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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 19 - 25 October 2000 Issue No. 504 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 19 - 25 October 2000 Issue No. 504
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Elections Palestine International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Features Travel Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Judgement day
THE TRIAL before a State Security Court of Saadeddin Ibrahim, a professor of sociology at the American University in Cairo and head of the Ibn Khaldun Centre for Developmental Studies, and 27 of his associates has been set for 17 November.Ibrahim is accused of obtaining money from the European Union without government authorisation, forging 16,000 voting cards and defaming Egypt.
The baby market
THOSE who want children sometimes cannot have them, and those who have them sometimes do not want them. It is one of life's cruel paradoxes and one that a midwife in a Cairo working class district decided to cash in on. She would pick up children left at the neighbourhood mosque, or offer to rid unmarried mothers of their burden.In her latest deal, she brokered the sale of a woman's two babies, the fruit of a legal marriage, but a financial burden on the mother. Egyptian law explicitly criminalises the sale of children, but there is little information on the magnitude of the problem.
Exposed
A BUSINESSMAN in Cairo's working class district of Al-Khalifa had lent money to his partner, which the latter refused to pay back. A difficult situation to be sure, but the idea the creditor came up with to solve the problem is truly incredible.He convinced his 21-year-old wife to seductively lure the partner to their home. After making him "comfortable" and getting him to take off his clothes, the husband made his appearance, beat the man up and took pictures of him in the nude. It seems that the partner was so ashamed of his naked body he was willing to sign cheques worth LE200,000 just to make sure no one else saw the shots.
He must have come to terms afterwards with his naked self, though, because he eventually got around to making a formal complaint at the police station.
No parking zone
PARKING in Cairo is a nightmare, so when Mohamed Hassan and his brother Ibrahim found a parking space in the crowded working class district of Ain Shams they were not about to let it go. But a turn around the block to search for another spot would have been wiser because the vacant space happened to lie in front of Yehya Ashraf's house, who did not want their car blocking his front door.An argument erupted and the brothers were so attached to their parking space they pulled a knife out and stabbed Ashraf repeatedly to death. The brothers now have a new space they do not have to fight for -- a jail cell.
Compiled by Fatemah Farag
