Web tribute to Abd al-Nasir
Gamal Abd al-Nasir’s daughter has launched a new website containing all the speeches of the late Egyptian president.
Speaking to journalists on Sunday, Huda said her goal was to reach as many young people as possible, enabling them to understand his views on Arab nationalism and social justice.
The website, www.nasser.org, contains more than 8000 pages of speeches, 1200 radio broadcasts and even television broadcasts from between 1960 and 1970 – a mass of information that took her three years to compile.
The site also contains a bibliography and documents from British archives about her world famous father.
Huda claims that since Abd al-Nasir’s death on 28 September 1970, his speeches have been neither published nor discussed in the Egyptian media.
Remembering
Backed by the military, Gamal Abd al-Nasir overthrew the Egyptian monarchy on 23 July 1952 and founded a republican government.
A charismatic leader who espoused Arab nationalism, he is remembered for having nationalised the Suez Canal and the Egyptian industry while developing a one-party system of government.
During his presidency, Egypt and its allies lost the 1967 war with Israel.
Legacy
Today, the party that bears his name is just a small opposition group in Egypt.
The cause of Arab socialism he championed has few strong adherents, but his legacy still casts a shadow over Egypt and other Arab countries.
Six years ago, the film “Nasir 56” – about the dramatic events in the year he nationalised the Franco-British Suez Canal Company – was a box office hit in Cairo, Beirut, Damascus and many other Arab capitals.
It has also been screened on television from Morocco to the Gulf.
Although remembered fondly by most in Egypt, a minority have denounced the later years of his presidency as a crushing failure – blaming him for a legacy of Arab political and military weakness as well as one of economic distress in Egypt.