October 19, 2014
Friends,
colleagues and family members paid tribute to the Egyptian human rights lawyer Ahmed
Seif at a
memorial in September hosted by the AUC Law and Society
Research Unit and
Law Department. Seif, who died in August after complications during heart surgery at
age 63, earned his law degree in 1989 while in prison for social activism; he
gained fame for defending those persecuted in Egypt, including Islamists,
liberals, communists, and homosexuals. Among those honoring Seif was his son,
activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah. Abd El-Fattah himself was released
from prison on bail in mid-September; he has been charged with violating
Egypt’s Protest Law—a conviction carries a prison sentence of fifteen years.
“He was the most tolerant man I have ever seen, but he was not a superman,” Abd El-Fattah said. “He was an activist like us. When we were young, he talked to
us about the law. He told us about how important the law is, and how important
justice is.”
The
election in May of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi brought a measure of political
stability to Egypt after the tumultuous ouster of former President Mohammed
Morsi in 2013. But the economic challenges facing Egypt are mounting, with
unemployment at 13.3 percent; some 70 percent of the 3.7 million Egyptians without
jobs are between fifteen and twenty-nine years old. A recent panel discussion
at AUC’s School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, “Transforming Public Service:
Youth and Employment,” illustrated the depth of Egypt’s labor crisis. Ibrahim
Awad, director of
AUC’s Center for Migration and Refugee Studies, argued that safe working
conditions, paid leave, and employee rights—in addition to a living wage—need
to become standard practice in the country. Only about one in five workers in
the formal sector has access to medical insurance, paid holidays, sick leave,
and a pension, while half of Egypt’s labor force is in the informal sector with
no benefits at all, he said. Another core problem, according to Zeinab
Safar, professor
of mechanical engineering at Cairo University, is the low—25
percent—participation rate of women in the formal sector. “They are unused
human resources,” she explained. “We need a culture that accepts women in
leadership positions.”
Sandrine Gamblin is the new
director of AUC’s Middle East Studies
Center. Among her
goals is to adapt to a changing student profile. She said the center’s master’s
degree program is attracting more students from the global south. Unlike the
center’s traditional mix from Egypt and the United States, the new students
from countries such as Mexico and South Korea want to enhance political and
cultural relations between their countries and the Middle East. “Students’
career goals are changing, too,” she said. “They are not just interested in
going into social sciences and getting PhDs, but into careers in diplomacy and
non-governmental organizations.” Gamblin formerly served as an education
advisor at the French foreign ministry and coordinated the master’s degree in
international relations at the Université Française d’Egypte. She has also been
a researcher at the Centre d’Études et de Documentation Économiques, Juridiques
et Sociales in Egypt, and a consultant with the United Nations Development
Programme, United States Aid for International Development, and the
International Crisis Group.