- Democracy
- June 28, 2010
- 4 minutes read
U.N. report illustrates marginalizing of Egyptian youths in political participation.

Protests in Egypt partly reflect pent up frustration after 30 years of rule under the emergency law implemented by President Hosni Mubarak. But security forces have been quick and often aggressive in controlling them. Protests however need to be more frequent with higher participation if they are to be effective in a country of over 78 million people, where the youths between 18 and 29 years are approximately 25% of the population.
The Youths lack of faith in the electoral process has made religion more attractive prompting youths to turn towards it. Nevertheless Egypt ‘s biggest political opposition group the Muslim Brotherhood, which enjoys much popularity and has in fact acquired seats in the parliamentary elections although officially banned has been highly targeted.
According to the report on human development the current atmosphere in Egypt is inappropriate for any participation by youths or political opposition on the political arena. The ruling regime has demonstrated evident intolerance of any form of public participation illustrated with its continual use of security apparatus especially during protests holding detainees in custody indefinitely. Apparently youths are more concerned with livelihood rather than politics as they face higher and higher unemployment describing political activities as useless and incapable of making a difference to their more immediate problems.
The report added that the youths suffered mostly in the unemployment problem totaling 90% of those unemployed in Egypt . This deemed them excluded in most forms of community participation.
Recent comments by Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif at an Economic Initiative conference assure the youths that the regime is aware of their unemployment and economic problems but no evidence of addressing the problem has been evident.