“Why am I Liberal”- Essay Competition – Speeches of First Prize winner
More than 170 invitees filled the auditorium of the Sawy Cultural Centre in Zamalek/Cairo on the evening of June 16, 2009 for the award ceremony of the essay writing competition “Why I am liberal” jointly organized by Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty (FNF) and the Egyptian Union of Liberal Youth (EULY). An evening of suspense and joy – and a series of prominent liberal speeches culminated when Mr. Hani Abdel Malak of FNF announced the first winner of the competition: The first prize an invitation to a leadership training in Germany went to Mr. Mohamed Saad Mohamed, a young leader of the liberal Al Ghad Party from Alexandria for his essay “Liberalism is sustained by Flexibility”. Towards the end of the two hours event, Mr. Mohamed was joined on the stage by 17 other prize-winning authors. Their essays also are published in the book entitled “Why I am liberal. Youthful texts on liberalism” presented to the public during the ceremony. All the winners addressed the audience and gave short messages why they consider themselves liberals. Their winning essays deal with various subjects – political, social and also personal: “I chose liberalism because I am a woman,” is the title of the work by Ms. Hind Hassan, or: “Whoever is different is not against me”, argues Ms. Mariam Mourad Ali in another prize winning contribution.
