🔗 The Arabist Review » Blog Archive » The Bad Minister
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Farouq Hosni shouldn’t be the head of UNESCO. Not just because of his (probably entirely politically opportunistic) Israel-bashing. But mostly because he is the longest-serving minister (22 years) in an autocratic state that does not respect freedom of expression; because he presides over a corrupt and mediocre ministry and has acted in the interest of the regime rather than the interests of culture time and again; because he is generally loathed by Egyptian artists and writers of any standing. He shouldn’t be head of UNESCO not because of his disrespect for Israeli culture–but because of his much deeper, more damaging disrespect of Egyptian culture.