Pavement is home for angry Egyptian protesters
Mona Salem
AFP - 9 hrs 39 mins ago
Mervat Rifai, a 34-year-old mother of three, has like dozens of other civil servants and labourers been camping outside Egypt's parliament building for weeks demanding better working conditions.
She, like her fellow campers who have made the pavement their home, is determined not to leave until her voice is heard.
Rifai left her children with family and neighbours in her small town in the Nile Delta governorate of Beheira to join the sit-in.
"They totally ignore our claims. But we will stay here, because after all this I refuse to go home empty handed," said Rifai, who works for an organisation affiliated to the agriculture ministry.
For more than a month she and her fellow demonstrators have occupied the pavement in front of the People's Assembly 24 hours a day, sleeping on the ground and using the ablution facilities of a nearby mosque.
"Our salaries are somewhere between 60 and 95 Egyptian pounds (11 and 18 dollars) a month," Rifai lamented.
The parliament building, in the heart of Cairo, has for several weeks also become the focal point for dozens of impromptu protests by Egyptians confronted with unemployment and the high cost of living.
State employees, workers struggling since the privatisation of their factories, and disabled Egyptians demanding respect for their rights have demonstrated tirelessly in front of the building.
The protests and sit-ins, which the police have so far tolerated, reflect the profound social malaise in a country where, despite five years of economic reform, nearly 40 percent of the population live around the poverty line.
The discontent has not yet led to the wider civil disturbance that rocked the nation in the 1970s, with the phasing out of subsidies on food prices, or the strikes that affected Egypt's industrial regions in 2007 and 2008.
But inflation at around 10 percent, price spikes and a shortage of certain basic goods, including household gas, diesel and beef, have heightened the sense of exasperation felt by swathes of Egyptians already struggling to make ends meet.
On March 30, a court asked the government to agree to a new minimum wage, which has been fixed at 35 Egyptian pounds (6.3 dollars) a month since 1984.
On Sunday, several hundred protesters gathered outside government offices in central Cairo, amid a heavy police presence, to demand a minimum monthly wage of 1,200 pounds (216 dollars).
Egypt's state minister for economic development Osman Mohammed Osman has indicated that a minimum stipend of 450 pounds (82 dollars) a month is being considered.
Among those staging a protest in front of parliament are employees of an Egyptian company that manufactures telephones who have gone unpaid for four months. The Masara company was privatised in 2000 and has since suspended operations.
"The boss says to us: 'The government sold you, why do you think I should hire you?'," said factory worker Hisham Higazi, 39.
"He deliberately suspended operations, on the grounds that the factory was losing money, in order to sell the land on which it was built," said Abdullah Khauli, 43, who worked for the company for 16 years.
But an engineer from the same company, which employs around 1,200 people, said the factory's closure was due to globalisation and the opening up of Egypt's economy to world markets.
"The handsets the factory produced were not able to compete with Chinese telephones flooding the Egyptian market."
Disabled Egyptians have also joined the protest outside parliament.
"Our demands are simple. We want housing and the application of the law stipulating that five percent of jobs should be reserved for disabled people," said Mahrussa Salem Hassan, 20.
"Why are the disabled being denied the right to health care when the wives of ministers get medical treatment worth millions of dollars at state expense?" she asked, refering to press reports to that effect, which the government has not denied.
Mona Salem
AFP - 9 hrs 39 mins ago
Mervat Rifai, a 34-year-old mother of three, has like dozens of other civil servants and labourers been camping outside Egypt's parliament building for weeks demanding better working conditions.
She, like her fellow campers who have made the pavement their home, is determined not to leave until her voice is heard.
Rifai left her children with family and neighbours in her small town in the Nile Delta governorate of Beheira to join the sit-in.
"They totally ignore our claims. But we will stay here, because after all this I refuse to go home empty handed," said Rifai, who works for an organisation affiliated to the agriculture ministry.
For more than a month she and her fellow demonstrators have occupied the pavement in front of the People's Assembly 24 hours a day, sleeping on the ground and using the ablution facilities of a nearby mosque.
"Our salaries are somewhere between 60 and 95 Egyptian pounds (11 and 18 dollars) a month," Rifai lamented.
The parliament building, in the heart of Cairo, has for several weeks also become the focal point for dozens of impromptu protests by Egyptians confronted with unemployment and the high cost of living.
State employees, workers struggling since the privatisation of their factories, and disabled Egyptians demanding respect for their rights have demonstrated tirelessly in front of the building.
The protests and sit-ins, which the police have so far tolerated, reflect the profound social malaise in a country where, despite five years of economic reform, nearly 40 percent of the population live around the poverty line.
The discontent has not yet led to the wider civil disturbance that rocked the nation in the 1970s, with the phasing out of subsidies on food prices, or the strikes that affected Egypt's industrial regions in 2007 and 2008.
But inflation at around 10 percent, price spikes and a shortage of certain basic goods, including household gas, diesel and beef, have heightened the sense of exasperation felt by swathes of Egyptians already struggling to make ends meet.
On March 30, a court asked the government to agree to a new minimum wage, which has been fixed at 35 Egyptian pounds (6.3 dollars) a month since 1984.
On Sunday, several hundred protesters gathered outside government offices in central Cairo, amid a heavy police presence, to demand a minimum monthly wage of 1,200 pounds (216 dollars).
Egypt's state minister for economic development Osman Mohammed Osman has indicated that a minimum stipend of 450 pounds (82 dollars) a month is being considered.
Among those staging a protest in front of parliament are employees of an Egyptian company that manufactures telephones who have gone unpaid for four months. The Masara company was privatised in 2000 and has since suspended operations.
"The boss says to us: 'The government sold you, why do you think I should hire you?'," said factory worker Hisham Higazi, 39.
"He deliberately suspended operations, on the grounds that the factory was losing money, in order to sell the land on which it was built," said Abdullah Khauli, 43, who worked for the company for 16 years.
But an engineer from the same company, which employs around 1,200 people, said the factory's closure was due to globalisation and the opening up of Egypt's economy to world markets.
"The handsets the factory produced were not able to compete with Chinese telephones flooding the Egyptian market."
Disabled Egyptians have also joined the protest outside parliament.
"Our demands are simple. We want housing and the application of the law stipulating that five percent of jobs should be reserved for disabled people," said Mahrussa Salem Hassan, 20.
"Why are the disabled being denied the right to health care when the wives of ministers get medical treatment worth millions of dollars at state expense?" she asked, refering to press reports to that effect, which the government has not denied.
