Piracy, political reform and gruesome murders jostle for position in the print media, write Gamal Nkrumah and Mohamed El-Sayed The true nature of the seemingly smooth relationship between Egypt and Saudi Arabia preoccupied the pundits. The two countries are close allies, and indeed the press hinted that President Hosni Mubarak was about to pay a visit to the much-venerated kingdom in the weeks ahead. Egypt and Saudi Arabia are the cornerstone of pan- Arab solidarity and the consensus among Egyptian commentators was that they must collaborate more closely on a plethora of international issues. They have been working tirelessly and consistently on the resolution of the Palestinian political conundrum and other pan-Arab crises. Cairo and Riyadh see eye to eye on many issues of mutual concern, but there are undeniable underlying dynamics that do not augur well. The fracas over the public lashing of two Egyptian medical practitioners working in Saudi Arabia scandalised many Egyptians and political commentators protested in choleric editorials that Egypt should not be used as a whipping boy. The kingdom came under a barrage of criticism in the Egyptian press. The prevailing feeling was that just because Saudi Arabia is awash with oil money doesn't mean it can throw its weight around and treat others like dirt. More ominously, the Saudis were blamed for much of the social ills facing Egypt today. They have long supported outlawed organisations such as the Muslim Brotherhood. Or, at least certain sections of the vast ruling Al-Saud family had bankrolled the Brothers in the past and perhaps still do, some commentators insinuated. The Saudis also introduced strange ideas that were meant to further the cause of their strict Wahabist ideology. They propagate a version of Islam that was alien to most Egyptians. It is against this backdrop that statements by leaders of the Muslim Brothers aroused much curiosity. The Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood Mohamed Mahdi Akef was quoted in the daily independent Al-Masry Al-Yom as conceding that President Mubarak's son, Gamal, is fit to be president and that the movement does not officially object to his presidency. However, the Brotherhood's support for Gamal was not unconditional. "The Muslim Brotherhood accepts the idea of Gamal Mubarak's candidacy for president on condition that his father leaves office first," Akef was reported as saying. Once again, the coincidence of foreign and domestic concerns came to the fore. The issue of piracy in the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden preoccupied the pundits. The consensus was that piracy would seriously impact the Egyptian economy, slashing foreign exchange earnings from the Suez Canal. Writing in the daily official Al-Ahram, Ahmed El-Sayed El-Naggar argued, "all the oil and non-oil trade coming from the Persian Gulf and some South Eastern Asia countries heading for the Americas, Africa and Europe either through the Suez Canal or through the Cape of Good Hope must pass through the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea. Therefore, the talk about piracy attacks in both of them, that they will lead to the changing of the route of ships from the Suez Canal to the Cape of Good Hope, is absurd." That, of course, would have serious ramifications for the Egyptian economy. Issues of purely domestic concerns also preoccupied the political commentators, especially women writers and journalists of both sexes interested in gender issues. Writing in the daily leftist Al-Badeel, Nawal Darwish reflected on the abuse of women's bodies in patriarchal societies like Egypt. "Women's bodies are sometimes considered a machine for the production of babies... another function of their bodies is providing men with sexual pleasure, and sometimes they are used as a commodity in ads, soap operas and movies, video clips and pornography... "However, in the past few years women's bodies in Egypt are being used in a new way -- breaking the will of those who refuse to be oppressed. A clear example is the harassing of women in Arish and other villages [by security forces] to punish their husbands... we are going through a new era where women's bodies are being used differently." The writer provided another piece of evidence by citing the harassment of females protesting against constitutional amendments in front of the Press Syndicate. "Also, attempts were made to strip the clothes off two female workers in Mahala Spinning Company... let alone collective sexual harassment [in Cairo streets]... these are but examples of how women's bodies are abused by the public and the government through systematic practices aimed at humiliating and oppressing them." It is in this context that the gruesome knife slaying of two young female university students, one being the daughter of the famous Moroccan singer Laila Ghufran, astounded the pundits and outraged the Egyptian public. There was much speculation about the nature of the murders. The murderers, the commentators concurred, were depraved, heartless killers.
