Citation:
Abdel Ghafar, A. (2021). Causes and Consequences of Inequality in Egypt. The Muslim World, 111(1), 5-26. doi: 10.1111/muwo.12370
Summary:
The article discusses the inequality that the people of Egypt experience in their daily lives. This comes down to the wage gaps which allow a change in personal views of the population amongst each other (people start to treat those of a lower income differently than they would to those of a similar/higher income). The writer then discusses that gender, education and healthcare inequality have grown over a period of time which has led to the state Egyptians live in. The cause of these rise in inequalities within the land had a tremendous domino effect as it caused more and more forms of inequalities to rise which is what the author is talking about and how Egypt’s poverty is a result of the “combined inequality” (Abdel Ghafar, A. (2021)).
Analysis:
A reason why the article says that poverty is an ever increasing matter is that the governmental fund has drastically decreased since 2017(Abdel Ghafar, A. (2021)) which has drastically increased the divide in wealth. This is due to the private sector dominating the educational facilities which middle class individuals cannot afford, therefore leading to a decrease in educated adults for the labour workforce. This point that the author mentions could possibly paint an image of corruption towards the Egyptian government as it seems that they have neglected the Egyptian citizens (in terms of education wise) and focused on other projects to complete while leaving the educational resources to the private sector (which is people see as too expensive and only having a small percentage of Egypt attend those schools).
Another point that the author brings up is the gender inequality issues that Egypt currently faces. They point out the fact that business owners provide less job opportunities for women and more for men (Abdel Ghafar, A. (2021)). The author uses statistics and mentions that Egypt is ranked 140 in terms of “equal economic participation and opportunity” (Abdel Ghafar, A. (2021)). The author uses statistics and therefore is credible in the information they provide since a published source was used for the information. However this could make the readers question the currency of this article since they do not know how credible the foreign source is and when it was written unless they dived deeper into the article.
Citation:
Mohamed, M. (2015). Targeting Poverty through Inclusive Education in Egypt A Review of the Experiences of some Developing Countries. المجلة العربیة للإدارة, 35(2), 401-420. doi: 10.21608/aja.2015.18446
Summary:
To summarise this article, the Author dives into the root causes of poverty in Egypt. He discusses how education is one of the main causes of severe poverty and that the rural areas are the most affected when it comes to this due to their lack of resources unlike the urban areas where the lack of education is less applicable. Therefore, this shows that the rural areas contain the population with the largest percentage of severe poverty.
Another reason would be due to the lack of quality of education which decreases the employment rate within the country since there is a rise in enrollment within schools, “but a lack in resources for education”(Mohamed, M. (2015)). And finally, the lack of awareness within the country when it comes to “inclusive education” (Mohamed, M. (2015)) within the country is a root cause and that increasing the accessibility to quality education is key to improving the state of poverty which the country is facing. This is required from both the public and private sectors of the country to work on this.
Analysis:
The writer places many datasheets to prove their points when it comes to identifying the causes of poverty in Egypt. One point that was mentioned is that there is a lack of education (Mohamed, M. (2015)) around the rural areas due to the shift in governmental behaviour due to political situations in the country. We can see the level of education facility in rural and urban areas on the graphs provided when it talks about the number of education facilities. The writer makes a clear point through the database provided (Mohamed, M. (2015)). This would make the reader see that there is a credible source since the database is not only recent, but it it is certified by government.
Another point that the author makes is that there is a gender pay gap within the Egyptian society. They again prove this through statistics which shows that Women earn around 3/4ths of what a man earns in businesses which are located in the rural areas, however it is roughly equal around areas in the urban areas. The use of graphs (again) proves the credibility and could possibly allow the reader to feel unpleasant towards the businesses which are located in the rural areas due to this pay inequality. This is then used to prove the point that there is not going to be an improvement in the poverty rate in the rural areas and this back up the claim
Citation:
u/myadultisnotworking.(2021,November 6).The system wants the rich to stay rich and the poor to stay poor. Reddit.r/Egypt. Retrieved from https://www.reddit.com/r/Egypt/comments/qnqmyo/the_system_wants_the_rich_to_stay_rich_and_the/
Summary:
This Reddit forum talks about how it is impossible for the individual to penetrate through the “middle class”. The fact that he was born in a middle class family and couldn’t get a decent job shows how difficult it was for him and that he doesn’t expect any “low class” citizens to be able to get to the job due to their lack of funding and the unavailability of transportation.
Analysis:
The author of the Reddit forum is a citizen of Egypt and gives his perspective of his life situation when it came to living in the “Middle Class” (u/myadultisnotworking). He talks about how he used to think that “Being poor was your fault” (u/myadultisnotworking) and that the poor didn’t bother going to College (u/myadultisnotworking), but then realises that it was because they did not have the education facilities and the capital to even go to college; that they are in this situation of poverty. I believe that the forum's main purpose is to raise awareness that the people of Egypt who are at a "low/middle class" (u/myadultisnotworking) cannot improve their way of living and remain at a stalemate when it comes to trying harder to improve their own lifestyle.
Synthesis:
All three sources support each other when it comes to proving that it is because of the gender pay gap in rural areas in Egypt and the lack in quality/availability of education which harms the income of society and continuously decreases the chances of improving the overall lifestyle of Egyptians.
When it came to reading each article, I understood that they all had similar points which but different timelines. The Reddit forum was produced this year, while the second source was produced in 2015 and the first was produced in 2006. All three were produced in the 21st century which could point out that Egypt had a downfall at some point in time by not talking about results formed in the 20th century. After further research aside to the three sources is that Egypt was prosperous, but if it wasn't for political stances occurring within the country, then the country would have been in a better situation. Conflicts formed out of religion corrupted the mindset of the population and formed inequalities between men and women due to databases presented within the first 2 sources which shows that the behaviours of the Egyptian leaders within the times were corrupt and favoured different religions at different times.
Overall, the stances of these articles (and Reddit forum) were proven and backed up due to repetitive perspectives being mentioned and therefore it has made me understand the causes of poverty in Egypt and how it could be improved.