CAIRO: Raafat Mostafa, a father facing a lawsuit for protesting along with his three children in front of the People’s Assembly (PA) for 33 consecutive days, is pledging to file a case against Minister of Family and Population Moshira Khattab.
Mostafa will request compensation from Khattab for the academic year his daughter missed as a result of the dispute, and for “not doing her job.”
“She is accusing me of revolt, but this is my constitutional right. Where is the democracy and freedom they keep talking about?” Mostafa told Daily News Egypt Wednesday on his way back from questioning at the South Cairo Court.
“I sent her a complaint two months ago and never got a reply,” Mostafa said.
Mostafa was protesting a school decision that denied his daughter Farah enrollment in a primary school on the basis that she is too young.
Last week, Khattab filed a case against Mostafa to the general attorney accusing him of endangering his children and of instilling sentiments of hatred and intolerance.
“She does not have the right to accuse me when hundreds of other protestors brought their children [to the sit-ins]. I only brought them for a short time during the day; some had their kids all day and night,” said Mostafa.
On Wednesday, Mostafa’s children — aged eight, six and five — accompanied him for questioning.
“They asked them whether I forced them to protest and how it affected them,” Mostafa explained, adding that a sociologist was also present during questioning.
A report by the sociologist detailing the effect of the protest on Mostafa’s children will be presented to the attorney general on Thursday.
Mostafa was also criticized for putting sacs over his and his children heads symbolizing criminals on death row.
“This is a symbol of what the government does to its people,” he explained, adding that the prosecution asked his children whether or not the symbolic props were physically harming.
Mostafa is protesting what he claims are acts of nepotism at Al Gomhouria Primary School in Shobra. He said that the school accepted two students who are two months younger than his daughter.
He explained that when his daughter applied to KG 1 in 2007 she was denied enrollment. She was then allowed to join in 2008.
Although she has received only one year at the KG level, Farah, now six and a half years old, meets the legal age of enrolling in primary one, according to Mostafa.
