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Al-Ahram Weekly 3 - 9 February 2000 Issue No. 467 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 3 - 9 February 2000 Issue No. 467
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Worth considering
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Special Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Sir- I would like to share with you some thoughts on the People's Assembly debate on the amended procedural Personal Status Law. I was shocked at the tone of most of the discussions. Are our delegates living in the Middle Ages? In fact, I hesitate to describe their ideas as mediaeval -- surely under the Mameluke sultans of yore, women enjoyed more rights than they do today. It is distressing to think that these are the minds meant to lead us into the 21st century. Are women chattel to be disposed of as men see fit? If anything, all the debates show how deeply insecure Egyptian men have become, and how incapable of dealing with changing circumstances. We must remember that we are not speaking here of minority rights -- women in Egypt constitute half the population, if not a little more. Why were they not consulted on their opinion? Equally important, why did the female members of parliament not raise their voices? Instead of drawing upon offensive barnyard metaphors (I refer here to one delegate's mention of roosters and hens as illustration of his argument), the members of the Assembly would have done well to look around them and come to terms with some hard facts.
Women today work to support their families -- they have even taken many jobs formerly reserved to men, in no small part because they accept lower pay and worse working conditions than their male counterparts. This is due to their overriding concern for their families' welfare. At the same time, they raise their children, cook and clean. It would be no understatement to describe them as the mainstay of the national economy. How then is it possible to imply -- or rather, to state explicitly -- that giving them the right to divorce themselves (not to divorce their husbands, of course -- God forbid!) will lead to the breakup of the family and the fragmentation of Egyptian society?
The worthy members should consider the implications of this idea: that Egyptian men make unbearable husbands, and only legal constraints thus far have prevented women from leaving them en masse! Hmm. Then again, perhaps the discussions were not so irrational after all...
Safa Hamdi
Bab Al-LouqGo West
Sir- With regard to the forthcoming project of an underground metro for Alexandria, I have a question. Has this project been carefully studied to cope with the strategic trends of urban development to Alexandria in the new millennium? I think the answer is no: the comprehensive plan for Alexandria until 2007, submitted by a committee of experts, underlined the need to establish new communities in the west of Alexandria as a natural expansion of the city. Now the metro project, the first stage of which will extend from Abu Qir in the east to the downtown area, will contravene this stipulation.
Furthermore, it will trigger a building boom in the east of Alexandria, with all the concomitant problems of congestion and insufficient utilities. So I suggest that this project be reconsidered. Perhaps it could start to the west of the city instead of the east .
Osama Saqr
Alexandria
