The slideshows of the Tax Collectors strike leaders are now available with Spanish subtitles at Egipte rera la Barricada.
Well done. (¡Muy bien hecho!)
Courageous Women: Mervat Qassem Hilal
May 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment
I’ve been hard at work making slideshows from interviews and photo sessions Hossam and I did in Egypt, and I’m finally on the home stretch. You can follow my progress on my vimeo account
I think this video is my favorite from the project. In the West, I we’re too often taught to assume that a woman in hijab — an Arab, a Muslim, a wife and a mother — is automatically a victim, passive and oppressed. I wish we got to see more of women like Mervat, who plays an active role in agitating for her own rights and those of her colleagues. She was on the front lines of the struggle to unionize the tax collectors, sleeping on the streets during the strike, facing down government officials, and persevering despite threats against her and her family.
It’s also quite touching to see the support she gets from her husband and son.
Tax Collectors’ Union Gains Recognition
April 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment
I haven’t been on here much lately, for which I am truly sorry. (Work, chaos, agonizing about the future and arranging a summer position at the Jakarta Post and a research trip to Mindanao, about which more later.)
But I interrupt the silence to announce that the Egypt’s Real Estate Tax Collectors, whose story I’m working on telling in a multimedia package, handed in yesterday the paperwork necessary to formally establish their union — Egypt’s first independent trade union in half a century.
Mabrouk to the Tax Collectors.
And watch this space. The multimedia project — or at least the English-language version of it — will be completed by May 7.
More slideshows from Egypt
March 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment
Grad school insanity (in my case) and general Egyptian turmoil (in Hossam’s) have kept us from making much progress on the Tax Collectors’ strike project. My spring break is coming up, though, so there’s reason to hope it’ll be finished by the end of the month.
In the meantime, a few more slideshows are subtitled and up on vimeo.
Strike leader Kamal Abu Eita, a long-time activist, explains how his record as a student activist kept him from his planned career, and how he has kept his activism alive while working as a tax collector:
Kamal Abu Eita explains that unlike previous strikes in Egypt, which were confined to a single workplace, the tax collectors’ strike drew workers from offices all across Egypt:
This short clip illustrates unity between Muslim and Coptic Christian strikers. The recent wave of labor activism in Egypt has been marked by cooperation between Muslims and Copts, belying the popular myth of irresolvable communal conflict:
Abdel Qader Nada on life on the picket line:
I’m hoping to work next on interviews with Mervat Qasim Helal Mohammed, one of the many women instrumental in planning and conducting the strike. Not only is she one hell of a character, but I think stories like hers help counter the media trope of “veiled Muslim woman as passive victim.”
related: Hossam posts the slideshows here
