Second Egyptian minister accused of divisive remarks

Hardly a few hours had passed after Egyptian Justice Minister Mahfuz Sabir’s resignation over derogatory remarks highlighting the class divisions within society, when Minister of State for Urban Developments and Shanty Towns Laila Iskandar blamed the people of Upper Egypt for creating the shanty towns in Cairo and Alexandria.

Speaking at the annual conference of the School of Economy and Political Science at Cairo University, Iskandar attributed the spread of shanty neighbourhoods to the migration of people from Upper Egypt to the cities. “The neighbourhoods’ development fund monitored a national map for the causes of these shanty towns,” she said. “One of the most important reasons is said to be the migration of the people of Upper Egypt to Cairo and Alexandria. Therefore, the elimination of shanty neighbourhoods begins with providing the people of Upper Egypt with real job opportunities so as not to come to Cairo.”

The minister, whose portfolio was created in the Egyptian cabinet after the coup against legitimate President Mohamed Morsi with the aim of increasing the number of Copts in Ibrahim Mahlab’s cabinet, added that she just doesn’t know “how were are going to send back the Upper Egypt folks to their provinces”.

After a storm of public outrage during which her statement was described by many as deliberately divisive, the minister issued a statement on Tuesday in a bid to lessen the impact of her remarks. She stressed that she was misquoted and what was purported as her statement at the conference was not accurate.

According to Iskandar, studies of domestic migration within shanty neighbourhoods illustrate clearly that many Upper Egypt people move to the big cities in search of job opportunities due to the lack of services and facilities in their own areas. She pointed out that the state is keen to implement several projects in the Upper Egypt provinces and invited businessmen and investors to go there and provide jobs and a decent living for the people in the south. The minister stressed that she came originally from Upper Egypt and was born in the Minya Province, and that she cares a lot about the region.

Also on Tuesday, former Minister of Justice Mahfuz Sabir made new statements in which he reaffirmed his objection to appointing the “children of cleaners” to the judiciary. He said that his conscience is clear about his comments and that what he had said earlier was nothing but “a truth well established in society and known to all.”

In a statement to Alwatan newspaper, Sabir added: “I would not take back the statements I made regarding my refusal to appoint the children of rubbish collectors in judiciary jobs, because this is the existing reality. I cannot respond to Prime Minister Mahlab who said that I was arrogant looking down upon the people.”

The Prosecutor’s office confirmed that it has received a complaint against the minister from lawyer Muhammad Abd Al-Aziz, with a demand that the public law official should take the necessary measures in response to the minister’s remarks. “They were a breach of the law,” claimed Abd Al-Aziz, “the constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” This, he stressed, constitutes a crime in accordance with article 176, which states that the punishment shall be “imprisonment for a maximum period of one year” for “whoever incites in one of the aforementioned ways irrespective of the sect or sects of people or who shows contempt in such a way that such incitement or contempt may potentially lead to disturbing public peace.”