Cairo Magazine - In the spotlight

Shoubra Al Kheima, home of the Al Azhar bomber, is one of Cairo's more neglected neighborhoods.

Source: Islam Mohamed

Shoubra Al Kheima has long escaped the notice of most Cairenes. The gritty industrial suburb north of Cairo that spread in the 1970s seemed only to make it into the pages of the press when the subject of polluting factories was discussed.

With Hassan Bashandi, the alleged perpetrator of the Al Azhar bombing, which killed 3, and wounded 18 others, hailing from here, the neighborhood is suddenly receiving much more attention—especially from security services.

Most of the trash-filled streets in this grim neighborhood are unpaved and the haphazard and unfinished state of most of the buildings speak to the random nature of the area’s formation. Immigrants from the countryside settled here on the edges of the city looking for work.

“Only poor people live here, those who have enough money move out to the new cities like 6th of October and Shorouq,” said Karam Gamil, an electrician from the neighborhood of Ezbet Rostom in Shoubra Al Kheima. “People stay here because they have no choice.”

Even the factories that have so long dictated (and polluted) the lives of residents are now leaving, attracted by the better infrastructure and incentives offered by the desert satellite cities.

During the day people go about their daily lives, but residents describe nights filled with arrests as security forces swept through the neighborhood in the aftermath of the bombing.

“We felt the difference at night, when they made the arrests,” recalled Emad Adel, a young electrician with a shop two blocks from Al Azhari street, where Bashandi lived, in the neighborhood of Ezbet Osman. “It wasn’t the guys from the precinct making the arrests, we know those detectives—these guys were State Security.”

After a computer and CDs were found at Bashandi’s house, security forces began to investigate other university students with ties to him. “They took a lot of Sunnis [religious young men], anyone with a criminal record and I noticed them checking students’ notebooks outside the Faculty of Agriculture,” says Gamal Abdel Aziz, a cab driver from a nearby neighborhood. “They focused more on kids that were studying in university.”

Arrested by police and then besieged by journalists, Bashandi’s parents have locked up their flat and left the neighborhood for a few days. At least they were eventually released, however, as many others still remain in custody.

“State Security arrested his high school buddies, friends or even people who said hi to him in the street,” recalls Hosni Hanafi, who owns a woodworking shop on Bashandi’s street. “They finally arrested five guys with ties to him in Ezbet Rostom but they also took three university students that have nothing to do with him just because they were high school colleagues.”

One of those students is Moustafa, a student at the faculty of science at Qena University, who was arrested a few days after the bombing and has yet to be charged or released.

“Hassan went to the same school as us,” said Muhammad, Moustafa’s younger brother, who emphasizes that Hassan and his brother had nothing in common and were never friends. “He wasn’t even in the same class or section.”

Moustafa’s mother is afraid of further publicizing her son’s case. After one newspaper printed a picture of her son, the family was warned that further publicity might hurt his chances of being released.

“If we keep still and silent, he’ll be released,” she said, tearfully. “They haven’t charged him with anything yet and just as Hassan’s parents were released, hopefully they will realize that my son is innocent and release him too.”

It was an attitude shared by many people on the street, who were reluctant to discuss the case for fear that their comments would be taken out of context and further damage Moustafa’s position.

Abdel Aziz, the cab driver, is convinced most suspects will eventually be released, but says that this will only be the start to their troubles since State Security will now have a file on them.

“After that whenever anything happens, they will round them up again and again,” he said, “just because they all came under suspicion once.”