Deprived from a legal status for almost half a century, the Muslim Brotherhood are still highly active participants in the political scene. They file their candidates to the polls as independents under the slogan "Islam is the Solution". With around 140 candidates, seven per cent of which are women, the Muslim Brotherhood are eyeing 50 per cent of the 88 seats they mastered in the 2005-2010 parliament. Dina Ezzat interviews some of the candidates Poised, calculated but still spontaneous, is perhaps the best way to sum up Sabri Khalafallah, a Muslim Brotherhood member who is standing for the People's Assembly in Ismailia. In his mid-50s, an engineer by profession, Khalafallah slowly sips his sweet Turkish coffee. He is dressed in a simple grey summer suit, wears a silver wedding ring and uses a mobile phone that costs no more than LE500. He looks, in short, like a typical, non-Cairene middle class professional. A student activist during the 1970s and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood since the early 1980s, Khalafallah has already served one term as a parliamentarian during which, he says, he made a sufficiently good impression on his constituents to be confident of being re-elected. When the Muslim Brotherhood first informed Khalafallah that he had been chosen to stand as an MP he was, he says, completely flabbergasted. "I always thought I was more of a person to give lessons at a mosque to better inform Muslims about their religion, not to run for parliament." But so he did. And he wants to do so again. In 2005, Khalafallah managed to beat Mahmoud Othman, an influential member of the ruling National Democratic Party, the son-in-law of late president Anwar El-Sadat and the son of the construction tycoon Othman Mohamed Othman. Khalafallah sees his victory in 2005 as evidence of the wide public support enjoyed by the Muslim Brotherhood. And over the last five years, he says, nothing has changed public sympathy for the group which is prompted by the wide network of social services it provides "at a time where the National Democratic Party government has failed to offer even basic services". During his five years in parliament Khalafallah is proud of the way the Muslim Brotherhood bloc challenged the government on matters "related to corruption", something that he says a majority of Egyptians are affected and offended by. Khalafallah praises Muslim Brotherhood MPs, himself included, for coordinating with other opposition MPs to promote laws related to civil rights, even if many of these motions, including a draft bill on the practice of political rights, were defeated. Man of challenge "God Almighty, you know that these hearts are joined in your love, obedience and the call for your cause; so please help us God and keep us assembled." So run the lyrics of the song that serves as a ring tone for the mobile of Ahmed Diab who will stand in the Qalioubiya district of Greater Cairo. In his early 40s, a professor of Chinese language at Ain Shams University, Diab is a talented public speaker. He looks his audience in the eye, and does not fail to pay attention to the setting for his talk. Before sitting for the interview and photos he makes sure that a small table is on hand, replete with a vase of artificial flowers, and the flags of Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood entwined. "This is the headquarters of the Muslim Brotherhood parliamentary bloc, of which I am the youngest member," he says. As he drinks his glass of tea Diab talks of how the "significant" role the Muslim Brotherhood plays in serving society makes it both eligible and capable of joining parliament. "The success we had in the 2005 elections was no small thing. We ran in 161 seats and won 88. And it is fairly widely accepted that had it not been for interventions against our candidates we would have won close to 140 seats." It is an open question, he adds, whether this success can be repeated on 28 November. Diab makes a sequence of comparisons between the run-up to the 2005 poll and now, concluding that there are more restrictions in place in an attempt to prevent Muslim Brotherhood candidates from securing public support. "After the 2005 elections the NDP became worried. It knew it was facing a real political contender, not an assumed opposition that failed to challenge the government." Diab remains willing to challenge the government. He has provided his constituents with a fact-sheet on what he did during his last five years as an MP for it is on the basis of his record, he says, that he hopes to be re-elected despite the restrictions he claims the authorities are imposing on his campaign. The doctor Determined, a little apprehensive but on the whole cool. There is nothing about Hamdi Hassan to distinguish him from the other inhabitants of his neighbourhood. He is overweight, bald and dresses modestly. Like most Alexandrians he moves his hands a lot while he is talking and unlike many Brotherhood members smiles a lot as he speaks, punctuating long sentences that otherwise stop only when he takes a sip of water. Recently Hassan has been in the headlines after accusing another member of the Muslim Brotherhood, his fellow Alexandrian Khaled Dawoud, of corruption. In his early 50s Hassan, a doctor by profession, has already served twice as an MP. He is fully aware that the coming ballot will be tough. "It will be conducted away from direct judicial supervision and against a backdrop of media restraints," he says. He nonetheless has "faith in the people's determination to protect the ballot boxes from rigging". Currently, Hassan is working on his campaign, meeting with voters to listen to their expectations and to alert them to what he fears might be dirty tricks, supervising the distribution of electoral flyers across his constituency and following up on the campaigns of his rivals. Born and brought up in one of Alexandria's less privileged neighbourhoods Hassan joined the Muslim Brotherhood in his teens. He has been committed to the organisation ever since. "The Muslim Brotherhoods treats Islam the way it should be treated, as a methodology for life. Religion is not just about prayers, it is also about politics and everything else in life," he says. Having already served twice as an MP Hassan is working hard to get elected for a new term. Hassan argues that even dissenting members of the ruling National Democratic Party fully support government policies when push comes to shove, even when they are as "strategically erroneous as giving priority to planting fruit over wheat". "But people need bread more than they want strawberries which is why they will vote for the Muslim Brotherhood over the National Democratic Party". Woman of difference Manal Abul-Hassan dresses simply, conservatively and elegantly. And in line with the widely adopted interpretation of Islamic law, she only reveals her face and her hands. Manal Abul-Hassan is one of over 150 candidates that the Muslim Brotherhood is fielding in close to one third of the contested parliamentary seats in elections due 28 November. A professor of mass media and communication at Al-Azhar University, Abul-Hassan speaks firmly -- if not abruptly. She has always been a sympathiser of the Muslim Brotherhood. "There are no women members of the Muslim Brotherhood," she says. In her early 50s, Abul-Hassan is married to a publisher who she does not want to identify as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. "This is not the point." However, she acknowledges that she grew up in a Muslim Brotherhood affiliated family, and insists that women who were brought up in this kind of environment are "different from other women in society, even those actively participating in the political opposition". This is the first time that Abul-Hassan has decided, or rather agreed, to run for election. But she says her nomination is only another political exercise for someone like herself who is widely engaged in the "political awareness process" and who is closely following matters of public concern as well as regional and international affairs. Abul-Hassan insists that as a woman candidate she would not pay exaggerated attention to women issues because as far as she is concerned what counts most is the rights -- political, social and economic -- of "every Egyptian citizen, whether a man or a woman, a Muslim or a Copt". "Equal rights, responsibilities and duties for all Egyptians" are the targets that Abul-Hassan, as Heliopolis candidate for the Muslim Brotherhood, will strive to meet. Poor observation of these rights, on the part of the state, prompts the migration of the country's "best brains", she argues. Abul-Hassan is keen to add, however, that any exercise of equal citizenship should not deviate from the precepts of Islamic Sharia law -- neither for women nor Copts. As such, Abul-Hassan says that if she becomes a legislator she would oppose Egypt's signing any international agreement on women's rights that deviates from the rules of Sharia law. Abul-Hassan says she is not for imposing the veil on non-Muslim women, and not even on Muslim women, who she prefers to call on "peacefully" to veil.
