Reminder!  Discovering conflict resolution traditions in Egypt: visiting the villages of Qufada and Maghagha, January 16, 2016

Visiting locations outside big and touristic cities in Egypt is not easy. It is even harder to discover traditions that are important to local people and rarely well understood by Egyptians, let alone non-Egyptians, in a big city like Cairo.

January 16: people living in Egypt or visiting Egypt can join this unique visit

In June this year news broke about a Christian family being evicted from Kafr Darwish, not far from Maghagha, south of Beni Suef. A young Christian man had been accused of blasphemy, and thus a local customary reconciliation (orfi) session was conducted. This session resulted in the decision that the extended family would have to pay a high fine, which was to be used for Muslim community work, and the father of the young man (since the young man himself is not in Egypt) would carry a shroud, this being a sign of great humiliation. The family refused, and as a consequence was evicted from the village, creating a huge outcry about the use of orfi reconciliation sessions instead of going to court.

On Saturday January 16, the Center for Arab-West Understanding is planning to visit the village of Qufada to speak with local orfi judge sheikh Hamdi Abdelfattah (Salafi) about these orfi reconciliation sessions. This visit will be led by Cornelis Hulsman, who knows this part of Egypt well.

Sheikh Hamdi participated in local meetings with other orfi judges, and composed handwritten guidelines for orfi rulings. The sheikh shared these with the Arab-West Report. These guidelines give a unique insight into the thinking behind orfi rulings in this part of Egypt. One should of course be aware that orfi sessions are not all the same in Egypt and differ from location to location.

Orfi rulings are not just based on Islamic law. They are composed of a mixture of Islamic law and local traditions that can be very strong and considered, in particular villages and towns in less Western influenced areas, to be more important than Egyptian civil law.  

Qufada is also an area of great poverty, and during this visit we will learn from Coptic Orthodox priest Father Yo’annis what is being done to address the poverty in his village.

Of course, one cannot visit the area without seeing some beautiful touristic highlights such as Gebel el-Tayr with its magnificent view over the Nile, which we will cross by ferry, thereby enjoying a view of the Nile. We stop at Bayahu, with a church that miraculously flew from the Delta to this village 500 years ago, and continue to Qufada, the main destination for the day. For more information about our program please click here.

Costs

The costs are 250 EgP per person which are indeed very low since we want to make it possible for everyone to join. Cornelis Hulsman and Jayson Casper (translation) work without a fee. If anything is left after deduction of costs, it will be used to cover our deficits. We are truly struggling to make ends meet and would appreciate your contributions to either the Arab-West Foundation in the Netherlands (for donations outside Egypt) or the Center for Arab-West Understanding (for donations inside Egypt).

You want to join? This will be great visit! Please write me asap: rizkadel@yahoo.com

Adel Rizkallah,

Office Manager Center for Arab-West Understanding