The dancing, beer-drinking women who would be Egypt’s next president
Nisaa FM:- In a smoky restaurant-bar in downtown Cairo, the presidential candidate Mona Prince is sucking hard on a cigarette. “I’m breaking the image of the president as an all-knowing, god-like type,” says Mona Prince. “I’m a human being – and the president is a human being!” she laughs. 
The message that leaders, even current president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, are fallible is popular among other prospective candidates too. “We primarily want to send a message that no president is immortal in office – that there are other candidates and there is competition,” says Anwar el-Sadat, the nephew and namesake of Egypt’s iconic former president. Sadat has announced that he is contemplating a run, and that he and his team are preparing a potential candidacy.
Yet in a country where current president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi won the last election with 96% of the vote, prospective candidates are not aiming for victory. Simply getting on the ballot and presenting an alternative to Egypt’s current dictatorial politics will be a win in their eyes. Since coming to power in 2013 and then winning an election in 2014, Sisi has positioned himself as the personification of Egypt’s security and potential prosperity, while cracking down on any form of opposition. Despite little confidence that the 2018 presidential race will be fair, a handful of likely candidates is bold enough to try to convince the Egyptian public that change is possible.
Mona Prince is one of these daring candidates. But her candidacy has already been met with derision, in part because of her unorthodox choice to announce her intention to run via a video posted on Facebook that showed her drinking beer on the rooftop of her home while discussing the political issues of the day.
“No presidential candidate would dare post a photo with a glass of wine or whatever in his hand – even though they do drink,” she says. “It’s not about promoting drinking in the society. I’m just being honest! I don’t post pictures of myself praying so that people know I’m religious. That’s”not what qualifies me to be president. I’m here to do a job, not speak for God.Prince was already no stranger to controversy, or the public eye. She is currently suspended from her position at Suez University after teaching her students John Milton’s Paradise Lost, leading the university to accuse her of “spreading destructive ideas”, and “glorifying Satan”. Earlier this year, the university began a disciplinary hearing – still ongoing – after she posted a video of herself dancing on Facebook. Not only could Prince lose her job, but if the university brings further legal charges against her, she could be prevented from running for president at all.
Much of the criticism of Prince in the local media targeted her gender, dismissing her for “revealing her personal life”, and arguing that her public dancing and photos of her in a bikini were unsuitable for a professor. She remains defiant, saying that this criticism deepened her motivation to run for president. “[The people] feel like we need some change, and why not?” she says. “We’ve tried the prototype – a president who looks and talks a certain way. Maybe we try a woman?”
Source: www.theguardian.com