CAIRO: Firebrand Egyptologist Zahi Hawass has been replaced, one month after he was ousted in a Cabinet reshuffle. Egypt's Prime Minister Essam Sharaf replaced Hawass with Mohamed Abdel Fattah, the head of the antiquities sector at the Supreme Council of Antiquities, who will take over as Secretary-General of the organization. The SCA, which became a ministry in early February during the final days of Hosni Mubarak's rule in the country, is likely to return to its previous status, the Prime Minister's office said this week. At its headquarters in Cairo's upscale Zamalek neighborhood, it still shows “Minister of State for Antiquities” on its entrance. Abdel Fattah is not a well-known figure across Egypt, but archaeologists told Bikyamasr.com that they believe he will be a solid replacement and is not as controversial as Hawass. One German researcher in the country said that Abdel Fattah is “known to be a fair and honest man and is open to different opinions, unlike Hawass.” A number of archaeologists are excited with the change, hoping that it will enable greater discourse, which they say was stifled by Hawass' rule, where “too often opinions that were not in line with what he [Hawass] thought true were ridiculed and sometimes foreign workers were barred from digging.” Abdel Fattah told local newspapers that he would complete several unfinished construction projects, while cautioning that others would have to be postponed because of a lack of money. Much of the council's budget comes from ticket sales to museums and archaeological sites, and tourism to Egypt has been decimated by the revolution. Hawass is also facing an investigation over corruption charges, but in a recent post on his personal website, he denied the charges against him. Hawass is best known for his Indiana Jones-styled hat and his stalwart push to have Egyptian artifacts returned from museums abroad. However, he was also criticized greatly by those who worked for him or knew him as being “corrupt” and a close ally to the former government. He is also on the payroll of leading international institutes and reportedly earns over $10 million annually. BM
