The controversy over the son of a garbage collector who was not allowed to become a judge and a Christian who was not allowed to work as a gynecologist only proves that we are a schizophrenic society breathing racism and double standards.
Before you like the show we saw on TV against the Justice Minister’s provocative remarks, ask yourselves first if you really respect garbage collectors. Do you treat them well? Who rolls up the tinted glass car window in the face of the garbage collector who stands begging for crumbs at traffic lights? Are they not the same people who now denounce the minister’s remarks and yell how come a garbage collector’s son is not allowed to work in the judiciary?
One look at your backyards proves your double standards. Your are upper class doctors and lawyers living in expensively decorated apartments or seven-star condominiums with marble floors at your doorsteps, while your backyards are full of rubbish and filth.
This is a society that does nothing but talk. We will not believe that you denounce class discrimination unless you renounce sectarianism.
You know that it is a customary collective decision of all professors of gynecology not to appoint a Christian doctor in that department so as to spite the internationally renowned Dr. Naguib Mahfouz Pasha, the founder of this branch in Egypt? He was a Christian doctor who sent students of medicine to study abroad and gain more experience, regardless of whether they were Christians or Muslims.
Christian doctors specializing in this field know they have no chance. Some of them had to change their specialization, while others left the country to work abroad. Even the grandson of Dr. Naguib Mahfouz Pasha himself was denied appointment on the basis that it is haram (prohibited by Islam) for a Muslim woman to be examined by a Christian doctor.
There are other similar cases that my generation knows of, such as the case of Dr. Karim, the wonderful doctor with whom I had worked in the Department of Ophthalmology. He was appointed only when Pope Shenouda intervened personally. But he was still forbidden to perform surgery and subsequently left the branch altogether.
And there was the genius Dr. Mikhail who had to change branches and specialize in parasitology when the head of the dermatology department said he would be appointed over his dead body. He was my professor. He always had this sad look in his eyes.
Be honest and admit that you are racist, sectarian and snobbish to the core. Do not believe that you have suddenly changed and started to like garbage collectors and take selfies with them. Take off the mask and look in the mirror.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
