I noticed during a demonstration against the Gaza war that the National Democratic Party distributed among the demonstrators Egyptian flags that were printed upside down. Actually, our flag does not represent us at all. The Brazilian flag is yellow and green, the Argentine is blue and the Israeli has the Star of David. Yet our flag has no symbol that represents anything Egyptian. It is red and black and white, sometimes with a hawk in the middle, other times with an eagle, and yet other times with two or three stars. What do these colors have to do with Egypt? Also we do not have eagles or hawks here. The only famous hawk we have is Horus of the Pharaohs, which is now the symbol of EgyptAir. Yet Egypt is full of symbols that distinguish it from other countries. If you asked a child in primary school to reflect Egypt in a drawing, it would draw a blue strip surrounded by green from both sides and then by yellow. The blue represents the Nile, the green represents the agricultural land and the yellow represents the desert. If you asked an older boy in secondary school, he would probably draw the pyramids or some temple. I had said that at a luncheon in Washington with the Egyptian ambassador at the time. There was a man who introduced himself as a former intelligence officer. That man did not like what I said. He said this was the flag beneath which we have fought during the October War. It must stay as it is to epitomize our victory forever. So I realized that I have entered a mine field with that innocent remark of mine, although his reasoning was not convincing. He and the ambassador looked at me as if I was some traitor. The Egyptian flag was changed several times. There was the red flag of the Ottoman Empire era with a crescent in the middle. Then there was the flag of the Mohamed Ali family with its green color and crescent. And there was the flag at the time of Sadat with the hawk on it. Now we have the flag with those colors and the eagle since 1984. Frankly, I do not see any relation between Egypt and the colors of each of these flags. A flag must symbolize the country, not have abstract and meaningless colors.
I remember as a kid I was told the black is the symbol of the dark times, the white is the symbol of the new era and the red is the color of the blood of our martyrs. Does this not apply to any other country in the world? Why should this specifically distinguish Egypt? In totalitarian societies like ours, one cannot dare ask such questions. When I say totalitarian, I do not mean just the government, for dictatorship in our country has become a social phenomenon. We are all dictators that silence each other on behalf of the government. Society here represents the regime, not the other way round. At any rate, the point I want to make is that Egypt deserves an everlasting flag that symbolizes and distinguishes it.
