Following the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak, his name is disappearing from streets and public buildings across the country, reports Sarah Eissa "Mubarak Street. There's no Mubarak any more. Now it's Martyrs Street," said one passer-by of a street named after the former president who was ousted during the January revolution. Similar reactions have been noted across Egypt, with people wanting to rename schools, hospitals, streets, libraries and even a Cairo metro station carrying the name Mubarak. Images of the former president have also been removed from the streets and his name erased by protesters from marble inscriptions. There are still some places and locations bearing Mubarak's name, but there are also others that have got rid of it. The Mubarak Police Hospital, for example, has erased the name Mubarak from outside building, while leaving it in plain view within. People have also been expressing different opinion regarding leaving the name or removing it. Sayed El-Naggar, 77, a resident of Suzanne Mubarak Street in the Hadaiaa Al-Qobba district of the capital said that he had originally tried to stop the street being called after the country's former first lady, but that this had been insisted on by a former resident, a senior civil servant in the Ministry of Religious Endowments. "I tried to stop him, but he had the power to do what he wanted," El-Naggar said. Now, however, residents are joining together to rename the street. "There are great women the street could be named after," El-Naggar said, also complaining that the Police Academy still bore the name Mubarak Academy, even though it had had little to do with the previous president. Another resident of the area, Mohamed Sallam, agreed, adding that the street's name should now be changed. It should bear the name of a martyr or a famous historical person rather than the name of the former president's wife, he said. "We want it to be changed as an act of protest at what they did: they took everything we had and stole public money, such that many people are not even able to find food," added Umm Mohamed, a fruit seller. "The next president will have a palace in heaven if he is a good man. If not, then may God forgive him," she said. Ahmed Gamal, another resident, said that there had been no reason for the name in the first place, and now it should definitely be changed. "Ever since I have lived here, she did not do anything for the street or the district." El-Demerdash Pasha had given a building for a hospital, so it was only right that the hospital should be named after him. "Had Suzanne Mubarak done anything for the district, then it would be right for her name to remain, but she didn't," Gamal said. While the residents were willing to take steps to change the name, there were other more important things to think about for the time being, he added. Osama Ali, a taxi driver, said that in his view the Mubarak name should be removed from all establishments in the country. "A hospital could be named 'hope', but not 'Mubarak'." The president is supposed to work on behalf of the country, and people who work for the country should not expect streets and institutions to be named after them. "It's provocative now that everything still carries the Mubarak name," Ali said, adding that the only reason institutions had in the first place was because those that ran them wanted to cosy up to authority. The residents of Hosni Mubarak Street in the Cairo suburb of Madinet Nasr have taken the initiative and changed the name of their street to Shohadaa Al-Tahrir (Martyrs of the Liberation) Street. While they did not know who had come up with the new name, they were all happy to put up the new signs. "A benefactor did it," said Ahmed Rabie, a resident. El-Sayed El-Arabi, another resident and owner of a local supermarket, said that people had simply bought a sign and hung it up. He was sceptical as to whether the new name would make a difference, since people knew the street by its original name and could be reluctant to learn a new one. Adel Khamis, who works in the area, said that "the martyrs gave their lives for the people, but Hosni Mubarak didn't do anything that would justify his having a street named after him." Sayed El-Banna, another resident, had taken part in the 28 January demonstrations, the day protesters had been attacked by thugs. He had written a dedication on the wall for the martyrs, and he was adamant that everything that carried the Mubarak name should change it. "Why should we remember him, when he didn't do anything for us," he asked. However, Ahmed Abdel-Hadi, also a resident, was against changing the names. Mubarak served Egypt for 62 years, 32 of them as president. Former president Mohamed Naguib served Egypt for only one year, and his name has been used for a Cairo metro station, he said. Elsewhere in the capital, the Suzanne Mubarak Children's Museum has been closed, and it has no signs bearing her name, since it was under construction even before the revolution took place. "Because everything has changed, the name will probably eventually be changed as well," said Marzouk Hammed, who works in museum security. Hammed said that he personally believed that the name should not be removed everywhere, because Mubarak was a part of the country's history. "If we keep the name here and there, the coming generations will be reminded of the former regime and will understand why the revolution happened," he added. The Suzanne Mubarak Public Library in Zeitoun also presents an ambiguous case, since patrons of the library never associated it with Mubarak anyway. While the name of the institution will be changed, with Mubarak's picture having been taken down in the premises, "there is still debate about what we will now call the library," said Shaymaa Imam, deputy director of Heliopolis branch libraries. Imam said that she was proud of the library and those who worked in it, but she was not surethat a name change was appropriate. Corruption was endemic under the previous regime, and the name is just a name, she said. The library had been built by donations from abroad, and these would not have been forthcoming had Suzanne Mubarak not provided the contacts. She had been honorary chair of the library, Imam said, but people had not associated the library with the regime, and it had not been attacked during the revolution, unlike the police station in front of it. Library visitors and staff are divided over the need for a name change, she said. The library building is owned by the state, and it had been natural under the previous regime to name it after the wife of the president, who had been head of state. For her, the name was "part of history, and it shouldn't be changed." The goals of the library had nothing to do with its name anyway. "It's going to be difficult to make the change after all these years," said Mohamed Agami, a member of the library. According to Said Fayed, the library's security director, what took place over the last 30 years had made people hate the name Mubarak, but it would be hard to eradicate the name since it was on establishments across Egypt. In any case, he said, the name was unimportant: what was important was what these establishments did, he said. On a parallel note, the name Mubarak has been erased from the sign of the Mubarak Tajribya School in Madinet Nasr, even though the name still appears elsewhere on the premises. According to Raafat Ramzi, the school's director, some students had demonstrated in front of the school, demanding that the name be changed, and they had defaced the sign to black out the name. The school has now asked the education administration to change the name. "Changing the name will need official approval," Ramzi said, and it would need to be done on all official documents before it could take effect. "No one refuses to change the name. It's just that this will take time to be done properly," he said. According to Medhat Mosaad, Cairo director of education, plans are afoot to remove the name Mubarak from schools across the city in response to demands from parents and others. The Ministry of Education has also announced that it was leaving it to the governorates to make the necessary changes, he said, approving and choosing new school names in their jurisdictions. When asked for his personal opinion about the removal of the name, Mosaad said that "we are now in a period when people's opinions are very important, so if there is a collective demand we must respond to it." Khaled Mustafa, public relations director for the Cairo governorate, said that no decision had been taken on an official level always to remove the name Mubarak. Should people want names to be changed, the best way to do so would be to go through the official channels, he said, with a request being submitted through the local council to the governorate. Historians and others on an official naming council should then decide on a new name to replace that of Mubarak. He personally believed that the ex-president's name must be removed. "There is no shortage of other names after all," he said.
