Serial Sexual Harasser Amr Warda Allowed To Rejoin Egypt National Team

On Wednesday, it appeared that the Egypt national soccer team had taken a commendable stand against sexual harassment when it kicked Amr Warda off the team after stories of Warda being a pestering creeper to several women flooded social media. Today, the team clarified that it does not actually take sexual harassment very seriously by promptly reinstating Warda with a light slap on the wrist.

According to the national team’s statement, the decision to let Warda back on the team was made after the president of Egypt’s soccer federation, Hani Abu Reda, spoke to the other players, who had been lobbying for Warda’s return. Warda had released an 18-second video on Wednesday of him apologizing to his friends, family, teammates, and “anyone who is upset with me” for his behavior, making no mention of the actual women he harassed. Egypt’s star player, Mohamed Salah, led the charge defending Warda publicly with the following tweets in the aftermath of Warda’s brief exile:

In light of what Egypt’s public statement praises as the players’ “spirit of solidarity” with Warda—a guy who by several available accounts would try to hector women on WhatsApp into video chatting with him while he was ass naked and masturbating, and would angrily threaten to block them if they so much as politely demurred—Abu Reda reduced Warda’s suspension from the entire African Cup of Nations to just the group stage. That means the Egyptian midfielder will have only missed two matches when it’s all said and done. I can think of a few headless corpses in the Basilica of Saint-Denis that wish this is what being sent to the guillotine looked like back in their day.