Safaa Al Hashim, Kuwait’s only female MP, is notorious for her populist comments against expats, including recommending that expats should be banned from obtaining driving licenses and be taxed to walk on the streets – AFP
CAIRO – 13 November 2018: “The dignity of Egyptian citizens and Egyptian women in specific is a red line. However, we respect Kuwaiti authorities and judiciary.”
Although these words spoken by Egyptian Minister of Immigration, Nabila Makram, over the assault of an Egyptian expat could seem satisfying to all parties, a Kuwaiti MP has been angered by the minister’s remarks.
Fatma Aziz, an Egyptian expat residing in Kuwait, posted a video earlier where she said that a Kuwaiti woman biker had hit her youngest child before she fought with her for shouting. The Kuwaiti woman was accompanied by four others who shoved Aziz to the ground and stepped on her face, according to Aziz. Her hair was torn out,her finger was broken, and her body became covered with bruises.
“Dear minister of immigration or minister of dignity,” Safaa al-Hashim, the only female member to be elected to the Kuwaiti Parliament said, referring to Minister of Immigration and Egyptian Expatriates Affairs Makram.
“Since you respect the Kuwaiti authority and the Kuwaiti judiciary, it was better not to address the issue of dignity [or address] feelings, as you knownthat the Kuwaiti authorities and the Kuwaiti judiciary are keen to preserve the dignity of people.”
Hashim said there is no need to achieve political and media gains through addressing the dignityof people “who we have been generous to more than their own countries.”
Hashim also referred to the death of Mariam Mostafa, an Egyptian engineering student who died earlier this year after she was beaten in Nottingham, UK, by 10 British women of African descent, asserting that Makram did not speak about “dignity” following the accident.
هذا رأيها وليس رأي كل الناس صفاء الهاشم واحده من خمسين عضو في مجلس الامه ومتاح لها الكلام بحريه وإنتقاد النائبه صفاء للعماله المصريه والوزيره ليس له علاقه بما يربطنا كشعب مع مصر وشعبها لنعتبر هذه قضيه فرديه غير مؤثره علي مانكنه لمصر وأهلها ومايكنه الشعب المصري لنا علاقتنا مجذره
Ahmed al-Jarallah, the Kuwaiti newspapers Arab Times’ chief editor, commented on Hashim’s attack on Makram, saying on Twitter that criticizing the Egyptian working expats and the minister has nothing to do with the relations between the peoples of the two countries.
“Let us consider this issue as [personal] and ineffective” to the Kuwaiti relations with Egypt and the Egyptian people, Jarallah said.
Spokesman of the Egyptian Parliament Salah Hasballah commented on Hashim’s remarks, saying that the MP is not fully aware ofthe strong historical relationship between Egypt and Kuwait.
In an interview with Ahmed Moussa on Sada al-Balad on Monday, Hasaballah denounced Hashim’s “inappropriate” remarks, adding that the Kuwaiti MP’s statement contradicts with the Egyptian policy that does not accept insulting an Egyptian expat abroad.
The Egyptian state, especially under President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, does not allow insulting the Egyptian citizen in any of the world’s countries, stressing that the Kuwaiti people and leadership will respond to Hashim, who he said assaultedthe immigration minister.
Concerning Mostafa’s death, Hasaballah denied Hashim’s claims on the case, saying that the Egyptian state represented by the government and people addressed the UK immediately after the incident, and the defendants were referred to the judiciary.
Six teenagers have been summoned to appear before the Nottingham Magistrates’ Court over charges of fighting with Moustafa, 18, who died in the hospital following the incident. According to British media reports, three of the girls summoned are 17 years old, and three of them are 19. In September, two of the teenage girls have pleaded guilty of affray.
In September, a Kuwaiti court sentenced a Kuwaiti national to 17 years in prison for attacking an Egyptian expatriate in the Shuwaikh industrial area.
In August, an Egyptian citizen lost his life during a fight with an Asian expat, who stabbed the former at Kuwait’s Bnied Al-Gar, according to eyewitnesses, Kuwaiti Al-Rai media reported.
In July, an Egyptian citizen named Ahmed Fayez Hassan was reportedly assaulted in Kuwait by a Kuwaiti soldier. A video of the accident went viral on social media and caused a lot of controversy among social media users; the government launched an investigation and found that the assault took place in one of the cell phone shops.
Additional reporting by Egypt Today Staff
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