Karama libraries « Dignity » is an initiative carried out by «The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information» to create five public libraries in the popular neighborhoods of Cairo to encourage people to read for free. They believe that knowledge and education are key elements to develop countries. Awareness may enable people to learn about their rights and even claim them, but people in over populated areas are not able to read and develop their skills.
The government decided to shut down the libraries instead of monitoring them and prevent illegal acts inside them. The government could run them or cooperate with its management to spread the idea all over Egypt. Yet, the government and police prefer to shut down libraries. They don’t really believe people have rights to read and learn for free. They don’t even believe they are key elements to develop Egypt. The government wants to prevent reading in order to keep the people ignorant.
The problem is that they closed libraries were open in poor neighborhood that are in dire need to them. Many young people in these neighborhoods needed the libraries to develop their skills.
The government hates reading and prefers to keep the people ignorant. I hope that libraries are open all over Egypt instead of closing them down. They could teach the people about Naguib Mahfouz and Taha Husein that our MPs won’t be ashamed of when they reach the Parliament. In short, reading is culture.
