CAIRO - Newly appointed Minister of Culture Gaber Asfour resigned on Wednesday, just nine days after taking the post. Asfour cited 'health' concerns for his decision to quit the Ahmed Shafiq Cabinet. He was appointed to head the Culture Ministry on January 31, when President Hosni Mubarak swore in a new Cabinet in a bid to restore order to the country following massive anti-Government protests. Close aides to Asfour, who had taken over the post from Farouk Hosni, said that he had submitted his irrevocable resignation to the Shafiq through his personal secretary, A.S., on Wednesday afternoon. The aides, who asked not to be identified, said that Asfour, also the Chairman of the Cairo-based National Centre for Translation, had been under pressure from Egyptian and Arab intellectuals, who chided him for accepting the ministerial post under the present circumstances. "About 38 Arab and Egyptian intellectuals, writers, and thinkers have blamed Asfour, known for his liberal and pro-democracy attitudes, for assuming a ministerial post in a cabinet, that was formed after the January 25 revolution," the aides said. The intellectuals, in a harshly worded letter, accused Asfour of betraying them, as well as giving up the principles and beliefs he has been promoting among the Egyptian intelligentsia and his Arabic language students at Cairo University since the 1960s, when he started his professional career as a writer, thinker and member of the teaching staff. Asfour, who submitted to the intellectuals' demands, reconsidered his ministerial post, especially after his demands to set up a civilian government and change the Ministry of Culture's discourse and mission statement were utterly rejected by the present Government, according to his aides. Asfour's office was out of reach despite many phone calls made to it.
