otics may lead to future antibiotic-resistant infec - Kuwait Times

FRIDAY, MARCH 16, 2012
By Joseph Mayton
Rushing from one telephone call to
another, Bothaina Kamel casually tosses
her hair, as she answers questions from
incoming callers. She radiates a winning combination
of softness and power that in many
countries give her nothing less than a knockout
punch for politics. But here in Egypt, the
quick moving and energetic Kamel is facing
an uphill battle since she announced her
intention to run for Egypt’s top job last year. “I
want to help bring change to Egypt. That is it.
And I can do it,” she says, taking a moment to
sip a hot drink from a glass at her headquarters
in central Cairo. She told The Media Line
she doesn’t have time for pomp and circumstance.
“Leave that to the men. I’m here to
make a better country,” she says, grabbing
another incoming call, getting updates from a
march only a few blocks away. “It’s time to
go,” she says and quickly shakes hands and
jolts out of the room. Off to the barricades.
Kamel is no stranger to the frontlines of
protests, having been there in November for
the clashes on Mohamed Mahmoud Street in
central Cairo, then again less than a month
later when the military junta attacked a sit-in
at the cabinet building. In February, Kamel
was present, showing solidarity and support
for whom she calls “my fellow Egyptian fighters”
when clashes erupted near the Ministry
of Interior. She has been detained, beaten and
arrested by the country’s military. She has featured
in international media and has earned
the support she has through attending
protests, speaking to people in villages and
working for grassroots change in Egypt,
unlike any of the other candidates who have
nominated themselves.
The nomination expected to create a field
of about 10 or so serious contenders for the
office when voters go to the polls at the end
of May. Even though the revolution that led
to elections brought an end to Hosni
Mubarak’s rule, the front-running candidates
in fact are holdovers from the old regime. Amr
Moussa was head of the Arab League and foreign
minister under Mubarak. Mansour
Hassan was a minister under Anwar Sadat,
Mubarak’s predecessor, and Ahmed Shafiq, a
former air force commander who appointed
by prime minister in the final days of
Mubarak’s rule. Others are Islamists like Abdel
Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a former member of
the Muslim Brotherhood, and Hazem Salah
Abu Ismail, a prominent Salafist.
Still, with less than three months until
Egyptians take to the polls to elect a new
president, most average Egyptians have never
even heard of her. “Bothaina who?” they ask.
When told she is the woman who hosted a
call-in talk show a number of years back to
assist women with personal issues, sometimes
a light bulb goes off in recognition. “But she’s
running for president?” asks Mariam, a 47year-old
mother of four and housewife in the
Garden City neighborhood of Cairo. For her,
Kamel is not a politician, but a talk show host.
Nothing more. Apparently, the local press
tends to agree with Mariam. In the past few
months, not a single Arabic newspaper has
mentioned Kamel as a candidate for the presidency.
When her name comes up in their stories,
she is called an “activist”. Kamel insists
that she isn’t bothered by this. “My supporters
are growing and I believe in my mission.
Maybe I won’t win this time, but it is important
for women to be out there,” she added in
a later phone conversation.
A television host and activist for most of
her adult life, Kamel was born in 1962 and
graduated from Cairo University in 1983,
where she was active in the student union.
Although she has long been part of the media
establishment - anchoring a radio program
Opinion
Kamel’s lonely quest
for Egypt’s top job
The country’s only woman candidate for president can’t get the media’s attention
Egypt’s first female presidential hopeful Bothaina Kamel is seen after she
registered her name for the upcoming presidential elections in Cairo on
March 11, 2012. - AP
called “Midnight Confessions”, working as a
presenter for the Egyptian state television and
hosting the hit show “Please Understand Me”
on the Saudi-owned satellite TV channel Orbit
- she has long been indentified as a prodemocracy
advocate and for repeated conflicts
with the authorities. But being a woman
is not enough to get elected. Leading
women’s rights advocates in the country,
including Nawal Saadawi, have been apprehensive
about throwing their support behind
a female candidate simply because she is a
woman. “I must know her program before I
can support her,” Saadawi told The Media
Line.
This month, however, ahead of the official
nomination period, which began on March 10
and runs through April 8, Kamel issued a briefing
on her campaign’s platform. It was a daring
move because it was something her male
counterparts have refrained from doing, preferring
to refer to justice, freedom and
democracy than actually talking about their
platforms. She talks about a minimum wage,
rule of law, separation of religion and state,
and a civil society based on a constitution. At
a recent public talk, she spoke candidly about
the role of her candidacy as a means of boosting
female participation in Egypt’s future.
nevertheless, she concedes that her country’s
transition to democracy will be difficult.
Kamel says that while she opposed
Mubarak’s regime, she never imagined that
the revolution would occur as it did but warns
that it has yet to achieve all its goals. “The revolution
did stop, however, the planned succession
of power,” she says, referring to the
military’s takeover of power last February,
which removed the threat of Mubarak’s son
taking over. Still, the media rarely cover her
events, and when they do they are often condescending
to her as a female candidate,
often referring to her dress and appearance
instead of the substance of her remarks.
An assistant editor at a leading Arabic daily,
who asked not to be named due to the
sensitivity of his comments, told The Media
Line that this is the policy within the old
guard of newspapers. “Women have traditionally
- and are still today -considered to be
wives and mothers first. So when there is any
coverage of women in the political sphere,
there are ways of reporting it so they don’t
get the credibility they deserve,” the editor
explains. For this to change, “the local and
independent media must step in to fill these
gaps. The people at the top in most Arabic
newspapers are older men and they don’t like
to be stepped on, especially by influential and
powerful women.” That’s where Kamel’s candidacy
will be instrumental in changing attitudes,
she believes. “We can only do as much
as we are capable of doing and if it helps to
change a few peoples’ ideas about women
and government then that’s great. I will keep
fighting for what is right no matter what.”
Even if the media fail to give her the ink she
deserves. - Media Line