An attack on an Egyptian expatriate in Kuwait has turned into a diplomatic row between the two countries. Egypt’s Minister of Immigration and Foreign Affairs Nabila Makram said: “the dignity of Egyptian citizens and Egyptian women in specific is a red line.” However, her statement didn’t go down well with Kuwaiti MP Safa Al-Hashem, who responded, “There is no need to gain political and media attention by inciting fear. We treat people with more dignity than their own country.” And this quickly spiralled into a war of words.
Hashem brought up the death of Mariam Mostafa, an engineering studies who died earlier this year after being beaten in Nottingham – UK by ten British women of African descent. She said that Egypt’s Immigration minister hadn’t spoken about ‘dignity’ then.
As a counter-remark, the Egyptian Parliament’s spokesman Salah Hasballah said Hashem wasn’t aware of Egypt and Kuwait’s strong historical relationship. Moreover, in an interview on Sada Al-Balad Hasballah denounced Hashem’s remarks as ‘inappropriate’. “The Kuwaiti MP’s statement contradicts with the Egyptian policy that does not accept insulting an Egyptian expat abroad.”
According to Arab News, Fatma Aziz, the Egyptian expat was verbally and physically attacked by a Kuwaiti woman biker and four others. In a video, Aziz said that the woman biker had hit her youngest child before she fought with her for shouting. She was then shoved to the ground and her face stepped upon.
As Kuwaiti and Egyptian authorities look into this incident, Hashem has come under fire. As per an Egyptian lawyer Amr Abdel Salam “Hashem has provoked the anger of the Egyptian masses through social networking sites, which led to the escalation of public disharmony and damage to the public interest of the Egyptian state.”
According to Kuwait Times, “Egyptian-Kuwaiti brotherly and historic relations go way back and are strongly exceptional. They have set role models of fraternity and unity of destiny among Arab brothers whose martyr’s blood has mixed in war.”
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