Mo Salah’s GQ Middle East cover causes outrage over ‘double standards’

KARACHI: Would a married Muslim woman be celebrated the same way as Egyptian footballer Mo Salah is? This is the question many users online seem to be asking after news of Liverpool FC’s forward was announced as GQ Middle East’s Man of the Year.

The 27-year old shared images from his cover on his Instagram that led to the debate of inequality in acceptance and reactions towards Muslim men versus Muslim women. Often times Muslim female celebrities are criticised heavily for their every move such as Egyptian actress Rania Youssef having to face up to five years in jail over a see-through dress that revealed her legs.

Salah has a history of posting images on his social media that can be considered revealing by those same standards if not more and yet receives little or no backlash.

Salah is a married man and father, who publicly identifies himself as a Muslim. A married Muslim woman can’t even dream of being on the cover of a GQ magazine with a male model’s arms wrapped around her. This is something that people are recognising as both hypocritical and reeking of double standards.

Twitter has erupted in anger over this and users are actively calling for the need for gender equality and to assure that women are not scrutinised to extreme lengths for something that a man is obviously being celebrated for.