Saturday, July 03, 2004

ATHENS: At a dinner party in 1978, Magda Shahin - then a junior worker in Egypt's Foreign Ministry - was asked by the German councilor in Cairo whether she thought that the brewing Islamist movement posed a threat.

A year before Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was killed in 1981 by an extremist group called Takfir wa Hijra, Shahin opined that the groups were harmless. In fact, she said, the fiery Islamists were nothing more than the Egyptian equivalent of "the hippie movement in Germany."

Last week, sitting behind her ornate desk - a magnificent dark wood confection that once belonged to Egypt's King Fuad - in the Egyptian Embassy in Athens, Shahin laughingly recalls the German councilor's comment the first time they met again after the slaying of Sadat.

"These are the hippies of Egypt?" he asked.

"I think I was a little ill-informed about the scene, having been in Germany," Shahin ventures, understatedly. "I never knew what these groups were doing. I realized that all of a sudden people started to get veiled and there was a change, but I didn't feel it when it was boiling in the community."

Shahin stumbled into the Egyptian diplomatic service in a manner that resembled her approach to the looming Islamist resurgence. Straight out of university, she flirted with being a flight attendant for TWA - the prestige profession of the 1970s - before taking her father's advice and sitting the Foreign Ministry exam.

"I was attracted by the idea of working for TWA because they were very well-paid; you had free tickets around the world and so on. The Foreign Ministry never occurred to me as an option."

But occur it did.

"Then I became a diplomat," smiles Shahin, who softens the sartorial effect of an austere button-up blouse with bright red nail-polish, a pearl necklace, a gold watch and earrings. "I enjoyed it so much that I devoted all my life to it and had not time even to get married."

Loaded with a bachelor's degree, a master's degree, as well as a doctorate in economics, Shahin soon set off for New York.

"Just as I thought that I should get married, I got a posting in New York. Well, I couldn't forsake New York for marriage," exclaimed Shahin. "For me, New York was much more interesting than getting married and staying in Cairo."

While in the United States, Shahin attended a mid-career course on the workings of the American political system and was astonished to see how American students behave.

"They are very much different than ours," Shahin confesses. "In my time, especially at Cairo University, we used to write what the professor said, learn it by heart, then go and do the exam."

"I was pleasantly surprised to see how the students in the US sit, even with their legs on the table," she said incredulously.

"I was amazed. For me the professor was something big. For them he was nothing at all," she giggles.

There followed five years spent in Geneva and a return to Cairo as assistant minister at the Foreign Ministry. Her meteoric rise to the top of what is traditionally a male-dominated profession was achieved through hard work and dedication.

"Being a woman ambassador is challenging; it's interesting, it's rewarding, it's fulfilling. It can also end up being two jobs."

Since arriving in Athens, Shahin has overseen major renovations to the embassy which have revealed the full neoclassical grandeur of what was formerly one of the deposed king of Greece's palaces.

The spacious, two-story building, which originally belonged to Greece's King George II, was given as a gift to Egypt's King Fuad and became the Egyptian royal residence in Athens. The deposed King Farouk stayed there briefly in 1952 en route to Italy, following the revolution and his exile from Egypt. Subsequently, the building was nationalized by the Free Officers, and turned into the country's diplomatic representation.

Well into the last months of her diplomatic posting, Shahin has strived over three years to boost Greek political and economic investment in her country and the region.

"Greece is a country with a very acceptable face in the region, and it can play a very big role in making the European countries understand our region better," she said.

Less than two months before the Olympics, Shahin vows to shun the international media spotlight for a quiet summer spent cheering the Egyptian team, particularly the weightlifters, onto at least one gold medal. But she's unsure whether she'll attend any events.

"It's walking distance from my residence but I don't think I'll attend. I hate to be among so many people ... I'd rather watch it at home on the TV."

By Iason Athanasiadis Special to The Daily Star

© The Daily Star 2004