Egypt

Egypt nears number two spot in Africa

And this is what we want to hear. Financial Times, by Steve Johnson

Egypt has not been a notable political or economic success story in recent years.

Violence, revolution and counter-revolution have left thousands dead and the army chief who overthrew the country’s first-ever democratically elected president firmly entrenched in Cairo’s Heliopolis Palace.

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Capital controls imposed to support the Egyptian pound — in the wake of a slump in tourism receipts and foreign investment and a halving of foreign exchange reserves — have left many businesses struggling to secure the dollars they need to pay for imports. Energy shortages mean manufacturers are having to contend with frequent power cuts.

Yet, according to one investment bank at least, Egypt’s economy has come within a whisker of overtaking that of South Africa as the continent’s second largest in dollar terms — heaping further ignominy on the latter, which lost its pole position to Nigeria in 2014.

“It is almost an aberration, but I still think it’s a shock,” says Charles Robertson, global chief economist at Renaissance Capital, who drew up the figures.

According to RenCap, Egypt’s gross domestic product will reach $315bn this year, just a fraction behind the $317bn of South Africa (see chart).

The figures represent a dramatic change from 2014, when Egypt’s GDP of $286bn was comfortably behind the $350bn of South Africa, according to figures from the International Monetary Fund.

RenCap has updated these numbers with its estimates for real GDP growth and inflation for the current calendar year, factoring in movements in exchange rates.

The latter factor has largely driven the move. While Cairo’s attempts to manage the slide in the pound has limited its decline to 8.7 per cent against the dollar this year, until a few days ago (when RenCap’s calculations were made) the rand was down 16.8 per cent against the greenback, although it has since covered a little of these losses.

Recent analysis by RenCap suggested that the Egyptian pound was now one of the most overvalued emerging market currencies, while the rand was perhaps the most undervalued. 

“It’s a function of the exchange rate. Egypt is holding it together through capital controls but now has the most overvalued currency with a current account deficit in emerging markets and South Africa is now the cheapest,” says Mr Robertson.

“One thing that strikes me is how negative on their own country South Africans are. [They have] deficits, a lack of reform and no growth, and the rand is one of the proxies to short if you are negative on EM.”

Despite the unpropitious backdrop, RenCap’s estimates are based on reasonable real GDP growth of 4-5 per cent in Egypt this year which, combined with inflation of 10-11 per cent, would produce nominal GDP growth of around 15 per cent in domestic currency terms. In contrast, the South African economy failed to grow in the first half of this year, and inflation is a more muted 4.6 per cent. 

“There is a growth story there. There was a great deal of uncertainty from 2011 into 2014 where people were not investing and there is [now] a need for infrastructure to be built. Since [Abdel-Fattah al-]Sisi took power, there has been greater confidence on the part of investors,” says Mr Robertson.

He points to the recently completely expansion of the Suez Canal, as well as plans to build a new capital 45km east of Cairo and August’s discovery of a “supergiant” gasfield off Egypt’s Mediterranean coast as factors underpinning renewed investor confidence in the country.

Opportunities may also exist in other sectors. “It’s the most underbanked country in the region. Just 10.5 per cent of people have a bank account, which is less than in Rwanda,” Mr Robertson says.

Jason Tuvey, Middle East economist at Capital Economics, agrees the Egyptian government is making “the right noises” around developments such as the Suez Canal, an area he believes could take off as a low-cost manufacturing hub for European companies in the way Tangier in Morocco has.

Nevertheless, Mr Tuvey estimates that economic growth, which was 4.3 per cent last year, slipped to 3 per cent in the first quarter of 2015 and has “slowed to a crawl” since June, meaning the calendar year figure is likely to come in at around 2.5 per cent. (Egypt has yet to release GDP data even for Q1). 

“There have been persistent power outages. The government has been diverting gas supplies that were intended for factories to householders as a way of preventing unrest. The result is that the factories have not been able to get sufficient supplies to generate electricity and have lost many days of production,” Mr Tuvey says, adding that the “draconian restrictions” the central bank has placed on access to foreign currency have further “stifled activity”. 

Nevertheless, Mr Tuvey does see signs for optimism. A new gasfield developed by Eni in the Nile Delta could come on stream as soon as November. Combined with delivery of a liquefied natural gas regasification unit, which will enable Egypt to import LNG from the likes of Qatar, he believes factories should soon be able to start working at full capacity. 

Moreover, he sees “tentative” signs that economic reforms being pushed by the Sisi government “are starting to bear fruit”.

Mr Tuvey agrees the Egyptian pound is overvalued, and points to recent comments by government ministers arguing that the currency should be allowed to depreciate rather than the country burn through its remaining reserves ($18bn as of the end of August, three months’ import cover) in an attempt to defend the pound, as a sign that it will be allowed to weaken.

RenCap’s forecast is that the pound will depreciate 20 per cent against the dollar in the next 24 months, taking it near to its estimate of the currency’s average real effective exchange rate over the past 20 years.

If this happened, and the rand managed to stabilise, South Africa might once again pull away from Egypt in terms of its dollar GDP.

However, Mr Robertson believes Egypt’s faster growth rate will ultimately prevail. 

“Take it out five years and even if the currencies have moved a little, I would imagine that Egypt would be overtaking South Africa permanently,” he says.

Mr Tuvey does not dismiss this notion. “It’s one of the most populous nations on the African continent. If it was to experience a period of rapid growth it could certainly overtake South Africa,” he concludes.

 

via www.ft.com

On the eve of Egyptian parliamentary elections, so western media say

It is less than 72 hours before polling stations in Egypt open their doors, so Egyptians can choose the 2015 parliament, the last step to fulfill the Road Map of July 2013.  At this point, electoral silence is in effect, and I will in no way actively promote or demote a candidate. I will merely focus on western media’s presumptuous presentation of the incoming Egyptian parliament to the world.

This parliament is truly vital for Egypt’s welfare, but that is beside the point as far as western media are concerned.  Western media opt to focus on negativity, exaggeration, and misguidance. 

CNN’s latest headline on Egypt reads, “Burnt out and apathetic—Egypt prepares to vote again.” And Sarah Sirgany explains that neither Egyptians nor the candidates themselves are interested in this round of parliamentary elections. She is correct when she says that apathy dominates the electoral scene today, but she doesn’t focus on how apathy will affect the incoming parliament. Why would she care to present the consequences of a ill-chosen parliament? 

She also says, “More than 5,000 candidates are running in the elections this year, but that's half the number of the 2011 race.” This isn’t necessarily a bad thing—an Egyptian proverb says, “You have numbers in key lime العدد في الليمون,” which translates to it’s not in how many run; it is in the quality of runners.

The Financial Times headline reads “Old guard eye comeback in Egypt’s polls,” predicting the advent of Mubarak-era members in the new parliament. After the 2011 overthrow of Mubarak, Egyptians may have thought they had seen the last of a party often reviled as a corrupt patronage machine, but now many former NDP members appear poised to return to public life in the new parliament, or so she says. 

The author also says that more than 2,000 former members of the former party are running in the poll. This is a presumptuous figure on the author’s part. I don’t deny that the National Democratic Party, NDP,  come what may, will be present in the new parliament in some form, but so will the Muslim Brotherhood even if incognito.  I wonder why she doesn’t find any fault with the Muslim Brotherhood members who will be present. Also, assuming that NDP members will command the newly elected parliament is erroneous and intentionally misleading. Bear in mind that in 2010, the NDP secured over 80 percent of parliament seats. Bear in mind that Ahmed Ezz, the steel tycoon, and a steering NDP figure, was disqualified from running in the upcoming parliament elections. 

Of the seven lists that form the various coalitions for the parliament, only one looks as though it may include members of the National Democratic Party: Ahmed Shafik’s Egyptian Front Coalition. This while two Islamist lists exist: the Independent National Reawakening bloc and Al Nour List.

In an interview in Ahram Online, Sobhy Asilh, expert for Political and Strategic Studies Al-Ahram Center, expects the NDP to be in Egypt’s 2015 parliament but affirms that no single particular political party will dominate. My take: It is up to Egyptians to do their homework and choose wisely; only then will they be able to restrict the number of NDP followers, Muslim Brotherhood members, or Islamists, if they so wish, in this parliament. 

The worst culprit is none other than Associated Press via the NY Times. Hamza Hendawi, the author, begins by saying that there will be no effective opposition turning the parliament into a rubber stamp one, leaving the former military chief free to power ahead with a high-octane, one-man campaign to revive the economy and influence the region while curbing opposition at home. This is a perplexing sentence indeed: it is as though the writer is against reviving the Egyptian economy and influencing the region. 

Ironically, the next parliament will be the first elected after the adoption last year of a new constitution, arguably the most liberal Egypt has ever had, which empowers lawmakers, albeit under stringent conditions, to impeach the president, call for early presidential elections or withdraw confidence from the prime minster or individual members of his Cabinet.

Now what’s ironic about that? Yes, the new parliament will adopt the new constitution, a rather liberal constitution. Yes, the constitution limits the president’s freedom and may oblige the parliament to impeach the president, and yet the article finds irony in all this. Needless to say, the article is disturbingly distorting facts while intentionally siding against Egypt’s regime. 

Hendawi also questions why figures such El Baradei and former presidential candidate, Hamdeen Sabbahi, both public figures that fuelled the Jan25th Revolution, are not running for parliament. What he doesn’t include is that both figures chose not to run because neither would have succeeded in capturing a seat in parliament. El Baradei chose to exit the Egyptian political scene leaving a very sour taste in the mouths of those who believed in him, and Sabbahi lost miserably in the presidential election. Twisting truth? Yes. 

He also cites two candidates, whom he considers below standards: Abdel Rahim Ali, who has used his TV show to air recordings of romantic or personal telephone conversations by rights activists with the intention of casting them as morally loose or agents paid by foreign powers, and Ahmed Moussa, a TV anchorman and an avid supporter of President Sisi, though the newspaper ran a correction later explaining that Ahmed Moussa is not running.

I will not defend either Abdel Rahim Ali or Ahmed Moussa though both have a right to defend themselves, but what the author chooses to do is exclude all candidates worth mentioning:  Sameh Seif El-Yazal: a former intelligence officer, security expert and chairman of the Gomhouria Centre for Political and Strategic Studies (GCPSS), whom Egyptians think very highly of; Tahany El-Gebali, former Vice President of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt, and an avid spokesperson against ousted President Morsi, and again, someone Egyptians think very highly of; former presidential candidate Hossam Khairalla; former minister and football icon Taher Abou Zeid, and, though I haven’t seen her name in the latest lists, Egyptian poet and journalist Fatma Naoot. Maybe Hendawi, to come across as objective, could’ve included one or another of the above renowned figures.

The article also confirms the running of “dozens” of NDP loyalists. Even the ultra-conservative Islamist al-Nour party is running, mostly in the hope it will give the electoral process the appearance of inclusion and partially as a reward for its support for the ouster of Morsi and his now-banned Muslim Brotherhood. Tsk, tsk, nothing pleases you, Associated Press. Even the running of Al Nour Party, which the majority of Egyptians finds risky is made to look as though it is there for show. I beg to differ.

Nothing, absolutely nothing happening in Egypt is looked upon with a glimmer of hope. Clearly western media are intentionally and deliberately out to make Egypt look bad. This I am sure of, but the reason is truly daunting. 

Am I surprised? No, I’ve stopped being surprised by western media. 

Egyptians, do not heed western media. Go about your business of electing the most important parliament in Egyptian modern history. 

 

A ban on the niqab won’t end the injustices meted out to Egypt’s women

The Guardian, by Nawal El Saadawi

The ruling that female voters and university lecturers cannot wear a full-face veil does not address the roots of their oppression: a patriarchal class system bolstered by the free market

‘It is a tragedy that women professors in parts of the Arab world have to hide their faces under the niqab while teaching.’ Photograph: Alamy

Cairo authorities last week ruled that women wearing the niqab will be not be allowed to vote unless they take off their headgear. Female lecturers at universities, likewise, will be banned from wearing the full face veil. It is argued that this will help students to communicate better with their teachers, and electoral authorities to be sure of a woman’s identity at the voting booth. In Egypt, this has already caused much debate.

But when it comes to women’s rights in Egypt, pitting traditional Islamists against western-orientated secularists is misleading. The Americanisation and Islamisation of the country’s culture have gone hand in hand since the “open door” policy of the 70s, which saw the progressive, secular nationalism of the Nasser era defeated. Subsequently women’s fashion reflected this curious mixture of western commercialism and religious fundamentalism: women in Egypt covered their heads to comply with the Muslim Brotherhood, and wore cropped tops th

at bared their belly-buttons in submission to the free market.

In Egypt we have an ancient precedent for this oppression of the female sex. Isis, our ancient goddess of knowledge, was defeated by Ra, the patriarchal sun god. From then on, Isis became something akin to the devil, a process which mirrored the way that Eve became the sinner in the Old Testament. And thus women were turned into bodies without brains, whose shameful heads full of knowledge must be hidden away. Today we still live with the aftermath of the goddess Isis’s defeat: the feminisation of poverty, rising levels of rape and sexual harassment, forced marriages and human trafficking.

We are told that the leaders of the free world are currently engaged in attempting to defeat another Isis, the unfortunately named, barbaric terrorist group Islamic State. But we should remember that concentrations of power – whatever their form or location – can feed off each other even if they might seem opposed on the surface.

From the pope to the grand imam of the Al-Azhar mosque, from the chief rabbi to the Dalai Lama, religious leaders all join their political leaders in shedding crocodile tears over the suffering of my people while doing little in practice to challenge injustice and inequality. Beautiful words like development, democracy, humanity, cooperation and friendship become a cover for neocolonialism. This neocolonialism in turn fans the flames of religious fanaticism and bolsters the cause of Muslim extremists.

Neocolonialism means that we in the developing world continue to be dependent on foreign development aid, and that we import basic food products from foreign corporations rather than establish our own industries. Ordinary people struggle to pay increasing prices not only for basic food such as bread, but also for the items they are persuaded they need by commercial and religious authorities, such as cosmetics and veils for women.

In the Arab world you can speak freely about poverty and economic inequality, but relating it to the capitalist system is still a taboo, as is the word “class”, which evokes the red devil of communism. It threatens the security of authorities, both on earth and in heaven, since God created the poor and the rich.

The veiling and oppression of women lies at the core of the split between the spiritual and the material, between the economic and the sexual, between the political and the religious and between the global and the local.

Our time is full of tragedies caused by the worship of power and wealth. It is a tragedy that a poor working man today will spend all his life’s savings in order to travel to Saudi Arabia to stone the devil or kiss the Ka’bah. It is a tragedy that women professors in parts of the Arab world have to hide their faces under the niqab while teaching.

And it is a tragedy that while world leaders will warn of the increasing misery of immigrants, the threat of climate change and the increasing inequality between the rich and the poor, nothing will change because they refuse to examine the roots of their problems: the patriarchal class system which they defend with all their physical and metaphysical powers.

When Eve’s face is no longer hidden, it will challenge all the established powers – be they religious authorities, dictators or free-market fundamentalists.

via www.theguardian.com

BREAKING: Egypt wins 2016/17 UNSC non-permanent seat

 

By THE CAIRO POST

 

BREAKING: Egypt wins 2016/17 UNSC non-permanent seat President

CAIRO: Egypt was officially  elected to occupy the United Nations Security Council non-permanent seat of North Africa for 2016-2017, garnering 179 out of 193 votes of the UNGA member states in a Thursday election; it was the only candidate in its regional block.

Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry stated Wednesday that his country’s tenure and actions will be governed by “a set of principles” in the council to preserve support for Africa and to affirm African sovereignty and regional integrity.

Shoukry’s remarks came during his meeting with the permanent representatives of the African Bloc countries in the UN to gain more support to Egypt’s membership at New Yor

Egypt was nominated in 2013 for the North Africa Seat, while Senegal has nominated for the second seat of African group.

In NYC Shoukry also met with Senegal counterpart Mankeur Ndiaye, discussing the significance of dealing the African crisis and issues of as health challenges, endemic diseases and epidemicsat the 15-member council in the coming period.

In April, representatives from the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (GRULAC)  expressed their full support for Egypt’s candidacy. In January, the African Union officially endorsed its support to Egypt for the seat.

Egypt has previously held the non-permanent membership of the UNSC four times since the organization was founded in 1945.

The UNGA annually elects five countries for the non-permanent membership for the UNCS for two-year term. The five non-permanent countries elected in 2014 are Chad, Nigeria, Jordan, Lithuania, and Chile, according to the official website of the U.N.

The five permanent member states include China, France, Russia, Britain, and the United States.

via www.thecairopost.com

Egyptians Campaign to Separate Islam From Politics

The Clarion Project, by Ryan Mauro

Securlarists are running into a major Catch-22: while the constitution bans religious political parties, it also states that sharia is the main source of law.

Egyptian women celebrate the ouster of Egypt's Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in 2013. (Photo: © Reuters)

A campaign in Egypt to ban religion-based political parties has collected 1.25 million signatures and has won an endorsement from the Ministry of Endowments. The organizers argue that 12 parties should be dissolved because they violate the Egyptian constitution's ban on sectarian-based and religion-based parties.

Tamarod, the movement that led the mass protests against the Muslim Brotherhood and President Morsi, is pushing the campaign. Secular-democratic activists fear a repeat of an Islamist takeover through the ballot box. The Egyptian government approves of the campaign, but the decision rests with the courts.

"Political parties based on religious foundations only lead to discrimination among citizens on sectarian grounds…a Muslim nation like Egypt should not discriminate among Muslims and non-Muslims," said Sabry Ebada, the deputy of the Ministry of Endowments.

The result of the campaign has big repercussions for the future because of the questions it raises about applying the 2014 Egyptian constitution, particularly about how to handle contradictions between its stated commitment to democracy and Article 2's statement that "the principles of Islamic Sharia are the main sources of legislation."

Article 74 states:

"No political activity may be practiced and no political parties may be formed on the basis of religion or discrimination based on sex, or origin, or sectarian basis or geographic location. No activity that is hostile to democratic principles, secretive, or of military or quasi-military nature may be practiced." 

Political parties can only be dissolved on a judge's ruling, so citizens have been filing lawsuits. 

The biggest target of the campaign is the Al-Nour Party, an Islamist party that supported the overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013. In December 2011, the strength of the Salafists stunnedobservers when Al-Nour took 22% of the vote in the parliamentary elections, second only to the Muslim Brotherhood with 45%. With the Muslim Brotherhood officially banned as a terrorist group, there is a risk that many Islamists will unite behind Al-Nour in the parliamentary elections that begin October 18.

For their party, Al-Nour party has responded by saying they'll simply run candidates as independents or register a new party if they banned. It is also using the same ridiculous argument that the Muslim Brotherhood did by saying that Al-Nour is a political party that doesn't campaign on religion and is legally separate from the religious group (Salafist Call).

"We are not a religious party. We are just a political party with a religious background," says Al-Nour official Shaaban Abdel-Alim.

Critics of the campaign say that Al-Nour and other Islamist parties are in compliance with the constitution because of Article 2's defining of Egypt as a state based on Islam. They argue that Article 74 is referring to religious parties that are exclusive to Muslims whereas Al-Nour accepts Christian members.

Moreover, the Islamists are trying to turn the tables on the secularist by saying that Article 2 means that secular parties who do not favor sharia governance are in violation of the constitution and must be banned.

"Those parties promote a Western lifestyle in which homosexuality and other vices are allowed," Salafist Call official Sameh Abdel Hamid retorted.

One of the leaders of the campaign and co-founder of the Egyptian Secular Party, Hesham Ouf, conceded that the court might rule in the Islamists' favor due to Article 2. He said the next step would be a campaign to remove Article 2 from the constitution.

The Egyptian government is trying to thread the needle by calling for a reformation in Islamic interpretation and by defining political Islam (Islamism) as a threat that is distinct from Islam. A panel commissioned by the Egyptian government recommended banning all Islamist political parties and waging a campaign "against the reactionary ideology of these factions which like to mix religion with politics." 

A straight-forward reading of the Egyptian constitution makes it evident that parties with religion-based platforms are forbidden. Banning Al-Nour and other Islamist parties for their incompatibility with democracy would be a major step in the right direction. 

via www.clarionproject.org

٩٠ دقيقه: مناقشة قرار منع المنتقبات من تدريس في جامعة القاهرة

 

Salafists in conflict over parliamentary elections

May be the brawl widen — Daily News Egypt, by Mahmoud El-Sayed

Sheikh Mohamed Gwely, ​​head of the Salafi Call in Matruh, attacked the Al-Nour Party, saying that leaders in Alexandria have forgotten or ignored their beliefs.

Days before elections are set to begin, the Al-Nour Party and its religious arm, the Salafi Call, have been embroiled in internal conflicts.

Sheikh Mohamed Gwely, ​​head of the Salafi Call in Matruh, attacked the Al-Nour Party, saying that leaders in Alexandria have forgotten or ignored their beliefs.

He explained that the movement in Alexandria has turned to call for partisanship and “malicious liberalism”, and allied with the “enemies of Islam”.

He called on the leaders of the Salafi Call to repent and return to the original cause, and to abide by the rituals of the Quran and the Sunnah.

Meanwhile, Salah Abdel Maaboud, a member of the supreme council of the Al-Nour Party, said the party has strong relationship with its followers in Marsa Matruh, where many of them are running for the elections on the party’s list, noting that the party has been campaigning strongly in the governorate.

He added that the attack organised by Sheikh Mohamed Gwely on the Salafist movement and the party does not indicate differences between the leaders and followers.

He further described the relations between both groups as strong, noting that Gwely resigned from the movement years ago, and accusing him of trying to disperse the movement by casting such accusations.

via www.dailynewsegypt.com

Egypt court orders release of Hosni Mubarak's sons

Finally — The Guardian

Gamal and Alaa Mubarak were detained in 2011 after their father stood down as president and will be freed due to time already served

Gamal and Alaa Mubarak in a courtroom in Cairo, Egypt. They were sentenced to three years in prison in May after a retrial. Photograph: Ahmed Gomaa/AP

 A court in Egypt has ordered the release from prison of the sons of the country’s former president Hosni Mubarak, taking into account the time they have already served.

The Cairo criminal court ordered the release of Gamal, Mubarak’s one-time heir apparent, and his brother Alaa, a wealthy businessman, after they were both sentenced in May to three years in prison in a corruption case dubbed the presidential palaces affair by the Egyptian media.

They were first detained in April 2011, two months after their father stepped down during a popular uprising against his three decades in power, but were freed in January on bail before being convicted in May along with Mubarak, who is being held in a military hospital.

The trio’s conviction, which came after a retrial, was for embezzling millions of dollars in state funds over a decade, diverting money meant to pay for renovating and maintaining presidential palaces to upgrade their private residences.

Gamal and Alaa are also facing trial on insider trading charges, with the next hearing in October. They are expected to walk free later on Monday.

During sentencing in May, the three men were ordered to pay 125m Egyptian pounds (£10.4m) and return 21m Egyptian poundsthey embezzled. After the hearing, judicial and security officials said those amounts had already been paid by the Mubaraks after their first trial.

Many Egyptians view the brothers as key symbols of an autocratic and corrupt administration that struck an alliance with the mega-wealthy at the expense of the poor.

The rise of the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, who has vowed stability after four years of unrest and taken a tough line against dissent, has encouraged Mubarak supporters and upended the public perception and media depiction of the 2011 uprising.

Political activists are now often cast as troublemakers or foreign agents and hundreds of the young activists who sparked the revolt four years ago are either in prison on charges of breaking a new protest law or have left the country.

via www.theguardian.com

Sharp decline in reported terrorist attacks in August]

Daily News Egypt

The month of August witnessed a sharp decline in reported terrorist attacks, with 73 reported attacks compared to 141 in July, making the occurrence of attacks during this month 37% lower than the monthly average for 2015, according to the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy’s (TIMEP) monthly briefing published Saturday.

The August briefing is the eleventh in a series of monthly briefings since October 2014, which is part of a larger, ongoing project called “Egypt Security Watch”. The project monitors Egypt’s security situation and documents threats and state responses.

In accordance with the overall decrease in reported attacks, reports of improvised explosive device (IED) attacks decreased to 38 in August. IED attacks remained the predominant method of attack, followed by shootings which are mostly carried out against police.

Reported attacks in North Sinai significantly decreased in August, with 23 attacks compared to 78 in the previous month. In the Greater Cairo area, six attacks were reported, also a decrease compared to previous months.

The briefing identified a reduction in North Sinai’s share in overall attacks compared to the past two years, showing that more attacks are occurring in other areas.

Reported counter-terror operations witnessed a continued decrease from 191 in July to 177 in August, according to the briefing. However, official state security reports frequently account for around two-thirds of reported operations.

As part of the counter-terror operations, the briefing documented that 982 alleged terrorists were arrested in August, 868 of which were alleged members of the Muslim Brotherhood. In addition, 78 alleged terrorists were killed, as opposed to 585 reportedly killed in July. Most of the killings (72) took place in North Sinai.

Since August 2013, 16,295 people have been reportedly arrested as “terrorists”.

The report highlighted two terror attacks that occurred during August. The first was the “Islamic State” (IS) attack on the National Security headquarters in Shubra Al-Kheima, Qaliubiya, leaving 29 people injured as a result of a car bomb on 20 August.

The second incident was the decapitation of Croatian hostage Tomislav Salopek by the extremist militant group “State of Sinai” on 12 August. Images circulated by the group’s affiliated accounts went viral on social media; showing his decapitated body lying in the desert with the “Islamic State” (IS) flag in the background. The North Sinai group had pledged allegiance to IS.

During August, militant group Ajnad Misr claimed one attack, and “State of Sinai” claimed 13 attacks, while seven attacks were claimed by other groups including the Revolutionary Punishment and the Popular Resistance Movement.

Regarding developments in the security sector, Egypt began digging “salt-water” channels along its border with Gaza in an attempt to halt the construction of underground tunnels in the area. Palestinian movement Hamas had voiced their objection of the project, claiming that it will further intensify the siege on Gaza.

In September, the army launched operation “Retribution for the martyr” targeting Islamist militants in North Sinai. Hundreds of “terrorist elements” were killed in security raids, according to daily military accounts.

The first phase of the operation ended on 22 September, and the start of a second phase was announced, to enforce security control and provide support to local residents of Sinai.

via www.dailynewsegypt.com

Audacious? Yes, but high time

In today’s Egypt a fundamental change is in the making. Egyptians are boldly promoting secularism and candidly discussing taboo topics. This while social media followers grapple with the forbidden and the out of bounds. Audacious? Yes, but it is high time.   

Two definite facts led to this change: January 25th, which gave all Egyptians the right to speak out against or for absolutely anything. Add to this forthrightness social media, and you have created a new world order in Egypt.  Now you can literally say what you please, expect to be attacked, but say it nonetheless. 

The second reason is President El Sisi's effort to change religious discourse and his call on Al Azhar, first, to change its archaic ways, and, second, to promote homogeneity and pacifism. Emboldened by their president’s call on Al Azhar, Egyptians now question the niqab, the headscarf, the illogical fatwas, and the right versus the wrong. 

This is a 180-degree change from where Egypt was only five years ago. Prior to Jan 25th, Egyptian television did not hire hijabbed women as broadcasters. Soon afterwards, as the unannounced but generally acknowledged law was abandoned, some broadcasters opted to wear the hijab. This is a positive change: to everyone her own, and the hijab is a right if so a woman chooses. 

But modesty and conservatism don’t seem to be on the minds of most. It is now very acceptable for a woman to wear just about any attire on TV: sleeveless, strapless, one sleeve, or dangling sleeve. Now the whole gambit from conservative to cutting-edge fashion exists. An achievement? Absolutely.

Today the secular are giving themselves the right to speak out openly and unabashed—an unheard of change in the Egyptian social norms. Today, Nawal El Saadani's poignant words ring true. 

When I was a young student, the teacher asked us to write an imaginative story, so I opted to fill my copybook pages with my childlike memories. After the teacher read my thoughts, he gave me a zero and accused me of disbelief. Why? Because I had asked about the prohibited. Why do we eat in Ramadan more than any other month? Why is fasting enforced on the poor while we were asked to fast only to feel their pain? Why do I bear my grandfather’s name whom I don’t love and cannot bear my mother’s name whom I love? Why does my brother play outside while I remain caged inside in spite of my passing and his failing exams? Why do I work with my mother in the kitchen, and my brother and father play chess in the balcony? Why do I wear the hijab and my brother doesn’t though he runs after girls and  I don’t talk to boys?  

The examples of the change are many. Brazenly against the Salafist movement and political Islam, Hilmi Al-Namnam, the new Minister of Culture, says Egypt is innately secular. And though the minister’s appointment and almost blasphemous words were met with disdain in Saudi and in Egypt, he was backed by many others. Prime Minister, Sherif Ismail, must have realized before he asked Al-Namnam to fill the ministerial position, that he will be bringing on a non-conventional and rather radical outlook. Hilmi Al-Namnam will definitely be taking the unorthodox route. 

Programs and movements are also dealing with forbidden topics. The campaign “Wear your dress and regain your femininity” encourages women to begin wearing dresses again, and it gained quite a bit of publicity as TV programs hosts invited the organizer to speak of the campaign. This would have been hardly possible five years ago. Cherif Choubachi’s call to women wearing the headscarf to remove it in a Tahrir Square rally is groundbreaking akin to Hoda Shaarawi’s headscarf removal in 1923. True the rally did not take place, but just the call for it is audacious enough.

 

The program “Nafsana” i.e. “Venting,” though an exact synonym may not exist in English, has three women stormily contradicting one another’s views on air. It has Intisar, Heidi, and ٍShaima bouncing ideas off one another about various Egyptians attitudes and issues. Intisar, the most outspoken, has ventured where no Egyptian woman, or man for that matter, has in the history of Egyptian television. She approves of porn as a way to calm young men, makes fun of the hijab and the many layers women choose to add on their heads, and allows herself to speak as she would privately amongst friends in the cosiness of her own living room, hardly ever an option on public TV. 

This program may have gone too far since the reviews on social media are mostly condemning. We will have to wait and see how much heat can Tarek Nour, the owner of the TV channel, Al Kahera Wal Nas, take. It does sound as though Nour gave the presenters of Nafsana free reign to tackle any topic and its presenters have taken the bull by the horn on this one. 

In the meantime, lecturers were banned from wearing face covering at Cairo University for security reasons. But more importantly niqabbed women have been banned from voting unless they remove the niqab. The latter may be easily overcome though since most voting polls have women invigilators, who may identify the niqabbed women in a private area.

All in all a change is in the making. Many Egyptians are giving themselves the rights to speak against what was considered the norm. It is indeed a changed world that allows Egyptians to discuss the niqab, the hijab, and other taboos.

Maybe it is high time for Egyptians to do as they please, be it wear a hijab or a strapless dress. To everyone her own.