Here are the controversial statements of PM Hisham Qandil causing buzz in Egypt and anger in Bani Sawif governroate. It is transcribed in to English.
This is not edited. This is not parody or spoof. This is the Egyptian Prime minister speaking about Egypt and poverty!!
I do not know what to say except I feel sorry for him because he is appointed in the position that is bigger than his own political as well social capabilities. I do not know why he did not stop at saying 'I roamed Egypt especially Upper Egypt and saw extreme poverty and ignorance that do not
Now women in Bani Sawif are extremely angry and they have. He did not only describe them as dirty ignorant women but also he claimed that they are being raped in the fields. Another huge insult not to them but to their men , Upper Egyptian men.
It is worth to mention that for thousands of years Egyptian women used to work in fields and were not subjected to sexual harassment not to mention rapes !!
Hisham Qandil has not apologized for his statements.
By the way why on earth and heavens Hisham Qandil would watch the ladies breastfeeding in Bani Sawif and see whether they clean their breast or not !? It is not this rudeness considering the fact that he works in irrigation and is not a doctor or social researcher !?
This is not edited. This is not parody or spoof. This is the Egyptian Prime minister speaking about Egypt and poverty!!
I do not know what to say except I feel sorry for him because he is appointed in the position that is bigger than his own political as well social capabilities. I do not know why he did not stop at saying 'I roamed Egypt especially Upper Egypt and saw extreme poverty and ignorance that do not
Now women in Bani Sawif are extremely angry and they have. He did not only describe them as dirty ignorant women but also he claimed that they are being raped in the fields. Another huge insult not to them but to their men , Upper Egyptian men.
It is worth to mention that for thousands of years Egyptian women used to work in fields and were not subjected to sexual harassment not to mention rapes !!
Hisham Qandil has not apologized for his statements.
By the way why on earth and heavens Hisham Qandil would watch the ladies breastfeeding in Bani Sawif and see whether they clean their breast or not !? It is not this rudeness considering the fact that he works in irrigation and is not a doctor or social researcher !?
You should not be sorry for PM Qandil!You'd rather be sorry for us Egyptians!We most certainly deserve a lot better than this loser and those who rule our nation!@amrazim2808
ReplyDeleteNo my friend, Egyptians bought this on themselves by allowing ignorants (driven by outside money) to define religion for them as men growing beards and zibiba, women wera higab & niquab as definition of Islam.. You can hate, steal, envy, comit adultery as man, even kill it doesn't matter, as long as you kept you beard and higabfor your women, you are good Muslim. Allowing money to brainwash them to that magnitude open the door for outside evil forces maintainig Egyptians as backwards and undevloped. You wouldn't believe, but ask your mother or father, in the Egypt of the (1940th- 60th) women breast fed their babies on the busses/streetcars with almost no comment from outsiders (at leasr directly). How do you call Egypt then !!!!. At that time we were hepling Saudi Arabia !!! we moved way backward my friend ...
DeleteMy God this is SO!!! true.
DeleteI always wondered why Egyptians allowed themselves to be dictated to by Wahabi nut cases and don't revolt against it and demand niqabs be banned. It makes me sick to walk down any street and see these ignorant fools in niqabs who know nothing of Islam and are like robots just reciting and posturing without knowing what the hell Islam really means.
It's very sad to see Egyptian accept this Wahabi nonsense and it is true they have only themselves to blame.
Instead of blaming everyone else they should have stopped this cancer as it developed instead of leaving it to fester like an open sore and destroy society, values and morals.
Time they stood up and said no to niqab and all the other Wahabi nonsense.
That's where their voices should be right now.
Actually, its the aliens from Mars. They manipulate the Israelis who manipulate the Wahabi's who manipulate the Egyptians.
DeleteIts not the Egyptian people responsibility. Never.
At 1:40... that look of disgust and consternation on the women's faces. Haha.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that every Israeli must be loving every moment of this.
DeleteEgyptians are washing their dirty laundry in public and shaming the country before the world.
There is no doubt that every Israeli ( your enemy waiting to pounce and take over ) is loving every second of these kind of posts. There is nothing they love better than to hear Egyptians slowly chip away at the country destroying it bit by bit and they sit back and laugh.
The Egyptians need a wake up call because as they shifted their blame and hatred from the army to Morsi they forget that Egypts enemies are watching closley and loving the fragmentation. It's called divide and rule. They watch as you divide and then they move in to take over when the system is in total collapse.
Wake up Egyptians and stop the protests and build the country instead of ripping it apart piece by piece. Netanyahu is watching you each day closely loving the show!
You are wrong Anonymous2/08/2013 01:34:00 PM, Israelis would hate observing Egyptians criticizing themselves and discussing, diagnosing their country diseas invoked by the wahabis' money (with hidden Israeli's direction)because this is a sign of potential waking up and progessing. The main objectives for the scenario Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries are living in the last 10 yrs-till present is to keep them backward underdeveloped and not advancing. Otherwise, 7-8 millions Israelis will disolve into the culture of masses around them, no need for war !!!!. For this plan, the wahabbis aredoing their job.
DeleteCould it be that Qandil has information on who pays electricity and who doesn't in Beni Suef that we are not party to?
ReplyDeleteCould it be that Qandil has a report from ministry of health on unclean breasts and lack of hygiene cause diarrhea in breast fed babies?
What was the point of this post? I am confused?
Actually he said it clearly : during his work in 2004 "in the ministry of irrigation" he saw all these scenes allegedly in the governorate.
DeleteThe point of this post without any confusion is the fact I can publish whatever I want in my blog, cheers !!
no my dear i think the point is muck rake. I don't think much of or expect much from Egyptian politicians. In the kindest interpretation he is a little ignorant of the social circumstances of the rural population and too quick to blame women for hygiene related illness. So whats new an Egyptian male chauvanist.
DeleteHis reference to women being raped in fields is documented in the media. It is a growing problem one which he felt disgusting. You can't fault him on that especially as he was saying it in the context of urging non-violence.
I do not know if you mix up between Tahrir square and the recent sexual attacks in it and agricultural fields !! There have been no media report about women raped while working in the fields in Bani Sawif let alone the Upper Egypt !!
DeleteBy the way the farmers and Upper Egyptians are pissed off from what he said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nef1_fQaA6I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajqp0ikJ2vA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajqp0ikJ2vA
For thousands of years women in Egypt worked in farms and fields not to mention nursed children through out history with poverty very well I believe.
Anyhow he is the prime minister of Egypt , either he should know to say in the media properly or he leaves.
I think both anonymous & Latifa have missed the point of this ya Zeinobia .... what muck raking and 'reports' regarding who pays their bills and the cleanliness of women's breasts in Egypt??? For God's sake people this man is running our country, first of all he doesn't know how to speak and secondly he quite obviously doesn't know what to say... I repeat, think about it, THIS MAN IS RUNNING OUR COUNTRY!! Instead of starting with the incompetence of Egyptian woman and blaming them for their ignorance why not start with the incompetence of the government in not having water in the villages, in not educating the people, in not simply giving people their basic human rights ... why not just accept responsibility rather than blame women. I won't even go to the electricity bills ...for God's sake!! Raping in the fields, my God, are there any constructive comments that this little useless person can say ... anything at all, anything that might actually point to this equally useless government actually doing something about it rather than outlining the fact that the Egyptian people are ignorant and the state of the countryside is terrible!! Action, action, action ... talk about actual actions being taken to stop all of this. And before you all start ripping in to me saying that "they" inherited this mess from the previous regime, think about it, if you inherited a house from a long lost horrible relative, would you sit back and whinge and whine at it being filthy dirty or would you get on with doing something about your new responsibility and clean it up ???? This man is useless, this government is useless and together they are killing our country.
DeleteIt's interesting you blame a man who has been in office for all the problems of Egypt.
DeleteYou seem to forget this government inherited a collapsed country under 30 years of Mubarak. God himself would have to perform miracles to try to get the country out of the mess accumulated over 30 and even 60 years of military rule which destroyed the very foundation and fabric of the nation. How much money was left in Egypts bank on 11th February by Mubarak?
And you all have the nerve to accuse and blame the current government which has had to deal with daily protests and destruction of buildings and businesses by PROTESTERS!!!!
Yarab!
Ameeeeeen Anonymous!!!!!! Egypt is moving backward instead of forward, because all the government does is empty talk, nonsense talk ... They were so greedy for power now they got it and they don't know what to do with it because they are INCOMPETENT. God help the Egyptians to choose more wisely the next election round. I can't believe we are stuck with this government and our lovely president for the coming 3+ years :S ... And making the best of it by working with them is useless too, because they don't want to work together with other groups really!!!!
DeleteActually Dr. Qandil is totally aware of the causes of disease in children and the rest of your aren't! If you are not an expert in these fields, or have never lived in an Upper Egyptian village yourself, what makes you think you know more than he does? I'm sorry that such a serious problem that leads to the death and illness of many children is being made a mockery of by people like you, Zeinobia. Believe it or not, but ethnographic observational studies have shown that mothers in Upper Egypt do often engage in practices relating to hygiene that can cause diarrhea, which would be exacerbated by their lack of access to clean and constant water. There is a FOUR volume study entitled Sociocultural Factors Influencing the Prevalence of Diarrheal Disease in Rural Upper Egypt published by UNICEF in 1990, with the research conducted by Egyptians, that I would suggest you read before you make anymore uninformed remarks on this topic.
Delete@ Nicole Hansen: 1990?! You mention a study conducted 23 years ago, aka a whole rural generation back. I've been around too, to use the words of Qandil, and have been breastfeeding my children along with Upper Egyptian women much further South than Beni Sueif. Worldwide, breast feeding is considered most beneficial to children and contamination by dirty breasts is unheard of. What I did witness in Upper Egypt, however, was a trend to wean babies from the breast at around three months. From then on the mothers tend to feed them formula and solid foods. Bottle feeding was seen by them as more modest and modern than breast feeding, even though it is a well known fact that bottle feeding does entail real health risks to babies in the case of poor hygiene in cleaning the bottles, poor quality formula and lack of clean water. Qandils remarks may result in more diarrea cases if women feel even more inclined to use bottles because of these remarks.
DeleteAs Prime Minister of Egypt he should understand that Egypt has much bigger problems than 'dirty breasts'.
ReplyDeleteIt proves that he is limited in thought, depth and vision.
The Canadian.
With all due respect, as part of my own PhD I read a lot of ethnographic studies of diarrhea disease among children in Upper Egypt. What he says is completely supported by research and is partially a consequence of poor water facilities in rural areas. He was minister of irrigation so there is nothing strange about him being aware of this or talking about it. I for one am glad to see he is actually aware of the trouble that the water system is causing for vulnerable parts of the population. These are scientific facts, so please don't drag this down to an uneducated level of criticism.
ReplyDeleteI will repeat Anonymous comment, see below ... because surely there are many rural problems .. but the way Qandil adresses this is absolutely absurd!! and what indeed is the government doing to improve the situation there????
Delete'I repeat, think about it, THIS MAN IS RUNNING OUR COUNTRY!! Instead of starting with the incompetence of Egyptian woman and blaming them for their ignorance why not start with the incompetence of the government in not having water in the villages, in not educating the people, in not simply giving people their basic human rights ... why not just accept responsibility rather than blame women'
It's a soundbite. He is trying to simplify a complex problem down to one sentence for a press conference and therefore had to leave out a lot. I agree it could have been said better, but what is clear from all the commentary is that Prime Minister Qandil is more aware of some of the health problems in this country than all those commenting on what he said are. The truth is, many women are not aware of what can cause diarrhea in their children, and do engage in practices that are unhealthy. Just yesterday I was passing through Beni Suef on my way back to Cairo from Upper Egypt and women were washing their dishes in a canal with slow moving water where people had dumped lots of garbage. There are multiple health problems that could arise from this habit. Yes, it may be due to the lack of proper water and garbage disposal facilities but the prime minister is discussing the effects, not the cause, but having worked in irrigation all his career I think he probably assumes everyone knows the reasons for the health risks that he is talking about.
ReplyDeleteThe effects are clear, and have been since many years .. now instead of patronizing people in Beni Suwef, let's talk about solution and action!! And the lack thereof bothers many people who commented and 'are not or less aware of the problems' !!! Provide education and facilities just like a government ought to and not patronizing or simplifying the language .. He knows the effects but he was stuttering! Now where are the solutions?
ReplyDeleteHaving to deal daily with this government is a total disaster.They simply aren't going to benefit our country anything, they only want to make us weaker than ever to control us and carry on their own plan. A plan they have fabricated with their allies here in the USA. the whole world is laughing at us because of the silly comments and speeches made by those criminals ( like the president wonderful speech in Germany which degraded us- The Egyptians- of any sense of intelligence and made us all appear as stupid ignorants in front of the whole world ) . they're intentionally murdering our country.It's no longer the issue of what they will do to improve the circumstances of the Egyptians, they proved that THEY ARE WORTH THAN THE PREVIOUS SYSTEM so what is the difference that the revolution made or those martyrs died for nothing . I know that many will oppose this point of view but at least in the past we used to be a respected nation even with our poverty level and our dirty women. It's sad and heart breaking to see this president, his prim minster and the rest of them controlling this wonderful country and our strong nation, who have never been ruled by a true leader .
ReplyDelete