Artist Mohamed Ramadan sparked controversy on social media platforms because he posted a picture showing off many packages of dollars, estimated by followers worth about 30 million pounds, and the picture came while returning from a concert in America paid in dollars.
The first response to the photo came from Egyptian actor Khaled Sarhan, who filmed himself in a microbus with Egyptian pounds next to him that appeared to be worth no more than a single US dollar.
The image of Ramadan came at a time when the US dollar has become a dream for many Egyptians after its value reached about 30 Egyptian pounds in the regular market and 40 in the black market, if it exists at all, so that the Egyptians have come to call it several titles, including "king" or "green", and some do not deny their abhorrence of the dollar because it was the cause of the loss of many traders and the phenomenon of high prices that exhausted the pockets of most Egyptians.
After the artist published Ramadan his picture with dollars, MP Amal Abdel Hamid asked the Minister of Finance through the Speaker of the House of Representatives, in which she said, "How committed is the artist Mohamed Ramadan to pay the annual taxes due to him on time? And how committed is he to file a tax return? And is it identical to his real wages? Is it identical to the data obtained from different parties?"
The "Shabakat" program (2023/5/21) continued the comments of tweeters on the image of Ramadan with dollars, where activist Hisham Al-Mayani commented by saying, "I mean, it is the Becked of the people who endured a stifling economic crisis, nor is it the Becked of the state itself, which has a crisis of dollars? Or does he want to tell us that he is passing through customs and no one comes near him? I wish customs would tell us how to pack this from the airport."
As for the tweeter Ed Shawnee, he expected Ramadan's response to the image and wrote, "In the end, after the trend, he will say that dollars are an accessory for a clip or a movie he attends, and he was involved in reading the role and did not notice that the green leaves are on his side, and therefore neither in taxes nor customs, and the subject comes out with a pop, nothing more, nothing less."
Activist Mahmoud Morgan said it was a matter of proving the source of income, tweeting, "Any citizen has the right to enter with any dollar amount, and it must be disclosed if it is more than $10,<>, not to pay a tax on it, but only to prove its source."
Activist Ahmed pointed to the need not to violate the law, and commented, saying, "Provocateur is not provocative, not your problem, your problem with him is that he violates the law, and no one from the state came out said that this is a legal violation, and then the man responded and did good deeds, your problem with him eh, I do not understand?".
Activist Ibtihal Barika wrote, "Each one of you has a role to play professionally. The artist distracts people with his actions and you rise above him and criticize him. And people get lost in the swamp of nonsense and degradation. And this is what is required, where is your Excellency regarding the real problems of the people? Zero.. Nothing."
In turn, the artist Mohamed Ramadan responded to the appeal of Dr. Jamal Shaaban, the famous heart surgeon, to buy electrical regulators for the "overcoming" who are in intensive care, and deleted the image of dollars, and was satisfied with a picture staring at his mobile phone, which costs up to $ 1500,<>.