For more than a decade it has been playing on nightclubs that cross the Nile every night , thundering in tok tok and taxis that cross the humblest suburbs and dancing in the liveliest weddings. His seduction ability surpasses any other music in the land of the pharaohs but since this week his rhythm, a mixture of popular songs and dance, is outlawed on the stages and venues throughout the country.

The union of Egyptian musicians , with a long and proven track record as an organ obsessed with censorship , has just issued a decree that prohibits all Mahraganat singers - a term that literally means "festivals" in Arabic and which is popularly known This Egyptian genre perform in clubs, cafes, concert halls and any other event throughout the country.

"We have banned Mahraganat's songs and musicians because they go against public decency and morals, " Mansur Hendy, the union leader in charge of granting permits to artists, tells EL MUNDO. "His songs talk about drugs, alcohol and prostitution," he argues.

The scoundrel and catchy lyrics and electronic chords were born more than a decade ago in the poorest neighborhoods of the Egyptian capital, apart from record labels and commercial circuits. With computers as rudimentary study. The turmoil that triggered the riots against Hosni Mubarak in early 2011 served to launch them to stardom. His ability to dazzle a young population - more than 60 percent of Egyptians does not exceed 30 years - is unbeatable today.

The last test of his success and the one that has precipitated his ban was recorded last Friday at the Cairo stadium. Coinciding with the celebration of Valentine's Day, 100,000 souls gathered in the thing to dance to the sound of the also baptized as "electro shaabi". "There they sang 'Bent el-garan' [the daughter of the neighbors], a letter in which it is said verbatim 'we drink alcohol and smoke hashish' ", alleges, outraged, Hendy.

The union that encompasses the guild inaugurated the crusade on Sunday night. Then its president, Hany Shaker, went to a "prime time" program of local television to announce his censorship. "The musicians of 'Mahraganat' can no longer work in Egypt," he said satisfied. "This type of music is full of promiscuous and immoral lyrics, which are completely prohibited and, as such, the door is closed. We want authentic art," he said.

"This type of music that is loaded with sexual innuendo and offensive language is completely unacceptable," Shaker said underlining the "offensive language" and "sexual connotations" of the songs that arouse among the youngest. The themes boast of having millions of views on YouTube and have conquered even the most select spaces. After the veto came into force, the police have already prevented several singers from playing in five-star hotels in the capital.

"It is not the only indecent song. For example, there is one that is titled 'Your mother is my friend' and they say thick words that we cannot allow," insists Hendy, aware of a universe that the nickname "Oka Wi Ortega "or Hakim are his top stars. "It is a decision already in force and includes all the singers and bands that make this music," confirms the union member.

For many Egyptians, on the other hand, the music now pursued by the torquemadas - a combination in which influences of reggaeton, grime and rap also resonate - is the best representative of the sacrifices and temptations of a miserable life and remedied by the abysses social, light years away from the "official music", submissive to the red lines and the dictates of the regime.

A song of pain and realism lit in the neighborhoods of unpaved streets, broken dreams and marginalization. Despite the crusade launched by the authorities and the most pacatos sectors of Egyptian society, the music that - without corsets, political correctness or decibel limits - expresses the beat of the street, has proposed to resist. Its defenders warn that the ban in the country in which the generals have stifled all imaginable freedoms will only serve to continue increasing the volume and fattening their legion of followers.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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