A woman activist who posted nude pictures of herself on her blog to protest limits on free expression has triggered an uproar in Egypt, drawing condemnations from conservatives and liberals alike. 
 
 Some liberals feared that the posting by 20-year-old university student Aliaa Magda Elmahdy would taint them in the eyes of deeply conservative Egyptians ahead of Nov. 28 parliamentary elections in which they are trying to compete with fundamentalist Islamic parties. 
 
 Nudity is strongly frowned upon in Egyptian society, even as an art form. Elmahdy's posting is almost unheard of in a country where most women in the Muslim majority wear the headscarf and even those who don't rarely wear clothes exposing the arms or legs in public. 
 
 Elmahdy wrote on her blog that the photographs _ which show her standing wearing only stockings _ are "screams against a society of violence, racism, sexism, sexual harassment and hypocrisy." The blog has received 1.5 million hits since she posted the photos earlier this week. 
 
 The posting comes at a time when Egypt, a nation of some 85 million people, is polarized between Islamists and liberals ahead of the elections, the first since the February ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak. Members of the most hardline Islamic movement in Egypt, the Salafis, have warned voters during their campaigns that liberals will corrupt Egypt's morals. 
 
 "This hurts the entire secular current in front of those calling themselves the people of virtue," Sayyed el-Qimni, a prominent self-described secular figure, said referring to Islamists. 
 
 "It's is a double disaster. Because I am liberal and I believe in the right of personal freedom, I can't interfere," el-Qimni said Wednesday night on one of Egypt's popular TV political talk shows, "90 Minutes." 
 
 The April 6 movement, one of the most prominent liberal activist groups that led the 18-day uprising against Mubarak, issued a statement denying claims by some on the Web that Elmahdy is a member of the group. 
 
 The posting prompted furious discussions on Internet social media sites, with pages for and against her put up on Facebook. 
 
 One activist, Ahmed Awadallah, praised her in a Tweet, writing, "I'm totally taken back by her bravery." 
 
 A supporter, who identified himself as Emad Nasr Zikri, wrote in a comment on Elmahdy's blog, "We need to learn how to separate between nudity and sex." He said that before fundamentalist influence in Egypt, "there were nude models in art school for students to draw." 
 
 Some 100 people liked his comment, while thousands flooded the site with insults. Some denounced Elmahdy as a "prostitute" and "mentally sick" or urged police to arrest her. 
 
 Elmahdy did not reply to attempts by The Associated Press to contact her. 
 
 Her move comes as Salafis have become more assertive in pushing their attitude that women should be kept out of the public eye, promoting a Saudi Arabia-style segregation of the sexes. On Salafi parties' campaign banners, photos of the few female candidates are replaced by drawings of a flower. 
 
 During a recent election rally in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, Salafists covered up a public statue that depicted mermaids. Salafi clerics appearing on TV talks shows have refused to appear face-to-face with female TV hosts, unless the presenter puts on a headscarf or in one case, a barrier was placed between the two. Most recently, an Islamist preacher crashed into a university musical concert in a Nile Delta province of Mansoura, saying music was forbidden by Islam and that he wanted to "promote virtue and prevent vice" _ the term used for the mission of Saudi Arabia's religious police. 
 
 Women rights activist Nehad Abou el-Qomsan said conservatives "keep adding layers to cover up the women and deny their existence." 
 
 But, she said, what Elmahdy did "is also rejected because posing nude is a form of body abuse." 
 
 Elmahdy and her boyfriend Kareem Amer, also a controversial blogger, have challenged Egypt's social strictures before. Earlier this year, they posted mobile phone video footage of themselves debating with managers of a public park who threw them out for public displays of affection. 
 
 Amer, who spent four years in prison for blog posting deemed insulting to Islam and for calling Mubarak a "symbol of tyranny," chided liberals who condemned Elmahdy. 
 
 "I think we should not be afraid of those in power or Islamists, as much as we should be worried of politicians claiming to be liberal," he wrote on his Facebook page. "They are ready to sacrifice us to avoid tarnishing their image." ||||| CAIRO — Aliaa Magda Elmahdy apparently thought she was striking a blow for sexual equality and free expression in Egypt when she posted nude photographs of herself on a blog. Instead Ms. Elmahdy set off a wave of outrage here, stoking conservative Islamist sentiments that many liberals fear will undermine their prospects in the country’s parliamentary election next week. 
 
 It is hard to overstate the shock at an Egyptian woman’s posting nude photographs of herself on the Internet in a conservative religious country where a vast majority of Muslim women are veiled and even men seldom bare their knees in public. In Egypt, even kissing in public is taboo. 
 
 It is often the case that activists willing to defy social conventions, pushing the boundaries of what is considered acceptable anywhere, succeed in provoking discussion — while finding themselves ostracized and isolated. Indeed, Ms. Elmahdy learned that reality quickly after a Twitter post directed attention to her blog, and her pictures. 
 
 Soon Ms. Elmahdy, a 20-year-old activist, found herself swept up in a campaign season political fight, especially among liberals battling conservative Islamists in the first election since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted from power. 
 
 But if she thought she would get support from the left, she was wrong. 
 
 “Many movements in Egypt, particularly Islamist movements, are trying to benefit,” said Emad Gad, a parliamentary candidate from the left-leaning Egyptian Social Democratic Party. “They say, ‘We have to protect our society from things like this, and if the liberals win then this woman will become a model for all Egyptian women.’ ” 
 
 Liberal activists raced to disavow any connection to her. After reports this week indicated that Ms. Elmahdy was a member of the April 6th Youth Movement — a major player in the January revolt that unseated Mr. Mubarak — its spokesman, Tarek al-Kholi, told the pan-Arab news channel Al Arabiya that “the movement does not have any members who engage in such behavior.” 
 
 “We are conservative youths, and we always encourage our members to be role models as far as ethics are concerned,” even barring atheists, Mr. Kholi said. “How can we have accepted the membership of a girl who behaves like this?” (Ms. Elmahdy confirmed in a Twitter posting that she did not belong to the group.) 
 
 Ms. Elmahdy — whose boyfriend, Kareem Amer, spent four years in jail for writings deemed insulting to Islam and Mr. Mubarak — posted the photographs with a statement declaring them an act of rebellion against Egypt’s conservative culture and “sexual complexes,” in the spirit of the revolution. 
 
 “Try nude models who worked in Fine Art Faculties in the early 1970s, hide all art books and smash naked archaeological statues,” read the statement, alluding to some recent protests staged here by ultra-conservative Islamists known as Salafis. “Then take off your clothes and look at yourselves in the mirror, then burn your body that you so despise to get rid of your sexual complexes forever, before subjecting me to your bigoted insults or denying my freedom of expression.” 
 
 Soon after the post went live, apparently admiring allies sent out Twitter messages in support, inaugurating the nationwide debate. “A feminist #Jan25 revolutionary posted her nude photo on the internet to express her freedom. I’m totally taken back by her bravery!!” one ally, Ahmad Awadalla, a human rights activist, said on Twitter. 
 
 Ms. Elmahdy did not respond to a Twitter request for comment, and her phone number was unavailable. 
 
 The uproar over her pictures echoes a debate that flared up in Tunisia last month on the eve of its first free election, when a television station broadcast a film that is critical of the Islamist takeover after the Iranian revolution. Although some liberals said they had hoped that the animated film, “Persepolis,” would warn Tunisians about the dangers of an Islamist victory in their country, one scene violated an Islamic prohibition against personalized depictions of God. The resulting outrage stirred protests across the country, and Islamists cited it as an example of the need to defend their faith as they rode to triumph at the polls. 
 
 But in Tunisia, it was not clear that many people had actually seen “Persepolis.” 
 
 In Egypt, on the other hand, since it appeared Sunday, the post with the naked pictures has been viewed more than 1.6 million times and has attracted more than 2,000 comments, though many are quite critical. “Freedom,” wrote one detractor, “is not the same as degradation and prostitution.”
– The fight for Egypt's future ahead of parliamentary elections is taking familiar form here in the form of protests in Tahrir Square. But a volatile debate also is taking place in unfamiliar territory: over a political blogger's posting of nude photos of herself. As the AP and New York Times explain, 20-year-old Aliaa Magda Elmahdy posted photos in which she's wearing only stockings and red shoes. She called them "screams against a society of violence, racism, sexism, sexual harassment, and hypocrisy." Conservative Islamist groups predictably condemned the images, but Elmahdy also is taking heat from liberal and secular groups, especially because the images come only a week before elections. “Many movements in Egypt, particularly Islamist movements, are trying to benefit,” says one left-leaning candidate. “They say, ‘We have to protect our society from things like this, and if the liberals win then this woman will become a model for all Egyptian women.’" Elmahdy, whose blogger boyfriend was jailed for four years for insulting Islam and Hosni Mubarak, hasn't given any interviews since the photos went viral. Click for more at The Stir, including a link to Elmahdy's blog.