Cairo Magazine - Culture in brief

Minister of Higher Education Amr Salama says his ministry is working on a new law to guarantee universities greater independence. The law would regulate the relationship between the university, on the one hand, and facult, students and government on the other. The minister told literary weekly Akhbar Al Adab that the new law is aimed at asserting the independence of the university financially, administratively and academically. He said the draft would be reviewed by university staff before being submitted to the People’s Assembly.

Egyptian novelist Sonallah Ibrahim traveled to Paris to autograph the first copy of the French translation of his Arabic novel Amerikanli, which was published by Actes Sud.

Merit Publishing has just put out the first legally published collection of protest poet Ahmed Fouad Negm’s work. Negm’s poems and song lyrics have long circulated underground.

Yehia Al Fakharani has agreed to play the leading role in a movie about Mohammed Ali Pasha’s life. The screenplay for the LE40 million film will be written by his wife, Lamis Gaber, produced by media tycoon Emad Adib and directed by Syrian Hatem Ali. Adib produced the late Ahmed Zaki’s last movie, Halim, and Adel Imam’s Amarat Yacoubian.

Leila Elwi will act in an Egyptian-Swedish movie called Al Ahramat bi Laun Al Mafia (The Pyramids in Mafia Colors). The movie is about the destruction of historical monuments in Egypt.

The exclusion of certain Ramadan soap operas from the state TV schedule has caused controversy. Scriptwriter Faiz Ghali sent a complaint to the Minister of Information because his show Al Mansouriya (which touches on terrorism) wasn’t shown on any of the state-owned channels. A second complaint was filed over the exclusion of the show Al Amil 1001 (Agent 1001)—a remake of the popular show Rafat Al Hegan about an Egyptian secret agent in Israel.

The basement of the Egyptian Museum will be opened to visitors. Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, declared that a contract has been signed with a state-owned company to insure and reorganize the Egyptian Museum’s basement before making it accessible to visitors. The decision comes after several items from the basement storage area have been “lost” or stolen in the past year, to the embarrassment of those responsible.