Culture and lifestyle during Morsi’s reign
http://www.dailynewsegypt.com/2013/06/30/culture-and-lifestyle-during-morsis-reign/
On the first
anniversary of Mohamed Morsi’s rise to power, we review the decisions and
changes that shaped the lifestyle and culture of Egyptians. Over the past year,
there has been a steady trend of hostile or distrustful treatment of artists
and media figures by the public and government, starting from the first months
of Morsi’s tenure.
In June 2012, although no governmental decisions were made
regarding culture, a change in the general mood and reaction to art was
tangible, with some reports of hostile feedback from the public regarding
cultural events. One incident took place when a passerby was irritated by a
dance show, saying it was inappropriate.
One of the first acts of the censorship authority under Morsi’s
administration was to ban the import of the history book, A History of the
Modern Middle East, by Martin Bunton and William Cleveland, in August. The
authority failed to cite the reason for its decision, although the book was
reportedly used at the American University in Cairo.
In October, the censorship authority rejected a film script
by Amr Salama about positive discrimination of Copts in Egypt, on the
grounds that it would incite religious discrimination. In November, the
authority proposed changes to director Mohamed El Sharkawy’s play Ashekeen
Torabek, due to scenes that criticised the regime, but after much media
attention the play was staged without any changes. In March 2013, director Amir
Ramses’s documentary, Jews of Egypt, was banned from being screened by Egyptian
National Security, which later relented, and the film was shown in cinemas.
The past year also witnessed attacks on media figures,
including television personalities Khaled Saleh and Youssef Al-Hosseini. Saleh
filed a lawsuit in which he accused Freedom and Justice Party members of
inciting violence against media personalities.
In October 2012, Tawfiq Okasha was accused of insulting the
president, but was later found not guilty. In November 2012, the satellite TV
Dream channels were forced to stop broadcasting by the Egyptian Radio and
Television Union (ERTU), and TV anchor Lamees El-Hadedy was investigated for
contempt of religion. In March and April, comedian Bassem Youssef was accused
of insulting the president and Islam, and the government threatened to shut
down the channel on which the show is broadcasted.
The music scene received its share of difficulties, in one
instance a concert in Minya was cancelled because part of the performance
included Christian hymns. A Freedom and Justice Party lawyer issued a complaint
against Sawy Culture Wheel for hosting “devil worshippers,” when they staged a
heavy metal concert last September. In October, the musicians syndicate
cancelled some concerts at the venue of
musicians who were not affiliated with the organisation, damaging the
underground music scene.
Visual art was not immune to criticism either; in December
2012 cartoonist Doaa El-Adl and Al-Masry Al-Youm were sued by Salafi lawyer and
“secretary-general of the National Centre for Defence of Freedoms” Khaled
Al-Masry, citing that El-Adl’s cartoon of Adam and Eve was insulting. In
January 2013, Sawy Culture Wheel refused to exhibit the cartoons of Samah
Farouk because they criticised the Muslim Brotherhood.
In May 2013, Morsi appointed Alaa Abdel Aziz as minister of
culture, who proceeded to remove some prominent intellectuals from their
positions, which caused uproar within the artistic community. Notably, the
latest removal was of Dr. Ines Abdel Dayem, the head of the Cairo Opera House,
which triggered a strike at the house, and lead to a sit-in at the Ministry of
Culture and another sit-in in Alexandria,
demanding Abdel Aziz’s dismissal. The sit-in in Cairo is on–going, and each night dance and
musical performances are staged in front of the ministry.