• November 20, 2006
  • 21 minutes read

Egyptian Culture Minister, Imaginary and Fabricated Battles

Egyptian Culture Minister, Imaginary and Fabricated Battles

The statements given by the Egyptian Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni, concerning the issue of the veil, raised a heated and intense controversy; Hosni said, in statements published on “Al-Masri al-Yawm” last Thursday:” that the Egyptian women’s wearing the veil is regressive … There was an age when our mothers went to university and worked without the veil. It is in that spirit that we grew up. So why this regression” adding that “Each woman with her beautiful hair is like a flower, and should not be concealed from the view of others”; he pointed also that “Religion today focuses on appearances too much although the relation of faith between the worshipper and his Lord is not related to clothes” he spoke about sheikhs (Muslim scholars) saying: “We hear fatwas of sheikhs who worth nothing” adding that: “we missed even the melodious voice calling for the prayers in mosques and we are hearing nowadays very bad voices”.

These comments have raised a wide controversy and a sharp debating in the Egyptian cultural arena; actually, there are key points related to this:
 
First of all, attempting to show this issue as a conflict between secularists and Islam in Egypt is wrong; many observers of the cultural affairs in Egypt know that the Culture Minister is not a secularist, according to the Western concept, as he is closer to a technocrat who has being serving in the Egyptian tyrannical government for more than 20 years; also, he isn’t a liberal, according to the Western concept, as he is a member of a repressive regime that rigs the elections, fights civil society institutions, violates human rights, drags Kifaya Movement’s female members in the streets, arrests bloggers; he is a member of a regime that violates intellectual and cultural freedoms in public, turns a blind eye to sexual harassment against women in the streets and throws presidential rivals in prison after fake trials which are condemned by the Human Rights Organizations.
 
1- The leading battle in Egypt is not a battle with veil or veiled women; the main battle should be against illiteracy that accounts for up to 60%, of the Egyptian population according to some statistics, and fighting poverty, unemployment and cultural illiteracy among broad sections of university and institute graduates.

2- The issue of the veil in Egypt doesn’t have only religious connotations, but it has also economic, social and political connotations; it is wrong to see the issue of the veil in the context of its religious connotations only; observers of the Egyptian affairs should try to understand many phenomena in the Arab and Muslim world in their social and cultural milieu.
 
3- Although we do not sympathize so much with the notion of the conspiracy theory, but we always notice that these marginal issues and fabricated battles always emerge when there are other key issues that need to be passed and veiled, like amending the constitution, political reforms, violations of human rights in Egypt and also the issue of Tawreeth (hereditary transfer of power) to Mr. Gamal Mubarak, the president’s son.
 
4- We point also to the piles of corruption files in the Egyptian Ministry, including abuse of power, bribery, nepotism, neglecting the culture palaces and firing reformist opposition intellectuals or activists; add to this the gross negligence ( we can’t forget the fire of Beni Sweif theatre that claimed lives of 42 of the best Egyptian artists, intellectuals and critics); the Misdemeanors Court in Cairo convicted the Egyptian Ministry of Culture and accused it of a gross negligence and blamed it for the responsibility of this terrible disaster .

Mr. Farouk Hosni is held responsible for so much negligence and corruption in his ministry; he should have- instead of fabricating fake battles- meet the media and claim fullresponsibility   and……..offer his resignation.

Ikhwanweb


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