ACERCA DE LA REPRESENTACIÓN

In both settlements, as described in the women and control over property section above, a few husbands took complete control over the land and its benefits. Other male family members, such as brothers and fathers, were also reported to have exploited their sisters, mothers, and daughters. It was reported many times by the WFP Assisted Projects Coordinator and local settlers on the ground that brothers refuse to marry off their affluent sisters in fear of losing their benefits from their land. Some brothers, on the other hand, adapted to their sisters’ marriages.

In one case in Sa’yda, Waleed, a brother of a WL, told me that his sister’s new husband “tried to interfere with the land matters. I came up to him and told him, ‘between me, the land, and my sister you have no place. Stay away.’ Since that time and I haven’t seen him interfering with land matters.” Waleed farms the land of his sister who lives in Aswan with henna, a cash crop. He takes two thirds of the profit, and she takes one third of the profit, as is the usual sharecropping pattern in the settlement.

In another case of male profiteering in Sa’yda, a brother signed a rent contract with an entrepreneur who leases his divorced sister’s land without her permission for five years. His sister, Om Rabab, reported that it took her more than a year to settle the problem and reclaim her land. Om Rabab is a young, savvy, and brave woman; many Heads of Settlement

With time, however, many Women landholders learn how to better control their relations with greedy kin and relatives, as illustrated by the case of Om Abdallah. “Om Abdallah’s brothers took a lot of money from her,” reported Om Omar. “Eventually, Om Abdallah smartened up. Now, she is not as before. She does not let her brothers take her profits anymore, but she gave her brothers a lot in the beginning. Now, she saves up for her son. She saves up her money for an apartment in Sadat city. I told her stop letting your money go away like that. Save up and buy other property,” continued Om Omar.

In Sa’yda, some sons took their mothers’ loans. Their mothers did not benefit from the profits of the loans.

“Don’t ask Om Shahata what happened to her micro-credit of six sheeps and a ram. Her son took them and never told her what happened to them. Up to this day, she does not know what happened to her loan.” (Om Waleed)

“I took the loan of six sheeps and a ram. I married my son with the money from its sale. I spent two years doing jam’iyat [marry-go-rounds] to pay for that loan. That loan tired me so much. I am never going to take a loan again.” (Om Nizam)

Also WLs who have limited experience in farming and property rent and sale and had no husbands were prone to manipulation from a third party. Four WLs reported that they were subject to fraudulent land transactions. One, Om Mahmoud, mentioned earlier rented her land for free to a man who hid his profits from Om Mahmoud. Another, WL, Om Hussein, is famous in the Samha village for being deceived by a leveling machinery- operating man, who charged for many more hours than he really worked on her land. Om Hussein is bitter about that even after years have passed: “Even until now. Sometimes when I pray, I pray for God to forgive him for what he did to me. For all the money that he took from me and shouldn’t have.”

Another WL, Om Mazen, reported that she sold her land because she does not know how to farm and that people, as a result, took advantage of that and often stole her money. In another case, a son took fertilizer from the LAC and lied to his mother by telling her that the LAC had no fertilizer on that day. Women take fertilizer from the LAC and sell it in the black market for a profit. The mother visits the New Lands on a sporadic basis and wanted some pocket money from the sale of fertilizer. The son deceived his mother in order to profit from the sale of fertilizer himself.

5.6.2

‘The Last Lands God Created’: Lack of Basic Services

The lack of public services, including health care, potable water, security (police stations), transport, and proper schooling, was the single main deterrent for resettling into the New Lands. As mentioned in the control over land section, women who did not relocate into the New Lands were less likely to experience the adoption of new roles and responsibilities or to gain new knowledge beyond the household. Along the same lines, the theft of water pumps in Sa’yda also led many women to flee the area due to lack of means for irrigation. Only five percent of the WLs who got land currently live in the Samha village.

Those women who stayed in the New Lands reported that their families have kidney ailments due to the quality of the potable water that they had to drink in the New Lands. Most of the settlers currently buy their potable water from the Old Lands. Most settlers, initially, however, when buying potable water was still not an option, opted for drinking salty, poorly treated, and polluted water. Currently, the few who could not afford buying their potable water still drink this salty water. Many of the settlers suffer from kidney ailments.

Many GWLs in Intilaq and a few daughters-in-law in Sa’yda also complained about the lack of proper schooling. Few sons and fewer daughters were able to gain admission to universities due to low GPAs. Many girls are prohibited from getting enrolled in schooling outside the local settlements, as illustrated below. This meant that most girls stop their education upon the completion of elementary school because secondary schools were located in other settlements.

“We had to sacrifice our children’s education by staying here.” (Om Azeez in Intilaq) “Imagine I am a graduate of commerce, and my daughter is less educated than me because of living here.” (Nada, a daughter-in-law of a WL in the Samaha village) Nada’s daughter often cries and complains about living in Samaha. She wants to continue her education, but because of a lack of reliable transport, she cannot. Her father was in prison for two years, and she could not go stay with her grandmother and leave her mother and brothers until her father gets out of jail.

It was also clear that both the women exclusive villages of Al Samaha in Sa’yda and Al Shoahda during early stages of settlement in Intilaq had the least access to shops, smallest population count, and consequently least access to transport.