Al-Ahram Weekly Issue No. 243 19 - 25 October 1995
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

Immutable principles

Saad Fakhri Abdel-Nour, a Copt, is Secretary-general of the Wafd Party. From a wealthy Wafdist family, he was named after Saad Zaghloul, leader of the Wafd and the 1919 Revolution, and is himself a long-standing member of the party. Abdel-Nour, 74, obtained a law degree in 1943 from King Fouad University, now Cairo University, and then traveled to France for post-graduate studies.

After earning two diplomas, in law and economics, he returned to Cairo and started a law practice in 1947. Three years later, he was promoted to membership of the Wafd Association, the party's steering committee. He was imprisoned briefly in 1961-62 and again in 1967 for opposing President Gamal Abdel-Nasser.

When the Wafd staged a come-back in 1978, he was a member of the party's higher committee. He ran in the 1994 elections but did not make it to the People's Assembly. Earlier this year he was chosen by party leader Fouad Serageddin as the Wafd's fifth secretary-general following the death of Ibrahim Farag.

What are the differences between the pre-1952 Wafd Party and the post-1978 Wafd?

The three cornerstones of the Wafd's policy are independence, democracy and the liberation of women. We cannot say that the Wafd of 1995 is different from the Wafd of 1918 because, although we have achieved our first demand, independence, our second and third goals remain unrealised.

We want true democracy for our country; we want the government to be the true representative of the people. The People's Assembly should act as a watchdog for the country's budget and should have the right to withdraw confidence from the cabinet.

As for women's liberation, we are moving backwards, not forwards. Today, women are treated in an inhuman way and urged to stay at home, under the false pretext that this is dictated by Islamic shari'a. But this is a misinterpretation of Islam, which treats women respectfully. So the Wafd's principles and objectives remain unchanged.

The name of the Wafd has always been linked to capitalists, landowners and the affluent in general. How accurate is this view?

This is a big lie. The opponents of Saad Zaghloul called him the leader of the rabble, so how can the Wafd be the party of the rich? All social classes participated in the 1919 Revolution, and the Wafd also included members from all classes.

The Wafd is known for its continued opposition to the 1952 Revolution, although it was a turning point in Egypt's history that cannot be glossed over. How do you explain this position?

I don't regard what happened in 1952 as a revolution. It was merely an action by some army officers. They wanted to strike a blow at the Wafd because it was the true representative of the people. This is why the supporters of the 23rd of July invented the lie that the Wafd was the party of the rich and that the 23rd of July was a revolution of the masses.

Will the Wafd coordinate strategy with other opposition parties in the coming elections?

There is no coordination between us and any other party because our principles are different from theirs. How can we ally ourselves with the Nasserists who fought us for 35 years? Or with the Labour Party which represents the salafiya [reactionary] trend; they want women to be veiled while we call for the emancipation of women. As for the Tagammu, they call for nationalisation and totalitarianism while we stand for democracy and free enterprise.

But in the 1984 elections, the Wafd, although it is known as the House of the Copts, allied itself with the Muslim Brotherhood?

In 1984, the Muslim Brothers were like orphans. They were a small family. They said at the time that they could not contest the elections because they were a religious group; so they needed to ally themselves with a political party.

How many Copts will the Wafd nominate in the coming elections?

There will be no less than 30 Copts.

Is this to target the Coptic vote?

This is not a barter deal. It is a fact that the other parties are closing their doors to Copts. So it is natural for the Copts to feel that the Wafd is their home.

What about women?

We have Mona Qorashi in Qasr Al-Nil, and we will announce the names of the others later. It should be noted that we have six women serving on the party's higher committee.

Rumour has it that the Wafd Party is paid large amounts of money by Saudi Arabia. Is this true?

The Wafd does not need to take money from anybody. We are financially independent and our financial position is quite good. This rumour started because during the Gulf War, the Wafd sympathised with Kuwait. We view Saddam Hussein as another Gamal Abdel-Nasser. Like Nasser, Saddam wanted to control the manipulate the Arab world. Saudi Arabia had to defend itself against Iraq and we supported it in this.

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