EGYPT'S Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif is due to marry a Ministry of Communications official on Tuesday in the historic Upper Egyptian city of Luxor ten months after his first wife died, a media report said yesterday. "Nazif will hold his wedding in a fabulous hotel in Luxor. He is expected to stay there for three days," Al-Fagr independent weekly added. It added that the hotel's administration had allocated a suite for the Premier at the hotel, where French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Italian wife Carla Bruni had also stayed. "He (Nazif) is also expected to give a lecture at the Luxor Youth Meeting, which will be attended by eight ministers and some senior officials," Al-Fagr said. Nazif's wife died last May, ten months before the announcement that he would marry deputy head of the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) Zeinab Zaki. While some Egyptians were glad to know that Nazif will walk down the aisle after the sad death of his first wife, others have been outraged by the announcement. Despite congratulating Nazif, independent lawmaker Moustafa Bakri, submitted an official inquiry to the Egyptian Parliament in protest at the announcement of the marriage. He declared that an issue such as this should remain personal, with Egyptians having many more critical concerns like poverty and corruption to deal with, rather than the marriage of a politician. "Will the Egyptians be happy to hear this?" Bakri said. Meanwhile, some Young Egyptians have started a Facebook group under the name ‘Why can Nazif get married while we can't?' "Egypt's youth, both males and females are crushed by economic crisis, and we wonder why Nazif can get married twice while we can't even afford to buy a wedding ring," wrote the Facebook group's creator. Marriage costs in Egypt have become too expensive for many, and with roughly 40 per cent of the country's 80 million population living on less than $2 a day and unemployment high, millions are not able to get married as a result of tough living. Nazif became the youngest serving prime minister in Egypt's history when he was asked by President Hosni Mubarak to form a Government in July 2004.
