The changing face of Egyptian Constituent: 5 women and 5 Christians
Cairo
(AsiaNews) - The Egyptian
interim president Mansour Adly announced the composition
of the new Constituent Assembly, after
the fall of President Mohammed Morsi
and the suspension of the interim
constitution of 2012. Appointed
last September 1, the organ is commissioned to write a new document that will replace the text launched during
the Islamist majority government.
Made up of 50 members, the
assembly houses a number of non-political representatives of Egyptian society, including trade unionists,
lawyers, judges, students and religious authorities. Compared to the previous assembly (dominated by Islamists), the current
one is more open to the women - with five
representatives of various associations - and religious minorities reserving 20 seats to active Christian people in the Egyptian society and representatives of all Christian denominations,
including Catholic and Protestant.
So far the only criticism
of the new body comes from Islamist movements. Yesterday Bassam El Zarka,
leader of the Salafist al-Nour, called the formation of the Constituent an "evil that
reflects the domain of the
faction of the left". The
Islamists criticize the will of
the constituents to delete items
of the previous Constitution concerning
the sharia. "Such a move - said
El Zarka - means Egyptians would move away from their Islamic identity."
The committee will begin its work
on September 8 and should deliver the draft within 60 days. The draft constitution will be approved in a referendum.
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