Birth and childhood
The natural population growth rate is 14 ‰. The infant mortality rate is 18.3 ‰. In a country where still many births take place at home and where pregnancy monitoring is reserved for a population that can afford it, the infant mortality rate is very high. The fertility rate is 3.3 children per woman. For most Egyptian families, birth is a gift from God that should be welcomed. Despite this, family planning associations are trying to explain to women the issues involved in birth management. For the moment, they have little impact on the population and no government support.
Children are given a first name, followed by the father's first name and the grandfather's first name. Family names are rarely used. Boys are circumcised, whether Christian or Muslim. This is both a religious and a social tradition. Many little girls still undergo genital mutilation. Despite the 2008 ban on excision and the actions of the government and associations, Egypt has one of the highest prevalence rates in the world. The figures put forward by UNICEF are alarming: it is estimated that 91% of married Egyptian women aged between 15 and 49 have been mutilated - 72% of them by doctors. The origins of this practice are unclear: religious, family traditions... Excision is practiced by Muslims and Copts alike.
Relations between men and women
Egyptian society is based on conservative social and religious values that strongly influence people's lives, from the cradle to the grave. Relationships between men and women are not exempt from this traditionalism, which frames and guides sexual, marital and friendly relations. Tradition dictates that the man is responsible for ensuring the family's income, while the woman looks after the home and children. However, this traditional distribution of roles is increasingly being challenged, particularly in urban areas. Many women are working and are financially independent. The high divorce rate (around 40%) means that single-parent families are no longer exceptional. However, serious problems persist, and cases of sexual harassment are not uncommon, although few are reported. It's very difficult for a single person to live alone. Difficult for men, almost impossible for women outside marriage. Restricted co-education, the taboos surrounding sexuality and the great difficulty of having sexual relations before marriage all contribute to ignorance of the other gender. In many respects, women are still considered inferior in Egyptian society. This state of affairs is perpetuated by discriminatory laws, particularly concerning inheritance.
Education
In Egypt, school is compulsory between the ages of 6 and 14. It is free until the baccalaureate. Nevertheless, many children escape the compulsory school system, mainly to work and contribute to the family income. Egyptian law prohibits work for those under 14, but allows internships from the age of 12, "in order to participate in the agricultural harvest period". Other very young children work despite the ban. The education of children is expensive for parents, so repetition is very rare. Many pupils accumulate difficulties that make their education more and more complicated, as the basics have not been acquired. Egyptian school life is punctuated by numerous exams that determine the passage to the next grade. This system culminates in the equivalent of the baccalaureate, a complex system that determines the orientation of students according to their results. This system exacerbates competition and puts great pressure on children from an early age. The ranking of baccalaureate holders is done at the national level and determines their entry into the country's universities, which are classified by faculty and city, in order of merit. The prestige accorded to some sections, the shame devolved to others, and the blocking of percentages often results in the training of doctors without vocation, engineers without genius, and in the shattering of artistic talents and all creative expression. Frustration is widespread among young people, who are often deprived of choice by ambitious parents or by disappointing results. Private "evening" classes are a very common phenomenon. In the face of poor teaching conditions in the public sector, many parents pay for private or small group lessons for their children. However, it is often the same teachers who provide them, in order to improve their salary, which is often very bad. Two million students are enrolled in general higher education. The majority of students stop their studies at the bachelor's level, which is obtained in four years. Apart from a few renowned faculties (medicine, engineering, political science...), the diplomas obtained in the public sector are of little value. The best and wealthiest usually continue their studies abroad. In recent years, private universities with foreign names have been offering better quality degrees and cooperation with European universities for a degree recognised in those countries, but against prohibitive tuition fees, especially in view of the average standard of living. Egypt's most highly rated university remains the American University of Cairo, established in 1919, with its historic campus in Tahrir Square in the heart of Cairo. A new campus has recently opened outside Cairo, costing almost half a billion dollars. The German University of Cairo competes with it and, on a smaller scale, the French University.
The family
It is the core of Egyptian society, giving it meaning and dominating over the individual. In most social strata, it is the family - transformed into a council - that determines the important choices in an individual's life: academic orientation, professional career, engagement, marriage.
The mother plays a key role; the home is her domain, and it's here that decisive social encounters take place. In medium-sized families, the living room is designed as a conventional airlock, revealing nothing of the family's real life, but providing a place to receive people from outside the family. Matrimonial arrangements take place here, as do dinners with work colleagues. The mother is expected to have prepared an impeccable space, a perfect classic kitchen, and to have dressed her children to the nines. The mother will be judged on the offspring she has given her husband, which is why giving birth to a boy is indispensable; it's almost a fault for the mother, in some circles, to give birth to a girl in the first place. The husband will not be involved in his offspring's education, his responsibility being to provide for the financial needs of his little world. The relationship between a mother and her son is a very strong one, and a clear indication of the man's place in society and in a woman's life in Egypt. The place of the elderly is within the family home; the children's duty is to provide them with all the help they need to live well in their retirement days, in gratitude for the years of education they have received. This swing of the pendulum also compensates for the virtual absence of social policies. So important is the place of family that close friends are called by the same terms: we'll easily say Uncle to the father's close friend or Aunt to the mother's close friend, to the brothers' and sisters' in-laws, and so on. At a wedding, the whole family is present, right down to the most distant relatives. Weddings are a major expense for families, who need to impress their guests, who are often very numerous. In the event of a death, the whole family rushes to support the bereaved. Condolences are an indispensable exercise, and people come to offer their sympathy, either at home, or in the lounges set up for the purpose near mosques and churches. For those prevented by distance, the "fortieth day" is organized: forty days after burial, a commemoration is held, generally in the same place. A strong family structure suits most of society, especially as its values are affirmed by the Muslim and Coptic religions. There is little room for the individual, but respect for family values, as instilled in children, means that few personal demands arise. Only in certain middle- and upper-class families is the individual able to express personal choices.
The health
The first social assistance law was enacted in 1950, and has since been supplemented by a social insurance fund and reformed several times. In theory, membership of the system is compulsory, at the expense of both employer and employee (from the age of 18, or 16 for public sector employees). However, as most private-sector employees are day laborers, they do not have employment contracts and are therefore not eligible to join the social security fund. Among public hospitals, the quality of the healthcare system varies greatly from one establishment to another. There are thirteen university hospital centers (CHU) and 18 other establishments or specialized institutes of a high standard. However, the overcrowding of public services and their poor reputation have led to the opening of numerous private establishments offering care of varying quality. Life expectancy in Egypt is 73.2 years. The population is prone to numerous epidemics, aggravated by the lack of public health policies. Egypt has the highest obesity rate in the world, and diabetes affects 16% of the population. Hepatitis C, massively inoculated in the 1960s during a vaccination campaign, has been almost entirely eradicated thanks to a mass campaign. Official figures are reassuring with regard to HIV contamination, but they are undoubtedly greatly underestimated due to the social stigma attached to the disease. Although treatment is available and free of charge, there are no prevention campaigns to make people aware of the dangers of contamination.
