Three decades on
Bittersweet memories on the 30th anniversary of the October 1973 War were splashed on the pages of the Egyptian press. Gamal Nkrumah sifts through the chronicles
There are moments in a nation's political life that come to be seen in retrospect as engineering a climactic forward surge. Pundits of the Egyptian press unanimously judged that the October 1973 war was one such historic turning point.
Monday was the big day, when the portentous event was commemorated almost everywhere, including in print. Even opposition papers held their tongue, and in a rare show of empathy with the government's ecstatic mood over the 30th anniversary of the war, indulged in nostalgic euphoria. The victory, after all, was a triumph for all Egyptians.
The pundits, many of whom fought in the war, looked back with nostalgic evocations of the memories of that month in 1973. And, reminiscing about October was certainly not a monopoly of pro-government publications.
"The defeat of the so-called invincible army" trumpeted the headline on the cover of the weekly Akher Sa'a. The headline was accompanied by a photo of wretched-looking Israeli prisoners of war sitting cross-legged with hands tied behind their backs as an Egyptian flag flutters triumphantly high above them. The right-hand upper corner of the cover had a photo of former President Anwar El-Sadat and President Hosni Mubarak -- respectively the Leader of October and the Eagle of the Crossing -- standing side by side.
The cover of Akher Sa'a encapsulated the spirit of the message splashed all over the Egyptian press this week. But in remembering the past, pundits also kept a wary eye on the present. Editor-in-chief of Akher Sa'a Mohamed Barakat, referring to Israel's nuclear capabilities, wrote about how "everyone forgot that the determination of the Egyptians is more potent than the power of nuclear weapons."
Barakat urged Egyptians today to renew with vigour the determination that led to the October victory. Egypt's energy should now be harnessed for economic emancipation. It is time to turn swords into ploughshares.
"The dearest and greatest victory," trumpeted the weekly Sabah Al-Kheir. "An unforgettable day. No matter how long ago the event took place, or how many years have passed since, Egypt will always cherish the memory of 6 October 1973 as one of the most glorious and greatest day in the history of the country." October, the writer exhilaratingly declared, ushered in a new dawn.
"The noblest and most beautiful day," wrote Mohamed Abdel-Moneim, the weekly's chairman of the board. Using excerpts from his book Sixth October: The First Electronic War, the author revealed the only piece of information that Mubarak kept from Sadat. Read on.
"The battle corrected the balance of power and paved the way for a just peace," Al- Gomhuriya quoted Mubarak as saying on Monday 6 October.
"Mubarak to the nation on the anniversary of the October victory: Our victory demonstrated Egyptian military capabilities and returned self-assurance to the nation," ran Al- Akhbar's front page headline on Monday.
Conspicuously silent, however, was Sawt Al-Umma which astonishingly did not once mention the October war or its celebrations on either its front or inside pages. On the triumphs of October, the publication, which means when translated, "The Voice of the Nation", was strangely mute. Instead it postulated in rather poor taste about the health of octogenarian Mohamed Hassanein Heikal, Egypt's most distinguished writer, who the paper claims is suffering from cancer.
The paper also spoke ill of the dead. "Who told you that Nasser was a believer?" it asked its readers in a provocative headline. The article was accompanied by an archival photo of the late Egyptian leader in the ceremonial white attire Muslims wear during the pilgrimage. Yet another jab at Heikal, implying that his mentor, Nasser, was not religious.
On the memory of Palestinian intellectual Edward Said, who died last month, Sawt Al- Umma was equally disrespectful. In a full- page report, the paper highlighted Said's alleged infatuation with the once queen of the belly dance, Taheya Karioka. It then goes on to quote the so-called "Bishop of youth", Anba Moussa, claiming that "Copts are not a minority." In a most contentious interview, Sawt Al-Umma also quoted the new mufti, the religious authority who issues edicts, Ali Gomaa, as ostensibly declaring that murdering Israeli ambassadors is halal or religiously sanctioned.
"People often heard [Gomaa] preaching from the pulpit of Sultan Hassan mosque," wrote Mohamed El-Baz in Sawt Al-Umma. "His was a familiar face. He must have known that his activities would lead to Dar Al-Ifta, [the headquarters where official edicts are issued]. He exchanged his Western designer suits for the pious Azhari look."
The paper also devoted an entire page to the Sudanese peace process, interviewing Sudanese Vice President Ali Othman Mohamed Taha under the headline, "John Garang and I". Taha, who visited Cairo last week, and Garang, the leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), the country's largest armed opposition group, concluded in Kenya an agreement on military and security arrangements in Sudan that covers a six-year interim period, after which the people of southern Sudan will vote in a referendum on self-determination. Egypt was the first stop on a tour that is taking Taha to a number of Arab and Western capitals.
The interview conducted by Sawt Al- Umma's Editor-in-Chief Adel Hammouda touched on Egyptian-Sudanese relations and urged the lifting of all travel restrictions between Egypt and Sudan while emphasising the "eternal" and "unbreakable" aspects of Egyptian-Sudanese relations. It also ran a brief résumé of the Sudanese vice president.
Taha's visit, however, received scant attention in the nation's other publications. The mainstream papers focussed instead on other official visits. The visit of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, in particular, received wide coverage. "The leaders of Egypt and Germany condemn the Israeli aggression against Syria," ran a front page headline in Al-Gomhuriya.
Opposition papers also decried the Israeli strike on Syria. They, too, featured the October celebrations but were decidedly more circumspect. The victory increasingly appears a hollow one, warned the Nasserist Al- Arabi. Never missing an opportunity to put President Sadat down, Al-Arabi's front page headline read, "How Sadat failed to capitalise on the October triumph".
A little more space was devoted to other subjects. Opinion pieces in Al-Wafd's Friday edition ranged from foreign to domestic concerns. Ahmed Ezz El-Arab's prediction that the American "empire is about to go bankrupt" ended with a stern warning to US President George W Bush. "Finally, we tell the emperor of evil that we will not rejoice when he is ousted from office." The writer likened Bush to other tyrants such as Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and Saddam Hussein. "We shall uphold the principles of our religion and say, 'Have compassion on the mighty when they fall'."
Aref El-Dessouki turns his attention to the domestic situation and pontificates about the government's poor performance in the economic sphere.
Abeer Atiyya in Sabah Al-Kheir speculates about the sexual orientation of the former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir who presided over the Israeli defeat. "Golda Meir was a lesbian" blared the headline of Atiyya's article in which the publication denoted in loud and shameless scarlet letters the debauchery and paranoia of Israel's first and till now last woman prime minister. The article was accompanied by a most revolting, albeit matching, caricature in red and purple of Israel's "Iron Lady". It also disclosed that Meir wanted to commit suicide after the Yom Kippur, or 6 October war.
In the same issue an article entitled October and Halim and Sadat by Akram El- Saadani remembers that the celebrated Abdel-Halim Hafez sang "Aash Illi Aal, or "Long Live he that said..." in tribute to Nasser. The great bard failed to mention Sadat in his song. "Even so, Sadat to his credit did not stop the song from being broadcast."
The fact, though, remains that "all the songs of the period that glorified Sadat were fast forgotten. People did not sing these songs nor do they remember them," El- Saadani muses. "Only the songs about Nasser lasted."
Keep the Weapons Awake is the title of one of Hafez's most famous nationalistic songs and also of an article written by Gamal Bekheit in the same issue of Sabah Al- Kheir.
And in his column Masaa Al-Kheir, or Good Evening, the poet Mohamed Hamza wrote a piece entitled "6 October and the song and victory symphony" in which he reviewed how the nation glorified in song the triumph of October.
Far from the battlefields of 1973, Al- Qahira's Tuesday edition focussed on the Cairo International Film Festival which was launched by Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni in a memorable opening ceremony and with much fanfare. "The management of the festival denies the [rumoured] boycott of American and British [films]."
Al-Ahali, the mouthpiece of the leftist Al- Tagammu Party, devoted its 8 October edition almost entirely to acrimonious commentaries on the dire economic and social conditions prevailing in the country, and a cynical dismissal of the government's attempts to correct the situation. "The national debt has reached an unprecedented 120 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product," ran the headline on Al-Ahali's front page.
The weekly Al-Mussawar, on the other hand, focussed on celebrating Coptic Pope Shenouda's 80th birthday. The magazine asked questions about the relationship between the Coptic Orthodox Church and the state, the poor representation of Copts in parliament and the question of papal succession.
Walaa Namatallah in Al-Wafd's Sunday edition reported about the new citizenship laws. The report, taking up an entire page, sampled expert opinions on the subject. Egyptian women married to foreigners celebrated the new change in the laws giving their children the right to Egyptian citizenship.
The Egyptian nationality Law 26 of 1975 forbade Egyptian women married to foreign men from passing on their nationality to their children. Some 280,000 Egyptian women suffered the consequences. Their children were unable to enroll in state schools and were forced out of the job market because they were not given work permits. They also often had problems with residence permits.
The writer, quoting Fawzeya Abdel-Sattar, a leading proponent of the change in the law, says that certain clauses in the new law were meant to protect young Egyptian women from the poor or peasantry who in the past were virtually sold off to rich Gulf Arab men. "The written consent of the bride will now be required. The groom will also have to deposit an agreed upon sum of money in an Egyptian bank and the age difference between bride and groom must not exceed 25 years."
