Whats up in Sinai?

We were officially informed today that we are not allowed to cover the situation in Al-Arish. Any regular reader of the Egyptian Press will not know what I am talking about but it is common knowledge that things have not been good in Northern Sinai for a long time. And it is not Egypt and Israel at loggerheads nor Egypt and Hamas.

 A cousin of mine lives in Al-Arish and has told me that indigenous inhabitants of the area are quite detached from the rest of Egypt- not only because of the distance between Cairo and North Sinai but also culturally and linguistically. In addition to which the people have been badly neglected by the government, leaving a deep seated hatred of the establishment and sometimes even a greater affiliation to Israel.

The Bedouin complain of economic marginalisation, police harassment and limited access to jobs in the lucrative tourism and petroleum sectors in Sinai, which produces a significant share of Egypt's oil from offshore fields and is dotted with resorts popular with tourists seeking sun, sand and diving. Jobs at the few privately owned factories in the region and senior posts in state institutions are usually reserved for workers from the Nile Valley, as part of a policy to increase the population of Sinai and integrate it with the rest of the country.

In a huge number of cases, these Egyptians are barred from access to education, healthcare and basic public services. It is not surprise that hatred has been sown and it is from this background that a group of bombers emerged, killing more than 100 people between 2004 and 2006 in a series of three bombings at Sinai resorts frequented by foreigners.

Having covered the official state organised press campaigns promoting the national 1994-2017 plan for Sinai, I know that the government would protest its innocence and insist that all Egyptians are equal- however this is very far from the reality.

The most recent train of events took place recently and actually started with a family feud between two clans from Al Arish, however the situation was mishandeled by the police and it spiralled into a blood feud which quickly drew in most inhabitants of the city.

On the 3rd of January, Egyptian police clashed with thousands of demonstrators who attacked government buildings in North Sinai to protest the murder of a man by armed robbers. Police fired tear gas on the swelling crowds, which one security official estimated at 7,000 people, after they stoned local government offices in the coastal town of El-Arish. The demonstrators had gathered earlier to protest what they said was lawlessness in North Sinai after a 50-year-old man was shot dead by thieves who tried to commandeer a truck filled with food.

This is just another demonstration of the lawlessness that has been bred by extreme frustration at the injustices taking place on a daily basis.

Poverty of Sex Education

Bikya Masr's Baher Ibrahim, just posted this well written and extremely interesting piece on Sex Education in Egypt- or the lack of it. Clearly the topic is taboo for many Egyptians. But can this not cause problems?

With figures such as Egypt's most senior Islamic cleric, Sheikh Mohamed Tantawi, rejecting the possibility of sex education courses in the nation's classrooms and Grand Mufti, Ali Gomaa, vetoing the idea that children should be taught safe sex and how to avoid pregnancy and STDs on grounds that this kind of information should be on a need to know basis there seems to be little hope. Add to this the common view that "the bedroom is as a grave" -- no information should come out of it!

But why is sex taboo? Simply because in Arab societies, sex has always had bad connotations- being closely interlinked with honour and many believe that it is religiously wrong.

This would seem to be contradictory in a country where sexual harassment is rife on the streets- 83% of Egyptian women report being harassed despite Islamisation in all facets of life.  Indeed, basic education could very well cut the rates of abuse and rape as well as harassments. Victims would have a much clearer comprehension of the issues. Many women blame themselves for what has happened.

Kalam Kebeir (Serious Talk) -- presented by Heba Qotb, the first ever Arab sexologist and marriage counsellor -- took the nation by storm when it was launched. This is the first programme to discuss the issue of sexual education and culture in Egypt and the Arab world.

In an episode of her show, Qotb pointed out that ignorance of matters sexual and misconceptions relating to them are statistically rife in Egypt, with some 68 per cent of the population suffering from them. "A person grows up to be a blank page," she says. "Any misleading information indelibly marks them. I aim to provide the right kind of database, to give people the basic skill to tell right from wrong in the ethical and religious realm. But it is less ignorance than misconception that worries me, because it is usually taken for granted. On marrying a man will often apply such misconceptions to his wife, and when they don't match her he blames it on her ignorance -- the very same ignorance that he initially saw as a blessing as it is a mark of correct morality."

My Four Husbands and I

Regular Readers of Al Masry al Youm will have heard of the ruckus caused by Nadine Bedair's article calling for Islam to abandon polygamy by taking the bold step of imagining a world where polygamy was a woman's right. Khaled Diab comments in the Guardian:

They say that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. But it does: the roaring rage of injured male pride. This was amply demonstrated in Egypt when a female Saudi journalist had the audacity to apply logic and consistency to challenge an area of traditional male privilege.

In an article provocatively entitled "My Four Husbands and I", Nadine al-Bedair quite sensibly posed the logical question: if Muslim men are entitled to marry up to four wives, why can't women, in the spirit of equality between believers, have four husbands?

"I have long questioned why it is men have a monopoly on this right. No one has been able to explain to me convincingly why it is I'm deprived of the right to polyandry," she complains.

The outspoken Saudi then goes on to deconstruct and question the traditional justifications for polygamy, including that, in a traditional patriarchal society, it is a shelter for widows, divorcees and women who can't find a spouse; that men have greater sexual appetites than women and get easily bored; that women can't handle more than one man; and that, if women could have multiple husbands, determining paternity would not be possible (an excuse made obsolete by modern science).

"They tell me that I, as a woman, can't handle more than one man physically. I say that women who cheat on their husbands and the 'sellers of love' [ie prostitutes] do much more," she counters.

Unsurprisingly, the article's honest tone and irreverence has triggered a furious response from the traditional male establishment. Some Islamic clerics have denounced the article and promised the "blaspheming" author divine retribution, while an Egyptian MP has decided not to wait that long and has already brought a lawsuit against her.

While few have openly voiced support for al-Bedair's call for this kind of equality in the Islamic marriage stakes, some Islamic authorities have defended her by saying that her true purpose was to highlight how badly some women are treated by their husbands, especially those who take on second or third wives, despite Islam's demand that a man treats all his wives equally.

For her part, al-Bedair ends her article with a call that society either allows polyandry for women or comes up with a new "map of marriage". One Cairo imam, Sheikh Amr Zaki, believes the way to go is to confine polygamy to the scrapheap of history. "In our world today, polygamy should be unacceptable. There is no need for it and, besides, no man can truly love more than one woman and vice versa," he opined.

And his view corresponds with that of the Egyptian mainstream. Although Islam permits polygamy, most Egyptians are jealously monogamous, with men who take on more than one wife often mocked or marginalised by the community and the first wife often so full of shame that she requests a divorce. Nevertheless, the question remains: which is fairer and more equitable – monogamy or polygamy for all?

Even in monogamous societies, informal polygamy (and polyandry) are a reality. In Europe, for instance, though most people, myself included, are serial monogamists, many men and women have multiple partners or lovers simultaneously, and there is a growing tendency to be open about this. However, the law has not kept up.

"A man can live with two women in Britain perfectly legally, but if he marries them both it's a crime punishable by up to seven years in jail," Brian Whitaker observed on Cif earlier this year. "If a man wants to have more than one wife, or a woman to have more than one husband, and everyone enters into the arrangement openly and voluntarily, what exactly is wrong with that?" he asks.

Of course, traditional models of polygamy (and polyandry, in a minority of societies) tend to reflect social inequalities, both between genders, generations and classes. And assuming a 50:50 gender divide, polygamy not only means that women in polygamous relationships not only receive a small fraction of a man, but that some unfortunate men lower down the pecking order will get no woman at all.

But there are perhaps more equitable modern models of polygamy and polyandry emerging in which men and women who are largely social equals enter into complex relationships that go beyond the nuclear family through which they hope better to fulfil their emotional and physical needs.

Of course, as my wife points out, marriage is becoming, in many ways, obsolete, as fewer and fewer people choose to take that path, and European largely have the freedom to choose the living arrangement that best suits them. But to my mind, it's a question of principle. For example, gay people don't need to marry to share a life together, but that should not mean they have no right to.

In my view, if the institution of marriage is to survive, it should not be so limiting and be made flexible enough to enable people to customise it to their unique needs.

Rafah Clashes

Excellent and mych more through analysis of the Viva Palestina happenings than I can produce right now from the Arabist

Following up on the previous post about the standoff between pro-Palestinian activists from the Viva Palestina convoy and Egyptian security, the situation has escalated at the border with Palestinians clashing with Egyptian border guards, one of whom has been reported killed (the second in a week I think.) This is a bad development, for both sides, and Hamas is clearly flexing its muscle after the construction of the wall and the treatment of the solidarity campaigns. I wonder if Egypt has thought through pushing the Gazans against the wall (so to speak.) Below is a report from Al Jazeera English.

On the upside, Viva Palestina has come up with a compromise with the Egyptian government and trucks have started to very slowly make their way to Gaza. Some trucks will have to go through Israel first, and may be delayed there for a while, or not get in altogether. There a good blog post at the New Internationalist by a member of the Viva Palestina convoy.

As the sun went down on another unpredictable day yesterday, we were all here in El-Arish port, people and vehicles reunited and aid all intact. After all the delays and extra costs, Gaza is only 40km away, but there were more unpleasant surprises in store for us, when the local authorities walked out of negotiations about which vehicles and aid they wanted to allow into Gaza. Instead of returning, they sent 2,000 uniformed riot cops and non-uniformed provocateurs to surround the port, blockading us in and then attacking those protesting at the gates with paving slabs and more.
So instead of driving to Gaza, the convoy spent the first half of the night in a pitched battle with Egyptian police, who used pepper spray, water cannon, rocks and metal batons against a couple of hundred of our volunteers. Middle-eastern TV broadcast five hours of live coverage of the battle into homes across the region, exposing still further the
criminal role of Egypt in the siege of Gaza.
Fifty-five convoy members were wounded during the fighting, several of whom had to be taken to hospital for treatment, being beyond the scope of the ad hoc first aid station we set up within the port compound. Six brothers of various nationalities were arrested and held all night and most of today in a police van without food, water or toilet facilities.
This morning, Viva Palestina announced that negotiations at the highest level, between the Egyptian and Turkish prime ministers, had failed to persuade the Egyptians to let all our vehicles in, so cars and 4x4s requested by doctors and clinics will not be delivered to Gaza, but will instead be taken by Turkish drivers to refugee camps in Syria and Lebanon. All the people and aid have been agreed to, however, so now we are just waiting for the army to open the gates and then we will make our way to Rafah and on into Gaza this evening.

Interesting to see the Turkish role here, considering Turkey’s strong stance against Israel during and since the war as well as the extremely helpful and discreet role it is playing in inter-Palestinian negotiations. The Egyptians need Turkish goodwill at this point.

It’s worth remembering that, on average, on 41 trucks have been going into Gaza since the war, compared to a normal traffic of thousands of trucks. You can get this statistic and others from a short but informative report by Oxfam on the impact of the blockade on reconstruction.

A note to explain Egypt’s position on this matter, and why truck traffic is generally NOT allowed in through the Rafah crossing:

- Rafah is a passenger terminal, and the Egyptian government has always refused to upgrade it to a full commercial terminal. This has been the case even before last year’s war and the current version of the blockade in place since June 2007, when Hamas took control of Gaza. Passenger traffic has also long been restricted, and moreso in recent years.

- Aside for a limited amount of humanitarian traffic, trucks usually have to go through the Kerem Shalom crossing (its Hebrew name) where the borders of Gaza, Egypt and Israel meet, a few kilometers south of Rafah. Currently this path is open but since the war the Israelis have severely slowed the processing of the trucks and restricted the type of good allowed in (including most construction materials.)

- Rafah could be turned into a full commercial terminal pretty easily and without much cost. Egypt has refused to do so because its position is that it cannot have a fully open border without a comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement that clearly delineates borders. Of course, this is rather ridiculous if humanitarian concerns were the priority, so what’s behind Egypt’s thinking? Aside from its current distaste for Hamas and US-Israeli pressure to maintain the blockade, it has an understandable fear that should Egypt become the main trading point with Gaza, which would not only work to facilitate Israel’s illegal attempts to severe links between the West Bank and Gaza, but also de facto dump the problem of Gaza onto Egypt. This is known in certain Israeli circles as the “Gaza is Egypt solution.” Egyptian officials insist Gaza is Israel’s responsibility as an occupying power (which is correct under international law), and therefore will not develop its own links with the territory outside of a wider framework of Palestinian integration and clearer borders between Israel and Palestine.

- Of course this does not mean Egypt’s hands are tied. It could continue making this argument while opening up border traffic to allow for the much needed humanitarian aid and construction materials, bypassing Israel altogether. It could also implement a system to allow greater passenger traffic. Some of this would take time for technical reasons (you need to set up the infrastructure to handle the added traffic). But this would have all sorts of consequences in terms of Israel’s behavior towards Egypt, its potential actions in Gaza, the peace process, and Quartet attitudes towards Egypt. Cairo would have to be prepared for some regional turmoil, changes in regional attitudes, American anger and more unpredictable surprises. It’s certainly not something Hosni Mubarak, whose best day is the day where nothing happens, would be prepared to do (never mind his ideological bearings).

- There is another technical element to Egypt’s position on Rafah. In 2005, Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) signed the Agreement on Movement and Access (AMA), which stipulates a PA presence at the border. This document is endorsed by the Quartet, and also provides for . Since June 2007, Egypt has insisted that the PA return to the Palestinian side of the border, which is controlled by Hamas, and has used the AMA to justify its participation in the blockade. For now, the AMA (although it was not signed by Egypt) is a core part of any resolution to this problem as seen by Egypt and the Middle East Quartet. Full or partial Palestinian reconciliation could see a deal to return the PA to the border, of course, but that dossier is also in Egyptian hands.

A Long Affair

Egyptians are celebrating the contribution of their Leavntine cousins to Egyptian art and culture by publishing Mas'oud Dahir's book 'Migration of the Levant', this is at the head of the Egyptian - Levantine Cultural Festival which is to take place in Cairo.

Since the 19th century thousands of families flocked from the fertile crescent to Egypt, in the search of opportunity. Artists, Writers, Architects and Engineers were drawn by the possibility of making a fortune in building downtown Cairo and the Suez Canal. In those heady years, Egypt was on the up, described as the Paris of the Middle East and it would seem that any young professional, wishing to prove themselves at the time, would head for the heady metropolis.

Among them were some of the biggest names - families like the Nahhas, the Sednaoui, the Mitres, the Khouris , the Zidans and many others. Because of this background, Egyptians retain  a perception of Shamis as being more Westernized and sophisticated.

By the mid-twentieth century, while Levantine Egyptians existed in all walks of life, they dominated the production of culture. In 1881, two Lebanese brothers, Salim and Bishara Taqla, founded Egypt’s most prestigious daily, Al-Ahram. Levantine families dominated the publishing industry, owning major printing houses like Dar al-Hilal (est. 1892), which gave them enormous influence on the country’s cultural life.

After Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized most businesses ¬ including newspapers ¬ in the mid-1960s, Egyptians turned to Lebanon for a free press, in some cases moving banned publications to Beirut. Even today, while the quality of publications coming out of the state-owned firms frustrates many Egyptians, they admire Lebanon’s publishers and the relative freedom they have. When in 2000 the publication in Cairo of Syrian writer Heidar Heidar’s Banquet for Seaweed spurred riots because religious figures said it denigrated Islam, Cairo’s intellectuals rushed for the Lebanese edition that was smuggled in.

Acting and singing were other professions in which Lebanese artists had a foothold. The great crooner of 1950s Egyptian cinema, Farid al-Atrash, was Lebanese. His sister Asmahan rivalled Egypt’s own star singer, Umm Kulthoum, to the extent that Egyptians commonly believe her death in a car accident was a plot by the older Egyptian songstress. The most famous of Egyptian film directors, Youssef Chahine, was of Syrian origin.

Even the material culture of Cairo has been suffused by the Levant. The most prolific architect in Central Cairo between the 1930s and 1960s was Antoine Selim Nahhas, who is seen as the first modernist architect in Egypt. Nahhas, who built among other important buildings the Beirut National Museum, established a wildly successful practice in Cairo, where he designed buildings for the rich and famous.

This cordial and fruitful relationship may have been what prompted Gamal Abdel Nasser to embark upon the disastrous unification of Egypt and Syria, which very quickly collapsed, showing that Egypt and the Levant, though never synonymous will forever be complimentary.

Service with a Smile

Mamoun Fandy brings blushes to personnel at the American Embassy in Cairo in a whip lashing over local staff.

America does not need Al Qaeda to blow up embassies; it only needs more local staff like those employed by the US embassy in Cairo.

Insincere Efforts at Peace?

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbass met yesterday in Sharm el Sheikh with President Mubarak to discuss peace efforts.

His visit to Egypt comes almost a week after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Mubarak in Cairo about the stalled peace process and as diplomats said Washington was drafting letters of guarantee for the peace talks.

According to Israel's Maariv newspaper, Washington is pushing a plan to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that foresees reaching a final deal in two years.

Abbas insited that there were no reservations on discussing the peace process, providing Israel stopped settlements in the Occupied Territories.

Egypt's attempts to broker peace come at a time when many would say the regime has lost total credibility, having taken the step of building a steel fence between Egypt and Gaza, which has been described as a "wall of death" that could seal an Israeli-led blockade by smothering smuggler tunnels from the Egyptian Sinai.

Cairo has also been in the spotlight over a delayed UK relief convoy which Egypt blocked from reaching Rafah. Although the convoy was finally allowed to reach Al Arish in the Northern Sinai, yesterday, although leading activist and British MP George Galloway has accused Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki of lying in statements issued and creating imaginary obstacles to the aid convoy.

US Ambassador Claims Press Freedom in Egypt

Independent Daily 'El Shorouk' has accused America of abandoning Freedom of Speech for Egyptians after the Washington Post attacked comments made by US Ambassador Maragret Scobey at Cairo University last month.

In a speech made to students at the University she stated that "In my time in Egypt, I have noticed that many Egyptians are very free to speak out. The press debates so many things." leaving many wondering if she had actually ever left the Embassy compound or indeed followed the Egyptian Media. Reporters without has ranked Egypt at 143rd out of 175 countries for Press Freedom.

Critics have commented that this unschooled comment was made in attempt to avoid a question regarding the American Position on Democracy in Egypt.

Fat Camp- Egypt

Check out the article by Laura Cunningham over at Global Post which pegs Egypt as the number FIVE fattest nation with 66% of Egyptians overweight.

In the 1960s, Egypt produced enough food to feed its people a steady diet of red meat, poultry, lentils, maize and dairy products. But by the 1980s, the population had outgrown food production, leading to an increase in food imports that created poorer eating habits. Obesity among Egyptian women is particularly high, often attributed to cultural taboos on women exercising or playing sports.

This would seem to be rather sick, especially when considering that 45% of the population live on or just under the poverty line.

However, conferences by the Food and Agriculture Organisation and World Health Organisation have pinned this fact not being down to a lack of food but a focus on the wrong type of food as a staple. Egyptians put a heavy importance on rice, pasta and bread- all calorie laden carbohydrates which are cheap to purchase and filling.

So many Egyptians would seem too poor to lose weight. Unlike developed countries which have watched their girths expanding because of junk food, sweets and other luxuries, Egyptians have been seeing their BMIs rising due to an inability to access a balanced diet.

Though representatives of the WHO have claimed that it is an ignorance of the right diet which has lead to this situation, a simple survey of grocery prices in Cairo would certainly reveal that many do not have the luxury to get their '5-a-day'. Bread will always be cheaper (at 0.20LE per loaf) than a bag of oranges (4LE per kilo), will go further and keep starvation at arms length.

New Ministers

Following the train disaster back in October, which claimed many lives and the resignation of Egypt's Minister of Transport Mohamed Mansour, the government has just nominated Alaa Fahmy as the new Minister of Transport.


The appointment of Fahmy, formerly head of Egypt National Postal Authority, was part of a ministerial reshuffle that also saw Education Minister Yousri el-Gamal replaced by Ain Shams University President Ahmed Zaki Badr.


The replacement of the Minister of Education, though suspected was not on the agenda and media speculates that this may be down to the recurrent failure and corruption of the Thanweya Amma exams, the national secondary school certificate,; and second, the tragic death of 11-year-old Islam Badr who was kicked to death by his teacher, leading to public outrage over corporal punishment in schools.

Critics have been sceptical of both appointments, pointing to inexperience and protesting that this is not the way to solve the chaos currently suffered in these sectors.

Despite speculations that President Mubarak may be preparing for a major cabinet reshuffle that would possibly see a change of Prime Minister, Mubarak chose to make just two changes, suggesting that Mubarak will soldier on with the current cabinet until the general elections.

All Egyptians can do is wait it out.