Social conditions
With its large, young population and relatively low employment rate, Egypt is one of the poorest countries in the Arab world. Visit AbbreviationFinder to see the definitions of EGY and acronym for Egypt. Despite efforts in rural development centers, the standard of living in the villages is very low and poverty is widespread. One fifth of the population lives on less than $ 2 a day. The sanitary problems in the countryside are great and diarrheal diseases, typhoid and malaria are common. Most (98 percent in 2008) have access to clean water, but only 52 percent to satisfactory wastewater.
Health care is relatively well developed in the cities but unevenly distributed with major shortcomings in the southern parts of the country as well as in the slums of big cities. There are 17 hospital beds and 28 doctors per 10,000 residents (2009). Qualified personnel are available for 4/5 of deliveries. In 2009, 6% of government spending was spent on health care. About one child of 50 dies during their first year of life. Check to see Egypt population.
Egypt has experienced strong economic growth since the late 1990s. However, this has led to increased social gaps and increased unemployment. In 2009, unemployment was officially stated at 9 percent, but is believed to be at least twice as high. A large black sector, corruption, inefficiencies and bureaucrats’ woes about their positions have made the transition to a more open economy difficult. A small group of politicians, high-ranking military and top bureaucrats has become enormously wealthy through “open-door” economic policies. Poverty, housing shortages, high inflation and the lack of social mobility for the vast majority have led to “bread crumbs” and social unrest and are a breeding ground for radical and fundamentalist movements. In 2006 and 2007, workers in Egypt conducted several strikes for higher wages and a better working environment,
According to most of Egyptian legislation, gender equality prevails, but in some respects women are discriminated against, especially when it comes to family relationships such as marriage, child custody and inheritance rights. Violence against women is common. Since 2007, genital mutilation (female circumcision) has been prohibited by law, but despite this, the majority of all girls are subjected to the procedure. Although a large proportion of women are highly educated, almost 25% are working.
In April 2014, a judge at a mass trial sentenced 683 members of the Muslim Brotherhood to death. Including its chairman. 110 of these in-absentia. An appeals court upheld the June 183 death sentence. In late November, another court dismissed all charges against former dictator Hosni Mubarak.
In August 2014, the President announced an expansion of the Suez Canal to double the canal’s daily capacity from 49 to 97 ships. That same month, the United States announced it would deliver 10 Apache attack helicopters to the dictatorship.
Foreign policy al-Sisi’s dictatorship returned to Mubarak’s politics. During the Israeli-Israeli war against Gaza in July-August 2014, the dictatorship thus stood on Israel’s side. caused Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan to designate al-Sisi as an “illegitimate tyrant”. It prompted Egypt to cancel planned joint military maneuvers and in November Egypt expelled the Turkish ambassador and recalled its own ambassador to Ankara indefinitely. In parallel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia carried out a campaign against Turkey which in October prevented the country from securing an otherwise safe place in the UN Security Council.
In October, al-Sisi issued Decree-Law 136, transferring all “public and vital facilities” to military jurisdiction. The decree meant that retrospective civil cases were massively transferred to military courts. In the first 6 weeks after its issue, 820 civil cases were transferred to military courts. This included a wide variety of cases against members of the now banned Brotherhood.
In the fall of 2014, Islamic State (IS) entered the city of Derna in neighboring Libya. In February 2015, IS executed 21 captured Egyptian Coptic Christians. Egypt responded a few hours later with aerial bombardments of IS positions in Libya. Egypt was demed directly drawn into the security and political chaos of neighboring countries. Egypt on the same day accused Qatar of supporting terrorism – a reference to the country’s support for militant Islamist groups in Syria and its support for the now banned Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Qatar pulled its ambassador home for consultations on the same day.