafa Al-Kilani, commented on the incident, saying that "many see the artist Ahmed Abdel Aziz as arrogant, and unfortunately, this phenomenon is common among a number of artists and celebrities, as some of them try to express their fears of people in a style that involves a degree of arrogance or condescension." Al-Kilani gave an example of refusing to greet fans or refusing to take pictures with them, saying, "It is not something I object to absolutely, as there may be justified reasons for it in some situations." He added: "But in cases similar to the video we saw, where the artist enters a public place, it is natural to greet the people around him." In this particular situation, according to Al-Kilani, it was "clear from Ahmed Abdelaziz's body language, and from the way he folded his hand and closed his fist from the first moment, that he had made a prior decision not to shake hands with anyone, and this represents a real problem for him and for many celebrities." However, the Egyptian critic believes that - sometimes - the pressure of the audience on the artist in requests for greetings and photography is annoying, and even exceeds the limits in some cases, such as someone putting their hand on the artist in an inappropriate manner while taking pictures, and this happens a lot. He said: "Sometimes, when we are with our friends from the artists, we have to intervene to protect them from such actions that may bother them." He explained that there is a category of the public that sees touching the shoulder of an artist while taking a picture as a kind of personal victory, and this is a completely unacceptable behavior and is a violation of human privacy. Touching a person - whether male or female - while taking a picture is absolutely unacceptable. But shaking hands is something different, according to Al-Kilani, who confirmed that if you are an artist or a famous person and you enter a place with an audience, it is obvious that you greet people and be prepared to take pictures with a large number of them, as this is part of the nature of being a public figure, which you have to accept and deal with. For her part, the Egyptian media personality and art critic Abeer Abdel Wahab said that statements of the type "I didn't notice" are an old way of apologizing for mistakes, and it seems that the veteran artist is stuck in this stage, so his apology came in the manner of "I didn't notice" and "I didn't mean to." She added that apologizing is one of the qualities of great people, but there are more conscious, more civilized, and more satisfying ways to apologize to the audience for a situation that angered followers, especially since the situation had already happened with the artist himself, and he also offered the apology in the same way. She pointed out that "there is a crisis, which is that a large number of artists and stars of the eighties generation have not yet realized the true size of "social media," so it is no longer possible for any artist to make a mistake and no one notices it. The focus has become great, so the older generation must pay attention to the development that has occurred." She continued: "Although the artist's statement confirmed that he thought the young man was one of the organizers, the video is clearer and shows many of the facts that the statement ignored, but assuming that the statement is completely honest, no artist should be in this state of haste that leads him to anger his audience." She explained that "in the previous incident in which he insulted a young man with disabilities, he stated at the time that he was in a hurry because he was late for a certain event, which indicates that the repetition of his haste leads to the repetition of his mistakes, so the artist must give his audience space to deal with him."