Doaa El-Bey witnesses historic developments: Egyptian women can now be appointed judges and the US sends Israel a stinging rebuke Newspapers hailed the constitutional court ruling appointing women as judges. Al-Ahram 's banner said, 'Women to be judges in State Council'. Al-Akhbar blared, 'Constitutional court ends differences over appointing women in judicial positions', and Al-Masry Al-Yom front paged with 'Constitutional court confirms women's right to be judges'. Samir El-Shahat chose to discuss what men or society in general think of women working in any job, judicial or otherwise. El-Shahat wrote that many men would tell you in confidence that they prefer that women stay at home. However, he said that this option was not possible because women are the sole breadwinners in many Egyptian families either due to the death or disability of the husband or because he decided to give up his responsibility by divorcing his wife or simply leaving her and their children to fend for themselves. Thus, El-Shahat concluded that the problem is not in women working as judges or any other job, but a culture that is deeply rooted in the minds of many Egyptian men against women going out to work. "Women's issues should not be discussed separately from men's issues. And the most important men's issue at present is how men think regarding women's work in general," El-Shahat wrote in the official daily Al-Ahram. The conference for constitutional reform, held by the coalition of four opposition parties -- Wafd, Tagammu, the Nasserist and Democratic Front -- this week failed to come up with clear demands for the government. Nabil Rashwan, who described the present political scene as critical, said conferences and meetings calling for political reformation have been held non-stop in Egypt throughout the last seven years. However, most people now have the general impression that the authorities allows conference organisers to say whatever they please as long as they continue to do whatever they want. The main issue that was thoroughly discussed during the present conference on the constitution, which was extensively covered by Egyptian and foreign newspapers and satellite channels, was whether the opposition should come out with a number of demands to the government and threaten to boycott the elections if the government does not respond. But many believe that that would not change the situation in any way. Changing the balance of power is the only way to force a real change: the weak state of the opposition parties gives more strength and legitimacy to the ruling regime, Rashwan elaborated in the independent daily Nahdet Masr. Many also believe that even if the constitution is amended, the ruling National Democratic Party will win next year's elections because all the interests of the public are in its hand. Still "conferences and meetings should continue in the hope of finding ways to reach what we want. We should look to the future, invest on youth who are the hope for any change, unite with all national powers to change articles 76 and 88 of the constitution, open the door for independent candidates and abolish emergency laws," Rashwan summed up. Writers paid tribute to the Grand Sheikh of Al-Azhar Mohamed Sayed Tantawi who died following a heart attack in Saudi Arabia. Mohamed El-Zorqani wrote that Tantawi assumed the two most important religious positions in Egypt: mufti and the grand sheikh of Al-Azhar. As the mufti, he made big changes in the position which was merely clerical before he took over. Tantawi made it a popular position by attending conferences across Egypt and issuing controversial fatwas -- religious decrees -- that he never backed down from despite several attacks launched against him. Under his presidency, Al-Azhar University started a new phase of development in thinking and the expansion of its buildings. As its grand sheikh, Tantawi continued issuing brave fatwas, took part in all religious occasions and kept his office door open to the public, El-Zorqani added in the official weekly Akhbar Al-Yom. He ended by praying to God to forgive this "respectable scientist" in an age in which scientists of his kind are rare. The Israeli practices in Al-Aqsa Mosque and building more settlements angered many writers who seemed to agree that the recent Israeli escalation would not help peace in the region. Fawzi Mekheimar wrote that whoever has followed developments in the region in the last two weeks would realise that Israel does not want peace and that Tel Aviv was just manoeuvring and trying to twist facts. Although Arab states agreed to give Israel one last chance by accepting to start indirect peace negotiations, and the US vice-president visited to pave the way for these negotiations, Mekheimar explained, Israel surprised the world by declaring that it would build 1,600 new settlement units. That Israeli behaviour, which included humiliating the US, its staunchest ally, harmed Israeli interests. "No doubt the Arab-Israeli conflict represents an obstacle to US interests in the Middle East. Thus the US has one option: to completely engage in ending the conflict and not giving in to Israeli manoeuvres," Mekheimar wrote in the official daily Al-Akhbar. The impact of the solar gas crisis that hit the country hard during the last two weeks is still being felt. Fattouh El-Shazli wondered whether it was a real crisis or a war against Minister of Petroleum Sameh Fahmi, and whether government ministers worked as a team to deal with the problem or the row exposed the differences among them. El-Shazli also questioned what Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif meant by stating that there were logistical reasons behind the solar shortage. What are these reasons, and why didn't Nazif explain them to the people? Are they so top secret that Nazif had to keep it from the public, El-Shazli asked in the daily Al-Wafd, the mouthpiece of the opposition Wafd Party. Nazif's statement was not the only obscurity; El-Shazli added that other ministers came up with published statements that revealed the differences among government ministers, statements like, "the crisis has a dangerous impact on development in Egypt and the petroleum sector could soon be the centre of an economic earthquake that would shake the Egyptian economy." "The solar crisis revealed the depth of the differences among government ministers and that they use the policy of hitting each other under the belt whenever possible," El-Shazli wrote, reaching the conclusion that the solar problem was not a crisis but a war among ministers that required the intervention of the prime minister to defuse it. Successive shortages in Egypt prompted Mustafa Shafiq to write in the same newspaper that the bread crisis was followed by the petrol crisis, then the gas cylinders, followed by the scarcity of solar at the gas pumps. "What," Shafiq asked, "will be the next crisis?"
