22 - 28 March 2001
Issue No.526
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 22 - 28 March 2001 Issue No.526 |
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Victims of despair
The story of the four German tourist hostages was resolved just before turning into a drama with disastrous ramifications -- whether because of fear for the reputation of tourism in Egypt, or because of the contrasting responses of the German and Egyptian authorities. While the former moved fast to defend its citizens, the latter was characteristically slow and reluctant to react to events.
The drama would have ended sadly, moreover, because of the gap separating the two cultures and societies, complicated by a misunderstanding of developments that have taken place in the West and given women rights that men, let alone women, would not dream of in our societies. Thus those who imagine that a German mother might willingly bring her two children back to their Egyptian father despite her dispute with him are sadly deluded. And if the German and Egyptian authorities said as much to the father, it was to calm him and persuade him to set the tourists free.
Those who are looking for the real culprits must reverse their perspective. In Eastern societies, a man (a father or husband) still believes he has the right to marry and divorce as irresponsibly as he likes, beget as many children as he pleases and take them into his custody or abandon them to fate as he feels inclined. In Western societies, women stand on the same footing as men, and the only factor brought to bear on custody decisions is the children's own welfare, and how qualified each party might be to support and raise them. That each family should have a patriarch is not perceived as a necessity. The legitimacy of the citizen's rights precedes any other -- technically, even if it clashes with the sovereignty of the state, because such sovereignty derives from the state's ability to defend its citizens' rights.
This is what the Egyptian father fails to understand, although he has married many tourists who did not often stay with him for very long. He believes he has the right to force the mother to return to him with the children, the way Egyptian husbands usually do. Even the Foreign Ministry, where he sought help late in the day, could not persuade him of the facts.
The issue is compounded by the weakness of the Egyptian authorities in relations with foreign embassies and consulates, which move with remarkable rapidity and boldness, sometimes in defiance of the laws of the country that hosts them, to look after their citizens. This is no place to digress about the history of foreign influence in Egypt, our need for tourism and foreign aid or the excessive indulgence we have shown for diplomatic transgressions: one only need look to the case of Hind Al-Fasi, or the treatment Egyptian visa applicants receive at the doorsteps of embassies. The father of the two children had no hope that the authorities would support them; nor did he grasp the legal and international matters at stake. This is why he sought to solve his problem alone, according to his (limited) understanding of the affair.
The security forces in Luxor may have been cautious in dealing with the abductor; their counterparts in Giza were far more reckless, firing at the thief or pickpocket who attacked the Japanese tourist at the Pyramids. Closing off the area was an even worse move, one guaranteed to scare away tourists. The police must learn to be more cautious about using violence. They must devise a way of guarding tourist sites without making their presence so frighteningly and needlessly obtrusive. If tourist companies scrutinised and trained their staff properly, many problems could be avoided easily.
The Egyptian father who abducted the German tourists is ultimately a victim, not the culprit. He is a victim of general ignorance and naive, misplaced emotions -- about cultures that lack complications but protect citizens' rights, and about women's status in Eastern societies.
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