Egyptian lawyer Mahmoud al-Semary has filed a case with the Public Prosecutor to shut down the Netflix platform in Egypt, following the trailer release of “Queen Cleopatra. ” A new documentary depicting the historical figure as a black woman.
The Egyptian lawyer has demanded that serious legal action be taken against those responsible for the making of the documentary. He blamed the Netflix management team for its participation in “this crime”.
He also demanded a thorough investigation of the process as well as the overall discontinuity of Netflix’s streaming service in Egypt as a consequence.
The complaint submitted against Netflix stated, “Most of what Netflix platform displays do not conform to Islamic and societal values and principles, especially Egyptian ones.”
It added that the movie trailer, which attracted millions of viewers across the globe, contradicts Egyptian history.
The case said that the documentary promotes Afrocentrism which aims at distorting and obliterating Egyptian identity.
The complaint, which was handed into the Public Prosecution, also stated that: “In order to preserve the Egyptian national and cultural identity among Egyptians all over the world there must be pride in the makings of such work.”
The complaint has also accused the makers of the documentary and platform management of “forgery”.
Former Egyptian Antiquities Minister Zahi Hawass described depicting Queen Cleopatra as a black woman as “falsifying facts”, adding that “This is completely fake. Cleopatra was Greek, meaning that she was blonde, not black.”
Queen Cleopatra, the last ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty, was born in 69 BC and died in 30 BC in Alexandria.
