By blood received and shed

By Ismail de Coursac

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Hatem-Sedki

Since 1952 a defensive mentality and legal restrictions have continued to purportedly protect Egypt against a foreign occupation that had already evacuated the country on 18 June, 1953. Such restrictions make it difficult to become an Egyptian citizen if one is born a foreigner, even if he chooses to serve Egypt. The situation is the same even if one is a Moslem. When an immigrant finally receives the Egyptian nationality, he will still not enjoy its full rights before the third generation has been attained.

It is difficult to marry an Egyptian woman if one is a foreigner. Her family would rather give her away in an arranged marriage to an Egyptian or, perhaps, prefer her not to marry at all. The son of a naturalised immigrant likewise cannot enter Military College to defend his country, since this requires that he be born of Egyptian parents and grandparents, as if he were presenting his candidature to the presidency of the republic.

Unless a naturalised immigrant gives up his nationality of origin, he will find difficulties holding a seat in the People's Assembly, even if voters elect him. Egyptian mothers were only recently given the right to transmit their nationalities to their children born of a foreign father. More must be done here to fulfill the principle of equality enshrined in the Constitution, given that the "foreign" father is subject to restrictions not applying to the Egyptian father who no longer resides in Egypt.

Law-givers must not pander to the prevailing mentality but be at the vanguard of change. The People's Assembly must ask how our current laws would have dealt with the founder of modern Egypt Mohamed Ali, who was born an Albanian in Macedonia. Soliman Pasha (El-Faransawy) founded the modern Egyptian army even though he was a Frenchman. Ahmed Shawqi, the great Poet Laureate, did not have a drop of Egyptian blood, but was born, lived and wrote in Egypt. Our lawmakers must ask what makes one truly Egyptian: certainly it is the blood received from one's parents. But it is also blood shed voluntarily, and services rendered to our country.

* The writer is correspondent for France-Pays Arabes magazine in Cairo.