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2 ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005 ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005 3
 news news
Breathing room 3-9 November
With the opposition massing, if not lining up, to take a
collective swipe at the regime’s parliamentary power-
base, the upcoming elections will be interesting. And
with businessmen increasingly looking to move into
the driver’s seat, it could be that the engines of privati-
zation are just beginning to rev up.
This is good news for business generally, and music
to the ears of neo-cons in Washington and London, the
ones who spout that specious nonsense about how
democracy, freedom and general happiness inevitably
follow from free trade and privatization.
Businesspeople are necessary. Somebody has to
create employment, pay taxes and provide services.
It is easy enough to identify a community of interests
among businesspeople. They need a certain degree of
freedom in which to operate—burden them with silly
taxes and an unworkable regulatory system and either
they or their money will simply go elsewhere.
This is fair enough. However, democracy, freedom,
social services, human rights, environmental controls,
safety regulations, building codes and an education
system that teaches anything other than job skills are
DANA SMILLIE

not necessary items on the list. In fact, they are more

often seen as impediments—expensive luxuries that
might, or might not, be affordable once low wages,
high unemployment, low taxes and a general absence At Cairo University, students and faculty are demonstrating for a campus free of government interference.
of regulation have allowed the factory owners to build
up a big enough surplus.
Other countries balance the contradictory demands
of capitalists versus the rest of us in different ways. In the
news business culture
West, the twentieth century was a century of protracted,
and sometimes violent, struggle to define the balance
6 News in brief 14 On the waterfront 24-25 Not the whole picture
Catch up on recent headlines. Alexandrian dockworkers Liliane Karnouk’s useful new
of power between big business (as often as not in the
demand canceled bonus. book ignores key artists.
uniform of the state), unions and civil rights groups.
7 Keeping the peace
As a starting point, the balance of power in Egypt is
not promising.
After deadly sectarian riots, 15Businessmen
Powerbrokers
everyone is pointing fingers. dominate this
Thanks to a decrepit education system, the work-
year’s parliamentary lists.
force has little bargaining power on the world market,
and thanks to a repressive government, there is no 8 The Birds
meaningful trade union system. Egypt braces for bird flu.
Giving business its breathing space is a practical ne-
8 Nukes and zibda in-depth
cessity, but we have to ensure that there’s enough air
left over for the rest of us. Iran’s nuclear program may be
making the neighbors jealous.
18Professors
The ivory dungeon
are resisting security
incursions on campus.
9 Tapping out
Editor: Matthew Carrington Karam Gaber, Egypt’s Olympic
Managing Editors: Issandr El Amrani and
Elijah Zarwan
golden boy, is emigrating.
opinion
News Editor: Charles Levinson
16 Bullpen 24
Culture Editor: Ursula Lindsey
Contributing Editors: Steve Negus, elections 16 From the driver’s seat
Paul Schemm and Sameh Fawzy
Copy Editors: Matt Hall and Luke Yarbrough 10 Spirit of ‘84 What taxi drivers have to say
about the Alexandria riots. 27 Arabic Literature 2.0
Writers: Ahmad Aboul-Wafa and Eman Shaban Morsi These parliamentary elections
Interns: Judith Boessenkool and Kristina Roic will be the ones that count. Union and website for Internet
Design coordinator: Michael Keating 17 Press Review writers highlight new genre.
Staff photographers: Ahmad Hosni and 11 High noon Cartoons from the Arabic press.
Tara Todras-Whitehill A son looks to avenge his
Cover Photo: Dana Smillie
Published by AS & A Publishing
father’s defeat in Abbasiya.
out and about 25-26 listings
Printed by Sahara Printing Company S.A.E. 13 Free shoes Theater, music, workshops and
exhibitions.
Designed by Fatiha Bouzidi The battle for Bab Al Shaariya
gets dirty.
22Though
Anatomy of a firecracker
illegal, these Ramadan
For advertising contact: traditions are hot items.
Cairo Media Services
39 Qasr Al Nil Street, Suite #24, Cairo, Egypt
13 Dueling Islamists in Bulaq
The “religious vote” is up for 23 Malibu
30 and finally...
Pagodas in Myanmar, this
Telephone: 010 171 1408 grabs in Giza. New Doqqi eatery is no SoCal, week in regional history and
memad@cairomagazine.com but offers service with a smile. Golo’s turn to deal.

4 ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005 ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005 5
 news
briefs news

the week in review

Kurdistan, suspected of carrying
Egypt deadly avian flu, had been tested for
the disease in a US Army laboratory
in Cairo. Both birds were found to be
King Tutankhamun was a red wine infected with an avian virus, but not
A World Trade Organization (WTO)
working group brought Saudi Arabia
a step closer to joining the WTO on
28 October by approving the terms that
would allow the country to join. The
THE WEEK IN
NUMBERS
KEEPING THE PEACE that the group is to blame for the politicization
of religion in the country. “What would be the
reaction to a political slogan like ‘Christianity
is the solution?,’” asked Nahdet Misr column-
ist Ramzi Zaklama in a recent editorial.
1,000,000
Amount in Egyptian pounds that
After deadly sectarian riots, Copts and Muslims are pointing fingers The ultra-secular left is also blaming the
politicization of religion. Abdel Halim Qandil,
independent candidate for parlia- the editor-in-chief of Nasserist weekly Al

drinker, scientists announced on 26
October. Previously, the color of the
pharaoh’s wine was unknown because
it dried out over time, but a team of
Spanish scientists pinpointed an acid
left by compounds in red wine.
On 26 October, US authorities
deported Mohammad Abouhalima,
an Egyptian citizen jailed for eight
years in the United States for his
role in the 1993 World Trade Center
bombing. Six people died in the
bombing and more than 1,000 were
injured. Abouhalima was convicted in
May 1997 of trying to help his brother,
Mahmoud, who had been involved in
the bombing, escape to Saudi Arabia.
President Hosni Mubarak appointed
a new army chief of staff on 26
October. Lt. Gen. Sami Anan will
replace Maj. Gen. Hamdi Wahiba, who
has held the job for the past four years.
Wahiba will now serve as the head of
Egypt’s Arab Industrial Authority.
President Hosni Mubarak said on 27
October that Israel’s demand for
the H5N1 strain. (see story p. 8)
Al Ahly football club extended its
50-game unbeaten streak Saturday in
a 0-0 draw against ESS Tunisia in the
first round of the African Champions
League final. The tournament’s
deciding match will be played in Cairo
on 12 November.
Region
Iraq’s electoral commission on 25
October announced that Iraqis had
approved the country’s constitution
ten days earlier. The 78.59 percent
vote in favor of the draft obscured
heavy opposition in predominantly
Sunni provinces.
Several explosions shook the Kurdish
city of Suleimaniya in northeast Iraq
on 25 October. In total, 9 people were
killed and 6 injured. The city had previ-
ously been relatively peaceful.
Two thousand US soldiers have been
WTO’s General Council is expected to
approve Saudi Arabia’s entry into the
organization on 11 November.
Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad said Iran “was not
planning an attack against Israel”
on 29 October. The remarks followed
a diplomatic row and censure from
the UN Security Council caused by the
Iranian president’s earlier call for Israel
to be “wiped off the map.”
At least 30 people were killed in a
car bomb in Howaider, a predomi-
nantly Shia city 35 miles north of
Baghdad on 30 October.
Business
Al Ahram reported on 28 October that
the cost of this Ramadan’s Omra
pilgrimage trips totaled $2 billion.
Imports of yamish foodstuffs totaled
US$80 million, Al Ahram reported.
Orascom Construction Industry said
ment Mohammed Kamel told Agence
France-Presse it costs to secure a
nomination for the NDP list.
10
Seats in the parliament filled by presi-
dential decree.
2 ship. Hence the confusion between religion
Dead chickens from Kurdistan tested
for bird flu in Cairo.
2,000
American soldiers killed in Iraq since
fighting began in 2003.
80,000,000
The US dollar value of dates, nuts and
other traditional iftar staples imported
into Egypt this Ramadan.
THE WEEK IN
QUOTES
“The Brotherhood has abandoned
ISSANDR EL AMRANI once (over two years ago), was distributed in
the neighborhood to sabotage the candidacy
of National Democratic Party Candidate Maher
ISSANDR EL AMRANI
Arabi and a leader of the Kifaya movement,
gestured to the increasingly political role
of Pope Shenouda III: “Pope Shenouda III is
not innocent, because he has transformed
the church from a spiritual institution to a
political one. The pope has given the impres-
sion that Copts are protected by the person
of Hosni Mubarak rather than by their citizen-
and politics.”
Mohammed Badrashin, an independent MP
for a nearby district in Alexandria, suggested
that paranoia about Copts’ political role esca-
lated the crisis. “The US backing of minorities
in the Middle East has given the Copts a dif-
ferent way of dealing with the majority—it’s
given them confidence and power,” Badrashin
said, adding that it was “a minority” of Copts
who thought this way.
The government’s worst fear, a crisis on
the international level, could be looming.
The UN Committee on Human Rights’ Special
Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion, Asma
Jahangir, has requested permission from
the government to visit Egypt to investigate.
Jahangir, a Pakistani lawyer who recently com-
p State security pleted a report dealing with issues of conver-
massed outside sion and the religious rights of detainees, is
Alexandria's Mar highly regarded on the international stage.

the disarmament of Palestinian
militants before a resumption of
peace talks could lead to civil war.
He further urged Israel to take steps
to strengthen Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas’ position.
On 28 October, the electoral commis-
sion published the final list of 5,414
candidates who will compete for the
444 parliamentary seats in 222 con-
stituencies in the coming elections.
(see elections coverage p. 10)
Attorney General Maher Abdel Wahid
said on 29 October that he was
dropping the bribery case against
Ayman Nour for lack of evidence. But
the Ghad leader still faces separate
charges of forging documents in the
process of registering his party.
On 30 October, religious authori-
ties at Al Azhar banned a book on
Wahabism. Azhari scholars found
that Wahabi Islam—From Revival and
Reforms to Global Jihad was blasphe-
mous and promoted hatred of Islam.
The book is an analysis of Mohammed
bin Abdul Wahab’s work.
A medical source said on 30 October
that two dead chickens from
killed in Iraq, Pentagon officials ac-
knowledged on 25 October.
Iraqi Shia leader Moqtada Al Sadr’s
faction said on 25 October that it
backs the Arab League’s proposed
conference on national reconcilia-
tion in Iraq, but not at the proposed
location, Cairo. “We believe it should
be held inside Iraq,” Sheikh Al Arji of
Al Sadr’s Shia faction said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
vowed “wide-ranging and cease-
less” operations against Palestinian
militants on 27 October following
a suicide bombing the day before in
Hadera—the first in two months.
President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian
President Bashar Al Assad held
surprise talks in Damascus on 28
October to discuss a UN report on the
killing of the former Lebanese Prime
Minister Rafik Hariri.
On 28 October, members of the
Sliba tribe in Kuwait occupied the
offices of Al Rai TV. They were angry
at televised remarks comedian Daoud
Hessein calling Saddam Hussein a
“dog of the Sliba tribe.”
on 26 October it would acquire a
30-percent stake in a $540 million
investment to build Egypt’s first
ammonia plant. Other companies
include PSK Holdings, Amiral Group
and the Egyptian General Petroleum
Company.
During his upcoming visit to Russia,
scheduled for 12 November, Minister
of Foreign Trade and Industry Rashid
Mohammed Rashid will discuss a
possible free trade agreement
between Russia and Egypt.
Emaar Misr, a subsidiary of Dubai’s
real-estate development firm Emaar
Properties, signed an agreement
with the Egyptian government on 25
October for a $172 million project
in the Smart Village outside Cairo.
Emaar Properties will build an exhibi-
tion center, a hotel and apartments.
State-owned insurance giant Misr
Insurance Company will sell 80
percent of its real estate subsidi-
ary, Misr Company for Real Estate
and Tourism Investment, to a strategic
investor. The company will accept
acquisition bids until 1 December,
2005.
districts to all the parties, to the Copts
and to the Communists, but has
refused to leave Bulaq to me.”
—Montasser Al Zayat, lawyer for Al
Gamaa Al Islamiya and a candidate
for parliament in Boulaq al Dakrur,
expressing his anger with the Muslim
Brotherhood for challenging him in
the district.
“Big businessmen are participating
in this election to a degree unprec-
edented in any previous election in
Egypt.”
—Abdel Ghafar Shokr, a member of
the Tegammu Party’s policies com-
mittee, on the growing influence of
businessmen in Egyptian politics.
“I was later suspended from working
at the Port for three months just
because I brought in some yoghurt for
the protesting workers so they could
break their fast. Now that I have
been denied access to my work and
wages for three months, how am I
supposed to feed my family and three
children?”
—Adel Al Hassri, a non-union employee
at the Port of Alexandria who was
suspended for helping fellow port
employees protest the cancellation of
their Eid bonuses.
A
s Friday prayers come to an end in
the middle-class Moharram Bey district of
Alexandria, hundreds of Central Security riot
police cordon off streets in a four block radius
around the two mosques that lie on either side
of the church. They allow people to return to
their homes in small groups, blocking every
part of the normally busy thoroughfare in
neatly aligned rows. They carry gas masks and
cartridge guns in addition to the standard-
issue batons and shields. Others wield pump-
action shotguns. At major intersections and
in front of the church, light armored vehicles
with gun turrets serve as a nerve center for
plainclothes commanders. There has been no
repeat of the 21 October riot that left three
dead and more than 150 injured.
It was never clear what sparked the previous
week’s riot, but the state seems intent on
preventing such events from recurring. In
Alexandria, political leaders and ordinary
citizens give widely differing accounts of how
protests over a play led to violence and death.
For Ali Abdel Fattah, a spokesman of the
Muslim Brotherhood and one of the organiza-
tion’s leaders in the Mediterranean port city,
the violence was the result of political maneu-
vers ahead of the parliamentary elections.
According to Abdel Fattah, the CD containing
a filmed version of the play I Was Blind but
Now I Can See, which was performed only
Khilla (one of only two Copts running for the
party). Khilla announced that he would step
down last week in protest at the violence, but
was later told by the ruling party leadership
not to run anyway. In a common variant of the
story, one of his rivals in the race (which will
be held on 20 November) distributed the CD to
incite Muslims against Copts.
Abdel Fattah says that security forces may
have participated in the affair, with the goal
of blaming the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood
has seized the opportunity presented by
the sectarian riots to run a candidate in the
district.
“The Christians go to the state for protec-
tion, and then they both spit in our face,”
says Abdel Fattah, who says he saw the play
and found it insulting. But he says he wants
to help repair sectarian relations and that
the governor of Alexandria, Abdel Salem Al
Mahgoub, had asked him to sit on a “Council
of the Wise” composed of members of differ-
ent religions and political tendencies.
But for many others, the Muslim
Brotherhood is part of the problem. Among
the many rumors surrounding the riot’s cause
is the story that a flyer was distributed in
the neighborhood condemning the play on
behalf of the Brotherhood. The flyer report-
edly included the group’s slogan, “Islam is the
solution.” Some commentators on the affair,
even if they don’t think the Brotherhood is
directly responsible for the incident, believe
Girgis church—and A few days earlier, Suleiman Gouda, a col-
the two mosques umnist for the independent daily Al Masri
that flank it—on 28 Al Youm, suggested that the government’s
October. incompetence in handling the crisis would
encourage foreign intervention. “Aside from
the president’s declaration, there has been
no reaction from the ministries that are con-
cerned, or from the prime minister,” Gouda
wrote, adding that this was tantamount to “an
indirect invitation to Mr. Mehlis to come to
Alexandria”—a reference to the UN envoy who
is investigating Syria’s involvement in the as-
sassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister
Rafik Hariri.
Coptic groups abroad had warned that
another riot was scheduled for after Friday
prayers on 28 October as well as 1 November,
the last day of Ramadan. In a press release
distributed to US newspapers, Mounir
Dawoud, the president of the New Jersey-
based International Christian Union and
American Coptic Association, said Muslims
were planning “the death of Christians and the
continued destruction of churches throughout
Egypt.” Dawoud accuses security services of
“giving the green light to the mob” to attack
the church, while the release says it fears
“impending ethnic cleansing of Christians
in Egypt.” The organization will be holding a
protest outside the United Nations in New York
City next week. A French Coptic organization
was also due to hold a protest in front of the
Egyptian embassy in Paris on 31 October. h

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 news
THIS AIN T NO HITCHCOCK MOVIE
Egypt braces for bird flu
CHITRA KALYANI
W
ith the seasonal migration of birds
from Eastern Europe seeking more temperate
climes, the threat of avian flu looms large in
Egypt. Recent outbreaks of the deadly H5N1
strain of bird flu have been confirmed in Turkey
and Romania, and the much-feared virus is
expected to hit Eastern and Sub-Saharan Africa
within weeks, according to the United Nations
Food and Agriculture Association (FAO).
In developing countries like Egypt, where
contact with animals is especially frequent, there
exists “an ideal breeding ground for the virus,”
according to FAO Chief Veterinary Officer Dr.
Joseph Domenech. Bird flu has killed 62 of the
120 people it has infected. Currently, the disease
can spread only slowly among humans because it
can only be contracted directly from birds. There
is a widespread fear, however, that should bird
flu become endemic in Africa, the virus could
mutate into a form easily transmittable between
humans. The result could be catastrophic, and
experts are already drawing comparisons to the
Spanish influenza which killed 25 to 50 million
people from 1918-1919.
The Egyptian government is taking note. In
response to UN bird flu warnings, Egypt banned
all live poultry imports on 18 October despite in-
ternational import agreements. Egyptian authori-
ties quarantined 12,000 turkeys imported from
Germany in mid-October. These were released
after testing negative for bird flu. A cargo of
ducklings seized by Egyptian civil aviation au-
thorities, however, weren’t so lucky. Half of the
8 ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005
TARA TODRAS-WHITEHILL
t If avian flu
strikes a poultry
farm, the Ministry
of Health plans
to quarantine and
decontaminate a
three-mile radius.
30,000 fowl died while impounded.
The government has called off the hunting of
wild birds, and 27 observation posts have been
set up along Egypt’s borders to collect statistics
about migratory birds, according to the Ministry
of Agriculture. Warnings have been issued to
avoid contact with birds along the North Coast
and Fayyoum, among other areas where hunting
is prevalent.
Ministry of Health officials say there is a
national plan to guard against the spread of
avian flu. Health Minister Mohammed Awad
Tageddin told Akhbar Al Youm on 28 October
that in the event bird flu hits Egypt, infected
birds on poultry farms will be killed.
Dr. Nasr Al Sayed, the Ministry of Health
official responsible for preventative measures
against bird flu, told Cairo that areas within
three kilometers of an infection will be quar-
antined and decontaminated. Those infected
will be quarantined immediately, and a vaccine
will be prepared using the strain found in those
carrying the virus. In the event of the feared
pandemic where human-to-human transmission
takes place, antiviral drugs will be administered
by the government, though officials say that
such a scenario is unlikely.
But public awareness even at the highest
levels of administration seems insufficient. Dr.
Ayman Abdel Rahman at Al Salam International
Hospital’s emergency ward in Maadi said that no
direct information had been given to hospitals
from government authorities regarding avian
flu. Abdel Rahman said that he and his col-
leagues have had to educate themselves about
the disease through World Health Organisation
(WHO) press releases.
The global buzz around bird flu is hurting
chicken farmers in Egypt. Ahmed Sayed, the
owner of both a Zamalek fowl store, Tuyur
Gomhorriya, and a chicken farm, estimates that
business has dropped 35 percent. Should bird
flu appear, Sayed says he’ll have no choice but
to close shop.
Health officials say the likelihood of wild birds
contaminating Egypt’s domestic birds is highly
unlikely. “The country’s privately and publicly
owned chicken, turkey and quail farms are all
indoors,” said Abdelkhaliq Abbas, spokesman
for the Animal Health Research Centre.
At least one sector is reaping the benefits of
the bird flu panic: the pharmaceutical industry
may see an upswing in demand for vaccines and
antiretroviral drugs. The Ministry of Health’s Al
Sayed said the government is stockpiling antibi-
otics and antiretroviral drugs. The government
had ordered a consignment of Tamiflu, the
WHO-recommended vaccine for bird flu, from
the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche. The
shipment is expected to arrive by 1 November.
There is a worldwide shortage of Tamiflu,
however. And the readily available equivalent,
Amadine, “does not have any effect on the bird
flu virus,” according to pharmacist Ahmed
Montassir. While neither drug would cure in-
fluenza, they would reduce symptoms of the
disease if detected early. Amadine treats influ-
enza A, of which H5N1 is a strain. Amadine is
available for LE5 in many pharmacies, whereas
flu shots such as Vacciflu can be bought for
LE35. Vaccine shots (especially for the elderly)
are recommended. h
Nukes and zibda
FREDERIK RICHTER
If Iran succeeds in developing a nuclear weapon, Egypt may decide
to follow suit. That’s the conclusion of a recent report by the London-
based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
In addition to Egypt, the report says, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are
also closely monitoring Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program and
could respond to such a program with similar efforts. IISS director
John Chipman said on 25 October during the presentation of the
IISS’ annual military balance report that if Iran developed a nuclear
weapon, “at a very minimum, Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia would
have to reconsider their positions.”
On 8 October, British daily The Guardian cited a report prepared by
the British Secret Service MI5 and titled “Companies and Organizations
of Proliferation Concern.” The report listed more then 360 organiza-
tions, companies, university departments and governmental organiza-
tions from eight countries in the Middle East and Asia that have alleg-
edly obtained goods or technology for covert arms programs.
The majority of the organizations cited are Iran and Pakistan, but the
MI5 report also lists a private Egyptian chemical company “as having
procured technology for use in a nuclear weapons programme.” The
MI5 report, prepared two years ago, was meant to be a warning to
British companies against dealing with the listed companies.
The report became public the day after Mohamed ElBaradei and
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were awarded this
year’s Nobel Peace prize on 7 October. In fall 2004, the French news-
paper Liberation published speculations that ElBaradei had covered
up an Egyptian nuclear program. This program was said to have
links to the Libyan nuclear program that Egypt’s neighbor officially
acknowledged and abandoned in 2004.
TAPPING OUT
Egypt’s Olympic golden boy is
emigrating
MAGDY SAMAAN
A
fter experiencing the elation of their first
gold medal since 1948—awarded to wrestler
Karam Gaber—Egyptians were shocked by the
announcement that Gaber is retiring from the
sport and will go into business with his brothers
after moving to the US.
Gaber has come under heavy criticism as
a result of the announcement, particularly
after speculation that he is trying to obtain US
citizenship to compete with the US team in the
upcoming world championships and the 2008
Peking Olympics. Since the 2004 Games in
Athens, Gaber has traveled to the US and Japan
to participate in two unofficial championships p Karam Gaber
for money, without the knowledge of the wres- (r), says he wasn't
tling governing body in Egypt. rewarded for
In an interview with Al Bayt Baytak, the helping the NDP
popular talk show on state television, Gaber take down its
objected to the attacks. “My love for my country opponents.
The accusations against ElBaradei were never substantiated, and
were widely attributed to American diplomats who opposed a third
term for ElBaradei as head of the IAEA.
Most independent international analysts suggest that Egypt does
not actively maintain a large-scale nuclear weapons program. Last
February, however, ElBaradei’s IAEA criticized Egypt for failing to
report experiments that lasted until 2003 at two research reactors
at Inshas in the Delta. Following inspection tours of Egyptian labo-
ratories, however, the IAEA dismissed speculation about an Egyptian
weapons program. Egypt gave up its nuclear ambitions after its defeat
by Israel in 1967.
As a consequence, Egypt lost many of its nuclear experts due to
a dearth of work opportunities at home. Some of the unemployed
nuclear scientists joined the Iraqi nuclear weapons program. Egyptian
expertise also contributed to Iraq’s chemical weapons program, ac-
cording to a CIA report on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD)
program.
“During the early years, Egyptian scientists provided consultation,
technology and oversight allowing rapid advances and technologi-
cal leaps in weaponization,” the report claims. The report also refers
to Egyptian assistance in the Iran-Iraq war, during which chemical
weapons were used.
According to the report, Egypt enabled warheads to store chemical
agents on a rocket launch system in 1983 and exported Grad rockets,
designed to hold a chemical agent. Iraq also invited Egyptian chemical
weapons experts to assist in producing the nerve gas Sarin. That Egypt
was able to boost Iraq’s chemical weapon program suggests that
its own program was quite advanced at that time. Egypt employed
chemical weapons during its intervention in the Yemeni civil war in
the 1960s.
The Egyptian foreign ministry has denied all links to the Iraqi
chemical weapons program. It remains to be seen whether Tehran’s
nuclear ambitions could set in motion a renewed arms race in the
Middle East.
hasn’t resulted in any real reward,” he said. “I
have not received the honor due an Olympic
gold medal winner. With the passage of time,
everyone forgot the gold medal, so I decided to
travel to America to join the family business.”
Gaber has been bringing in medals for Egypt
in Arab, African and international championships
since 1997. Throughout that period, Gaber said,
he has planned his own nutritional regimen and
spent a great deal of his own money on the sport.
When he appeared on Egyptian television screens
after news spread that he was thinking of leaving
Egypt and emigrating to the US, he did not deny
that he would compete for another country.
He blamed his discontent on the Egyptian
Wrestling Union. “The group has not paid suf-
ficient attention to me and has spent too little
money to allow me to maintain myself as an
Olympic athlete,” he said. He also charged that
the Union had refused to set up a training camp
for him outside Egypt, which would allow him to
focus on his training.
“My principal reason for emigrating and
retirement is the wrestling union’s mismanage-
ment of me as an Olympic champion,” Gaber
said. “Turmoil in the administration has forced
me to shoulder the burden of maintaining this
level of training.”
Gaber participated in the publicity campaign
for President Hosni Mubarak during the presi-
dential elections. After the elections, he said,
he did not receive the compensation he had
expected.
He is currently preparing to marry the
Russian woman to whom he has been engaged
to for a month. After the wedding, she will travel
with him to the US. Gaber recently declined
a tempting offer to play the leading role in an
Egyptian film.
When the Egyptian national anthem played
at Gaber’s 2004 medal ceremony it was the first
since Egypt’s two weightlifting golds in 1948,
ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005
news
MENA
which went to lightweight Ibrahim Shamis and
featherweight Hamoud Fayyad. At that time, it
was the royal anthem.
Gaber won the 96 kilogram gold in 2004 by
carrying a powerful performance through his
Olympic matches.
Gaber was born on 1 September 1979 in a
working-class home on Nasser Street in the heart
of Hai Manshiya, one of the oldest and most tra-
ditional residential areas of Alexandria. He com-
pleted his studies at the Technical Commercial
Institute. He is the sixth of seven brothers and
sisters. h
Doping rumors
Karam Gaber’s withdrawal from last month’s
Wrestling World Championships in Hungary may
have been related to steroid use. The doping ac-
cusations are at the center of an imbroglio that
has pitted the Egyptian Olympic Committee
against the Egyptian Wrestling Union. The in-
dependent daily Al Masri Al Youm reported on
29 October that the committee had issued a
sharp warning to the Wrestling Union after the
latter disregarded the committee’s request to
hand over the results of an investigation into
allegations that Gaber had used performance-
enhancing drugs.
Olympic Committee Secretary General Khalid
Zein said that “decisive steps” would be taken
against the union if it refused to divulge the
results of its investigation. These could include
referring the matter to the International Olympic
Committee (IOC). The IOC has the authority
to strip the union of its drug-testing oversight
privileges. Zein also had harsh words of criticism
for Gaber, who, according to the report, “lost the
enthusiasm of his sympathizers after he became
obsessed with amassing money.”
9
 elections
news
SPIRIT OF ‘84
This year’s parliamentary elections will be the
poll that really counts
ISSANDR EL AMRANI
W
hen the country’s first presidential
election took place on 7 September, the outcome
was both simple and unsurprising. There could
be only one winner and it was already quite clear
that it would be Hosni Mubarak. Even though
history was being made in that there had never
been a multi-candidate election—or opposition
campaigns in which other candidates took on
the incumbent—the excitement was more in
the process than in the outcome.
The opposite is true for the three-round
parliamentary election that will take place in
November and December. While the campaigns
currently underway have offered just a few sur-
prises so far, this election could make a differ-
ence for the future of political reform in Egypt.
The opposition is taking things seriously.
There is little chance that it will defeat the
ruling National Democratic Party (NDP), which
10 ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005
is both too organized and too intertwined
with state authority to cede its dominant place
on the political landscape. But it has formed
an opposition front that, warts and all, is the
most impressive coalition built in years and has
TARA TODRAS-WHITEHILL
overcome ideological and personal differences
among most parties. Making inroads in the
People’s Assembly is essential to the opposition
for one simple reason: come the next presiden-
tial election (at the latest 2011), only parties with
at least 25 MPs will be able to field a candidate.
Under current legislation, it will be practically
impossible for an independent to run.
Chances are that most parties will not make
this quota. This will mean that only one or two
opposition parties will be able to field a presi-
dential candidate, or more likely that they will
band together. Although Cairo has highlighted
the many internal divisions in the current
alliance, it remains that opposition parties have
at least partly put aside their usual bickering
and gone to some trouble to coordinate their
campaigns. Even more important, though,
would be to start reform at home. The emer-
gence of the Kifaya movement, the heightened
profile of party offshoots like the neo-Nasserist
Karama and the neo-Islamist Al Wasat parties,
and Ayman Nour’s rise in popularity through
sheer charisma have shown what new blood can
do to opposition politics.
For the Muslim Brotherhood, which is part of
the opposition front but is not coordinating its
candidates with other parties, the next election
could be the biggest boost to its political profile
in two decades. For the first time since 1995,
there are no Muslim Brotherhood members
in jail only a week before polling starts. The
Brotherhood is fielding three times as many
candidates as it did in 2000 and is campaigning
openly under its own name. Its leader, Mahdi
Akef, says he expects as many as 70 seats in
p Young Turk the next parliament. That claim may be too
Hossam Badrawi ambitious, but unless massive arrests or fraud
faces Hisham mar the elections, a group that has had many
Mustafa Khalil in obstacles in previous races will find itself vir-
the race for Qasr tually unhindered—apart from the fact that it
Al Nil's seat in remains illegal.
parliament. One of the most interesting aspects of the
election, however, is that for the first time since
the 1970s new Islamist movements are actually
being allowed, if not encouraged, to run. The
Muslim Brotherhood’s current domination of po-
litical Islam was not always so. From the 1930s
through the 1970s, other groups competed
with it for the “religious vote.” This year, can-
didates affiliated with Al Gamaa Al Islamiya, a
popular Islamist movement that took up terror-
ism in the 1980s, are running as independents,
in addition to moderate Islamists from the Al
Wasat movement. The most prominent of these
candidates, former Gamaa Islamiya member
(and Ayman Zawahiri cellmate) Montasser
Al Zayat, a lawyer who specializes in Islamist
cases, has already blasted the Brotherhood for
trying to “monopolize the Islamist scene” and
running one of its members against him in the
Giza district of Bulaq Al Dakrour. This was
all the more surprising as the Brotherhood is
widely reported to have made deals with not
only opposition parties but also the NDP not to
run in certain districts.
But the biggest challenge of the election,
paradoxically, is for the NDP. While there
is little doubt that it will achieve at least a
two-thirds majority (compared to the current
89-percent majority it holds now), this is
more than enough to control parliament and
steer major political decisions. Two-thirds of
parliament is all that is needed to renew the
Emergency Law (should President Mubarak’s
pledge to replace it with an anti-terror law not
be fulfilled), grant full powers to the executive,
secure the expulsion of an MP from parliament
or pass a constitutional amendment. So the
question for the NDP is not so much whether
it will win, but rather which of its candidates
will win and what that will mean for its much-
vaunted reform process.
One aspect of the NDP’s attempt to reform
has already been a failure. In the 2000 elec-
tions, official NDP candidates won only about
38 percent of seats, while 51 percent of winning
candidates were NDP members who ran as in-
dependents and later returned to the fold to
form the current 89-percent majority. Despite
constant threats from the party leadership,
a very similar scenario is likely to unfold this
time around. This will not threaten the hold
of the party on parliament, but it will weaken
the ideological grip that the NDP’s new leader-
ship, headed by Gamal Mubarak, has tried to
impose over the past few years. For now, the
NDP remains mostly a party of opportunists,
more interested in the access to the state appa-
ratus that membership offers than in the fancy
program dreamt up by the Policies Secretariat.
As prominent Al Ahram commentator Salama
Ahmed Salama noted in a recent column, should
the NDP accept the return of its members who
ran as independents against the will of the
party leadership, it “will risk the credibility of
the party.”
A related question is whether the “old vs.
new guard” disputes that have marked the last
four years in the NDP will continue. Some NDP
insiders are lamenting the fact that key old
guard figures are still at the helm of electoral
politics. Kamal Al Shazli, the party’s parlia-
mentary powerbroker, is practically guaran-
teed re-election in his hometown of Bagour. It
will mark his forty-second year in parliament.
It’s not surprising to find Hossam Badrawi,
an MP for the central Cairo district of Qasr
Al Nil—who is facing a strong challenge from
Hisham Mustafa Khalil, a fellow NDP member
who is running as an independent—quoted in
the 26 October edition of Al Masri Al Youm as
saying that the party’s leadership was “sacri-
ficing reform and reformists on the pretext of
regime survival.” Badrawi later disavowed the
remarks. If the NDP’s reformists are earnest,
they have yet to prove that they are able to
control the party.
This in turn leads to the most important
player in the election: the regime itself. Under
assault for the slow pace of reforms from the
domestic opposition at home and its most im-
portant ally, the United States, abroad, there
is considerable pressure to show a real politi-
cal opening while retaining as much power as
possible. If the election is marred, as previous
elections have been, by voter intimidation,
Egypt could forfeit its claim to be one of the
most progressive Arab states at a time when
the United States is ideologically committed
to the spread of democracy in the region. Even
though there are question marks over the true
extent of this commitment, a patently unfair
election would likely perpetuate the instabil-
ity of the past year—with its constant street
protests and clashes with security forces—and
make a mockery of parliament.
Egypt’s main opposition forces, for the first
time in quite a while, seem to have decided
that parliament deserves to be more than
a rubber stamp. Even the anarchic Kifaya
movement is dedicated to entering the politi-
cal mainstream rather than staying outside it.
This is because the opposition should know
that even if parliament’s field of action is
The election at a glance
Five thousand, four hundred and fourteen
candidates will compete for 444 seats in the
People’s Assembly in either the fiaat (pro-
fessional) or umal (worker) category. This
distinction is a holdover from the Nasserist
era, when it was put in place to ensure
more representation for the lower classes.
Today, the lines are blurred and many umal
candidates are wealthy businessmen. A call
to abolish the current system was met with
uproar earlier this year.
In addition to the 444 seats that will be up
for grabs, an additional 10 seats will be filled
by presidential decree. Traditionally, these
seats have gone to Copts and women—two
groups that this election are again disap-
pointed by their representation on official
party lists.
More than 1,600 candidates will stand in
the first round of voting. Of these, 523 will
be running in the greater Cairo area. Four
hundred thirty-two of the candidates running
for seats from Cairo are running as independ-
ents, but many of them are members of the
NDP who were not selected as the party’s
official candidates. Of the 1,600 competing
in the first round, only 82 are registered with
a legal opposition party.
limited, it can still have an impact from under
the rotunda.
Parliament may sometimes be a rubber stamp
for policies hatched by the executive branch
(or, lately, the NDP’s Policies Secretariat), but it
can also be a pulpit from which politicians of
all stripes can stand up and be counted. Ayman
Nour used his position as an MP to increase his
public profile before placing a distant second
in the presidential election. Nour would never
have gotten where he is today without the
many scandals he raised under the rotunda
and the occasional grandstanding—which is
why the NDP is putting up a fierce fight in his
Bab Al Shaariya district, where he is extremely
popular.
The coming election is in many ways remi-
niscent of the one that took place in 1984, at
the dawn of the Mubarak era. Then, despite a
proportional-representation system that en-
gineered small parties out of the running, a
Wafd-Muslim Brotherhood alliance managed to
secure 58 seats, the highest number the oppo-
sition has ever gotten. It now seems plausible
that the opposition could better that score. On
13 December, when parliament reopens for
business, it could have its most diverse com-
position yet—and that is why naysayers are
wrong to be as apathetic about this election as
they were about the presidential one. h
Parliament after the 1995 elections:
n NDP: 317
n Independents who joined NDP: 114
n Independents: 13
Parliament after the 2000 elections:
n NDP: 174
n Independents who joined NDP: 216
n Independents: 20
n Muslim Brotherhood: 17
n Legal opposition: 17
Source: Egypt Almanac
elections
news
HIGH NOON
Son aims to avenge father’s Abbasiya defeat
TARA TODRAS-WHITEHILL
JOHN EHAB
O
n the streets of
the poor Weili district
of Abassiya, Deputy
Director of the Wafd
Party Mounir Fakhri
Abdel Nour is fighting
an intense battle to hold
his seat against medical
doctor and NDP candi-
date Ahmed Sherin. It’s
an old family rivalry.
In 1995, and again in
2000, Abdel Nour ran
against Sherin’s father.
Abdel Nour lost in 1995, but won in 2000.
With sensitivities about Coptic-Muslim relations running high fol-
lowing the recent riots in Alexandria, the country is watching the Weili
campaign closely. In both campaigns, local Coptic leaders allege, the
elder Sherin unleashed a volley of sectarian propaganda against Abdel
Nour. The combination of family rivalry and the specter of sectarian
division make this race a sensitive contest.
Abdel Nour was one of only three Copts elected to parliament in
2000. This time around, the NDP will run only one Coptic candidate, but
the opposition National Front is running 13. Kamal Al Shazli, a senior
member of the NDP’s Policy Committee who boasts of being the longest-
serving MP in the world, has said during past campaigns that to put a
Copt on the NDP list is to risk losing a seat.
Ghad Party candidate Sameh Mahrous, also a Copt, is running a distant
third. Some here speculate Al Ghad chose a Copt to run against Abdel
Nour in an attempt to siphon votes away from the rival Wafd Party and
to build on their success in Abassiya in the September presidential elec-
tions. Voters in the district returned roughly 1,000 votes for Ayman Nour
in September, compared with just 168 for the Wafd’s Noman Goma.
Sherin, the NDP challenger, says he is committed to the NDP program
of reform laid out during the presidential election. He was elected to
the local neighborhood council in 2003 and has a base of support in the
district. He is working to undermine Abdel Nour’s credibility, portraying
the Wafd Party businessman as an absentee parliamentarian who has
neglected his district’s interests since elected to parliament for the first
time in 2000.
The program appears to be working. “[Abdel Nour] always said ‘my
door is open,’ but he was never there,” Abdel Tawab, an elderly Weili
resident, told Cairo.
Abdel Nour’s own political missteps haven’t helped his image. During
a recent radio program he asked the residents of his district to “stop the
noise.” According to his own account of the interview, Abdel Nour says
he told the interviewer that “having worked for Weili and the parliament
for the past five years, he would like to have five minutes rest with a ‘no
noise’ sign on his office.”
Abdel Nour admits that he has not always been visible in his electoral
district. “If ‘presence in the district’ means that I sit with people in coffee
shops playing backgammon, I apologize—that’s not my duty,” Abdel
Nour told Cairo. “I think the role of a public official is solving the overall
problems of the country, not giving private services to supporters.”
Abdel Nour says that during his time in parliament he supported laws
to encourage foreign investment by relaxing state control over economic
policy. This program of economic liberalization, he said, would create
jobs, which he sees as the greatest challenge facing Egypt today. h
ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005 11
 stand
news
election
FREE SHOES
w d
c r o
the
f r o m
Battle for Bab Al Shaariya gets dirty as Ayman Nour takes on an ex-state security officer
ou t
TARA TODRAS-WHITEHILL
p Campaign banners have been casus belli in Bab Al Shaariya.
Dueling Islamists in Bulaq
MAGDY SAMAAN
It’s predictable that the principal competition in the
parliamentary elections will be between the National
Democratic Party and the opposition. The district of
Bulaq, however, is witnessing a different phenomenon
entirely. In this sprawling district of illegal slums, the
primary competition is between powerful opposition
candidates.
Bulaq Al Dakrour is a big district that includes parts
of Al Haram, Al Omrani and the rural Kafr Al Tuhurmos.
More than 50 candidates are competing for the votes of
the district’s 130,000 low-income residents.
In most electoral districts, the opposition alliance
has agreed to run a single candidate. Not so in Bulaq.
Opposition wrangling has left the district open to outsider
for advertising contact Montassir Al Zayat, a lawyer for Al Gamaa Al Islamiya and
a member of the Lawyers’ Syndicate leadership council.
Michael Emad
Al Zayat has lived in Bulaq for more than 20 years and,
to the dismay of many, has received the endorsement
of the liberal Wafd Party. The Wafd’s support will help Al
TEL: 010 171 1408 Zayat gain the support of Coptic voters, and Al Zayat’s
12 ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005 memad@cairomagazine.com
JOHN EHAB
A
n old woman hurries into Ayman
Nour’s well-known headquarters in Midan Bab
Al Shaariya howling: “Hey everyone, they’re
pulling down Nour’s big banner next to the
kebab place.” Hagga Hamida was on her way
back from the hospital when she witnessed a
young man taking down the banner. “I would
have beaten him if I’d had the chance,” the
Nour supporter says defiantly.
In Nour’s parliamentary election campaign
center, banners torn down in the streets are
brought in regularly. “When we have objected,
police officers have sided against us,” Mahmoud
Al Nahas, the district director for Nour’s
campaign, says. Nour’s campaign workers are
full of stories about threats against them and
an atmosphere of fear shadowing Nour sup-
porters.
“Every day I hear NDP supporters threaten-
ing me, saying I can be detained or fired from
my job. I know they can do nothing to me,”
says Tamer Abdel Wadoud, a physician and
Nour supporter. Others display injureis which
they say are from encounters with thugs from
their opponent’s campaign.
Outside Nour’s campaign center and
throughout Midan Bab Al Shaariya, the majority
of banners bear the name of the district’s NDP
candidate, Yehia Wahdan. “Wahdan is a nice
campaign is pitching him as a protector of national unity.
At an Al Zayat press conference, a representative of the
Wafd announced that “the Wafd supports national unity,
and Montassir Al Zayat does not distinguish between
Copts and Muslims.”
Recent events, however, have belied these state-
ments. Al Zayat has adopted the slogan “Yes, we want it
Islamic.” He is stressing his commitment to Islamic sharia
law, and his opposition to changing the second article of
the constitution, which says that sharia is the principle
source of legislation. He says Egypt needs a candidate
committed to the idea of change and reform, and not a
candidate co-opted by the government.
Copts aside, Al Zayat will have to struggle for the
Islamic vote as well. The Muslim Brotherhood’s decision
to run a candidate against Al Zayat has rankled the
Islamist lawyer, who reportedly worked tirelessly to
convince the Brotherhood to leave the district to him.
Despite his efforts, he Muslim Brotherhood is running
Gamal Ashri, a powerful candidate who has worked in
Bulaq for years, and who the Brotherhood says is capable
of garnering a seat in parliament for the Brotherhood.
“The Brotherhood does not want anyone but them-
selves to speak in the name of Islam, but Islam is for all
the people,” Al Zayat said during a press conference on
27 October. “The Brotherhood has abandoned districts
news
elections
young man who is going to do a lot for Bab Al
Shaariya. Ayman Nour serves only those who
follow him,” says Osama Al Toukhi a fatatri
(Egyptian pastry maker). “Wahdan is from Bab
Al Shaariya, while Nour is not.”
Wahdan, the son of a former MP from the
same district, was a state security officer until
he resigned to run against Ayman Nour in
2000. He lost that race and returned to work
as a public prosecutor until this year, when he
resigned again to seek revenge for his 2000
defeat.
Along Port Said Street, a banner for Wahdan
reads: “Yehia Wahdan—Native Son.” Opposite,
a Nour banner lies discarded on the pavement,
footprints muddying the once glistening
orange banner. Pointing at Nour’s banner,
Wahdan campaign manager Emad Shami says,
unprompted, “That was a result of natural
causes.”
“Ayman Nour is a successful media man,
but he markets only himself, nothing else,”
Shami says, but admits that, as the incumbent,
Nour has a better chance in the elections.
Shami pauses mid-sentence and calls out to a
woman, a Wahdan supporter, passing by. He
gives her a brand new pair of shoes from a
stockpile, a token of appreciation, he says, for
her support.
New shoes or otherwise, petty political
paybacks are quite commonplace in this
district. “Nour spoiled many young men in
Bab Al Shaariya by giving them a monthly
salary just in exchange for supporting him,”
Shami adds. He also showed Cairo a pile
of job applications that the NDP candidate
had collected from supporters. The applica-
tions had been passed on to the Minister of
Finance, Youssef Boutros Ghali, and at the
bottom of each was a written confirmation
that the applicants had been hired in a tax
agency. h
to all the parties, to the Copts and to the Communists,
but has refused to leave Bulaq to me.”
The Muslim Brotherhood has organized a number
of marches in the district so far, gathering thousands of
supporters in the streets with banners reading “Islam is
the solution,” the Brotherhood’s controversial election
slogan.
Running against the two sparring Islamists is Kamal
Abu Attiya, the well-known leftist activist. Abu Attiya’s
leftist credentials are solid. He is a member of the
Karama Party, Kifaya, the Revolutionary Socialists and the
National Front for Change. Often dubbed the muezzin of
the revolution, Abu Attiya has long been a thorn in the
government’s side. He has been at the helm of many
demonstrations during the past 30 years, and has been
imprisoned some 15 times.
Abu Attiya is among the public figures whom the
government would least like to see in parliament. This
fact has raised questions about the Wafd’s decision to
support Al Zayat over Abu Attiya. Some observers say the
move reeks of Wafdist collusion with the government.
The NDP candidate in Bulaq will be Ahmed Samih
Galal Darwish, the current MP who, as an independ-
ent in 2000, beat the NDP’s candidate Mohammed
Hassan. Samih, however, joined the NDP shortly after
his victory.
ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005 13
 business
news
ON THE WATERFRONT
Thousands of Alexandrian dockworkers protest canceled Eid bonus
MENA
JANO CHARBEL
N
early 3,000 of the 4,000 workers who
keep the Port of Alexandria running con-
gregated to protest the cancellation of their
annual Eid bonus on 23 October. Contrary to
reports aired on satellite stations, however,
the workers did not go on strike.
“There was no strike, but rather a large
workers’ protest,” said Ibrahim Abdel Razeq,
a suspended member of the Alexandria Port
Workers’ Union Council. “The 3,000 workers
who were protesting were not on duty—the
nearly 1,000 workers who were continued with
their work as usual. Tugboats moved ships
into port, and workers continued loading and
unloading goods. There wasn’t even a slow-
down.”
Unified Labor Law 12/2003 and Prime
Ministerial Decree 1185/2003 forbid workers
employed in “strategic enterprises” from
r TOP FIVE BY WEEKLY TURNOVER
STOCK WEEK % ∆
EFG-Hermes Holding 16.41
Arab Cotton Ginning 16.03
Orascom Telecom -6.26
Orascom Construction Ind. -2.03
ALEzz Steel Rebars 6.94
14 ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005
striking. “If any of us had gone on strike, we
would have been arrested,” Abdel Razeq said.
“It was Ibrahim Yousef, the new administra-
tive chief of the Port, who ordered the cancel-
lation of our Eid bonuses. It was also Yousef
who fabricated and disseminated information
regarding our so-called ‘strike’ and the result-
ing losses of LE2 million.”
The leftist Al Tagammu was the only local
newspaper to cover the protest. A spokes-
woman for the Center for Trade Unions and
Workers’ Services told Cairo, “The official
media does not cover workers’ protests unless
opposition papers bring the issue to light. If
and when the official media does cover such
issues, it almost always portrays workers in
a negative light, describing them as trouble-
makers or lawbreakers.”
On 24 October, the Ministry
Transportation intervened in the dispute,
striking a deal whereby workers would receive
two-thirds of their traditional Eid allowances in
exchange for ending the demonstrations. Four
out of the 10 men who sit on the Alexandria
stocks for the week of
16 - 20 October
rTURNOVER
PRICE LE TURNOVER LE MIL. TIME PERIOD
78.54 549.329 1 Week
15.27 491.204
90 Days
556.49 327.669
52 Weeks
200.09 224.271
58.73 198.882 Total Turnover LE3.11 bil.
business
news
Port Workers’ Union Council went on hunger
strike from 25-26 October to protest the deal.
Port security forces forcibly ejected these
MONEY, POWER AND date lists of the NDP, the Wafd and the Ghad
Party are filled with millionaires.”
Egypt’s emerging cadre of super-wealthy
The race in many districts has come down
to a spending match between competing mil-
lionaires. In Maadi, NDP business tycoon
four and a fifth, non-unionized worker from
the Union Council’s headquarters in the Port
on 25 October.
Yousef, in Alexandria Port Authority Decree
PARLIAMENT businessmen is beginning to seek formal po-
litical clout to match their informal influence.
A parliament with more businessmen would
shape the direction of economic reform and
Mohammed Al Murshidi faces independent
but NDP-affiliated candidate Akmal Khourtem,
who chairs an oil company. Hossam Badrawi
is running in Downtown’s Qasr Al Nil district
1231/2005, temporarily barred the five from facilitate the government’s accelerating, but against Hisham Moustafa Khalil, nephew
entering the Port and barred the four union
members from participating in the union.
Businessmen dominate this year’s parliamentary controversial, privatization program. For some
in the opposition, it also raises the possibility
of former Prime Minister Moustafa Khalil.
Badrawi owns a hospital and several healthcare
Their names are posted at every entrance to
the Port.
candidate lists of conflict of interest.
Signs of big business’ growing political in-
businesses. He is a close associate of Gamal
Mubarak.
Abdel Razeq, calling Yousef’s actions fluence first emerged during the presidential The construction and agricultural industries
“dictatorial,” charged the new port chief with election, when the Mubarak campaign was feature prominently in the coming races. Hani
violating the terms of its international treaty able to stretch the LE10 million spending limit Sorour, Mostapha Saleb and Mohammed Abul Al
commitments to freedom of assembly. “He thanks to massive volunteer spending on signs Ainen, three ceramics magnates, are running. Of
has neither the authority nor the jurisdiction and advertising by businessmen throughout the three, Al Ainen is likely the most powerful:
to prevent us from working or to freeze our the country. his company, Ceramica Cleopatra, maintains
membership in the union.” Competition for the NDP’s nomination in the 12 factories and has expanded into agriculture,
Adel Al Hassri, a non-unionized port 2005 parliamentary elections has been hard tourism and the production of “smart cards.”
employee, said, “At first I was relocated from fought. A whopping 2,700 people vied for only Youssef Wali, the former minister of agricul-
the Port of Alexandria to the underdeveloped 444 candidate slots. Few know what criteria go ture and a major landowner, is running in Al
Port of Al Dekheila, which we port employees into the selection process, which remains the Fayoum.
consider to be our Abu Ghraib, along with 15 purview of NDP powerbroker Kamal Al Shazli. The individual candidacy system has made
other employees. These punitive relocations Some on the outside believe that a simple cash candidates more dependent “on their own
are Yousef’s attempts to bring the workers donation is often the surest way to ensure the money or familial and tribal affiliations for
to heel. I was later suspended from working NDP nominates you to be their candidate in any success,” Al Ahram columnist Salama Ahmed
at the port for three months just because I given district. Salama says. “The old list system put the
brought in some yogurt for the protesting Mohammed Kamel, who is running as an in- funding pressure more on parties, and less on
workers so they could break their fast. Now dependent against Al Shazli in Menoufiya, told individuals.”
MENA
that I have been denied access to my work and Agence France Presse that it costs an average Rich candidates can use their fortunes to
wages for three months, how am I supposed of LE1 million to be selected as a candidate for pay for campaign posters, public conferences,
to feed my family and three children? This is FREDERIK RICHTER p Kamal Al Shazli the NDP. “The sum is in cash and to be paid to flyers, presents for voters or simple cash
p During a protest entirely unjust.” has a lot to do with the party,” he told the wire service. bribes.
of off-duty workers Faced with these allegations, Ibrahim who gets to run for Many businessmen are drawn to parliament “Many of these businessmen have been
W
on 23 October, it Yousef responded, “I am the chief and the parliament under by patriotism or a desire for prestige. Others formed through corruption, not by produc-
was business as primary authority in this port. I know what’s the NDP banner. might appreciate the legal immunity from pros- ing for their countries,” says Ghafar Shokr.
usual for their on- best for the Port and for its well-being. If I let ith the final candidate lists prepared ecution that serving in parliament bestows. Still “They got their wealth illegally in most cases,
duty colleagues. the workers do whatever they feel like doing, and a picture emerging of what Egypt’s next others might see benefits in influencing legisla- in smuggling, on the black market or through
there will be chaos. I’m sick and tired of all parliament could look like, the Left is declaring tion that will affect their business interests. currency speculation. They are not productive
this harmful unionism.” the dawn of the rule of big business in Egypt. “The society is turning capitalist, so the role capitalists like those in Japan, Malaysia and
Abdel Razeq maintains union activity at “Big businessmen are participating in this of the capitalists in politics is growing,” Ghafar Europe.”
the port need not be harmful. “We have three election to a degree unprecedented in any Shokr said. “They are turning their wealth into One suspects that Ghafar Shokr won’t
demands: recognition of our right to engage previous election in Egypt,” said Abdel Ghafar political power. They are not merely individu- be seeing many big contributions from the
in unionism, payment in full of our Eid allow- Shokr, a Tegammu Party leader. “The candi- als, they are a class that has joint interests.” business elite in the coming elections. h
ances... and the reversal of the decision to
suspend all five employees from work. We sent
an emergency appeal to President Mubarak
requesting his intercession, but received no
reply. We also sent a telegram requesting
the intervention of our parent union—the
of Maritime Transport Workers’ Federation—but
we were again let down. We have appealed to
the general prosecutor and we are confident
that we will prevail. But in the meantime,
how are the suspended workers to feed their
families?” h
24 OCTOBER 31 OCTOBER
CURRENCY
HCMI INDEX % ∆ US Dollar 5.79 5.80
-2.13 Euro 6.92 6.99
Pound Sterling 10.24 10.28
15.20
Japanese Yen (100) 5.00 5.01
142.91
Saudi Riyal 1.54 1.55
Gold (oz.) 2,709 2,744
ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005 15
 opinion
news opinion
news
F RO M T H E
D R I V E R ' S S E AT
B U L L P E N
The air in Alexandria has been charged with sectarian strife lately.

How To Combat Extremism in Egypt After the riots, some blamed the Christians at the Mar Girgis church
and Islamist leaders, while others suspect that shadowy political
forces were at work. Cairo polled the city’s taxi drivers, asking for their
HASSAN ELSAWAF opinion on the riots and whether the government could have done
more to prevent them.

Essam El-Eryan is a resolute man. He does not possess the charisma that
would appeal naturally to millions, for he represents a movement that
many repudiate instinctively. Yet he cannot be accused of hypocrisy or
sycophancy, traits abundantly present in his opponents. He has done time
in defence of his views and has never wavered. He is one of the leading
figures in the infamous Muslim Brotherhood Organisation, touted as the
most serious threat to Egypt’s future and brainwashing millions into the
torpor of denouncing the mere mention of the word ‘democracy’.
Muslim fundamentalism, or any extreme movement, is not a cap-
tivating path to walk in the quest for a better life. Little can be found to
defend ideas based on bigoted ideology and the belief that religion must
trespass into the political arena. No open-minded person is happy with
the notion that people can be ruled by an antiquated set of rules intolerant
to the norms and needs of modern society. Nonetheless, extreme Islam is
making profound inroads in Egypt and appears to have swayed millions
away from rational thinking and the practical way of coexisting with an
increasingly competitive and hardy world.
If we are left persuaded that we would be far better off without the
likes of Mr. Eryan in our midst, we must calmly debate how to render him
insignificant. To my mind, there are two ways.
The first is to listen to our government and go after him tooth and nail.
Our astute authorities would have us believe that tolerance of such dan-
gerous men is a short cut to another Taliban Afghanistan. Allowing Mr.
Eryan and his ilk access to the masses through open debate and healthy
intellectual intercourse are methods depicted as suicidal by our learned
regime. Indeed, the mere sign of showing weakness or any sign of capitu-
lating is tantamount to opening the floodgates of hell. Or so our military
rulers would like us to think.
Before we deal with the second way, let us look at the first at a deeper
level. In the search for arguments to defend an establishment that has
done nothing but persistently pull Egypt down in every field, regime sup-
porters have become desperate. Protecting the fortress from the insane
onslaught of seventh century warriors seems to be the last straw. Simply
by being party in this contentious matter of how Egypt is fit to be ruled
disqualifies any regime member or supporter from the right to influence
the outcome. It is a flagrant conflict-of-interest situation. As for the ‘Taliban’
apocalyptic scenario, it is up to the people of Egypt, relishing growing doses
of media and political space, to determine whether a population of intel-
I don’t know what happened with all these fights and demonstrations. We are one
people living in the same country. We have never believed in discrimination on a
religious basis. I think that everyone is under pressure, and this is the reason for
all the fights, in every field, not only religion. There are many fights in politics and
even sports, all because people are stressed, not because of religion.
Anwar, 24
Second job: Car electrician “Strange... I can’t find any news in the sports section about the Zamalek Club.” “What’s the penalty for stealing in Ramadan,
“It’s Mortada Mansour, God bless him... Ever since he got there, Zamalek’s news has been in the police blotter.” while I’m fasting, good sir?”
From Al Ahly Club (Nasr City) to Hurriya Mall, Al Ahram Street (Heliopolis), LE5
The car: Sahin with bobblehead dogs Al Destour, 31 October 2005 Rose Al Youssef, 31 October 2005
I don’t know what will happen to us after this. We have Christian neighbors, friends
and brothers everywhere. I believe that all of this happened for reasons related to
the next parliamentary election. I would bet that the two guys competing in that
“To make sure that the elections are fair [naziha],
parliamentary district are a Muslim and a Christian. I think that the best thing the
we’re running Aunt Naziha!!””
government can do is to ban both from the next election. The banner reads: “Elect your aunt Naziha as NDP
Mahmoud, 43 candidate! Symbol: The club”
From Al Abbasiya to Roxi (Heliopolis), LE2.50
Al Wafd, 31 October 2005
The car: Citroen AX
I think this is an extension to the tense situation between Muslims and Christians The soldier reads from the “Iraq Occupation Script”
after the conflict that happened a few months ago in Abbasiya. Also, the newspapers while rushing toward Syria.
are using the issue as a hot topic for their cover stories, to get people to buy them.
Al Osboa, 31 October 2005
Ahmed Mansour, 41
From Midan Salah Eddin (Heliopolis) to Hadaiq Al Qobba, LE4
The car: Mazda
Everyone knows that the government can do more to end this sort of thing. Firstly, “Since you insist on naming the baby “Asfur” [bird],
they can find out who exactly provoked people and helped to spread rumors. Bird flu: it’ll be necessary for you to bring me a certificate
Then, they can punish him in a public court, as an example to anyone who might “How’s it goin’ today, little duckling?” from two officials that they’re free of the bird flu
try to repeat such acts for political or personal reasons. Egyptians are a peaceful “Don’t call me duckling!” virus.” The desk reads “Civil Records.”
community and they don’t usually have these kinds of fights unless they are Al Akhbar, 30 October 2005 Al Arab, 30 October 2005
strongly provoked.
Ahmed Abdel Salam, 25
w h e r e t o g e t
From Sherif Street (Downtown) to Imbaba, LE6
The car: Peugeot 405
R
If the play [about a Christian who converts to Islam, staged in a Church in 2003]
really insults the Prophet Mohammed, then we should do something about it. But
O

UT
u
ligent, educated individuals would yield to more tyranny and oppression. if not, we should punish those who told people such lies. Mohandiseen
The second means of dealing with Mr. Eryan and his followers is through

IB
Sebai, 63
opening up the system and striving to make the masses absorb the gist of From Abbas Al Aqqad Street (Nasr City) to CityStars Mall, LE2.50 uMadbouli El Sagher
Zamalek

D DISTR
the extremists’ message. Democracy, and the freedom that comes with it, The car: Fiat 124 uTrianon
will go a long way in persuading millions of disenfranchised Egyptians that uVolume One
uArabica
the way to a better life is not through Islamic extremists, and that the only The government can do a lot on this issue. First, they can stop the discrimination
uCilantro Heliopolis
reason they are there and growing is the absence of that very democracy. between Muslims and Christians, especially in police stations. When there is a uZamalek Bookstore
It is the way of stability and justice that will dilute extremism, not detention regular fight between a Muslim and a Christian, the Muslim stays in the station for uRomancia Bookshop uHarris Café
and torture. a few days but the Christian leaves right away. Second, the government should uTabasco uEveryman’s
The very charges being levelled at Mr Eryan and his supporters -mem- find out who is telling people lies to incite them to violence. uEuro Deli uArmando Café
bership in an illegal organisation, “influencing public opinion against the uAUC Bookstore

RE
Sayyed, 37 uCilantro
regime” and organising illegal protests- add legitimacy to his cause through Second job: teacher uDrinkie’s (delivery only)
the brazen illegality in them. From Imbaba to Ramsis, LE6 uNo Big Deal Maadi

U
Mr. Eryan and his movement are welcome additions to the Egyptian uOrangette
uGold’s Gym

T
political scene, not due to my belief in their ideas, but through my convic- I’ll tell you just one thing. If the government and the police hadn’t wanted it to
Downtown

A
uKimo Market
tion that they add another dimension to the political picture and expose happen, it wouldn’t have happened in the first place.
uVolume One

FE
the dangerous ideas engendered by a moribund regime. Name withheld, 27 uAUC Bookstore uMasoud Market
From Makram Ebeid Street (Nasr City) to St. Fatima Square (Heliopolis), LE6 uOum El Donia Bookstore uAl Greco
helsawaf@cairomagazine.com The car: Renault Dacia that weaved frightfully uCilantro uDrinkie’s (delivery only)
AHMAD ABOUL-WAFA

16 ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005 ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005 17
 news
in-depth
Over the past decade, a security mentality
has made inroads on campuses.
Now, some professors are fighting back.
BEN HUBBARD
P
rof. Adil Inani is a tall, thin man with
a salt-and-pepper goatee and a calm, confi-
dent voice that manages to both comfort and
command attention. He graduated from the
English department of Ain Shams University
in 1975 and has been teaching in the same
department ever since.
As a result of his many years at the uni-
versity, Inani feels an emotional attachment
to it. He has many faculty friends and lots of
memories associated with the campus, and
considers the university “a place where I can
serve the people I belong to.” His salary alone
isn’t enough to keep him there—he teaches
in Saudi Arabia when he needs money—but
he stays because he feels a sense of duty and
because, he says, he can’t picture himself
anywhere else.
Inani’s devotion to the university was
tested last November when he was beaten
up on campus by a police officer for driving
down a lane reserved for officers’ cars. He was
DANA SMILLIE
punched, kicked, insulted, his shirt was torn
and he suffered cuts on his face and legs.
18 ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005
Inani demanded an investigation from the
university president, but the administration
dragged its feet. When Inani’s persistence
finally got him an investigation, he learned that
the officer would not be questioned because
he was not a university employee, and was
therefore not accountable to the university.
And when the investigation began, according
to Inani, “It turned out that I was the one who
would be questioned and investigated. The
lawyer was dealing with me as if I had commit-
ted some crime.”
While few others have been exposed to such
extreme violence, Inani and a growing number
of his colleagues at different universities see
his conflict with the security apparatus on
campus as representative of the increasing
interference of State Security with university
affairs. On 22 October, 150 professors dem-
onstrated on the steps of Cairo University’s
administration building, calling for university
independence. Many student groups have also
taken up the cause, foremost among them the
student branches of the Muslim Brotherhood.
On 11 October, 15,000 students demonstrated
at Cairo University, carrying banners that read
“Together for Reform: Free University, Free
Country.”
“The university is actually being run by
the police,” said Inani, explaining the growing
interest in university independence. “The
police have the upper hand, and the univer-
sity administration merely listens to them and
carries out their orders.”
Security Interference
In October 2003, a group of professors at
Egyptian universities formed the University
Independence Action Group, better know as
the “9 March Group,” after the day in 1932
when Ahmed Lotfi Al Sayyed resigned as
president of King Fouad University (now
Cairo University) to protest the government’s
transfer of Taha Hussein off campus. Since
then, the 9 March Group has worked for
greater university independence through oc-
casional public demonstrations and, more
frequently, letter-writing campaigns and
behind-the-scenes negotiations with univer-
sity administrators.
The members of 9 March list various ways
in which State Security interferes with uni-
versity affairs, such as the selection of junior
academic staff. According to university rules,
junior staff members are selected by their
departments and presented to the university
president based solely on their grades. The
best students get nominated.
But in reality, these candidates must also
be approved by State Security before their
appointments can be finalized. According 9
March members, there are currently four cases
at the University of Alexandria and one at the
University of Al Minya in which the appoint-
ment of nominees has been blocked because
of security concerns.
Professors must also get security clearance
if they wish to travel, conduct research or
receive guest speakers on campus. In the past
two years, security has rejected invitations to
prominent media figure Hamdi Qandil, the
American scholar Norman Finkelstein and
novelist Baha Taher, among others. Members
of 9 March complain that they cannot even
invite professors from other universities to
visit their classes without security clearance.
“This is our work, our profession,” said Dr.
Nadiha Dos, a professor of French Linguistics
at Cairo University. “In any respectable uni-
versity, you should have respectable people
coming to give lectures. The good university is
open to the world.”
The result of this security interference,
which the members of 9 March say is aimed
at professors and students who participate in
opposition political or religious activities, is
a stifled academic environment, in which the
news
in-depth
BEN HUBBARD
p The 9 March subjects that can be studied and the opinions
group protesting that can be expressed are tightly controlled.
on the steps of the “We have grown to know that we must keep
Cairo University away from certain subjects,” said Adil Inani.
administration “And the result is that most of the topics we
building, on 22 research are worthless and the outcome is
October. obviously worthless, too. It’s always better to
study the there and then than the here and
now. Other people’s systems, not ours. Other
people’s rules, not ours. For example, if you
want to look at the ruling system, you can look
at Sadat and Nasser and say whatever you like.
But you can’t do research on Mubarak, unless
you plan to say he’s the best man there is.”
Security vs. Administration
According to Leila Soueif, an active 9 March
member who has taught mathematics at
Cairo University since 1977, State Security
has always operated on campus, though its
influence over matters not directly related to
security has grown over the past decade.
Soueif points out that the mere presence of
State Security on campus is a violation of the
University Law of 1979, which stipulates that
each university is responsible for establishing
its own security department, with guards that
wear uniforms, carry badges and are account-
able to the university administration.
ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005 19
 news
in-depth
DANA SMILLIE
“But the police officers on campus now are
not university officers as stipulated by the
law,” she says. “They are not attached to Cairo
University; they are attached to the Ministry
of Interior. The situation now is completely
illegal.”
“The law is bad, but not very bad,” said Dr.
Hany El-Husseiny, also of Cairo University’s
mathematics department. “If we apply the
law, things will go more or less well. But they
don’t follow the law in any respect. The law
says nothing about needing securing clearance
for faculty appointments, only for protecting
property.”
The professors in 9 March also note that
while they feel the presence of State Security
on campus, the State Security officers rarely
deal with them directly. Instead, State Security
makes its decisions and the university ad-
ministration carries them out. Indeed, many
of the professors feel that the relationship
between State Security and the administration
has become so close that its hard to determine
where one ends and the other begins.
According to Arabic literature professor Dr.
Sayyed Al-Bahrawy, “No person in a position
of responsibility is appointed without the
agreement of security. And those people can’t
make any decisions without the permission of
security.”
The top-down manner in which univer-
20 ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005
sity administrators are appointed ensures
that their loyalties are to the government
and its security apparatus, not to the profes-
sors and their academic concerns. University
presidents are appointed directly by the state.
They in turn appoint the deans of the various
faculties, who are responsible for choosing the
department heads. Traditionally, the oldest
professor in the department was selected as
department head. Now, the members of 9
March say that security concerns often inter-
vene, keeping faculty members with divergent
views, or those who participate in opposition
political activities, out of power.
This has not always been the case. Prior
to 1994, the full professors of a given faculty
elected that faculty’s dean. But in 1994, this
procedure changed and the university president
gained the power to appoint the deans. This
meant the professors no longer had a say in
choosing any of the administrators from whom
they had to get permission before traveling
abroad, doing research or inviting a guest
speaker to campus. All the authorities had been
put in place by, and were thus accountable to,
the state-appointed university president.
The Government Line
Despite this top-down authority structure, uni-
versity administrators deny that State Security
plays any role in how they run their universi-
ties. According to Dr. Hamid Taher, the vice
president for education and student affairs
at Cairo University, the security presence on
campus is for the sole purpose of protecting
university property.
“This university is very big,” he said in his
office in the administration building of Cairo
University while members of the 9 March group
p Tens of protested outside. “It has 180,000 students
thousands of Cairo and has facilities, labs, computers and expen-
University students sive devices worth millions of dollars. This
are affected by requires university security.”
security bans on Taher dismisses the 9 of March group,
speakers deemed saying that it is small and doesn’t represent
"fundamentalist" or the majority of the faculty. “We now have
"too liberal." 15,000 members in the teaching faculty. The 9
March group, how many are they? One hundred
twenty out of 15,000?”
When asked about the issue of security
clearance for junior academic staff, he said its
sole goal is to weed out criminals and religious
extremists.
“When a person is about to be appointed,
he needs to be examined to see if he has com-
mitted a crime in the past. And in terms of our
situation in Egypt, the most dangerous thing is
to appoint a religious fundamentalist. Because
if a professor becomes a religious fundamen-
talist, he’ll turn 1,000 students into religious
fundamentalists.”
On the issue of guest speakers, Taher first
said that only fundamentalist speakers had to
be kept out because their lectures could incite
the destruction of university property. But
when asked specifically about Baha Taher, the
writer who had been invited to discuss one of
his novels, Hamid Taher said that if the writer
wanted to come now, the university would let
him. Then he amended his comment.
ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005
news
in-depth
“But watch out, sometimes Baha Taher has
some liberal ideas. And we have a problem
here [in Egypt]. He’s too liberal. There’s the
religious fundamentalist, and there’s the one
who wants to permit everything. He’s a bit
outside of the system. So those two are dan-
gerous. But the moderates, they get in without
any problem.” Taher did not specify who quali-
fies as a moderate.
He then summed by saying that the admin-
istration has to control speech on campus
because large numbers of students are diffi-
cult to control.
“When you have a place with a large number
of students, you have to protect it. And what if
chaos breaks out? People don’t realize that. We
have, for example, 3,500 seats in the hall down-
stairs. 3,500! And what if someone comes to
talk to them and gets them all fired up? They’ll
get up and break up the whole place. And we
also have the issue at the cultural level. Is the
student conscious enough to listen to someone
else’s opinion and be quiet? Sometimes he
listens to the other’s opinion and riots. We
have to protect the university facilities.”
Accomplishments
When asked about their successes, the
members of 9 March mention Hany Dweik, a
former student of entomology. Dweik was a
senior when he was arrested and detained for
his participation in demonstrations against
the 2003 Iraq war.
Dweik then graduated from Cairo University
in May 2004, with the highest grade of all the
entomology students. The entomology depart-
ment requested two assistants, so Dweik and
the student with the second highest grades
were nominated by the faculty. The president
of the university signed off on their nomina-
tions, but when Dweik went to sign his contract
in December, he found that his nomination had
been held up because of “security concerns.”
The members of 9 March started a campaign
of letters and petitions to the university admin-
istration and published letters about Dweik’s
case in opposition newspapers. This continued
until August, when the president of the univer-
sity announced that Dweik’s nomination had
been accepted.
While the members of 9 March consider
Dweik’s appointment a success, they concede
that it came during the final weeks before the
presidential election and guess that someone
from Mubarak’s campaign intervened to quiet
a potential scandal. They also admit that this
has been their only concrete achievement to
date.
“All the others are failures,” said Dr. El-
Husseiny. “But our success is that everyone
now, even the minister [of higher education],
is talking about academic freedom and dimin-
ishing the security presence on campus. So the
issues that were not present at all two years
ago are now one of the main political subjects
in the country. This is our success. We have
brought this to the forefront. But to accom-
plish our goal will be very difficult. We need
more political power than this. We need real
political change.” h
21
 outnews
& about
Anatomy of a firecracker
Eid has many blessings. The firecracker is not
one. Firecrackers are illegal. But every year you
can see the same scene: old women quicken
their step as they pass packs of teenaged boys.
Bawabs stare disapprovingly.
Kids growing up in the dark days of socialism
had to content themselves with small packs of
gunpowder called, grandiloquently, “bombs.”
Today, thanks to the Chinese occupation of
the Egyptian market, kids have options. In all
fairness, the Chinese did invent gunpowder and
the firecracker.
You can still buy the “bombs.” Bombs are
comprised of a small envelope full of gunpow-
der and small stones, tightly closed with a thin
metal wire. You throw it like a grenade and it
makes a big sound when it hits the ground.
Sound a like a fun toy? You can have a whole
bucket of 50 for a mere LE4.
Or perhaps you’d prefer one of the new
Chinese toys? Young boys were thrilled a few
years ago when little, yellow Chinese sticks
hit the market. You light one end, and three
seconds later it explodes. Sometimes. Or some-
times it explodes too early. Or not at all. What
do you want? At LE0.10 a throw, you’re getting
what you pay for.
For a mere LE0.15, you can play with the
“Red Rocket,” which arrived in Cairo soon after
the yellow sticks. It’s basically the same thing,
but for your extra five piasters (what’s five
piasters, anyway? Not even a stick of gum), you
get a louder explosion.
If all this sounds like kid’s stuff, you might
wish to try the “Spinning Rocket,” a circular
band with a fuse that, when lit, hisses, spits
sparks and spins around for 15 seconds. This
is for older children or those with generous
older brothers who can afford the LE.75 sticker
price.
And it’s in the LE.75 range that things start
getting really interesting. The “Dirty” is a small,
green rocket with eight or more small explo-
sives that fire like a machine gun. The “American
Rocket”—so called because it is decorated from
tip to tail in the American flag, not because
it was made in the United States—produces
circular explosions before it flies 20 feet or so in
whatever direction it’s pointed.
Lucky rich kids, and those old enough to
know better, might be able to spring for a quiver
of colorless rockets. It doesn’t look like much
for a full LE1: just a tube of yellowed newspa-
per. But, as one group of young guys playing
with them reported, “You get what you pay for.”
Colorless rockets fly high in the sky and make
pretty explosions. “They may,” one reviewer
mused happily, “be used by a lost warrior as
AHMAD HOSNI
a signal, or to announce victory at the end of
the battle.”
22 ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005
Malibu
CHITRA KALYANI
Despite its name, perhaps the only thing the
new Doqqi restaurant Malibu has in common
with the California city is its eclecticism: a
menu featuring Italian cuisine, vaguely African
decorations and lighting fixtures constructed
from elements of chandeliers.
It is easy to find a private corner in the
spacious venue and, as the official opening is
not until after Ramadan, the restaurant is not
yet busy. Overall, the restaurant emanates an
air of quiet elegance. The red-walled interi-
ors are softened by an abundance of plants,
natural wood furnishings and brown-cush-
ioned seats. Silver crescent bits of blue glass
dangle from lamps over the tables. Soft lounge
music blends easily into muted conversations.
There is a good variety of entrees, though
some appetizers were unavailable the night
Cairo visited. The head chef, who goes by the
moniker “Silla,” came by the table, however,
Tried-and-true
Eid sweets
CAIRO STAFF
It’s Eid once again, and along with the
firecrackers, the festivities demand piles of
sweets. Cairo’s research team, after a series
of harrowing expeditions into the kitchens of
the city, has come up with the absolute best
of the best of holiday recipes and gained 10
kilos.
to discuss options, and in minutes produced
a personalized dinner. The mushroom salad
includes watercress (billed on the menu as
Arugula), cheese and a generous dressing that
tasted deliciously of lemon.
The scallope di pollo (chicken breast) with
mushroom sauce arrives in modish (read tiny)
portions, garnished simply with halves of green
and red pepper. My company forgives the price
(discovered later), which would be moderate
for a larger portion, as the meal tastes every bit
as satisfying, and the plate is returned clean.
The penne quatro fromage comes in generous
portions and with the same personal attentions
from Chef Silla, who came by for a lengthy chat
Al Kahk:
Ingredients:
1. 1 kilo flour,
2. 1/2 kilo clarified butter (semna),
3. 5 grams yeast,
4. 1/2 teaspoon salt,
5. 11/2 glasses of water.
• Add the semna to the flour and mix into an
even dough. Use your hands, never use a spoon!
It’s important to feel the texture of the dough.
• Add the yeast to a glass of water. Stir. Slowly
add both to the dough and mix well.
• Dilute the salt in half a glass of water and add
to the dough. Mix well.
• After the dough is mixed evenly, cut it into
medium-sized round pieces. Insert dates or
jam to taste. Arrange pieces on a flat metal
baking tray. Let them rise for four hours. Begin
preheating the oven an hour before the kahk
have risen.
• Put the tray in the center of the oven. Check
the bottoms of the kahk every 30 minutes until
golden-brown.
• Sprinkle powdered sugar over the tops of the
cookies before serving if desired.
outnews
& about
KRISTINA ROIC
after the food arrived. Malibu’s official opening
Malibu, while it does not serve alcohol, does coincides with Eid Al Fitr,
have a range of drinks that are fruity and oddly when the restaurant
named. The “blue angel” is not really blue, will be open both from
though ostensibly made of blueberries. Other the morning late into
fruit cocktails bear names like “red sombrero” the night. Appetizers
and the closer-to-home yet equally inventively range from LE11-25
named “smile on the Nile,” which had an un- and main courses from
mistakeable guava juice base. LE20-40, while drinks
Cairo sipped on a “t-shirt” (a mix of citrus are around LE10.
juices, pineapple and grenadine), and found it
a tasty little concoction. When asked why the
cocktail is named after an item of clothing, Malibu
however, the waiter smiled politely and 50 Thawra Street
shrugged. Doqqi
Al Ghourayeba:
Ingredients:
1. 1 kilo flour,
2. 1 kilo clarified butter (ghee),
3. 1/2 kilo powdered sugar,
4. 1 large bag of nuts.
• Blend the sugar and the ghee with an egg
whisk.
• Mix in one cup of flour and blend. Then add a
second cup of flower and blend again. Repeat
the process till all the flour is mixed into a soft
dough.
• Cut the dough into small round pieces and
arrange them on a thin, metal, baking tray and
put one piece of any type of nuts on top for
ornament.
• Preheat oven till nice and hot.
• Put the tray in the oven for roughly 10
minutes, when the dough turns yellow take the
tray out.
• Don’t move the Ghourayeba from the tray
until it cools down or it will crumble.
• Don’t add too much sugar or the Ghourayeba
will come out hard.
ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005 23
 news
culture
NOT THE WHOLE PICTURE
Though useful, Liliane Karnouk’s
new book ignores a number of key
artists
ASHRAF IBRAHIM
L
iliane Karnouk’s book Modern Egyptian
Art 1910-2003 is interesting and well-written,
and fills a void in the literature on the subject.
In her preface, Karnouk writes, “In time, I
hope, others will assess the importance of the
artists presented here and add forgotten and
new names to this selection.” This is indeed to
be hoped, for the book has serious lacunae.
Karnouk—a Canadian citizen who was
born in Egypt to Armenian parents—begins
her book with a seven-page preface in which
she talks about the trouble she had collect-
ing material for the book. Due perhaps to
these difficulties, the book is essentially a list
of selected artists that reflects the author’s
personal taste. There seems to be no scholarly
basis for the criteria Karnouk uses to include
certain schools and movements and exclude
others. The book’s value as a scholarly work
and documentary record is inevitably affected
by this.
The book consists of sixteen chapters, seven
of which already appeared in Contemporary
24 ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005
Egyptian Art, released by AUC Press in 1995.
In a small section at the beginning of her
first chapter, “Egyptian Awakening,” Karnouk
discusses the British occupation of Egypt in
1882 and the flowering of both the fine arts
and Sheikh Mohammed Abdu’s ideas on how
to renew and reform Islam. She catalogues
attempts by Egyptian intellectuals to retrieve,
revive and reinterpret Pharaonic art, but never
mentions the desire to escape the remnants of
Ottoman colonial culture that motivated such
attempts. Instead, she erroneously associates
it with the Egyptomania that was sweeping
Europe at the time
p (top) The Karnouk’s profiles of pioneering artists
Time Machine, Mahmoud Mokhtar, Mahmoud Said,
installation by Mohammed Nagi and Raghib Eyyad are good
Liliane Karnouk, introductions for readers who know little
author of Modern about them. The profiles contain interesting
Egyptian Art. biographical information, but add little to our
The book's cover understanding of the artists’ work.
illustration is Her next chapter, “The Cosmopolitans,”
Hamed Nada's 1989 looks at artists from the movement’s second
Eve of the Henna. generation, such as Ramses Younan, Kamil
Al Tilmasani and Fouad Kamil. She discusses
their revolt against the prevalent techniques
of the time and their move toward abstrac-
tion, and touches on their communications
with their European contemporaries.
In her third chapter, “The Folk Realists,”
Abdel Hadi Al Gazzar and Hamid Nada are
chosen as representatives of the third gen-
eration of modern Egyptian artists. Both are
extremely important artists, but instead of ex-
amining their most interesting works, Karnouk
is content to talk about events in their lives
and the influence of popular culture on their
output. She makes no mention of Effat Nagi’s
use of popular art or her early and important
attempts to move beyond traditional under-
standings of the picture, which produced
collage-like works.
In the fourth chapter, “Designing for a New
Egypt,” the author moves on to a discussion
of architecture. She looks at the growth of
Heliopolis and Hassan Fathi’s Nubian-influ-
enced work—two architectural phenomena
that bear little or no relation to one other.
Karnouk concludes the chapter without men-
tioning a single contemporary Egyptian archi-
tect by name.
None of the first four chapters appeared
in Karnouk’s previous work, Contemporary
Egyptian Art. Chapters five to eleven, however,
did. Chapter five is a superficial account of
“The Revolutionary Years 1952-1967” that
manages to ignore a number of important
artists practicing “resistance art,” such as
William Ishaq, Hassan Fouad and Dawoud Aziz.
Chapters six to eleven deal with the following
subjects: “Modernism and Art Appropriations,”
“Internationalism and Abstraction,”
“Premodernism or Postmodernism?,” “Islamic
Art Revival,” “Pluralism in Styles” and “The
Kitsch Wave: A Transition or an End?.” These
chapters have been lifted wholesale from her
previous book, paying no regard to the devel-
opment of featured artists in the intervening
ten years.
In her twelfth chapter Karnouk talks about
the 1990s, but her treatment of the annual
Youth Salon (which was started in 1989 and
has become an important event in the artistic
calendar, displaying hundreds of new artists
each year) is far too brief. Ignoring a number
of important artists, she chooses to write
about Ahmed Nabil and his painstakingly tra-
ditional canvases. Ayman Al Samri, Emad Abu
Zein and other artists who have come out of
the Youth Salon are absent. Karnouk makes no
real attempt to explore the political and social
reasons behind the Salon’s foundation, and she
seems unaware that the majority of the artists
who rose to prominence in this period were
either students or teachers at the College of
Art.
In chapter thirteen, “The Body,” Karnouk
includes a profile of her own work written by
Ron Walkey, a professor of architecture at the
University of British Columbia.
Even stranger, in chapter fifteen (“History,
Words and Books”), Karnouk includes the
French photographer and painter Bernard
Guillot ahead of a long list of Egyptian artists,
despite the fact that Guillot’s work is a product
of French culture and tradition, and is not part
of the modern Egyptian art movement. This is
not to take away from the quality of his beau-
tiful pictures of Egypt, but if Karnouk wants
to talk about Egyptian art she should stick to
Egyptian artists. Foreign artists who have lived
and worked in Egypt deserve a separate book all
of their own. This could include many figures,
from the first generation of teachers at the
School of Fine Arts, to artists such as French il-
lustrator Golo or painter Mago Veillon, who died
two years ago after almost 70 years in Egypt.
The book ends with its slimmest and weakest
chapter: a discussion of photography and video
work. Focusing on just four individuals (and
featuring only one entry for video), Karnouk
ignores many important artists working in the
field. She also writes as if photography were
an entirely new phenomenon in Egypt. That’s
not the case; the first time photography was
exhibited in Egypt was in 1923 at the House of
Egyptian Arts and Crafts, 21 Al Bulaq Street,
Cairo. The Association of Fine Art Lovers held
its first photography exhibitions in January
1933. This exhibition contained 598 pictures
by 131 photographers (67 Egyptians and 64
foreigners). Karnouk says nothing of pioneer-
ing Armenian studio photographers such as
Van Leo, Alban, Cavouk and Arman, or the
generation of Egyptian artists that followed.
Although Hala Al Koussi, Nermine Hammam
and Youssef Nabil are talented artists, they are
hardly the only or the best representatives of
photography in Egypt.
Though it references more than 160
sources, Karnouk’s book cannot be considered
a comprehensive account of the Egyptian art
movement and its history. It ignores many
important artists (and entire fields—there
isn’t a single reference to ceramics). It groups
artists according to arbitrary categories and
news
culture
W
uAl Sawy Cultural Center
26 July St., Zamalek
(736-6178)
LE200 per person.
7pm, Beadwork, four classes to learn how to
use beads, string and wire to create necklaces
O
Tuesday 8 November, 8:15pm and decorations for the home. Fee: LE200 per
The Story of the Creation of Mankind, person.
seminar by the Islamic preacher Fadel Soliman, uSwiss Club
R K
member of the Islamic Group for Quran and Villa Pax, Al Gihad St., off Sudan St., Midan
Sunna Research Kit-Kat
uBibliotheca Alexandrina (314- 2811, 315-1455, 010-300-9695)
Al Geish St. (Corniche), Al Shatbi
Saturdays 5-7pm
www.swiss-club-cairo.com
Every Monday and Thursday, 10-11am
Lectures on Modern Trends Yoga workshop for adults
in Developing Education and Every Saturday 11am-12pm
S H
Environmental Sustainability by the Ballet course for children
Center for Special Studies and Programs at the Every Saturday 10-11am and Sunday 2-3pm
Bibliotheca Alexandrina, for ages 14-19 Sport & Play for kids 3-5 years old
Sunday 6-Wednesday 9 November, 6pm uTownhouse Gallery of Contemporary
Information Literacy and Lifelong Art
Learning, lecture, meeting and workshop by Nabrawi St., off Champollion St., Downtown
O
40 information literacy and lifelong learning (576-8086, 012-735-8635)
experts from all over the world to discuss Tuesday 8 November 2 pm and Wednesday 9
development in economic and social problems November 10:30am
P S
such as poverty, unemployment and disease Workshop as part of an Egyptian-Swiss Art
using international literacy and lifelong learning. Project on Topography and Identity in
The activities are organized by UNESCO, the Egypt in November 2005 and in Switzerland in
International Federation of Library Associations 2006. Egyptian and Swiss artists and curators
(IFLA) and the National Forum on Information will participate in the workshops as well as
Literacy (NFIL). Egyptian actor and producer special Egyptian guests (artists, curators,
Omar Sharif will address participants. art critics, architects, writers, etc.) Artists
uStudio 206 Mahmoud Khaled, Hildegard Spielhofer,
Villa 14, Road 200, Degla, Maadi Bassam al Baroni, Gertrud Genhart,
(519-5713) Basma Al Husseini, Christof Rösch,
Tuesday 8 November Alaa Khaled, Ralph Hauswirth and others
6:30pm, Beginner Ceramic, four classes will discuss their working conditions, production
to learn how to make handmade pottery. Fee: potentials and artistic strategies.
Artistic insight at the Townhouse Gallery
z The 1937 themes. Nor does the book contain images
painting Banat of some of the works that, by Karnouk’s own
Bahari (Coast Girls) assessment, are the most important in certain
by seminal artist artists’ careers. Several pictures appear to be
Mahmoud Said. low-quality, almost blurry reproductions.
Karnouk writes engagingly, and strikes a
nice middle ground between criticism and
biography. Her book is clearly intended for a
general readership, and best serves as an in-
troduction to Egyptian modern art for a reader
who knows very little about the subject.
The danger is that because this book is virtu-
ally unique, it will be taken for an accurate and
comprehensive survey. But the author is not
entirely to blame here. The problems of Modern
Egyptian Art afflict a number of books on the
subject. The fault is ours as Egyptians; we have
not produced a single book that includes a
comprehensive bibliography of our artists or
the various schools and periods of Egypt’s art
movements. Likewise, the Museum of Egyptian
Modern Art, having recently reopened its ex-
hibition on the history of modern art after a
four-year closure, disappointed us all with its
inaccurate and inadequate portrayal of this
history. h
ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005 25
 news
culture news
culture
Music and Dance Venues: Thursday 3 November Sunday 6 November
Culture in Brief
ARABIC LITERATURE 2.0
uAfter 8 Wust El Balad, modern Egyptian songs uAfter 8 Wust El Balad, modern Egyptian songs
uAfter 8 uAl Sawy Cultural Center River Hall, 8pm, Farah uAl Sawy Cultural Center River Hall, 7pm, From
N C E

6 Qasr Al Nil St., Downtown (010-339-8000) Al Masri and Magdi Batta, Nubian folklore The People, To The People, Nubian concert by Beshir
Shows start at 10pm unless otherwise noted uJazz-Up Riff, swing and jazz uGezira Art Center 7:30pm, concert by Mexican
uAl Sawy Cultural Center singer María Elena García Rivera, with Uruguayan
Archaeologists have found a treasure trove
26 July St., Zamalek (736-6178) Friday 4 November pianist Ignacio Pilone
uAmerican University in Cairo uAfter 8 Wust El Balad, modern Egyptian songs uJazz-Up Salsa night with Rami and Suzi of Asian and Islamic art from the tenth
Main Campus, Sheikh Rihan St., Downtown uAl Sawy Cultural Center River Hall, 8pm, Wust century in a sunken boat off the coast of
(797-6373) El Balad, modern Egyptian songs Monday 7 November Indonesia. An international team of divers
uCairo Opera House uJazz-Up Salsa night with Rami and Suzi uAl Sawy Cultural Center Wisdom Hall, 8pm,
recovered 250,000 artifacts over the last 18
D A

Gezira, Zamalek Arabic music and lute night with Oud Stars and Atef
(739-8132, 739-8144) Saturday 5 November Abdel Hamid months. The objects include perfume flasks,
Shows start at 8pm unless otherwise noted uAfter 8 Screwdriver, rock and roll vases, porcelain dishes and glassware from
uFrench Cultural Center, Heliopolis uAl Sawy Cultural Center River Hall, 8pm, Tuesday 8 November the Fatimid dynasty that once ruled Egypt.
5 Shafiq Al Dib St., Ard El Golf Wama, pop music uAfter 8 Sahari, rai music
(417-4824, 419-3857) uCairo Opera House Small Hall, Sunshine, led by uAl Sawy Cultural Center Bostan Al Nil Hall, 7pm, The divers also found objects from China’s
uFrench Cultural Center, Mounira
1 Madrassat Al Hoquq Al Faransia St., Mounira
(794-7679, 794-4095)
Hamada Nour, English and Spanish pop music nai concert by Ali Aboul Fadl

Wednesday 9 November
Five Dynasties period (907-960 AD), as well
as 14,000 pearls, 4,000 rubies, 400 dark red Union and website for Internet writers provide
sapphires and more than 2,200 garnets. This
&

uGeneina Theater
Salah Salem Road, Al Azhar Park
(346-7601, 010-575-5191)
uAfter 8 Riff, swing and jazz
uAl Sawy Cultural Center
Word Hall, 7pm, Madad Ya Kul Al Fannaneen (Long
ancient treasure has led to modern-day greed.
Cosmix, a secretive Dubai-based corporation,
publishing opportunity and highlight new genre
Shows start at 9pm Live All Artists), poetry and singing by Gemmeiza, led by funded the €5 million (about LE35 million)
uGezira Art Center Nasser Al Noubi salvage operation. The divers have also had EMAN SHABAN MORSI Sherbini is confident that soon interactive, digital litera- union, I now have readers and friends not only from my
1 Al Marsafi St., Zamalek (737-3298) Wisdom Hall, 8pm, Dieski, rock music
C

uGomhouriya Theater uCairo Opera House Main Hall, Opera Butterfly to defend their booty from the Indonesian ture will replace the traditional, printed kind. “Literature governorate [Alexandria], but also from all around Egypt
Gomhouriya St., Abdeen (390-7707) performed by Cairo Opera Choir and Cairo Opera Navy and other treasure hunters. The artifacts develops along with society. We started with the myth and the Arab world. Publishing online is also faster and

T
Shows start at 8pm Orchestra , led by Nader Abassi
S I

will be offered at auction in 2006 and 2007, and the epic, and now we are moving towards digital less complex than publishing on paper.” Ateiya also says
uJazz-Up and Indonesia will receive 50 percent of the realism—but of course, it will take people some time to that publishing online provides writers with valuable
Nile Hilton, 1113 Corniche Al Nil, Downtown Thursday 10 November
(578-0444, 578-0666) uCairo Opera House Main Hall, Opera Butterfly proceeds from the sale. he Arab Internet Writers’ Union is trying, with accept the change.” feedback from readers.
Shows start at 10:30pm performed by Cairo Opera Choir and Cairo Opera mixed results, to pull Arabic literature into the 21st Many of the union’s own members, however, are far “I like the fact that you get more space in terms of
uTownhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art Orchestra , led by Nader Abassi Egyptian actor Omar Sharif has just been century. Founded in 2004, the union launched a test from accepting such changes. “Digital literature will never story length and freedom of expression,” adds Ateiya.
U

Nabrawi St., off Champollion St., Downtown uFrench Cultural Center, Mounira 8:30pm,
sued for allegedly attacking and hurling website last April (www.arab-ewriters.com). The union replace printed literature,” insists Mohammed Ateiya, a Online publications in Egypt are generally uncensored.
(576-8086, 012-735-8635) musical dinner with Valery and Wassillev on piano and
Shows start at 9pm María Elena García Rivera contrabass racial slurs at a US parking attendant has members from many different Arab countries, young writer who recently joined the union. “Reading “We are not censored at all,” says Shabloul. “Our focus
M

uAl Sawy Cultural Center
26 July St., Zamalek (736-6178)
Open daily 9am-9pm
Earth Hall
Artwork using various materials by Hossam Eddin
Ahmed
Word Hall
Woodwork exhibition by Mohammed Youssef
All exhibitions through 9 November.
Daily 6-11pm
uBibliotheca Alexandrina
Al Geish St., (Corniche), Al Shatbi, Alexandria
100 days—100 Imachinations, live projection by
German artist Tim Otto Roth. The series of changing
projected images will be shown on the BA Conference Center’s
triangular wall facing the Corniche, enabling the public to
watch the light show from the Corniche. Through 6 December.
S
uKarim Francis Contemporary Art Gallery
157 26 July St., third floor, Zamalek
(736-2183, 010-667-4823)
www.karimfrancis.com
Open daily 4-11pm, Mondays off
Story Teller, paintings by Christian Voigt, through 9
November
uMashrabiya Gallery
8 Champollion St., Downtown (578-4494)
Open daily 11am-8pm, Fridays off
Photo exhibition by French artist Aurélia Frey, through
9 November
uPicasso Gallery
30 Hassan Assem St., off Brazil St., Zamalek
(736-7544)
www.picassoartgallery-egypt.com
During Ramadan open daily 10am-9pm, Sundays off
Various works by Sudanese artists: black and white
drawings by Ibrahim Al Sayed, oil paintings by
Hasan Ali, drawings on pumpkin by Adel Kebeida
and portraits by Mervat Al Shazli, through 4
in June 2005. Guatemalan-born Juan
Anderson, a valet at a chic Los Angeles res-
Open daily 10am-2pm & 6-9pm, Thursdays & Fridays taurant, claims Sherif punched him in the
6-9pm only side of the head and called him a “stupid
Selection of new drawings by Ahmed Nossier, through
9 November Mexican.” Sharif was reportedly angry
uZamalek Art Gallery when the valet refused to accept a tip in
11 Brazil St., Zamalek euros rather than dollars. In 2001, the hot-
(735-1240, 012-224-1062) headed Sharif was given a one-month sus-
www.zamalekartgallery.com
Open daily 10:30am-9pm, Fridays off pended prison sentence for head-butting a
Paintings by Abdel Rahman Al Nachar, through 10 police officer in a casino near Paris.
November
Daily images of the pyramids are now avail-
able to people around the world, thanks to
a new website: http://www.pyramidcam.
com. PyramidCam.com is a collaborative
effort. Heading the project is Jim Sorenson,
uAmerican University in Cairo
Falaki Building, Falaki St., Bab Al Louq an American businessman who has lived and
(797-6373) worked in Egypt for 30 years. Local partner
Open daily12-9pm, Fridays off Siag Hotel and Travel furnishes the vantage
including well-known figures such as Moroccan critic
Mohammed Motassem, Egyptian writer Ahmed Al
Khamisi and Kuwaiti writer Hayat Al Yaqout.
The union says it aims to spread awareness of “digital
culture” among the Arab public. Its website publishes a
great number of articles on information technology and
digital literacy in the Arab world.
The website also publishes short stories, poems,
novels, and critical essays under the heading Al Nashr
Al Electroni (Electronic Publishing). Though its archive is
comparatively small, it is regularly updated and within a
short time should rival other Arabic literature websites
such as www.kotbarabia.com. Short stories include Boqa
Sawda (Black Spot) by Gawaher Al Refaiya, and Habibat
Al E-mail (The E-mail Beloved) by Abdel Nur Edriss. It has
also published book-length works of criticism, such as
Qiraat Fi Adab Al Mara Al Khalijiya (An Assessment of
Gulf Women’s Literature).
Besides publishing a great number of literary works
a novel takes hours and to spend such a long time in
front of the computer screen, with all the concentration
involved in the process of reading, is not something that
many can do—it hurts one’s eyes.”
Ateiya sees the union and its website mainly as a
chance to publish. “Getting your work published on the
Internet will provide you with a better chance of being
read and consequently known,” he says. “Thanks to the
Screen-scroller
EMAN SHABAN MORSI
It’s not a book. Is it a novel? A website? Entertainment?
Literature? None of the above? All of the above? Perhaps
the best indication that Mohammed Sanajleh has done
is on culture and literature, not politics or pornography.
We are just a group of intellectuals, with no political
aims, writing about a new creative genre, so we have
no trouble with the government and won’t have in the
future.”
Overall, the website looks promising, as do its future
plans to release an e-magazine and establish an elec-
tronic publishing house and an electronic library. h
message text gliding across the image of a mobile phone
screen. Whenever Mohammed turns to chat services on
the Web, Yahoo! or Maktoob icons appear on screen. This
really is literature for today’s Arabic youth.
Background music plays during certain passages. If
that’s not enough to suggest the mood of the protagonist,
cartoon thought balloons appear as the reader glides the
mouse over certain words, to explain what the narrator
was thinking while he wrote them: literary meta-text and
computer hypertext. When characters make reference to

November Shows starting Sunday 6 November. Opening reception

point for viewing: the top of the Siag Hotel produced by union members, the website also contains something truly innovative with Chat is that it so stub- American Beauty and The Matrix, links to clips from the
uRare Books and Special Collections Library Sunday 13 November, 6pm.
22 Mansour St., Downtown (797-6243) Second floor, a site-specific installation by Malak Helmi in Giza. The high-definition network camera samples of what has come to be known as adab al bornly resists categorization. films appear.
N

Open daily, 8:30am-5pm, Saturdays 12-5pm, Fridays off and Tarek Al Shazli used at PyramidCam.com is from StarDot waqeiya al raqamiya, or “digital realism literature.” It is Sanajleh, the head of the Arab Union for Internet On the union’s website, Sanajleh writes that “In the
Cairo and Its People, selections from the Rare Books Fifth floor, A Journey: From Iran to Central Asia, Technologies, a California company known for for this new form of literary production—which includes Writers, says he’s written a novel. He’s even got a name for digital realism novel, words will be just one part of a larger
& Special Collections Library’s Van Leo and Creswell photography by Bernard O’Kane, professor of Islamic
O

collections, through 31 January 2006 Art and Architecture its cameras on the Yosemite and Yellowstone sound tracks, visual effects and hyperlinks—that the the genre: “digital realism.” Chat was released 23 October, whole. For, in addition to words, we should write with
uCordoba Gallery uSafar Khan Gallery All exhibitions through 24 November. National Park websites. website was mainly created. on the Arab Union’s website. pictures, sounds and animation.”
3A Degla St., Mohandiseen (012-110-4699) 6 Brazil St., Zamalek uDoroub Gallery Ahmed Fadl Shabloul, vice president of the union, Chat tells the story of Mohammed, a young Jordanian But does all this focus on technological tricks merely
I

www.cordobatalgibaly.com (735-3314) www.safarkhan.com 4 Latin America St., Garden City (794-7951) As Ramadan ended, a vague consensus says, “We are working on a theory of ‘digital realism engineer who works for a multinational company in an disguise bad writing? Lengthy passages in Chat, in which
Open daily 11am-8pm, Fridays off Open daily, 10am-2pm & 5-9pm, Sundays off Open daily 10am-10pm, Fridays off
Masriyat, painting, photography and pottery by Exhibition by Mahmoud Afi , works 1920-1984, Thursday 3 November emerged about this year’s most popular literature,’ that will make literature more interactive isolated seaside town in Oman. Driven by boredom and the narrator describes his feelings for a Lebanese girl,
T

Yasser Nabayel, Hatem Al Toudi, Ali Azzam, through 5 November Collection, paintings by Mohammed Sabri, Abdel soap operas. Hits included Hanan Turk’s through the use of available Internet tools such as multi- chance, the protagonist turns to cyberspace, which he contain such a long and complex array of symbols and
Khalaf Tayea, Mohammed Al Nasser, Abdel uSalama Gallery Wahab Morsi, Galal Al Husseini, Mervat Sara on Dubai channel, in which Turk media and hypertext. It will be a more interactive litera- finds more fulfilling than his everyday existence. images that they are almost incomprehensible.
I

Hakim Sayed and Mohammed Mandour, through 36 Ahmed Orabi St., Mohandiseen (346-3242) Refaat and Gihan Raouf; sculpture by Halim played a woman stuck at the developmen- ture—one in which the reader helps create the text.” Both the narrator and the author are Jordanian. Both Though Chat’s multimedia effects give the reading ex-
15 November Open daily 10am-2:30pm & 5-9pm Yacoub and Ammar Shiha; jewellery by Ahmed
uFonoun Art Gallery Ramadaniyat, oil paintings and sculpture by George Badawi, Lama Horani and Sarah Abdel Azim; tal stage of a 12-year-old by a childhood In one of the stories featured on the website, the are named Mohammed. At some points, the protagonist perience a new flavor, the novelty quickly wears off. In the
B

14 Jedda St., Doqqi (338-0298) Bahgouri, Omar Al Nagdi, Ammar Shiha calligraphy by Mounib Obradovich, through 12 trauma and set upon by villainous relatives reader gets to choose what events will come next by drifts into long passages of metaphysical meditation that end, these effects accomplish no more than what readers’
Open daily, 10am-10pm and Mohammed Ibrahim Youssef, through 15 November and acquaintances. The Satellite channel clicking on one of the numerous hypertext phrases at seem improbable coming from a math-nerd engineer. imaginations have long done: visualize elements in the
Portraits by Gamal Kamel and sculpture by November uFrench Cultural Center, Mounira
H I

Mohammed Al Fayoumi, through 4 November
uFrench Cultural Center, Mounira
1 Madrassat Al Hoquq Al Faransiya St., Mounira
(794-7679, 794-4095)
Daily 10am-11pm
Par la Forêt Obscure (Through the Dark Forest),
X
uToot Gallery
80 Mohieddin Aboul Ezz St., Doqqi (335-0248)
Open daily 11am-7pm, Fridays off
Colors from Egypt by Sri Lankan artist Padmini
Serasinghe, through 4 November
uTownhouse Gallery of Contemporary Art
1 Madrassat Al Hoquq Al Faransiya St., Mounira
(794-7679, 794-4095)
Daily 10am-11pm
Wednesday 9 November, 7pm
Lignes de Paix (Lines of Peace), caricatures,
drawings and sculpture by French artist Plantu and
MBC had two popular shows as well. Raya
and Sekina was a high-quality retelling of
the crimes of the Alexandria murderesses,
while the Syrian show Al Hur Al Ein tackled
terrorism, recounting the 2003 bombing of
the end of each chapter, thus creating his or her own
version of the story.
Union member Mohammed Al Sherbini shares
Shabloul’s enthusiasm for the new literary genre. “The
Internet is the future,” he says. “On the web you have
Sanajleh used a mixture of Flash and HTML to create
backgrounds and add special effects. The first chapter, Al
Adam Al Ramly (The Sandy Vacuum), begins with a short
clip of wind blowing through an empty desert.
Every time the protagonist receives an SMS, an icon of
story. Thus, one wonders if the pyrotechnics are merely
a means of compensating for writing that fails to evoke
a scene or capture the imagination. Chat may be the first
novel of its kind in Arabic literature. A new path has been
opened. Let’s hope many more gifted writers travel down

photography by French artist Aurélia Frey, through 6 Nabrawi St., off Champollion St., Downtown Mustafa Hussein, in cooperation with the Bibliotheca a Riyadh apartment complex from the point more options, you can have three dimensional images, a mobile phone appears in the text. Clicking on the icon it. Otherwise, it risks being no more than another forget-
November (576-8086, 012-735-8635) Alexandrina, through 30 November of view of the Arab families living there. background music and many other special effects.” Al allows the reader to hear the message tone and read the table experiment.
E

26 ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005 ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005 27
 listings
news
C I N E
CINEMA q Tuesday 8 November, 7pm
New Movies for the Eid:
(call venues to check which movie will
be shown)
Orido Kholaan (I Want a Divorce),
written and directed by Ahmed Awad,
starring Ashraf Abdel Baqi and Hala Shiha
Banat Wust Al Balad (Downtown
Girls), directed by Mohammed Khan,
starring Hind Sabri, Menna Shalabi and
Mohammed Nagati
Gai fil Sariaa (Coming Quickly),
directed by Gamal Qasem, starring
Magid Al Kadawani and Riham Abdel
Ghafour
Ghawi Hob (Hopeless Romantic),
directed by Ahmed Al Badri, starring
Mohammed Foad and Hala Shiha
Dars Khosousi (Khosousi’s Lesson),
directed by Sameh Abdel Aziz, starring
Mohammed Attiya and Hana Shiha
INDEPENDENT
CINEMAS q Audry Maurion, 2004 (German)
uAmerican University in Cairo
Greek Campus, Youssef Guindi St.,
Downtown, Jameel Center Auditorium,
(797-6373)
u6 October Cinema
Al Hay Al Sabea St., behind 6 of October
University (835-7569)
Daily 10:30am, 12:50, 3:50, 6:50
& 9:50pm, Thursday and Friday also
12:45am
uCairo Mall Cinema
Al Haram St., in front of Central Al Haram
(584-9721)
Daily 10:30am, 1:30, 4, 7 & 10pm,
Thursday and Friday also 1am
uCairo Sheraton Cinema
Midan Al Galaa, Al Dokki (760-6081)
Daily 1, 4, 7 & 10pm, Thursday and
Friday also 12:30am
uCity Center Cinema
3 Makram Ebeid St., Nasr City
(010-667-5096)
Daily 11:30am, 1:15, 4:15, 7:15,
10:15pm & 1am
uConcorde Hotel Cinema
Next to Al Shams Club, Abdel Hamid
Badawy St., Heliopolis
(622-4000, 622-6000)
Daily 11am, 1:15, 4, 7, 10pm & 1am
uDiana Cinema
Al Alfy St., off 26th of July St.,
Downtown
(592-4727, 786-9949)
Daily 11am, 1:30, 3:30, 6:30 &
9:30pm
uDream Cinema
6 October, Dream Land, Dream Mall, 6th
of October City (840-1252)
Daily 10:30am, 1, 4, 7, 10pm, Thursday
also 12:30am
uFamily Cinema
11 Othman Towers, Maadi
(524-8100, 524-8120)
Daily 11am, 1, 4, 7, 10pm, Thursday &
Don’t ruin the film for yourself and other people
28 ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005
M A & T
Al Madina (The City), directed by
Youssri Nasralla, 2000 (Arabic with
English subtitles)
uFrench Cultural Center,
Heliopolis
5 Shafiq Al Dib St., Ard El Golf
(417-4824, 419-3857)
Tuesday 8 November, 8pm
Buena Vista Social Club
documentary movie directed by Wim
Wenders, 1999, 100min., starring
Compay Segundo (English and Spanish
with French subtitles)
uFrench Cultural Center, Mounira
1 Madrassat Al Hoquq Al Faransiya St.,
Mounira (794-7679, 794-4095)
Wednesday 9 November, 8:30pm
Sahar Al Layali (Sleepless Nights),
directed by Hani Khalifa, starring Sherif
Mounir, Mona Zaki, Hanan Turk, Fathi
Abdel Wahab and Jihan Fadel, 2003, 130
min. (Arabic with French subtitles)
In cooperation with the National Center for
Egyptian Cinema
uGoethe-Institute Cairo
5 Al Bustan St., Downtown (575-9877)
Tuesday 8 November, 7pm
Schultze Gets the Blues, directed by
Michael Schorr, 2003, 114min (English
and German)
Wednesday 9 November, 7pm
Aus Liebe zum Volklove(Love for
the People), directed by Eyal Sivan and
THEATER q Opera House grounds, Zamalek
uAl Arayes
Midan Ataba, next to Al Taliaa Theater,
Friday also 1am
uFlorida Cinema 1 & 2
Masakin Sheraton, Heliopolis
(268-5005)
Daily 11am, 1:30, 4, 7, 10pm &
12:30am
uGalaxy Cinema
67 Abdel Aziz Abdel Saoud St., Manial
(532-5745, 532-5746)
Daily 10:30am, 1:30, 4, 7, 10pm
& 1am
uGeneina Mall Cinema
4 Al Battrawy St., Nasr City (263-0745)
Daily 11am, 1:30, 4, 7, 10pm & 1am
uGood News Cinema
Grand Hyatt, Garden City
(365-1234)
Daily 10:20am, 1, 4, 7, 10pm & 1am
uHeliopolis Cinema
Off Damask St., Korba, Heliopolis
(258-0647)
Daily 11am, 1:15, 4, 7, 10pm & 1am
uKarim Cinema 1 & 2
15 Emad Eddin St., Downtown
(592-4830)
Daily 10:30am, 1:30, 3:30, 6:30,
9:30pm & 12:30am
uMaadi Al Bandar Mall Cinema
1 Palestine St., Maadi
(519-0770)
Daily 10am, 1, 4, 7 & 10pm, Thursday
and Friday also 1am
uMetro Cairo Cinema
35 Talaat Harb St., Downtown
(393-7061)
Daily 11am, 1, 4, 7, 10pm & 1am
uMiami Cinema
38 Talaat Harb St., Downtown
(574-5656)
Daily 10:30am, 1:30, 3:30, 6:30,
TURN OFF YOUR CELL PHONE
H E
Downtown (591-0954)
Starting Friday 4 November
Daily 11am & 8pm, except Tuesdays
Al Moghamerun Al Khamsa (The
Five Adventurers), puppet show directed
by Mohammed Abdel Salam, through
10 November
uAl Baloon
Al Nil Street, Agouza
(347-1718)
Thursday 3 November-Saturday 5
November, 9:30 pm
Shows by Reda Ensemble for
Shaabi Arts and by Shaabi Music
ensemble
uAl Fan
22 Ramses St., Downtown
(578-2444)
Daily 10pm
Starting Thursday 3 November
Barhouma Waklah Al Barouma
(Barhouma Decayed), directed by Galal
Al Sharqawi, starring Ahmed Adam,
Mahmoud Al Guindi and Hanan Atteya,
through the winter season
uAl Ghad Theater
26 July St., Agouza
(304-3187)
Daily 10:30pm, except Mondays
Starting Saturday 4 November
Ragel Al Alaa (The Man of the
Citadel), directed by Nasr Abdel
Moneim, starring Tawfiq Abdel Hamid,
Zeinab Ismail and others, through 20
November
uAl Hanager Arts Center
(735-6861)
Daily 9:30 p.m., except Mondays
Starting Saturday 5 November
9:30pm & 12:30am
uNormandy Cinema
32 Al Ahram St., Heliopolis
(257-9195)
Daily 10:30am, 1, 3:30, 6:30 &
9:30pm, Thursday and Friday also 1am
uRamses Hotel Cinema
Al Tahrir Sq. Downtown
(574-7435, 574-7436)
Daily 11am, 1:30, 4, 7, 10pm & 1am
uRenaissance Nile City
Corniche Al Nil, Northern Tower, Nile City,
before Arkadia mall, Downtown
(461-9102, 461-9103)
Daily 11am, 1, 4, 7 & 10pm & 1am
uRivoli Cinema
26 July St., in front of Dar Al Kadaa Al
Aali, Downtown (5755-053)
11am, 1:15, 3:45, 6:45, 9:45pm and
12:30am
uStars Cinema
City Stars Center, Nasr City
(414-2488, 480-3013/14)
Daily 10:50am, 1:30, 3:30, 6:30,
9:30pm & 12:30am
uTeeba Mall Cinema
Al Nasr St., Nasr City
(262-1084)
Daily 10:45am, 1:15, 4:15, 7:15 &
10:15pm, Thursday and Friday also
1:15am
uWonder Land Cinema
3 Mashrou Winder St., Nasr City
(401-2354)
Daily 10:30am, 1:30, 4:30, 7:15 &
10pm, Thursday and Friday also 1am
news
TARA TODRAS-WHITEHILL
A T E R An asbestos worker poses for the
camera in 6 October City, July 2005.
Al Edana (The Condemnation),
directed by Hany Al Banna and starring
Tayssir Fahmi, through 20 November
uAl Haram
174 Al Haram St.
(386-3952)
Daily 10:30pm, Tuesdays off
Starting Thursday 3 November
Bodyguard, directed by Rami Imam,
starring Adel Imam and Sherin Seif Al
Nasr, through the winter season
uAl Rihani
17 Emad Eddin St., Downtown
(591-3697)
Daily 10:30pm, except Wednesdays
Starting Thursday 3 November
Do Re Mi Fasolia, directed by
Mahmoud Abu Geleila, starring Samir
Ghanem and Shaaban Abdel Rahim,
through the winter season
uAl Salam
101 Qasr Al Aini St., Garden City
(795-2484)
Daily 10pm, except Tuesdays
Starting Thursday 3 November
Al Nas Al Nos Nos (The Average
People), written by Kamel Hanafi,
directed by Fouad Abdel Hai, starring
Sherine, Nihal Anbar and Ahmed Rateb,
through the winter season
uAl Sawy Cultural Center
26 July St., Zamalek
(736-6178)
Saturday 5 November, 8:30pm
Barra Al Gornal (Off the
Newspaper), written by Yasser Aallam
directed by Sobhi Al Haggar
Sunday 6 November, 8:30
Al Wad Ghorab wa Al Qamar
(The Boy Ghorab and the Moon),
written by Ashraf Azzab, directed by
Ibrahim Al Sheikh
uAl Taliaa
Midan Ataba, behind Al Ataba Parking,
Downtown (593-7948)
Daily 9pm, except Tuesdays
Starting Friday 4 November
Al Moharregun (The Clowns), written
by Mohammed Al Moghawat, directed
by Maher Selim, through 20 November
uFeissal Nada
22 Qasr Al Aini St., Garden City
(532-1112)
Daily 9pm, except Thursday 3 and Friday
4 November at 10pm
Starting Thursday 3 November
In Kibir Ibnak (If Your Son Grew Up),
directed by Fouad Abdel Hai, starring
Sami Al Adl, Mohammed Nagati, Heba
Al Sisi and Gihan Salama, through the
winter season
Cairo periodically publishes photographs of moments captured in the city. To submit photographs for publication, email copy@cairomagazine.com.
ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005 29
and news
finally...
M yanmar means “the golden land” in
Burmese, and after being there I understood why.
It is one of the most beautiful countries I have ever
visited. It felt like a moving picture.
Yet even though it is a visually stunning
country, there are many problems. The country
is run by a military dictatorship, and human
rights organizations claim that ethnic
cleansings take place in areas tourists aren’t
allowed to visit. Activist Aung San Suu Kyi
is being held under house arrest in the capital
Yangon and many people are too afraid of
government retribution to even mention her
name. The government controls its people by
severely limiting access to international news
and to the Internet. It is impossible to check a
hotmail account in Myanmar, something I
couldn’t believe until I saw it with my own eyes.
Send your postcards (photos and stories) to letters@cairomagazine.com
30 ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005
Yet knowing all of these things, my family
and I still decided to go because we knew we could
avoid patronizing government-run businesses.
We knew our money would go into the pockets of
the people of Myanmar.
Pagodas are religiously significant in
Buddhism, the main religion of Myanmar.
Shewedagon Pagoda, located in Yagon, is
the religious epicenter of the country and the
magnificent structure is covered with 40 tons
of gold. Bagan, another city in Burma, is also
famous for its pagodas. It is overflowing with
very old (non-gilded) pagodas, and the best
way to see them is by hot air balloon. There are
literally hundreds of them on just a few acres.
We decided to get up before dawn to watch the
sunrise while we floated above the pagodas. It was
incredible, and I can only hope this photo shows a
tenth of the beauty of the place.
—Tara Todras-Whitehill
news
75 years ago
Tensions ran high following the Wafd and Liberal
Constitution parties’ 6 November 1930 announcement
that they would boycott the elections to protest the
constitution approved by Ismail Sidqi’s government.
Dozens of people were injured as students rioted on
university campuses in Alexandria and Cairo.
50 years ago
On 3 November 1955, President Gamal Abdel Nasser
rejected David Ben-Gurion’s request for a meeting to
settle “the Palestinian problem,” citing clashes between
Israeli and Egyptian troops in the northern Sinai region
of Al Auja that left more than 50 Egyptian soldiers dead.
30 years ago
Three hundred thousand unarmed Moroccans walked
across the border into the northeast portion of Western
Sahara, then Spanish Sahara, on 6 November 1975, in
a push to lay claim to the area. Morocco’s King Hassan
called the event the “Green March.” The International
Court of Justice, whose decisions are not binding,
had previously rejected Morocco’s claim to Western
Sahara, supporting the right of the Sahrawi people to
self-determination. The influx of Moroccans, especially
government soldiers, forced thousands of indigenous
Sahrawi into refugee camps in Algeria.
10 years ago
On 4 November 1995, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak
Rabin was assassinated by Jewish law student Yigal
Amir. Amir later told a judge that the assassination was
an attempt to derail the peace process, since, he said,
Rabin was intent on “giving our country to the Arabs.” He
pointed to Halacha, the Jewish legal code, as the source
of ideas that had led him to commit the murder.
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32 ISSUE 30 CAIRO MAGAZINE 3-9 NOVEMBER 2005