Friday, September 29, 2017

How to lose your UNESCO’s chair Egyptian way for dummies

After few weeks, a secret vote will take place at the 202nd session of the UNESCO's Executive Board in Paris to choose the Organization’s new director general. There are currently 9 candidates who have been seeking the word countries' votes in order to replace current director general Irina Bokova. Among those 9 candidates, there are 4 Arab candidates “As usual Arabs could not agree to nominate one in the race because we are ARABs”.

Moushira Khattab
Former minister and Ambassador Moushira Khattab 
Those Arab candidates include Egypt’s former minister and diplomat Ambassador Moushira Khattab.

Despite the huge campaign the Egyptian government launched in July 2016 with her official nomination, it seems that the same government is doing its best to destroy her chance for that important international position.

Do you remember how the Egyptian security authorities closed down Karma libraries in December 2016 because its founder and owner is Human rights lawyer Gamal Eid?
Ambassador Moshira Khattab said that she would do her best so children were not deprived of the right of knowledge after her visit to one of the closed branches of the library.
Do you remember how the authorities have confiscated Alf bookstore in August because of the Muslim Brotherhood alleged affiliation of its co-founder and co-owner, entrepreneur and economist Omar El-Shenety.

Last week, the security authorities stormed and shut down “El-Balad bookstore” which is exactly two blocks away from Tahrir square. “El-Balad” is owned and founded by Egyptian social democratic Party leader Farid Zahran.
Interestingly it turned out Zahran owns a newspaper called El-Tariq which was stormed by security forces in September 2016.
There has not been an official explanation on why the security authorities closed down the bookstore which became a cultural venue in Downtown Cairo like that !!
I do not know how the Egyptian government can help Moshira Khattab when it closes down bookstores and libraries like that.
It is the worst way to support your candidate to top the world’s most important Cultural organization.



There is another dilemma I think everybody back in Egypt does not speak or want to speak about.
How is ambassador Khattab going to deal with the UNESCO’s open support policy to the LGBTQ rights worldwide ??
Egypt is already known in the UN and its organizations with its position against the LBGTQ’s rights and actually, it is not a surprise for me or anyone.
In fact, how are the Muslim candidates including the candidates of Iraq and Qatar going to deal with the matter?
Needless to say, Egypt is now making headlines in the stupidest way ever after that Rainbow flag in that Mashrou Leila band’s triple bill concert from two weeks ago.
The progressive Lebanese band whose lead singer “Hamed Sinno” is an openly gay and advocate for LGBTQ’s rights in the Middle East, is no longer allowed to perform in the country according to news reports in the Egyptian media.
People are arrested and accused of being gay as well raising the rainbow flag in that concert. “Two people only raised the flag and ironically both are straight human rights activists and it is not the first time that flag is raised actually in a Mashrou Leila’s concert”.
There is a media frenzy speaking about attempts to destabilize the society through spreading gay agenda.

Khattab seems to be abroad visiting world countries in order to win their votes for the big day.

This is the second time Egypt nominates officially an Egyptian official for that post. If you remember in time of Mubarak, the government nominated Egypt’s longest-serving culture minister and Suzanne Mubarak’s personal fashion advisor Farouk Hosni for the post and he lost due anti-Semitism allegations in 2009.
If I remember correctly, he lost because the Zionist lobby in France hinted out that there was allegedly a copy of the infamous  “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” in the Library of Alexandria.
I did not support Farouk Hosni for the position then because he did not and does not deserve that position.
Already after the 25 January revolution, we found out that he was working as an informant for the Egyptian government against Arab and Egyptian students while studying abroad.
Back to our current nominee.

When it comes to ambassador Moshira Khattab, well she is not Farouk Hosni and did not have his destructive surreal effect on Egyptian antiquities as well culture generally.
Some say that she was/is a friend of Suzanne Mubarak and that’s why she was appointed as the short-lived minister of family and population thought.

Personally, I think that she is more qualified to be the executive director of the UNICEF than the Director-General of UNESCO with my all due respect considered her C.V.
Khattab was already the vice chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child “CRC” from 2002 to 2010.
I wish all the luck to ambassador Moshira Khateb but the current Egyptian administration as well government are not real helping her to win the post for real with those repressive policies and decisions. 

1 comment:

  1. As always I've been enjoying your posts, but please tell us about the Egyptian anal exams. What's up with that?

    ReplyDelete

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