Category: Blog

Mansoura-España update

Posted on By 3arabawy

Life resumed at the Mansoura-España Garments Company Wednesday, after the the workers received their work order from the management.

Following the end of their sit-in last Thursday, the workers showed up daily at the factory starting from Saturday, and used to stay from 7am to 3pm (the official working hours) but neither production orders nor raw materials arrived.

The workers are supposed to get paid their June salaries today, according to the agreement.

The workers are also under pressure by the management not to speak with the media. There are still from two to three State Security agents stationed inside the compound, according to a source in the factory.

In other developments, the general assembly of company shareholders, originally scheduled on 30 June, was postponed to 7 July instead. This meeting is expected to determine whether the United Bank will pump money into the factory and revive it properly, or sell it to a new investor within the framework of the agreement struck last week.

Thousands of Al-Azhar teachers on strike

Posted on By 3arabawy

Thousands of Al-Azhar school teachers are on strike in six provinces refusing to correct the exams for the High School Diploma and Preparatory School Diploma, protesting the government’s decision to exclude them from an employment reform package decreed for teachers.

The strike includes, according to Al-Masry Al-Youm, around 22,000 teachers.

El-Adly Audiogate: Confessions of a police torturer

Posted on By 3arabawy

Blogger Tamer Mabrouk posted an audio-recording of a phone conversation between Police Officer Ahmad Tawfeeq and a woman teacher he allegedly mistreated by the name Ibtessam as a favor for one of Mubarak’s NDP members Ali el-Alfi. In the conversation, Ibtessam accuses the officer of assault and severe beatings in the street–something he did, according to woman Ibtessam, as a favor for the “big guys.” The officer denied he beat her in the street, but acknowledges he slapped her on the face inside the Police Station. He also tells her to go and sort out her problems with the “big guys” and try to close this case.

The same officer, for your information, received a suspended prison sentence last year for torturing a Kefaya’s youth coordinator in Port Said, Muhammad Hegazi.

Here’s a part of the conversation I transcribed:
Ahmad Tawfeeq: Did El-Arabi El-Mansouri call you?
Ibtessam: Who?
AT: The goldsmith
I : What does he want?
AT: Did he call you or not?
I : He did, but I didn’t understand what he wanted.
AT: He wants to sort out my issue quickly. I’m a little man among those big guys. I was almost imprisoned last year. We need to close this case as soon as possible.