CAIRO: The Egyptian government announced Monday that it was nominating Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni as a candidate for the position of director general of the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco).
There have been nine director generals since Unesco’s inception, but none of them have been from Egypt or any Arab country.
Farouk Hosni has been the Minister of Culture since 1987, and is the longest serving member of President Hosni Mubarak’s cabinet. He is also an accomplished painter and artist, whose art has been exhibited around the world.
According to a spokesperson at the Ministry of Culture, Hosni is “very happy that the President has endorsed him as he seeks the position. He hopes that he will be the first Arab to be the director general of Unesco.
Many Egyptian experts on culture and society praised Hosni’s nomination, pointing to his extensive experience as Minister of Culture and his close work with Unesco on a number of projects in Egypt.
“Mr Hosni is very well suited to the position, said Sahar Gaara, a writer and columnist. “He has been in government for a long time and he knows about art and civilization all over the world.
Mohammad Salmawy, editor-in-chief of Ahram Hebdo, also expressed approval. “He’s definitely the right man for the job, he said. “He has a lot of experience dealing with Unesco and has been working with them closely on a number of restoration projects.
However, Salmawy also said that he hoped the Egyptian government was prepared to give Hosni the amount of support needed to get elected. “He needs to develop a proper campaign. Unless a campaign is prepared and a strategy is devised this nomination will mean nothing.
Still, Salmawy was optimistic that the government would rally behind Hosni and that, once this happened, he might end up being a very strong candidate for the position. He pointed out that Egypt has very good relations with many third world countries who vote in the General Conference, and that it also has close ties with many of Unesco’s biggest donor countries.
In the last election, Ismail Serageldin, the current director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, was the only Egyptian running for the position. However, he was not nominated by the Egyptian government and ran his campaign independently. At the time, the Egyptian government chose to back a nominee from Saudi Arabia.
Hosni is not a wholly uncontroversial figure in Egypt. A year ago, in an interview with Al-Masry Al-Youm, he made a series of remarks criticizing the hijab, provoking a maelstrom of condemnations and accusations from prominent religious scholars and activists. Many demanded a public apology and called for his immediate resignation.
However, even those who had been critical of Hosni at the time of the controversy expressed support for his nomination as Unesco director general.
Saber Taalab, a former member of the Islamic Research Center, had said that Hosni’s remarks on the hijab disrespected Egypt’s constitution. Commenting on Hosni’s nomination, Taalab said, “He is very qualified. He’s an expert in culture and civilization and I very much hope that he gets the position.
Hamdy Hassan, the Muslim Brotherhood MP who filed an official complaint against Hosni in 2006 and called for his resignation, said only that the nomination “would be a good thing if it means he will be leaving the ministry.
The position of director general, which is currently held by Koichiro Matsuura of Japan, is the highest position in Unesco and will be vacated in 2009, when Matsuura’s second term draws to an end.
Unesco is responsible for encouraging international collaboration through education, science, and culture in order to increase universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and human rights. Its General Conference, comprised of 192 independent countries, elects a new director general every four years.
