The Hurghada School Choir Clip Everyone Is Sharing Was Filmed Last Year, Its Music Teacher Says

The video of a Hurghada school choir that spread across Egyptian social media over the past few days was not filmed this month. It was recorded and published during the last school year, the teacher in it told Masrawy on 6 October.

Rasha Fouad teaches music education at Hurghada Secondary School for Girls, and the clip shows her performing with her students around the anniversary of the October victories. She told Masrawy the video does not date from the present days but from the previous academic year, and said she was greatly surprised to see it circulating again with unusual intensity.

Masrawy sets out her career in some detail:

• graduated from the Faculty of Music Education in 1995
• entered the education service in 1997
• has since reached the grade of "senior teacher"
• equipped and modernised the school's music room and bought its instruments through her own efforts and community contributions

On the rehearsals, she said: "I treat all the girls who are with me as if I were their mother, and their being with me is not just that they attend a rehearsal and that is it — on the contrary, they do this with all love and dedication."

She said patriotic songs are her particular love and that she had concentrated on training the students to perform them well, before the group's work widened into other Arabic music and older artistic heritage. She closed by thanking everyone who praised her and the students after the clip spread.

Hurghada News reported on 5 October that the clip had gone viral and that commenters were calling for the teacher to be honoured. What was missing then was her own account and the date of the recording. Masrawy has now supplied both.