Egypt’s Minister of Emigration and Egyptian Expatriate Affairs Nabila Makram responded on Thursday 25 July to recent reports in foreign media and on social media which claimed she threatened dissidents and critics of Egypt with ‘beheadings’ and ‘slicing of throats’. In a statement released to Egyptian Streets (available in full at the bottom of this article), the Minister said a number of media outlets had ‘not only misrepresented’ her statements ‘but have also misrepresented them to their readers’. The Minister said however that she could ‘understand how the phrase and gesture I made last be construed as offensive or insensitive’, adding that her ‘intention was not promote violence towards any Egyptian or foreigner’. Instead, the Minister explained that her use of the phrase ‘n2ata3hom’ (which strictly translates to ‘cut them’ but is commonly used in Egypt to mean ‘to challenge’, ‘to defeat’, ‘to prove wrong’ or similar sentiments in a competitive manner) was intended to show how protective Egyptians, particularly those living abroad, are about the image of their country. “I used a colloquial Egyptian-Arabic phrase and made a gesture that has since been taken out of context and its…
Egypt’s Nabila Makram: Claims I Support Violence Against Critics ‘A Misrepresentation’
July 25, 2019
