Preconditions to citizenship

By Vivian Fouad

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Calls for equal rights of citizenship for all Egyptians irrespective of religion, gender or class are more forceful than ever in the light of proposed reforms. Without such equality, indeed, no reform will be effective. And it must be remembered in this context that citizenship has nothing to do with nationalism or patriotic feeling but rather relates to specific sets of rights and duties that should apply to all. And it is according to this line of thought that I want to underline three points crucial to the struggle for maintaining citizenship rights.

First, it is necessary to endorse those elements of the urban middle class who espouse basic human rights and the rights of minorities and the marginalised, for without the active contribution of those elements, and their spread throughout the middle class, no constitutional edict will be adequately applied, since the vast majority of the urban middle class continue to adopt a conservative system of morality, backed up by religious precepts, which perpetuate, for example, the patriarchal model. In practice, therefore, however much the state calls for women's rights, conventional and religious paradigms of the woman's place in society will continue to be applied -- until the urban middle class takes a stand.

Secondly, the democratic flow of information and knowledge, the analytical space that is home to a plurality of perspectives, transparency and multiplicity, are among the most important conditions for realising the goal of equal rights of citizenship for all.

Thirdly, empowering the institutions of civil society, for despite the existence of more than 17,000 NGOs, these institutions have extremely limited economic and political power and they are based, essentially, on religious or charitable principles, unrelated to the concept of citizenship as such. Yet it is in this field that the greatest work could be done in terms of spreading awareness and rectifying official errors.

This week's Soapbox speaker is the director of the Coptic Centre of Social Studies.