Editor’s note- By Arezki Daoud: Egypt is going through a tumultuous period, not just because of the terror attacks that have plagued the country since the coup against elected President Morsi, but also because ultra-conservatives and nationalists have taken advantage of the situation to deepen their agendas. The military in power does not want to upset these groups because it is busy fighting other wars, from the Islamic State of Sinai, and those causing mayhem among the Christians and other minorities, to dealing with an economy in turmoil.
While the military is doing what it is doing, the ultraconservatives and nationalists are trying to impose their own cultural revolutions, dangerously transforming one of the Arab world’s most open minded and liberal population, into one that confronts ideologies that have no place in today’s world.
Consider a few simple manifestations of these backward moves:
Back in summer 2018, the health minister ordered state hospitals to blast the national anthem through intercoms every morning, followed by the recitation of the Hippocratic oath. This is a laughable decision but one that is so serious that it hints on a deep cultural transformation facing the Egyptian society. Minister Hala Zayed said the move would enhance patriotism and would make Egyptians more loyal to their country. Obviously she never read George Orwell’s 1984. Ridiculous nationalism leads to nowhere.
The religious cultural extremists are also having their day. Just this month, a young couple who attends Al-Azhar University were expelled because they hugged of happiness in a video that went viral. The decision by the university was so ridiculous that it ended up reversing it because even the spiritual leader of said university urged the school to reconsider. And now time to jail a reporter for doing his job. TV host Mohammed el-Gheiti made the mistake of interviewing a gay man, and found himself in hot waters with conservative judges, and got punished (see AFP story below).
These stories may be simple, for some rather funny, but they are not. Egypt was never a banana republic, but sadly it is quickly headed there. It has always been, and still is the cultural beacon of the Arab world, with some of the world’s best novelists, movie directors, actors, singers, poets, and athletes. It has boasts one of world’s oldest and most recognized histories. But historians are likely to record this period as a dark moment for Egypt from a cultural perspective. The Egyptian people are smart and they will eventually recover unscathed, but until then, more horror stories like these will make it to the world media, and that’s too bad.
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Cairo, Jan 20, 2019 – An Egyptian court on Sunday sentenced a television host to one year in prison for interviewing a gay man last year, a judicial source said. Mohamed al-Gheiti, who has expressed his stance against homosexuality on several occasions, was accused of promoting homosexuality and contempt of religion. The misdemeanours court in Giza also fined him 3,000 Egyptian pounds ($147) and ordered he be put under surveillance for one year after serving his sentence, said Samir Sabri, the lawyer who brought the case against him. The verdict can be appealed, and it can be suspended if Gheiti pays bail of 1,000 pounds pending the outcome of the appeal, said Sabri.
In August 2018, Gheiti hosted a gay man on his talk show on the private LTC TV station and discussed homosexuality on air. During the interview, the gay man, whose face was blurred to hide his identity, said he was a sex worker and openly talked about his relationship with another man. After the interview was aired, the Supreme Council for Media Regulation, Egypt’s top media body, suspended the channel for two weeks for “professional violations”.
In a statement at the time, the council said the LTC TV had violated its decision “banning the appearance of homosexuals or promotion of their slogans”. The council banned the appearance of homosexuals on any outlet after a rainbow flag — symbolic of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community — was waved during a Cairo concert in 2017. At the time, the authorities launched a large-scale crackdown on suspected homosexuals, triggering condemnation from right groups. Homosexuality is not expressly outlawed in Egypt, but gays have previously been charged with debauchery in the deeply conservative Muslim society.
By AFP
