It’s the start of a new year and apparently, we’re still stuck on the same old debate. If you haven’t watched or heard already, sports tv anchor Mohib AbdelHady just released a new interview with disgraced player Amr Warda on New Year’s Eve.
This interview can be categorized as one of the most revolting videos I’ve ever watched in my life and I can guarantee that any sane person would not be able to watch it with a straight face. There are many problematic aspects with it, and I will tackle every single one of them, so I ask you to please bear with me.
First of all, I’d like to make it clear that I will not be getting into a discussion of whether Amr Warda is a sexual harasser or not, that debate has been settled a very long time ago. However, I will start off by clarifying a few very important misleading facts that were mentioned during the interview.
In his interview, Warda denied any accusations of sexual harassment, arguing that he was a target to haters who tried to ruin his reputation and cause unrest in the national team. He also denied ever contacting girls while on duty with the national team or while he was playing for other clubs abroad.
Every single one of these statements has absolutely no relation to reality whatsoever, unless Amr Warda was in fact possessed by his desperate ultra-ego ghost that never seems to find fulfillment.
Amr’s lame excuse for the African Cup incident is that the infamous screenshots and messages exchanged between him and a foreign girl had happened over a year ago and had nothing to do with his behavior and adherence with the national team at the time. The first part of that statement is true. Amr wasn’t talking to her during the 2019 team camp, but he was talking to Egyptian girls while on duty with the team, while he was in Greece, during the World Cup and probably at all other times he had access to the internet.
However, for obvious cultural reasons, girls who were contacted wouldn’t share such stories, knowing very well that they will probably end up with more harassment and humiliation. They knew they would be labelled as attention seekers, who probably led the player on and gave way for him to start speaking to them in the first place. They would be judged for their social media profiles first and would then be asked to not ruin a player’s reputation and future.
During the interview, Amr mentioned God several times, saying that God the almighty gives second chances (even though he doesn’t think he did anything wrong). He also said that God will always reveal the truth, and he couldn’t be more right about both statements. See, there’s a saying that says that God doesn’t expose you the first time you sin, he gives you a chance to repent, and it seems that during the African Cup Amr had finally used up all his chances.
While Amr was taking advantage of a patriarchal, women-shaming society to prey on young girls, he got exposed by a foreigner whose security and privacy would not be threatened if she revealed his true colors to the world. It was then, when girls in Egypt who found multiple similarities between their old chats with the player and the ones shared online rallied to finally feel a sense of victory over a self-entitled shallow perpetrator. Therefore, the claim that his chats with a foreigner were used as bait to nail him, is completely irrelevant. Irrespective of the timing, and intentions behind the way he was exposed, Amr’s track record with girls is an ugly one. It’s enough to stirp him from the right to ever wear the colors that represent MY country, but that’s another debate I will not get into, again.
What I’m honestly struggling to comprehend today, is how on earth someone came up with the idea of interviewing him so that he has a chance to “win people over again”.
Anyone who watched the interview will clearly be able to tell what a self-obsessed, shallow and angry guy Warda is. Not only did he completely dieny any responsibility he had in the case, but he also openly said that the only reason he issued an apology was so that he can play with the team again, and not out of sincere regret. He continuously praised himself and his skills, proclaiming he was the main man of the national team, and the best Egyptian player during the World Cup. The scary part was that he truly seemed to believe the 2019 fiasco was just an attempt to blur his success. Whatever the topic was, Amr was unable to stop glorifying himself, which can only point to severe and deeply rooted insecurities.
That was also obvious in the way he would talk to girls. In Egypt, Amr is very famous amongst girls for sliding in their direct messages on Instagram to introduce himself as a famous football player who is playing abroad. He usually proceeds by asking them to fly out to meet him, or in the case that he was coming to Egypt (probably for national team training because he is very dedicated), he would try to arrange to meet them. Most girls Amr would contact would be girls under 18 that had not even been following him or might not have known about him in the first place. Sometimes he would succeed at intimidating them to continue talking to him, using his “fame” or position to add pressure on them. To others, he was just simply known as “Amr come Greece”, a reference to his most used line to get girls.
I believe not being able to handle rejection is a common trait between self-entitled harassers and that also applies to Warda.
Watching the way he spoke in that interview, it was clear to me that this person is obviously out of touch with reality and could in no way be in a normal state of mind.
Don’t get me wrong, I have zero sympathy for him, absolutely zero, but for those that are related to him or care about his future, I would strongly advise they encourage him to seek professional help, and not put him on National TV.
Even though I’m partially glad Amr Warda once again showed his true colors by talking on the big screen, I am equally disgusted by every single person who worked on this episode for trying to bring him up again. Warda being a sexual harasser is a done deal, sealed in the past, not forgotten nor forgiven. Therefore, my brain is unable to come up with a valid explanation as to why he was once again given a platform to speak. I mean, after over 6 successful months of fighting sexual harassers and rapists and starting an entire female revolution, the media turns its back and does this?
It seems to me that this was only a very low and cheap shot at provoking viewers all for ratings and views. I cannot imagine a single person on MBC Masr thinking this episode would have looked good for Warda, seeing as viewers only got to watch a very bitter, disrespectful and delusional player who basically came on to spit in their faces to ‘win them over’.
What a shame that there are still some people out there like Mohib AbdelHady who use such a sensitive topic with complete disregard to people’s feelings to cause controversy, drag other public figures only to get some views. I mean, with all the drama and corruption going on in the world of football, didn’t you find something slightly more interesting to speak about? Maybe the fact that after the female national team was brutally harassed online with absolutely no support by the EFA, the board is now considering cancelling their team altogether?
Nothing better to do with your lives than have us fuming on the first day of the year? Please leave Amr Warda in the past, where he belongs, and let us move on from this circus already.
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