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The Story of Nora and the National Squad

نوفمبر 17th, 2009 كتبها علاء الأسوانى نشر في , translated articles, 

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The Story of Nora and the National Squad
Alaa Al-Aswany
November 17, 2009
 
This week I wanted to write about an Egyptian woman by the name of Nora Hashem Mohamed but the great victory of our national soccer squad over Algeria cannot be ignored, so I decided to write about the two subjects together.
There’s nothing special about Nora Hashem Mohamed. She’s like millions of other Egyptian women – brown-skinned, moderately attractive and poor. She’s married to a simple laborer by the name of Hani Zakaria Mustafa, with whom she has two boys and with whom she has fought a daily battle to make a living and bring up the two children. One day Nora suddenly felt ill.
- - -
The match between our national team and Algeria was a battle of destiny during which the Egyptians showed their mettle, forgot their differences and stood united behind the national team. When the Algerian media took part in some vulgar ridicule of our national team, Egyptian media responded with a torrent of stinging insults towards the Algerians, and when the Algerian singer Warda announced she would support the Algerian team many Egyptians were angry and asked: “How dare Warda support the Algerian team when she’s been living in Egypt and enjoying its bounty for decades?” Some Internet bloggers demanded that Warda be barred from Egypt to punish her for her failure to support our national team.
- - -
At first Nora attributed her exhaustion to lack of sleep and too much housework and she kept it a secret from her husband Hani so as not to add to his burdens. But her illness worsened until she took to her bed. At that stage Hani insisted on taking her a private clinic and paid a doctor to examine her. The doctor advised that she be taken to hospital immediately.
- - -
President Mubarak enthusiastically attended one of the national team’s training sessions and spent time with the players to encourage them in the match. The truth is that President Mubarak is well-known for his patronage of sportsmen. One might remember that when 1,400 Egyptians died in the famous ferry accident, the president’s grief for the victims did not prevent him from attending another training session in preparation for another battle of destiny, in that case the final of the Africa Cup of Nations.
- - -
When Hani Zakaria and his wife Nora reached Embaba chest hospital it was two o’clock in the morning. The doctor quickly examined Nora, said her condition was normal and then left. Hani tried to catch him to discuss the case further but was not allowed to meet the doctor. Hani went back to the receptionist and begged him to help find treatment for his wife. The receptionist then told him straight that if he wanted his wife to be treated he must pay 2,000 pounds immediately.
- - -
During the match with Algeria, despite deliberate rough play on the part of the Algerians, our players displayed the highest level of self-control, and the deep piety of Egyptians was evident during and before the match. Millions of Egyptians prayed to God to have the Egyptian team score at least two goals and the singer Ehad Tawfik appeared on television asking all the spectators to pray for the team and saying that in Egypt there were many righteous men whose prayers God would definitely answer.
- - -
Hani was stunned when he heard the amount of money required of him, and asked the receptionist in a soft voice whether the Embaba Chest Hospital was still a government hospital. The receptionist told him it was still a government hospital but he must still pay 2,000 po

المزيد


Three fallacious arguments for supporting Gamal Mubarak

نوفمبر 10th, 2009 كتبها علاء الأسوانى نشر في , translated articles, 

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Three fallacious arguments for supporting Gamal Mubarak
By Alaa Al-Aswany
November 10, 2009
 
Last week I wrote about the creation of the Egyptian campaign against succession, which aims to prevent President Mubarak passing our country on to his son Gamal, because Egypt is not a private estate or a poultry farm owned by someone, whatever his rank or position. Patriotic intellectuals, political parties and organizations of various political and intellectual tendencies took part in setting up the campaign and all of them decided to do their best to ensure Egyptians regain their natural right to elect the next president of the republic through respectable elections. As soon as the article appeared dozens of messages flooded in to me from readers inside Egypt and abroad, all of them declaring their support for the campaign against succession and asking how they can join it. I thank the readers, I appreciate their magnanimous enthusiasm and I assure them that within a few days the campaign’s founding statement will come out and the procedures for joining will be announced. We expect this campaign to enjoy complete success but we also understand that the path will not be easy, because the Egyptian regime has formed its own special organization to promote the succession, with journalists, politicians, media people and law professors whose sole task is to prepare the Egyptian people to accept the idea of succession. No one respects these advocates of succession because they are hypocrites who have betrayed their professional and patriotic duties, preferring to serve their personal interests over the interest of the nation. Gamal Mubarak’s propagandists have only three fallacious arguments which they repeat again and again. In brief, they run like this:
Firstly, they say the Mr Gamal Mubarak is an urban well-educated young man and irreplaceable as presidential candidate at the current time. They also say that he will be the first civilian president of Egypt since the revolution of 1952, and that this is a step towards democracy. So why don’t we all agree on him, with the provision that he promises to serve only two presidential terms?
We agree with them that Gamal Mubarak is indeed urbane, has had a fair amount of education and also speaks English fluently. But we don’t understand what all that has to do with the presidency. In Egypt there are hundreds of thousands of urbane people with advanced academic degrees who have good English and French. Are they all fit to be president? As for the idea that Gamal Mubarak is the only alternative available, this is not true. Egypt has enough talent and intellectual power to serve ten countries together. As the pace of the succession process speeds up, Egyptians have started to think of major figures who would be suitable as president: Ahmed Zewail. Moh

المزيد


The Egyptian Campaign against the Succession

نوفمبر 3rd, 2009 كتبها علاء الأسوانى نشر في , translated articles, 

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The Egyptian Campaign against the Succession
Alaa Al-Aswany
November 3, 2009
 
Those who work in the theatre know the moment when one scene ends, the stage goes dark and the stage hands move in at speed to remove the set from the previous scene and then replace it with the set for the next scene. This process, known as changing the set, calls for training and skill but first of all precise knowledge of what the next scene requires. Like all Egyptians I watched the latest conference of the National Democratic Party, and was surprised at the extraordinary ability of the senior officials to fabricate and lie. They speak about achievements which exist only in their reports and their imaginations while millions of Egyptian live in complete misery. But I also felt that Egypt is now going a “changing the set” moment which was meant to take place quickly. But it has dragged on and faltered, and there are many reasons for that:
Firstly, President Mubarak has been ruling Egypt for 30 years and is now more than 80 years old. With all due respect, by virtue of age and the law of nature he cannot continue in his position for ever. A few days ago Mr Emad Adib suddenly confronted public opinion with a most unusual remark: he said he hoped the president would give up his office and suggested presidents should be able to leave power safely, in the sense that they would not be held to account, politically or legally, for their deeds while they were in office. It’s hard to imagine that a veteran commentator who is close to the presidency, such as Emad Adib, would venture such a precise and serious suggestion unless he had permission or instructions to do so. These signs add to the confusion on the political stage in our country, because we don’t know whether the president will step down or stay in office. It often seems as though there are two wills at work at the summit of power: one in favour of the president remaining and the other in favour of him stepping down.
Secondly, for years the Egyptian regime has worked hard to prepare Mr Gamal Mubarak to inherit the presidency of Egypt from his father. This effort has not been confined to inside Egypt, but has extended to abroad as well, and the main aim of Egyptian foreign policy is now, I’m sorry to say, to muster the support of Western countries for Mr Gamal Mubarak. The price for this Western consent is paid in terms of the interests, the money and the dignity of Egyptians. The Egyptian regime has understood that the key to the West’s heart is in Israel’s hands. If Israel is content, then all the Western countries will immediately be content. For the sake of the succession the Egyptian regime has fallen over itself to offer services to Israel: since 2005 until today Israel has obtained from Egypt things which it had not obtained since Camp David in 1978: the return of the Egyptian ambassador, gas, oil and cement agreements, and, more important than all that, Egypt’s attempts to persuade or force the Palestinians to do everything Israel demands. This went as far as closing the Rafah crossing and taking part in the blockade of the Palestinians, and punishing Hamas so that it submits to Israel’s will. In return for these services the Egyptian regime has been able to obtain implicit international support on the succession question. We may recall the Sharm el-Shei

المزيد


The Battle of the Minarets in Switzerland

أكتوبر 27th, 2009 كتبها علاء الأسوانى نشر في , translated articles, 

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The Battle of the Minarets in Switzerland
By Alaa Al-Aswany
October 27, 2009
 
On the occasion of the publication of my book “Friendly Fire” in German, the Swiss publishing house Lenos invited me to hold a number of seminars on the book in Switzerland and Germany. As soon as I arrived in Zurich I found that Swiss public opinion was preoccupied with an interesting and important matter: what they call here the battle of the minarets. The story began with the Swiss People’s Party (Schweizerische Volkspartei, SVP), a strong right-wing party which for years has proposed laws hostile to foreigners and immigrants. In the past SVP has led more than one campaign to crack down on immigrants, especially Arabs and Muslims. The new campaign which SVP has adopted calls for a ban on building Islamic minarets in Switzerland. Switzerland has a population of about 7 million people, of which about 300,000 citizens are Muslims. The Muslim community in Switzerland is peaceful and quiet and has not given rise to any incidents of violence whatsoever. But SVP has gathered more than 100,000 signatures to a petition which calls on the government to ban minarets. Muslims would have the right to set up mosques as they wish, but without minarets. The reason for this is that in SVP’s opinion Islam is a religion that advocates murder, violence and the oppression of women, and the minaret is an emblem of war rather than a religious symbol. To support his argument, SVP cited a rhetoric remark by Turkish Prime Minister Receb Tayyıp Erdoğan, who said in a speech: “The minarets are our lances, the domes our helmets, the mosques our barracks and the faithful our army.” Unfortunately SVP also bases his argument on calls by extremist sheikhs, prominently reported by Western media, for women to cover their faces completely and stay at home. SVP also claimed that many Muslim states prevent Christians from performing their religious rites, so Switzerland should treat Muslims in the same manner. SVP chose for his campaign a horrible poster showing the Swiss flag with a woman in a complete face veil standing on it and many minarets breaking through the flag as though they are bombs or missiles. Some Swiss cities refused to permit distribution of the posters on the grounds that they incited racism and hatred of Muslims, while others allowed them on freedom of expression grounds. So far the story is familiar and occurs frequently in the West: a right wing political party incites hatred of Islam and Muslims, and tries to restrict and persecute them. But the new element is the reaction of the Swiss. Independent intellectuals, left and centre parties, the Greens, and Christian, Jewish and Muslim organizations all mounted a big counter-campaign defending the right of Muslims to build minarets, and called SVP’s proposal a violation of the right of Swiss Muslims to freedom of worship and be

المزيد


Why are fanatics obsessed with women’s bodies?

أكتوبر 20th, 2009 كتبها علاء الأسوانى نشر في , translated articles, 

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Why are fanatics obsessed with women’s bodies?
By Alaa el-Aswany
20 oct 2009
 
The Shabaab movement in Somalia controls large parts of the south and centre of the country, and
because officials in this movement embrace the Wahabi ideology they have imposed their views on
Somalis by force and have issued strict decrees banning films, plays, dancing at weddings, football
matches and all forms of music, even the ring tones on mobile phones. Some days ago these
extremists carried out a strange operation: they arrested a Somali woman and whipped her in public
because she was wearing a bra. They announced clearly that wearing these bras was unIslamic
because it is a form of fraud and deception. We may well ask what wearing bras has to do with
religion, why they would consider them to be a form of fraud and deception, and how they managed
to arrest the woman wearing the bra when all Somali women go around with their bodies
completely covered. Did they appoint a special female officer to inspect the breasts of women
passing by in the street? One Somali woman called Halima told Reuters news agency: "Al Shabaab
forced us to wear their type of veil and now they order us to shake our breasts…They first banned
the former veil and introduced a hard fabric which stands stiffly on women’s chests. They are now
saying that breasts should be firm naturally, or just flat."
In fact this excessive interest in covering up women’s bodies is not confined to the extremists in
Somalia. In Sudan the police examine women’s clothing with extreme vigilance and arrest any
woman who is wearing trousers. They force her to make a public apology for what she has done and
then they whip her in public as an example to other women. Some weeks ago Sudanese journalist
Lubna al-Husseini insisted on wearing trousers and refused to make the public apology. When she
refused to submit to flogging she was referred to a real trial and the farce reached its climax when
the judge summoned three witnesses and asked them if they had been able to detect the shape of the
accused’s underwear when she was wearing the trousers. When one of the witnesses hesitated in
answering, the judge asked him directly: “Did you see Lubna’s stomach when she was wearing the
trousers?” The witness replied: “To some extent.” Lubna said she was wearing a modest pair of
trousers and that the scandalous pair she was accused of wearing would not suit her at all because
she is plump and would need to lose 20 kilos in order to put them on. But the judge convicted her
anyway and fined her 500 pounds or a month in prison.
In Egypt too, extremists continue to take an excessive interest in women’s bodies and tin rying to
cover them up entirely. They not only advocate that women wear the niqab but also that they wear
gloves on their hands, which they believe will ensure that no passions are aroused when men and
women shake hands. We really do face a phenomenon which deserves consideration: why are
extremists so obsessed with women’s bodies? Some ideas might help us answer this question:
Firstly, the extremist view of women is that they are only bodies and instruments for either
legitimate pleasure or temptation, as well as factories for producing children. This view strips
women of their human nature. Accusing the Somali woman of fraud and deception because she was
wearing a bra is the same charge of commercial fraud which the law holds against a merchant who
conceals the defects of his goods and make false claims about their qualities in order to sell them at
a higher price. The idea here is that a woman who accentuate her breasts by using a bra gives a false
impression of the goods (her body), which is seen as fraud and deception of the buyer (the man)
who might buy (marry) her for her ample breasts and later discover that they were ample because of
the bra and not by nature. It would be fair to remember that treating women’s bodies as
commodities is not something found only in extremist ideologies but often happens in Western

المزيد


Are Egyptians Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?

أكتوبر 13th, 2009 كتبها علاء الأسوانى نشر في , translated articles, 

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Are Egyptians Suffering from Stockholm Syndrome?
By Alaa Al-Aswany
October 13, 2009
 
The story began on 23 August, 1973, when a group of armed men attacked the biggest bank in Stockholm and held some of the staff hostage. For several days the Swedish police tried to negotiate with the gunmen for the release of the hostages and when the negotiations reached a dead end the police carried out a sudden assault and managed to free the hostages. Then came the surprise:
instead of helping the police with their task some of the hostages resisted the attempt to free them and some of them even expressed sympathy with the gunmen and testified in their favour in court. This strange behaviour towards the hostage-takers on the part of the hostages caught the attention of Swedish psychologist Nils Bejerot, whose long research resulted in a new theory which become famous among psychologists as Stockholm Syndrome. The theory asserts that when some people are kidnapped, abused, physically assaulted or even raped, instead of defending their dignity and freedom, they begin to sympathize with the aggressors, submit to them completely and try to please them. Psychologists have shown great interest in Stockholm Syndrome and much research has been done on the phenomenon. They have discovered that it affects 23 percent of people who are kidnapped or subjected to physical assault in various forms. The scientists have also come up with a convincing explanation of Stockholm Syndrome: that when someone is abused and humiliated, when they feel that they have no control and that the person hitting them or raping them can do whatever he wants, then they face two options – either to remember that they are helpless and degraded and to wait for an opportunity to rebel and set themselves free, or else to escape the painful sense of helplessness by identifying psychologically and sympathizing with their oppressor. Just as Stockholm Syndrome affects individuals, it can also affect groups and whole nations. Some members of a nation which is subjected to despotism and repression for a long period may exhibit Stockholm Syndrome, identifying psychologically with those who oppress and humiliate them and seeing despotism as something positive and essential in governing the country. My question now is: are Egyptians suffering from Stockholm Syndrome? There is no definitive answer but some ideas might help us understand:
Firstly, conditions in Egypt have now reached rock bottom, with injustice, corruption, poverty, unemployment, disease and oppression. Half of Egyptians live below the poverty line and nine million Egyptians live in shantytowns without clean water or a sewerage system, crammed into tiny rooms and dirty neighbourhoods which even animals avoid. For the first time in the history of Egypt, we hear that the drinking water was been contaminated with sewage water and that hundreds of thousands of acres have been irrigated with sewage. Such horrendous conditions would be enough to bring about revolution in many countries but in Egypt they have not induced Egyptians to rebel and refuse to accept injustice. In fact Egypt is now in the process of being simply bequeathed by President Mubarak to his son Gamal as thoug

المزيد


¿Odian los occidentales el islam?TRIBUNA: ALAA AL-ASWANY

أكتوبر 11th, 2009 كتبها علاء الأسوانى نشر في , translated articles, 

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TRIBUNA: ALAA AL-ASWANY
¿Odian los occidentales el islam?
El tratamiento político y mediático de los musulmanes que se hace en Europa y Estados Unidos está lleno de prejuicios y doble rasero. A ello contribuyen los que hacen una lectura retrógrada de esta religión
 
ALAA AL-ASWANY 1
7/07/2009
 
Denny Pattyn es un sacerdote estadounidense un poco especial. En 1996 creó en Arizona un programa llamado El anillo de plata cuyo objetivo fundamental es instar a chicas y chicos a abstenerse del sexo antes de casarse y convencerlos de que el sexo fuera del matrimonio es malo y pecaminoso. Pattyn celebra actos periódicos a los que asisten cientos de jóvenes estadounidenses que leen con él la Biblia y prometen ante el Señor conservar su virginidad para sus futuros esposos. Al final de la celebración, cada joven se coloca en la mano izquierda un anillo de plata que no se quitará hasta que se case. La campaña de Pattyn, que ya tiene un gran número de adeptos en Estados Unidos, se ha marcado el objetivo de obtener las promesas de más de dos millones de seguidores de aquí al próximo año. Su movimiento ha recibido fondos del Gobierno norteamericano.
 
La noticia en otros webs
webs en español
en otros idiomas
Hay que rescatar al islam de todas las tonterías y falsedades con que unos y otros lo han asociado
 
En contra de la lectura wahabí, la democracia es esencial para el mundo árabe y musulmán
En la televisión francesa vi un largo programa sobre el reverendo Pattyn, en el que sus seguidores defendían la virginidad como prueba de virtud. Aparecía también un psicólogo francés dispuesto a discutir sus ideas y mostrarse respetuosamente en desacuerdo con ellos. Empecé a pensar: las ideas de Pattyn sobre la castidad coinciden con las de la cultura tradicional arábigo-musulmana y, sin embargo, en la televisión francesa hablan educadamente del reverendo porque es norteamericano, cristiano y blanco. Si un árabe o un musulmán hubiera dicho lo mismo, se habría enfrentado a un torrente de acusaciones -empezando por las de retrógrado, bárbaro- y lleno de desprecio por las mujeres. Como prueban numerosos ejemplos, este doble rasero de Occidente está muy extendido.
 
Hace poco hubo elecciones en Irán y el vencedor oficial fue el presidente Ahmadineyad. Pero los resultados se pusieron en duda y se oyeron acusaciones de manipulación. Los gobiernos occidentales se alzaron indignados e hicieron declaraciones públicas de apoyo a la democracia en Irán. Y eso me hace preguntarme: las elecciones egipcias están amañadas desde hace muchos años y el presidente Mubarak se ha afianzado en el poder a base de referendos manipulados, así que ¿por qué eso jamás ha provocado la ira de los políticos occidentales? La respuesta es que el propósito de este clamor no es promover la democracia en Irán, sino abochornar a su régimen, que es hostil a Israel y está intentando desarrollar su capacidad nuclear, o sea, que supone una amenaza para el imperialismo occidental. En cambio, el régimen egipcio, a pesar de ser despótico y corrupto, es dócil y obediente, y sus políticas sirven los intereses de Israel y EE UU, de modo que los medios occidentales pasan por alto sus faltas, por espantosas que sean.
 
Durante las manifestaciones recientes en Irán, la joven Neda Sultan fue abatida por un disparo de origen desconocido y su muerte ocupó los titulares de los medios de comunicación de todo el mundo. A los políticos occidentales les conmovió tanto el fallecimiento de esta joven que el propio presidente Obama, casi con lágrimas, dijo que era un hecho desgarrador. Pocas semanas después, en la ciudad alemana de Dresde, una mujer egipcia llamada Marwa el-Shirbini estaba asistiendo al juicio de un alemán que le había proferido insultos racistas porque llevaba un hiyab. Cuando el tribunal alemán multó al hombre con 2.800 euros por insultarla, el extremista saltó lleno de furia y atacó a Marwa y a su marido con un cuchillo. Marwa murió allí mismo y su marido fue llevado al hospital en estado crítico

المزيد


What does Judge Khodeiri want?

أكتوبر 7th, 2009 كتبها علاء الأسوانى نشر في , translated articles, 

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What does Judge Khodeiri want?
By Alaa Al-Aswany
October 6, 2009
 
This is a major event. Judge Mahmoud el-Khodeiri, who is 70 years old, after 46 years on the judge’s bench, announced a few days ago that he was resigning from his position in protest at the government’s attempts to influence judges to rule in its favour, and in protest at the election rigging practiced by the Interior Ministry with instructions from President Mubarak The resignation of Judge Khodeiri was like a bomb which took senior Egyptian officials by surprise, but they quickly came to their senses to launch a vicious campaign to undermine Judge Khodeiri’s person, spread rumours about him and damage his public image. There are several facts we should remember here:
Firstly, the government has made constant attempts to gain favour with the judges and influence them by enticements and intimidation, by giving the justice minister control over the judicial review system, by seconding judges to work as advisers in other ministries for large amounts of money, by appointing judges as ministers and provincial governors, by choosing particular judges to judge particular cases, as well as rigging elections and using thugs to beat up anyone who opposes the rigging (including some judges who were beaten up in the last elections), by referring civilians to military trials, and by detaining tens of thousands of people for years in spite of court rulings acquitting them and ordering the authorities to release them. The Egyptian regime has been committing these crimes for a long time, and Chief Justice Yahya el-Rifai referred to them in the letter he addressed to public opinion some years ago. In fact, the campaign for judicial independence began basically to put an end to these crimes, to protect the independence of the judges and to stop election rigging. So Judge Khodeiri was not acting on a private whim and did not invent anything new. In fact the man said that his accusations that the government interferes with the judiciary and rigs elections are all documented with evidence. So why don’t the officials question him instead of trying to discredit him and distort his position. The answer is that if they questioned him he would provide his evidence and make public the names of people who rigged or were complicit in rigging. That would be a big scandal which I don’t think the regime in Egypt could tolerate. So they make do with empty clamour and stirring up dust around Khodeiri, completely ignoring the issues which he defends.
Secondly: the Egyptian regime accuses Judge Khodeiri and fellow judges who call for judicial independence of taking part in political action, which is banned to judges. This is an invalid accusation, firstly because a judge is a citizen who has the right to state his opinions on public affairs, and stating one

المزيد


Who Lost in the Battle for UNESCO?

سبتمبر 30th, 2009 كتبها علاء الأسوانى نشر في , translated articles, 

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Who Lost in the Battle for UNESCO?
By Alaa Al-Aswany
September 29, 2009
 
For the past ten years my friends and I have been in the habit of holding an open literary salon every Thursday, attended by culture-lovers of all ages and inclinations. This week I went to the salon and found an audience of about 30 people. With their permission I posed to them the following question: “How did you feel when you heard that Farouk Hosni had lost in the elections to head UNESCO?”
The result surprised me. One person said that Farouk Hosni had been treated unfairly and
deserved the position on his own ability, and two people said they felt sorry that Egypt had lost a senior international position. But the others all said they received with pleasure the news that Farouk Hosni had lost. The same day I read comments by Egyptians on Internet sites and found that most of them also heard with satisfaction that Farouk Hosni had lost the elections for the UNESCO position. That seemed strange because Egyptians have a strong attachment to their country and take pride in any Egyptian success on the international stage. I still remember the overwhelming rejoicing which swept Egypt from one end to the other when it was officially announced that Naguib Mahfouz had won the Nobel Prize for Literature. As for Ahmed Zewail, who won a Nobel Prize for chemistry, I went around with him and saw for myself the welcome which Egyptians gave him everywhere he went. Why then would Egyptians take pride in Ahmed Zewail and Naguib Mahfouz, while at the same time many of them feel pleased when Farouk Hosni loses the UNESCO elections? And again, was Farouk Hosni the victim of an international Zionist conspiracy to bring him down? Was it some betrayal that led to his defeat in the last round? I will summarize the answer in the following points:
Farouk Hosni was never a minister elected by Egyptians. When he took ministerial office he was completely unknown, artistically and politically, and he has stayed in office for 22 years not because Egyptians value his achievements but because President Mubarak has supported him. If we remember that President Mubarak himself has ruled Egypt for 30 years without fighting a single real election, then the result is that Egyptians feel that Farouk Hosni is part of the regime imposed on them, a regime that through its corruption, its failure and its despotism has brought about the misery in which millions of Egyptians live. But in the case of Ahmed Zewail, Naguib Mahfouz, Magdi Yacoub and other Egyptians who are prominent internationally, Egyptians like them because they are independent people who have struggled to achieve their accomplishments, at a distance from the regime and sometimes in spite of the regime.
The nomination of Farouk Hosni for the position of UNESCO director-general was coupled with an enormous media campaign, as though he were fighting a real battle which would decide the fate of the nation. There are two reasons for that: firstly, it was President Mubarak who nominated him for the position and the president’s august desire was the reason for mobilizing the government’s writer

المزيد


The Sorrows of Miss Laurence

سبتمبر 15th, 2009 كتبها علاء الأسوانى نشر في , translated articles, 

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The Sorrows of Miss Laurence
By Alaa el-Aswany
15sep 2009
 
Laurence is a French woman, a physiotherapist who had the chance to work in Egypt and was
overjoyed because, like most French people, she loved Egyptian civilization and dreamed of seeing
the Nile, the pyramids and the Pharaonic temples. I met Laurence in Cairo on various occasions, but
whenI met her again a few days ago, I was surprised to hear her saying: “I’ve decided to leave
Egypt for ever.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because I can no longer stand being a woman on display,” she answered.
“What do you mean?”
“Every time I go out in the street, I don’t feel that I’m a human being with a mind and feelings. I
feel that I’m just a body, because I’m a woman on display to everyone. Every man I meet looks at
my body in an offensive manner and undresses me with his glances. I’ve started to avoid crowded
places because I know that crowds mean harassment. They mean that a man’s hand is going to reach
out to my breasts or my legs or any part of my body.”
“Does this always happen?” I asked.
“Invariably. If the guy can’t touch me for the crowds, he speaks to me in broken English to ask if
I have a boyfriend or a husband, in an attempt to sleep with me. Even the men walking on the other
side of the street shout out sexual remarks, or whistle or wave at me. A dozen men started to ogle
my body simultaneously, and after that I started taking the women’s carriage on the metro.”
“Do you wear revealing clothes?” I asked.
“Not at all. You’ve seen me several time and you’ve seen what I wear. I respect the culture of
others and I know that Egypt is a conservative country. Even in summer when I wear a sleeveless
top, I always put on a silk shawl to cover my arms.”
“Don’t you get harassed like that in France?” I said.
“Very rarely. After a year and a half in Cairo I can’t believe what’s happening. Sometimes it
seems like all Egyptian men have been struck with some sexual perversion. I’ve started to be afraid
of going out in the street. If I don’t have work I stay at home for whole days.”
“What are you going to do now?” I asked.
“I’m happy to have found a job in Greece, and I’m impatient to leave. At least in Greece no one
will try to grope me or ogle me or invite me to bed as soon as he sees me. There I’ll feel like a
human being and not a woman on show for sex.”
My conversation with Laurence came to an end and I felt sad. How could this happen in Egypt, a
country which was always known for being polite to foreigners and treating them well? I referred
back to the surveys which have been carried out on sexual harassment in Egypt and I found some
alarming results. Last year a survey by the Egyptian Centre for Human Rights found that 98 percent
of foreign women in Egypt had experienced sexual harassment. The strange thing is that this wave
of harassment is spreading alongside an overwhelming wave of superficial religiosity. All these
beards, gelabias, blaring loudspeakers, Wahabi salafist television channels, religion lessons and
manifestations of piety have not stopped the sexual harassment. Why do Egyptians harass women?
The traditional answer is that the women themselves are responsible for the harassment because
they wear revealing clothes and incite men to harass them. This is a perverse and incoherent
argument, firstly because it blames the victim instead of the perpetrator, secondly because it

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