Egypt

Pre-match Khartoum heating up

Team Observers — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:34:24 +0100

Slogans and partisan chants were ringing out in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, ahead of Wednesday’s much anticipated World Cup qualification play-off between Egypt and Algeria.

Thousands of football fans have flooded into Khartoum, a city little used to hosting events of such international scope. The stadium has a capacity of 41,000 spectators, but authorities have limited ticket sales to 35,000 for security reasons. Egypt and Algeria have each been allocated 9,000 seats for the game.

Irate fans vandalised Egyptian offices while “police stood by and watched”

Team Observers — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:48:28 +0100

After last weekend’s tense World Cup qualification football game pitting Egypt’s Pharaohs against Algeria’s Fennecs (the Pharaohs won 2-0), irate Algerian football fans vandalised several Egyptian businesses in Algiers. On Sunday, Anis (not his real name) found himself near the offices of telephone operator Djezzy, owned by Egyptian company Orascom, when an angry mob stormed the site. According to Anis, police officers stood by and watched as violent youths went on the rampage in the company's offices. However, reports in Algerian daily El Watan claimed "anti-riot forces intervened to stop the vandalism” and made “several arrests". According to Orascom, the angry football fans damaged several million dollars worth of property.

(The most violent images appear at 3 minutes 50 seconds)

I came across a group of about 200 youths headed towards the Djezzy headquarters, in the Algiers neighbourhood of Dar el-Beida. I decided to follow them. They didn’t look like typical vandals, more like neighbourhood kids. There were a dozen anti-riot police vans stationed around the building. Youths began throwing rocks at the windows, but the police did nothing. So the kids began throwing bigger rocks, then breaking down the door, and still the police did nothing. The mob went on the rampage and vandalised every single floor of the building, but the police didn’t intervene until some of them tried to set fire to the place. It almost looked as if the police was stationed there to protect the rioters, not the building! The incidents began at 7.30pm and lasted until the following morning. Many shops were attacked in the city centre, but the company headquarters suffered the worst damage. If Algeria looses Wednesday’s run-off game and does not qualify for the World Cup, I can guarantee that there will be even more damage.

Algeria-Egypt turns violent

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:17:39 +0100

Defender Rafik Halliche sustained a head injury in the attack. Posted on YouTube here.

The Algerian team bus was attacked by stone-throwers last night as it made its way from Cairo airport to the hotel where the players are staying for Saturday's World Cup qualifier with the Egyptian Pharaohs. Five players were injured in the attack.

Despite a heavy police presence, around 200 home fans emerged from the bushes by the motorway and hurled stones towards the bus, shattering the windscreen and several windows. The Algerian Minister for Foreign Affairs expressed dismay over the attack in a press release.

For some weeks now hostility between fans from the two countries has been worsening both online and in the media.

Tensions are running very high for the Egyptians, winners of the 2008 African Cup of Nations (CAN). To qualify on Saturday, the team needs to win by a margin of at least three goals, while Algeria, top of group C, can still be on their way to the World Cup even if they give away one goal.

Algeria vs Egypt – a bitter battle before it’s begun

Team Observers — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:18:48 +0100

Image by Nadjib Bouzera.

UPDATE (13/11/09 - 10.30pm): shortly after the Algerian team bus arrived in Cairo on Thursday, it was attacked by stone throwing home fans. The Algerian authorities say five players were injured, including defender Rafik Halliche and midfielder Khaled Lemmouchia.

Talk over Saturday's qualifier between Egypt and Algeria has long gone off topic. Football itself forgotten, web users have jumped at the chance to use the match as an excuse for a bitter quarrel, where no subject is off-limits.

Images of burning flags, nasty comments and jeers - the insults are flying, and have been for some weeks now. Algerian web users have even managed to involve the 1967 Six-Day War, gleefully asserting that Egypt took a battering. Egypt's response - at least they know how to speak Arabic...

Last week, the ministers for Foreign Affairs from both countries called on their respective media to "calm down".

Egypt vs. Algeria – the “hate match” has already kicked off online

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:29:18 +0100

Illustration from the Lounis blog

The Algerian Fennecs take on the Egyptian Pharaohs for a place in the 2010 World Cup on November 14. With a week still to go before the game, things have already turned nasty, both countries accusing the other of corruption.

The qualifier is crucial. For the moment, Algeria have the higher ground - a draw or even a 1-0 defeat would still leave them on their way to South Africa. Egypt, who need to win by a margin of at least three goals to qualify, are hoping the home advantage will give them a helping hand.

For the fans, the battle has already begun. Insults, aggro and accusations of corruption abound on the Net. Several Facebook groups have urged FIFA, the football governing body, to choose an impartial, European, referee for the match, after the Egyptians were accused of wanting to buy their choice of a suitable candidate.

Buy back your virginity for just ten euros

Team Observers — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:50:51 +0100

Photo taken by Mohamed Al-Rahhal.

Question: What are these thin strips of plastic encapsulating a reddish liquid, and why have they prompted such outrage in Egypt? Answer: an artificial hymen, made in China and complete with fake blood.

Women who wish to hide the fact that they have lost their virginity before getting married can slip it in on their wedding night, "add a few moans", and relax, Chinese manufacturer Gigimo advertises on its website.

The scandal broke out in Egypt on September 13, when a major Egyptian newspaper, citing Syrian website Day Press and Radio Netherlands Worldwide, revealed that Egyptian investors plan to import the Chinese artificial hymen and sell it in Egypt after Ramadan. The article will soon be available in stores for only 10 euros.

For Islamic conservatives, this is the final straw - an instrument of depravity that would allow women to sleep around before marriage without losing their honour! A Facebook group has been set up to denounce the product. Conservative lawmakers are pushing to bar its import, others are calling for all those who dare retail the item in Egypt to be prosecuted. islamist group's webiste.

Created in Kyoto, Japan in 1993, the item was first sold locally then exported to Thailand in 1995, before reaching mass production in China.It reportedly reached the Syrian market recently and will soon be available in Morocco.

Chinese manufacturer Gigimo says this artificial membrane, which is made of natural albumin, dissolves in water and has no side effects on its user. However, Asian media have reported several cases of vaginal infection following use of the artificial hymen.

Photo published on the Gigimo website.

Qalyubiyah misses its street-cleaning pigs

Team Observers — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:24:03 +0100

Every day, the people of Al Khosos, in Qalyubiyah province north-west of Cairo, are confronted by heaps of rubbish and noxious odours. The problem, our Observer tells us, is one of waste collection, which has got worse since Egypt culled its pig herd because of concern over the A (H1N1) virus – or swine flu.

On April 29, the Egyptian authorities decided to slaughter 300,000 pigs in an effort to stop the spread of A (H1N1).

Most of them belonged to the Zabaleen – freelance trash collectors and urban pig farmers – in the provinces of Cairo, Giza and Qalyubiyah. These ragpickers, most of whom are Coptic Christians, have been raising pigs and collecting waste since the beginning of the last century.

The Zabaleen’s sorting and recycling of rubbish and waste could reach reprocessing rates as high as 80 percent – about 3,000 tonnes per day in the capital and the greater metropolitan area.

The pigs that fed on the rubbish were key to the Zabaleen system – the pigs ate the organic waste (see our previous article on the subject) – and then the tables were turned when the pigs became ham.

Egypt’s biggest Islamic university bans the niqab

Sophie Team Observers — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:42:05 +0200

During a visit to a secondary school a few weeks ago, Egypt's highest Sunni authority came across a teenager wearing the full veil. Flabbergasted, he humiliated the girl, asking her "Why wear the niqab in a class full of girls?!" He then forced her to remove it.

"Wearing the niqab is a custom, not part of religion", explained Sheik Mohammed Tantawi, long-time dean of Egypt's prestigious and ancient al-Azhar University, founded in 969 and considered one of the world's number one references in the teaching of Islamic studies.

Tantawi hasn't wasted any time. He's strictly forbidden students, pupils and teachers from wearing the niqab in the al-Azhar university and its adjoining schools. And it's not unlikely that we'll see the decision followed by institutions throughout the country. Sheik Tantawi's decision comes just after the Minister for Higher Education banned students who wear the niqab from living in student halls.

Islamic opposition group the Muslim Brotherhood has seized upon the move to vehemently criticise the government. Since the beginning of the week, numerous demonstrations outside universities have been staged in protest.

In 2001, the American University in Cairo banned girls from wearing the niqab on campus for security reasons, but in 2007, the decision was overruled by the Supreme Court. Girls who wear the full veil were thereafter required to identify themselves to a female watchman before entering the campus.

Is Farouk Hosni worthy of leading UNESCO?

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 09:43:00 +0200

Posted on the Facebook group "Farouk Hosni NO for UNESCO"

UNESCO will choose its new general director this evening. It's Farouk Hosni, Egyptian Culture Minister since 1986, who looks set to succeed Koïchiro Matsuura at the head of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. But will the man who pledged to "burn" Israeli books really fit the bill?

Hosni's anti-Semitic accusations weigh heavily on his chances for the appointment. Last year for example, he responded to a query about Israeli books appearing in an Alexandria library by saying "Burn these books; if there are any there, I will burn them myself in front of you".

They are declarations which Hosni now regrets saying. Writing in French newspaper Le Monde on Wednesday, he expressed "solemn regret" but asked his critics to "focus on the 27 years of public service devoted to culture, (...) mankind, creation, The Book and books in general".

We asked our respective Egyptian and Israeli Observers if UNESCO should have looked elsewhere.

Pure plagiarism from Egyptian TV channel

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:52:16 +0200

On the left, an extract from The Benny Hill Show. Right, its Egyptian twin.

A few months ago we brought your attention to the advertising world's most outrageous plagiarists, exposed by a Kuwaiti blogger. This time, it's a young Egyptian showing up a local TV station for its unoriginal ideas. But he's treading on dangerous ground.

A couple of weeks ago, 22-year-old graphic artist Tamer Azab came across a Facebook group announcing the launch of a new Egyptian TV channel, Cairo Centric (Al-Kahera Wal Nas). Browsing the various promotional clips, Tamer noticed that one of them was almost identical to that of a famous car brand. Tamer looked them up on YouTube and found that the channel's promos were based entirely on old ads from the West, going back as far as 1970 and from clips as bizarre as British comedian Benny Hill.