From Nasser to Mubarak and On, the State of Modern Egypt.

free kareem

The face of Egypt has changed greatly after the revolution that brought independence from foreign occupiers. From the Egypt created by Gamal Abdel Nasser to the Egypt to be inherited by Gamal Mubarak, the Egyptian Blogosphere is recalling their personal experiences, objections, predictions and experiences with blogger imprisonment.

When Nasser became president, shortly after the Egyptian revolution, life changed for many Egyptians and a massive exodus to all corners of the globe followed for those affected, as recounted by Maryanne Stroud Gabbani

The period of Nasser's socialisation of Egypt was horrific for many Egyptians of European and Jewish backgrounds and also for many Egyptians who simply had been too successful in their enterprises in Egypt. The young state of Israel had high hopes that some of the Egyptian Jews would head there from Egypt and were happy to stir the pot to encourage emigration. Unfortunately, Tel Aviv simply was no match for Cairo (and probably still isn't), so the emigrants were far more likely to go to Paris, London, Geneva, New York, or Montreal. Canada is full of Egyptians who left Egypt during the 50's and 60's and I often get emails from their offspring who are now intensely curious about the fascinating country their parents left behind.

Since those days the role of government has not changed much, Egyptian laws regarding women certainly haven't with few exceptions as documented by Canadian educated, Egyptian lawyer, Forsoothsayer

…the Egyptian constitution states: “The State undertakes to provide equality of opportunity for all citizens”. A tough requirement – it’s left over socialist stuff. Luckily the constitution goes by the wayside more often than not. Also, I should state at the outset that Egypt applies shariah quite narrowly and, it is held by mainstream scholars, incorrectly. For example, shariah does not attempt equality between men and women in the area of family law; few legal systems have succeeded in doing so. The man is heavily disadvantaged, if shariah were to be correctly applied, notwithstanding appearances. However, not all of the rights and obligations of both the husband and wife have made their way into Egyptian law..

The most recent years in the presidency of Hosni Mubarak have been some of the most domestically controversial since the Egyptian Revolution, thanks mostly to the clash of Government and opposition voices on Egyptian Blogs. The largest casualty of war in this clash is Egyptian Blogger Kareem Amer who was sentenced to four years in jail for comments written on his blog. FreeKareem.org tells of school children raising money and protesting on Kareem's behalf…

Julia said the campaign was about shutting down repression and rebooting human rights. This year’s theme was internet repression and working to end the restriction of freedom of expression on the internet. She said it was based on Kareem Amer, who was imprisoned for blogging his thoughts on the government…

Many fear for the future of Egypt and what will change, possibly for the worse. As John F. Kennedy once said, “Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” So what changes does the future hold for Egypt? Zeinobia gives us her prediction

It seems that very soon we are going to have very important political changes in Egypt , these expected political changes are predicted to be the big last moves in the inheritance process from the father to the son , of course here I mean father Hosni Mubarak to the Son Gamal Mubarak , this is what expected by all political analysts .

There are two changes that are going to happen very soon, the first change is the Nazif Cabinet and the second change is the elections of the leadership in the NDP.

The opposition by Egyptian bloggers against the government is progressive and will only grow as we move closer to an imminent transition, whether that be to Gamal Mubarak or a government controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood. In any event the Egyptian Blogosphere only promises to get more interesting, so check in with me for next weeks round up and see what they're saying.

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