Freedom and justice and the policy of the bikini!

I was astonished by the chivalry statements of a leader of Freedom and justice party issued of Moslem Brotherhood, in which he claims for respecting habits and traditions of the Egyptian society, the society of religious humans instinctively that is attached to his cults and traditions!

These statements were launched during a general meeting aiming at examining the vision and policy of Freedom and justice party to face the actual situation in the Egyptian society and how the party could face it intellectually to find possible solutions for all social, economic and security problems.

What I was astonished about was the issue presented by the general secretary of the party regarding the subject of habits and traditions, and restraining tourists to respect values of the Egyptian society. He stressed on forbidding wearing bikinis and drinking alcoholic beverages!

When I meditate on the terms "freedom & justice", I understand that the man who adopts such policy respects applying and incarnating the concept on freedom and justice in the reality. How should I impose to the tourist this closed-minded thought in his dressing, his food and his beverage? I remember that when a European man pulled out the veil of a woman in a western country, he has been arrested and paid a fine for this behavior.

Simultaneously to the issue of bikinis and alcohol, some leaders claim for selling Egyptian archeological treasures because they represent the history of idolaters. They ask for eliminating an era of our glorious history, covering statues with wax… All this shows to what extent our intellectual, psychic and practical level has reached. It also shows deterioration of education and opening to modern society. The Egyptian human context pretends it is the superficial society of virtues. This means it is attached to the form and not the essence.

On the other hand, how could we develop opening and tourism attraction with our historical and civilization potentials and authentic treasures that Egypt possesses? Is it right to impose to visitors of our country conditions for dressing, food and beverage? Tourism is considered an important resource of income. It is one of the pillars of the Egyptian economy. We receive more than 12 billion dollars per year from tourism. More than 40 % of the Egyptian manpower works in tourism market. The nature of offer and demand of this resource affects the rise of the number of visitors of our dear country. The freedom of the investor, beneficiary and buyer is above all superficial principles with which we justify our way of exposing potentials of unapplied virtue or our commitment to superficial religious principles!

I stress on credibility of the method of offer and demand that is founded on realistic and attractive basis. Based on these dimensions, the human being reacts with the context he deals with and lives in it for some time. The private and collective human communication is among the best factors influencing publicity and attraction. The human being communicates, transmits and defines his feelings to others. Modern means like Face book, Twitter and others contributed to launching revolutions from which is issued the Arab spring in our region that is fired by ambitions of change, eliminating oppression, unveiling corruption of the regimes, and pushing to incarnation of freedom and democracy.

We meditate on our contexts in Egypt during 30 years of oppressing regime that has stolen all goods of the country. The regime was based on religious laws. Governors have sworn on sacred books. What was the result? Abuse, monopolization, corruption and loss of the greatest power in the society which is the Egyptian human being! Look at the nature of education and applying the dimensions of freedom, justice and equality!

How could the policy of the bikini meet all societal and humanitarian necessities, in order to reach prosperity and development of the Egyptian human being? Stop non creative illusive orientations that push us to era of ignorance and regression.

Magdy Garas

9/9/2011