This is NOT Mubarak's Granddaughter: Berlusconi Drags Mubarak into His Latest Scandal

Let's get this clear to begin with: the young woman at left, a 17-year old Moroccan belly dancer who calls herself Ruby Rubacuori, or Ruby the Heart Robber, and whose real name may be Karima, is not the granddaughter of Husni Mubarak. Mubarak has one granddaughter, Gamal's daughter Farida, who is less than a year old. Though no photos of Farida have been published, I'm pretty sure we can say that this isn't she. This young (underage in fact) lady is, however, the cause of a flap between Italy and Egypt, since Mubarak's sometime good friend Silvio Berlusconi dropped Mubarak's name in trying to get his young friend (if that's the right euphemism) out of jail.

I pay only peripheral attention to European politics, but sometimes the Middle East gets dragged in. Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi seems to have a penchant for scandal, usually involving women (singular or plural) or money or frequently both, but his latest one, through a particularly impolitic ploy, has embarrassed his good friend Mubarak. You can read the basics here. It's too funny to ignore, frankly. And it makes me feel sorry for Mubarak, which takes some doing.

Berlusconi has been linked to the 17-year old Moroccan belly dancer pictured above (her Facebook profile pic), which is not as shocking, apparently, to his Italian support base as it might be if he were an American politician (though the Moroccan connection alone would be enough to qualify as fodder for this blog), and it's hardly his first trespass, though the fact that the girl is under age adds a bit of flavor. (There are now several Facebook pages devoted to her, some of which, despite my lack of Italian, are clearly bogus or satirical. And many now list her as a "Public Figure" which, given the photos, may be an intentional pun.)

The young lady (to use the polite term) in question is supposedly the mistress, or perhaps I should say a mistress, of Signor Berlusconi, who is known to enjoy female company, sometimes in excess, and in plural. She found herself arrested in Milan on suspicion of theft. According to the authorities, someone not yet identified in the Prime Minister's Office called the police and urged her release, telling them she was a granddaughter of Husni Mubarak. As already noted, Farida Gamal Mubarak is not yet a year old, and he has no other granddaughters. As the Guardian story linked above notes, "According to Italian media reports, a showgirl turned politician close to Berlusconi collected Ruby following her release." You really can't make this stuff up. The "showgirl turned politician" springs the underage belly dancer from the slammer.

This is causing some scandal in Italy because, despite Berlusconi's frequent flaunting of his sexual escapades, this one involved a potential abuse of Prime Ministerial office. And it also has a diplomatic angle, since he, or someone acting in his name, dragged Husni Mubarak into the mix. (He's also of course a good pal of Qadhafi: that would possibly have been even funnier.)

The Egyptian press has been pretty quiet but the Egyptian Embassy in Rome and the MENA news agency went out of their way to emphasize that she is not a granddaughter, niece, great-uncle or any other relative of Mubarak's. So Egypt is clearly annoyed. Berlusconi has brazened his way through a lot of scandals, mostly through sheer gall, but this one with its underage belly dancer and international embarrassment and apparent abuse of office, might prove different.

[NOTE: If one of those Facebook pages is correct, she was born November 1, 1992, and so may have just turned 18. Perhaps Berlusconi has been saved by the calendar.]