Mohamed Ashraf

Mohamed Ashraf is an Egyptian stand-up comedian who studied at Ain Shams University and lives in Cairo. He is a member of the comedy troupe The Elite, alongside Taha Desouky, Ahmed Khairy, Waleed El-Moghazy, Ahmed Essam El Sayed, Mostafa Abbas and Mohamed Helmy, with whom he has performed sold-out shows across Egypt and the wider Middle East and starred in the Shahid stand-up series Gayeen Nehazar (2021). In November 2020, Egypt's prosecution ordered Ashraf's detention after a video of a two-minute stand-up set he had performed earlier that year at The Glocal Show went viral online; in the routine he joked about the elocution style of presenters on the state-run Al-Quran Al-Kareem radio station. He faced accusations including contempt of religion and defamation of the radio station's presenters after the National Media Authority and the State Radio and TV Union filed complaints, and he issued a public apology saying he had not intended to mock the station. He was subsequently released from detention, with the case drawing coverage from Ahram Online and other international outlets.