With the escalation of Egyptian anger towards the authorities' expansion in demolishing their homes, claiming that they violated building requirements, several protests took place and families confronted the police forces, and some of them succeeded in preventing the implementation of the demolition.
But suddenly the street anger subsided relatively due to what the government says are measures that have eased popular tension, while others say that it is due to attempts by the authority to circumvent the media escalation of other issues, foremost among which is what has become known as the "lady of the train".
Two days ago, social media users widely circulated a video of an Egyptian woman defending an army soldier inside the train, as she paid him for the ticket after the train official insisted on removing him and spoke rudely to him.
Communication sites, and then the media, ignited a tribute to the woman and an attack on the train official, turning it into something like a contest in patriotism and love for the army, and the Egyptian woman became a guest around the clock in most of the media.
Interestingly, the matter moved remarkably quickly from the media to the Egyptian authorities, where he called the woman, the Minister of Transport, and she also received a gift from the Presidency of the Republic, and she was appointed a member of the National Council for Women, as well as a torrent of congratulations and praise from executives and local officials.
The scene ended with an official tribute from the Egyptian armed forces for the woman who defended the "honor of the military suit", as well as being honored by the Minister of Defense with the soldier, the hero of the incident.
Meanwhile, with the emotions flowing in the media, the Egyptian government decided to amend some procedures for reconciliation in construction violations, to include reducing the value of reconciliation and being satisfied with submitting the reconciliation request now and completing the required documents later, thus giving the owners of the violating properties an opportunity to skip the demolition deadline at the end of this month.
On the other hand, activists and opponents accuse the Egyptian authorities of either fabricating the incident of the Lady of the Train, or using her to absorb the anger of the Egyptians and circumvent their demands, which escalated from a mere review of demolition decisions to the departure of Sisi himself.
The owners of that theory demonstrated the validity of their suspicions with several things, most notably the low value of the 22-pound ticket (the dollar is about 16 pounds), and the hero of filming the incident is an official in the official power party "The Future of a Nation", as he is openly proud of his relationship with the intelligence services and publishes on his account. On Facebook, his picture is in front of the General Intelligence logo, and activists also shared pictures of his page bearing congratulations from former Military Intelligence directors, "Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Farid El-Tohamy."
The Minister of Defense honors the soldier who rode the train without a ticket !!
Praising his discipline
, have the sacrifices worth honoring for this level reduced?
What is the message that he sends to the soldiers?
Or is it a reward for his role in the charade?
I remember Cherie Blair and her husband was Prime Minister and she was in a hurry to attend a case and got on the train before buying pic.twitter.com/YiAKFtluAN
- Osama Rushdi (@OsamaRushdi) September 13, 2020
Film today: six great national who paid a
ticket recruiter who Bihamana and learned the
meaning of the
train conductor national
scenario prosaic and scrappy but unfortunately walking in all theaters
Note: You
may be located but got production output very charlatanism
- wael kandil (@ waiel65) September 10, 2020
Others said that the soldiers in the Egyptian army mainly carry a free card to use public transportation, and some have asked about the secret of comfortably photographing the incident without any of the train officials objecting, and why did the government party official not pay the price of the ticket instead of just filming?
Tweeters evidenced their doubts about the official campaign to honor the lady and punish the train official, at a time when Egypt witnessed similar events, the government's position was the exact opposite, as last year a train official forced a street vendor to jump off the train while he was moving for not owning the price of a ticket, which led to His death.
I don’t notice that all the series on theirs
have to be
the
protagonist. I don’t
have
ever seen the
series of the
hero in which Mr (not his lady) is
my cheek: the
court’s
lady, the train’s
master, the microbus
lady, the one
who’s koshari.
- Kalam Alnas People Talk⚘⚘⚘ (@ Collect32560332) September 10, 2020
Others also circulated a video clip of the Minister of Transport while refusing to ride a woman for free, despite her carrying her son who was ill with cancer, as well as another video of the minister himself stressing that train officials not be complacent in collecting tickets, threatening to dismiss them if necessary.
Recalling the traveling salesman, the martyr of the train ticket: About a year ago, two young street vendors were forced by two train tracks to not pay for a ticket and one of them died instantly under the wheels of the train and the other was injured pic.twitter.com/JaARoSjyMs
- Syed Dahdy Yunus (@SayedZohdy) September 10, 2020
Activists concluded in the end that the incident, whether fabricated or exploited, succeeded in drawing the attention of Egyptians to the crisis of house demolitions, and thus calming the mounting anger, as the emotions of the Egyptians rampant towards the army represented by the "poor" conscript, and behind it the government authorities and of course On her head is Sisi himself.