New political forces are at work in Egypt today. And , vice-chairperson of administrative substitution, a juridical position, embodies a new direction for Egypt's future. The daughter of a distinguished judge, El-Zeiny, the legal officer who supervised the Damanhour election, documented her experience of procedural and other electoral violations in a highly-publicised article. It was a piercing personal testimony. It was also a trendsetter, as many other Egyptians were encouraged to write more openly about the subject and to document their experiences. El-Zeiny's article prompted a statement signed by 120 judges, attesting that the violations described by El-Zeiny were common in many other constituencies. El-Zeiny's whistleblowing front-page article in Al-Masri Al-Yom proved to be a bombshell. The 24 November 2005 edition of Al-Masri Al-Yom published the article that became the talk of the country. Uncovering corruption is something that comes easily to El-Zeiny. As a public prosecutor, she has a natural inclination to reveal the truth. Her quest for justice is irrepressible. Her family hails from the Minya Governorate, Upper Egypt -- and her Saidi roots are clearly evident in her strength of character. Her forthrightness is shown in her manner of handling what she recognises as grievous wrongs. As a consultant of the Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC) of the Egyptian Cabinet, she was associated with the state. But her outspokenness set her apart. Her courage and determination to see justice done won her numerous accolades. An accomplished academic, El-Zeiny obtained a PhD in constitutional law from the University of Cairo and a masters in public law from the University of Paris. She also earned a diploma in French literature from the Sorbonne. El-Zeiny is one of the first Egyptians to specialise in information technology law. Her mentor was Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the former United Nations secretary-general, and it was he who encouraged her to enrol at the Institute of International Public Law and International Relations at Thessaloniki, Greece. Her mentor's advice paid off. Her sojourn in Thessaloniki opened up new intellectual vistas for El-Zeiny. Exposure to multi-culturalism was a memorable experience for the young and impressionable El-Zeiny. It was her encountering of freedom of expression and the free circulation of ideas in those early days that gave her the impetus to work on propagating her own sense of social justice and propriety. The testimony of El-Zeiny rocked the country and unleashed a deluge of critical commentaries. Her politically poignant articles changed the face of contemporary Egypt. El-Zeiny has taken this as the leitmotif for her life. Interview by Gamal Nkrumah Hers is a familiar face on pan-Arab satellite television. Her photographs appear with frequent regularity on the opinion pages of independent papers such as Al-Masri Al-Yom. This razzmatazz, however, does not sit easily on Noha El-Zeiny's shoulders. She refuses to play traditional political games and insists that she does not manipulate the media. However, whether on television or as a political pundit, she comes across as a very persuasive communicator. Be that as it may, what you see is not always what you get. El-Zeiny decided to don the hijab when she was a student at the Sorbonne. In Paris she needed to reinforce her identity. "My family strongly objected to my wearing the hijab. But, I felt that I was liberated by wearing the hijab. Only then did I understood the real meaning of freedom. It was my own choice to wear it." She muses about her days in Paris. "Those were, perhaps, the most memorable times of my life. The most beautiful," she explains. "My best friend at school was a Coptic Christian neighbour. She was more than a sister to me. Her parents were close family friends of my parents and as a teenager, I imagined them to be our relatives," El-Zeiny muses, hearking back to her days of innocence. "The special bond and friendship between the two families went back for three generations". Her friend Amal, was named after El-Zeiny's own aunt, while Laila, her sister, was named after another aunt. "Once, however, we had a terrible argument over heaven and hell. My friend Amal insisted that I must become a Christian in order to go to heaven. I, in turn, insisted that she must become a Muslim if she is to avoid going to hell. We were rather agitated, but we were well-meaning. Amal's mother, Aunt Nawal, intervened, and chided us both. She said that neither of us really understood their respective religions. She urged us to learn more about our religions and then argue more intelligently". "Ironically, it was my Christian Aunt Nawal who encouraged me the most to wear the hijab. My own family were very much against my wearing the hijab," El-Zeiny recalled. She strongly believes that when people are pious and truly understand their religion, they do not feel threatened by proselytisers of other religions. "Believers are confident in the integrity and inherent truth of their own religion. They therefore do not fear rival religions. There must be open discussions, freedom of expression, freedom of association -- these are fundamental rights," El-Zeiny stresses. She speaks in a cool matter-of-fact manner. Somewhat self-consciously, she describes her own conspiracy theory that led to sectarian tensions in Egypt. "The whole notion of a fundamental strife between the Coptic Christian minority and the Muslim majority is contrived. It was fabricated in the 1970s by the late President Anwar El-Sadat for political reasons. It was tantamount to playing with fire, and Sadat paid for it dearly with his own life". Politics in Egypt have been going through systemic changes. And, it is women such as El-Zeiny who are making the difference. Her main gripe is that however much the word reform was in the air, the authoritarian nature of the regime precludes radical change. Egyptians, however, have started to debate political issues more openly. She wants to break the authorities' iron grip on power, but is of the belief that radical reform is hardly around the corner. Restraint is not in El-Zeiny's nature. As president of the Right for Medicine Society, El-Zeiny is a defender of the rights of patients to adequate medical care. "Healthcare is an inalienable right for everyone," she stresses. She advocates the universal provision of inexpensive and readily available medicine for everyone. Her conviction that pharmaceutical trans-national companies exploit intellectual property rights to the detriment of poor patients in developing countries led her to found the Right for Medicine Society. On gender relations, she does not see herself as a feminist, even though she is a stickler for women's rights. As far as she is concerned, Western human rights organisations have fetishised certain issues like female genital mutilation. "Topics like FGM are sensational and give the impression that Muslims are backward and barbaric. My contention is that Western human rights organisations often ignore far more serious human rights abuses such as physical abuse and wife battering. This particular problem is often ignored because it is as common in the West as it is in the Muslim world, and it is a far graver abuse of human rights than FGM," El-Zeiny notes. She stresses that societies and governments should establish a system of priorities. Islam, traditionally, has had a specific notion of priorities. The discussion veers towards the subject of the Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni and "his off the record comments on the hijab which were taken out of context and blown out of proportion". She speaks animatedly on the subject. "What is happening is scandalous. It is a farce. The minister should not have been attacked in such a vicious manner for expressing his view. He spoke, not in his official capacity as a state official, but rather as a private individual. He was expressing his own personal view and that is his right." The upshot is that a precedent has been set. "People must get used to hearing a differing view. The other must be accepted," she exclaims as she bangs her fist on her desk. Defensive and cynical, is how she characterises those who mix religion and politics, claiming they often have dubious ulterior motives and a hidden agenda. "I myself am convinced that the Islamic hijab is obligatory for Muslim women. However, I respect other peoples opinions. I understand that other people adopt contrary perspectives. I respect the other," she stresses. In any case El-Zeiny points out that, "there are far more important and pressing issues in the country than the hijab or the minister's opinion on the hijab." We leave the contentious topic of the hijab behind and focus instead on the suffering of Arabs under Israeli occupation. She had just got back from a trip to Syria's Al-Golan Heights. "I returned from Al-Golan depressed, angry and heartbroken. I had seen at first hand the calamities suffered by the Syrians under Israeli occupation -- terrorism, hunger, genocide. I witnessed disastrous results of the heavy-handed Israeli policies, gross abuses of human rights and atrocities," she explains pulling a pained face. The subject of the Golan Heights led to the increased interference of Western human rights organisations in the socio-political affairs of Arab countries. "Western human rights organisations have their own agendas," El-Zeiny stresses. She decries the manner in which they impose the Western cultural values on the Arab and Muslim world. "They assume that their own cultural values are universal in nature," she explains. "That is simply not true." EL-Zeiny remains tight-lipped about her private life. She confessed to loathing journalists who passed on tittle-tattle about her private life to the press. When I first visited her at her ailing mother's flat, I imagined meeting a disciplinarian who wags her index finger like a stern headmistress, but instead I was greeted by a convivial woman of good breeding in a navy blue smock and a tightly fitted floral patterned veil. She apologised profusely about having to rush the interview. She had to take her mother to hospital on the following day. In the end, she spoke for about two hours over the course of two days. She was nursing a cold herself, but enthusiastically tackled the various questions put to her. She spoke on a wide variety of topics -- Christian-Muslim relations in Egypt today; the recent increasing interest in Shia Islam in the country; women's rights and responsibilities and the role of women in Islam; the judiciary; Buddhists and Bahaais vis-à-vis Islam; human rights and the death penalty; and above all, political reform, or the lack of it, in Egypt. Finally we came to her revelations of electoral fraud that brought her instant fame and has led to raised eyebrows around the country. The search is on for a different pattern of democracy, and El-Zeiny has a clear perspective of what that pattern constitutes. She is an Islamist, but she distances herself politically from the Muslim Brotherhood. Indeed, she is highly critical of some of their "more vulgar political machinations". El-Zeiny expressed outrage at the wanton destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan, the bigger 55 metres, the smaller 37 metres, in 2001 by the Taliban regime of Afghanistan. "As a Muslim, I was scandalised by the dynamiting of what is revered by billions of Buddhists in Asia and throughout the world. People around the globe who appreciate the cultural heritage of the various ancient civilisations". In much the same vein, El-Zeiny defends the right of Bahaais to freely practice their religion in Egypt. "I would not force a Bahaai to state that he or she is a Christian or a Muslim on his or her birth certificate or identity card". Indeed, she insists that Islam is an open-minded religion and stresses that: La ikrah fil deen, there is no compulsion in religion. To her mind, people should be free to practice the religion they choose. One's religion is a personal choice, an inalienable right. "I acknowledge that the Bahaai religion is not a Heavenly-revealed religion according to Islamic precepts, even though it might be considered a monotheistic religion". Having said that, El-Zeiny is dead against abolishing the death penalty. She strongly believes that given a fair trial, those guilty of premeditated murder should be executed. "We must not allow the Western value system to dictate to us what constitutes and what doesn't constitute universal human rights," she explains. I find it offensive that we consider the right to life of a murderer more important than the right of the victim's family and friends for retribution. El-Zeiny then ventures into the prickly subject of the Muslim Brothers. She defended the case of Gamal Hishmat, a Muslim Brother and a medical practitioner who stood for parliament against Mustafa El-Feki, head of the Foreign Relations Committee of the People's Assembly. Because of her Islamist stance, people assumed that she was sympathetic to the Brothers. She insists that she was defending the truth. "I bear no grudge against anyone. I was simply describing the truth. I myself do not know Hishmat personally, but my impression of him was that he is a very popular man. People in his constituency love him and believe that he cares for them. Very few, on the other hand, care for El-Feki, whom the locals say they do not know him and hardly see him." The conversation then moves on to the political agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood. El-Zeiny concedes that the Muslim Brotherhood has exercised a great influence on the Egyptian public over the past three decades. "There is a simple truth and that is that we cannot really speak of radical change if we depend on the will of the ruling elite or we pay too much heed to its pledge. It is a bit like 'Waiting for Godot'. Change will never come at this rate". She acknowledges that the Brotherhood has grasped certain aspects of this fact, but notes that the electorate voted for them not so much because it was enthusiastic about their political agenda, which she claims is as bankrupt as the regime's, but because of their frustration with the powers that be. "The vote for the Brotherhood was a protest vote," she states emphatically. The perpetuation of the status quo and a general of political stability is the objective of every regime. Only outside pressures force any regime to change. Real change only occurs when there are popular demands for change and a determined political will. The recent constitutional changes, unfortunately, were merely cosmetic. El-Zeiny notes that Egyptians generally regard democracy with some suspicion. They still associate democracy with foreign intervention and surrendering to external pressures. "The three most important political forces in my view are the judges -- and it is not, by implication, appropriate for them to indulge in political activism. Their main concern is the independence of the judiciary," she says. "The second most important force are the Muslim Brothers. They, in my opinion, did not contribute anything radically new as far as their reform agenda and vision for the future is concerned. They offer nothing new. They have lost the sympathy of the Egyptian public after their pretentious performance during the last parliamentary elections," she adds. "The third force are the youthful activists -- the bloggers of the Internet, organisations such as Youth for Change, and other such groups. They are forward-looking. They have fresh ideas. First and foremost, they want freedom. I am very hopeful and optimistic about their cause. I am convinced that they will effect political change eventually." El-Zeiny does not invest much hope in female politicians advancing women's rights in the country. There are many token women in Egyptian politics. They cannot be said to represent the women of the country. They represent the regime's interests". "Unfortunately, the constitutional changes of the past few years are merely cosmetic," she says. El-Zeiny cited as an example changes to Article 76, which she insists are nothing but a sham. Perhaps the only good to emerge from these changes are that at least a portion of the people of Egypt now demonstrate a measure of political awareness. They now understand that they alone can accomplish the political changes they are pressing for. We need to infuse the nation with new blood. We are in need of a new social contract. We need a new constitution which incorporates at least elements of the new social contract," El-Zeiny warns. "Electoral fraud is the logical conclusion of the bitter legacy of authoritarianism and the absence of democracy. It is the result of the hegemony of the executive over the legislature and the judiciary." New political forces are at work in Egypt today. And , vice-chairperson of administrative substitution, a juridical position, embodies a new direction for Egypt's future. The daughter of a distinguished judge, El-Zeiny, the legal officer who supervised the Damanhour election, documented her experience of procedural and other electoral violations in a highly-publicised article. It was a piercing personal testimony. It was also a trendsetter, as many other Egyptians were encouraged to write more openly about the subject and to document their experiences. El-Zeiny's article prompted a statement signed by 120 judges, attesting that the violations described by El-Zeiny were common in many other constituencies. El-Zeiny's whistleblowing front-page article in Al-Masri Al-Yom proved to be a bombshell. The 24 November 2005 edition of Al-Masri Al-Yom published the article that became the talk of the country. Uncovering corruption is something that comes easily to El-Zeiny. As a public prosecutor, she has a natural inclination to reveal the truth. Her quest for justice is irrepressible. Her family hails from the Minya Governorate, Upper Egypt -- and her Saidi roots are clearly evident in her strength of character. Her forthrightness is shown in her manner of handling what she recognises as grievous wrongs. As a consultant of the Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC) of the Egyptian Cabinet, she was associated with the state. But her outspokenness set her apart. Her courage and determination to see justice done won her numerous accolades. An accomplished academic, El-Zeiny obtained a PhD in constitutional law from the University of Cairo and a masters in public law from the University of Paris. She also earned a diploma in French literature from the Sorbonne. El-Zeiny is one of the first Egyptians to specialise in information technology law. Her mentor was Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the former United Nations secretary-general, and it was he who encouraged her to enrol at the Institute of International Public Law and International Relations at Thessaloniki, Greece. Her mentor's advice paid off. Her sojourn in Thessaloniki opened up new intellectual vistas for El-Zeiny. Exposure to multi-culturalism was a memorable experience for the young and impressionable El-Zeiny. It was her encountering of freedom of expression and the free circulation of ideas in those early days that gave her the impetus to work on propagating her own sense of social justice and propriety. The testimony of El-Zeiny rocked the country and unleashed a deluge of critical commentaries. Her politically poignant articles changed the face of contemporary Egypt. El-Zeiny has taken this as the leitmotif for her life.
