Web cats

The brief arrest of a web designer last week raises questions about Internet freedoms in Egypt. Amira Howeidy reports on a pressing concern for the local web community
"He is Egypt's first web prisoner of conscience," quipped one recipient of the news that a web designer was arrested last week, charged with posting an indecent poem on the Internet. Although the incident was not entirely unique -- people have been hounded in the past for posting Internet content deemed to be offensive to public morals -- the case of Shohdy Naguib, Al-Ahram Weekly's 39-year-old web master, is different because it relates to freedom of literary expression.
Shohdy Naguib was taken from his home by police in the early hours of 22 November. He was accused of posting a poem by his late father, Naguib Surur -- a renowned poet, playwright, theatrical critic and actor who died in 1978 -- on a Web site. Naguib denied connection to the site. Although the prosecutor ordered his release on bail on the very same day of his arrest, Naguib remained in custody until 25 November, three days later.
The poem in question, known as the Ummiyat , was written by Surur between 1969 and 1974. It uses strong and bitter language to express the author's frustration with the Egyptian establishment following Egypt's defeat by Israel in the Six Day war of 1967, and also expresses frustration on other issues. The poem is hosted by wadada.net, where it is specifically marked as "shock poetry." The Web site clearly warns visitors that they are about to read expressions that they "may find unacceptable and even obscene." The poem has been online for the past three years.
Although Interior Ministry officials deny that they have an Internet monitoring unit, it appears from the activities of security authorities that the virtual world is very much on their agenda. Vice police have been particularly active recently, arresting people responsible for homosexual and pornographic Web sites.
Egypt has no laws governing Internet use specifically. The only e- legislation that is currently close to seeing the light of day is a draft bill governing e-commerce and online transactions. The Egyptian cyber- community is on tenterhooks as it waits for parliament to debate the draft.
Naguib's legal representation is being handled by Hafez Abu-Se'eda, secretary-general of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR). Abu-Se'eda explained that his client stands accused of slandering public figures and of the possession of indecent material. The case is pending and the prosecutor is empowered to refer it to court or shelve it, said Abu-Se'eda. Naguib faces up to two years in prison if found guilty.
"This episode will most probably intimidate Internet users who participate in discussions in virtual forums and who express their views freely in cyberspace," according to Internet expert Ayman Al-Sayyad, who is managing editor of the cultural monthly Wughat Nazar.
The arrest seems to push Egypt towards an age of Internet control. Will Egypt become another Cuba, China or Saudi Arabia? "These countries have a clear and announced philosophy regarding Internet control, while Egypt officially has no regulation at all," Al-Sayyad told Al- Ahram Weekly. Moreover, he argued, the recent strategy of arresting the designers of Web sites deemed indecent in an attempt to protect public morals "has not proved to be effective because what many fail to understand is that the virtual world is a new world that requires new tools tailored specifically for it. We cannot apply the rules of our real world to the Internet." According to Al-Sayyad, "in the real world, arresting a thief or a murderer will mean stopping a crime -- but this is not the case in the virtual world." Al-Sayyad noted that Naguib's arrest "did not make the offending site or poem disappear from cyberspace."
The arrest, said Al-Sayyad, also raises questions about the effectiveness of Internet control and monitoring. "As I see it, Internet control where the objective is not achieved is simply a waste of money and resources." In this case and other cases, he said, "the security apparatus was attempting to protect society from what it deems immoral or indecent, but its failure to do so is obvious because there are literally thousands of alternative sites around which display content that is equally morally offensive, if not more so." There are also sites with "politically sensitive content that explicitly attacks certain government regimes."
Although many doubt that the security apparatus is completely aware of the dynamics of the virtual world, there are others, Abu- Se'eda among them, who believe that it is indeed aware of the complexity of Internet cases despite the absence of Egyptian laws to organise its usage. "In Naguib's case, it is the technical aspect of the Internet which is more problematic for them. They can't prove it is his Web site, although they seem convinced that it is -- and they're stuck," he explained.
Naguib agrees. "The Internet is a virtual place where copies of everything proliferate. There are no Internet authorities as such, with the exception of those whose task is to make the net function. It doesn't have an owner, and won't unless a super-power emerges to control it," he told the Weekly. Cyberspace, he argued, belongs to all those who participate in it. "We cannot let it be a playground where only cats are allowed in and mice are banished."
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Rebel with a cause 22 - 28 October 1998
Naguib Surur and his works 22 - 28 October 1998
Related links:
Wadada.net
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