Articles

Posted by Sabrina Mahfouz on 6/2/12

As Associate Playwright at the Bush Theatre, Sabrina Mahfouz spent January in her other motherland, Egypt, to research a theatre project inspired by the uprisings of the past year. As Sabrina discovered, so many things had changed - for better or worse - and so many things were exactly the same - for better or worse.

In Cairo recently I came across a shop that was selling speech. Across the crumbling cement rooftop, graffitied with rust from put-upon pipes is a banner saying; ‘MAJJANAN, FREE, GRATIS’.

“What do you mean?” I ask the man in the shop.

“Well, we’ve got so much of it now we’re giving it away – majjanan, free, gratis, -
so hurry!”

“Excuse me” I stutter, “you mean, totally, totally free?”

“Yes. To get your mouthful all you have to do is sign here.”

He points to bleached paper that looks blank, but when I squint my eyes feint flecks appear.

“What does it say? The font’s so small.”

“It says scrawl your name here to say that you won’t say anything that you wouldn’t want to say even if you had to pay to say it. The fact that it’s majjanan, free, gratis – does not mean you can just go about saying whatever your mind says you should say. You must say to your mind – would you say that if we’d had to pay?”

“And what if it says yes?”

“Are you testing me?”

“No! I really want to know. I’ve spent my life savings on speech before and it didn’t even turn out to be that great quality, it was full of cracks and leaks and still speaks back at me sometimes even when I’ve told it I don’t own it anymore. So I just want to make sure. You know, that me and this speech - that’s not only cheap it’s free – are going to get on okay, no matter what I say”.

He frowns, his face laced with looks I’ve seen before.

“Well, that’s clearly not the case. As I said above, you must not just say anything. Listen, maybe clause two will give you some clarity because you’re definitely testing my sanity – I mean for God’s sake this is free! Why be so fussy? Anyway. Clause two, etneen, says if your mind has been saying things and in the past your body has been paying for it and ‘we’ (meaning all manufacturers and distributors of bargain speech) already know you to be a person whose mind will say that your mouth would say that you would say what you’re wanting to say, even if you’d had to pay and we weren’t giving speech away for free, then you’re not entitled to the free offer and if you knowingly accept it you will be charged accordingly”.

“So what could happen to me??”

“Military trials, indefinite detention, torture, unwanted attention for someone of your…you know etcetera etcetera, the usual. Close you down, no sound made about it – but you might get lucky. Some sneaky types who ignore Clause Three might use their own speech they got for free to try and get you out of it, but I doubt it.”

“Oh goodness, what’s Clause Three?”

“That’s not really for me to tell you. If you sign here, then you’ll get to see what it is by paying the premium, which is really very reasonable.”

“You’re basically saying that if I say anything that I would say if I was paying or if I’ve ever said anything and paid before then I will be punished and the only way out might be through those who’ve ignored Clause Three, but I can’t see what that is unless I pay a premium?”

“Erm, yes, I guess that’s about right.”

“It’s not really free then, is it?”

“It’s a damn sight more than I got when I was your age.  Nobody is ever satisfied these days.”

                                 

Further Reading

So many bloggers, activists, writers and protesters in Egypt are currently still facing (or have faced) prosecution and even military trials for their actions and their words, indicating - along with a number of other rumours regarding the closure of publishing houses and the corruption of independent media - that freedom of speech in post-Mubarak Egypt is an area of dangerous ambiguity.

Publisher Refuses to Stop Aiding Egyptian Revolutionaries

Human Rights in Post-Mubarak Egypt:

Freedom of Speech in Egypt 2011-12

Egypt’s Reading Revolution