She wore the dress again 🎓

Hey friends, welcome back to the Egypt Weekly Roundup!

El-Sisi was in New Delhi this weekend for the BRICS summit, Egypt’s third since joining the bloc. Closer to home, a school principal who had been covering her school’s costs out of her own pocket ended up being honoured by the education minister, after a very public row with her governor, and a graduation dress turned into a national argument.

And if you are reading this from Sydney, EgyptAir may be coming for you.

Let’s get into it.

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• El-Sisi and Putin meet at BRICS 🇮🇳

• The trade deficit jumps 58.5 percent 📉

• Student's graduation dress sparks outcry 🎓

BRICS | RUSSIA | INDIA
PUTIN CALLS EGYPT A ‘LONG-STANDING AND RELIABLE FRIEND’ AT BRICS

President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi met Vladimir Putin on Friday, 11 September, on the sidelines of the 18th BRICS summit in New Delhi, where the Russian president described Egypt as a long-standing and reliable friend and said Moscow takes Cairo’s positions into account when shaping its own. El-Sisi had arrived in India that day for the summit, which India hosted on 12 and 13 September.

What is actually underneath it: Three things. El Dabaa, the Mediterranean coast nuclear plant Rosatom is building, which will be Egypt’s first. A planned Russian industrial zone near the Suez Canal, intended to give Russian manufacturers a base into Africa and the Middle East. And grain, where Russia has become one of the largest suppliers to one of the world’s largest wheat importers. Putin also invited El-Sisi to Moscow for the Russia-Africa Summit.

Read the fortnight: Xi Jinping in Cairo two weeks ago, Putin in New Delhi on Friday, and Washington pressing Egypt over a Huawei bid in between. Cairo is not picking a side, and this stretch made that approach visible rather than merely implied.

Egypt’s third summit: El-Sisi spoke in the closed leaders’ session on 12 September and again at the expanded session on 13 September. This is Egypt’s third consecutive BRICS summit since joining in January 2024, in the same intake as Iran, Ethiopia and the UAE. The draw for Cairo has been the New Development Bank and the prospect of settling more trade in local currencies, which matters when dollar shortages keep squeezing the import bill.

The awkward seat: Ethiopia sits in the same bloc. Egypt’s dispute over the Nile has sharpened since Addis Ababa revived plans for three more dams last month, and Cairo used its joint statement with China two weeks ago to restate the legal argument. BRICS gives both countries the same room and the same microphone.

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TRADE | CAPMAS | IMPORTS
TRADE DEFICIT JUMPS 58.5% PERCENT AS IMPORTS OUTRUN EXPORTS

Egypt’s trade deficit widened 58.5 percent year on year in June, reaching USD 7.5 billion (EGP 382.3 billion), according to CAPMAS figures published on Monday, 7 September. The gap a year earlier was USD 4.7 billion.

Exports did well: They rose 37.4 percent to USD 5 billion, up from USD 3.6 billion. Petroleum products more than doubled, at 128 percent. Fresh fruit climbed 77.1 percent, ready-made garments 47.7 percent, and food preparations 36.5 percent. Fertilizers and pharmaceuticals went the other way, down 12 and 13.2 percent.

Imports did better: They rose 49.4 percent to USD 12.4 billion. Crude oil purchases jumped 141 percent, plastics in primary form 41.6 percent, and passenger cars 10.9 percent. Wheat imports fell 9.7 percent and raw sugar 37 percent.

Why a good export month still widened the gap: Egypt exports roughly USD 5 for every USD 12 it imports, so growth on the smaller side has to be far faster just to hold the line. June was a strong month for exports and the deficit still grew by more than half. That arithmetic is the whole problem with export-led deficit closing as a standalone strategy.

The number worth watching: Crude oil imports up 141 percent while refined petroleum imports fell 29.2 percent suggests more processing is happening inside Egypt rather than abroad. That is progress of a kind, though it still means a heavier raw import bill each month.

WOMEN | EDUCATION | PUBLIC ‘MORALITY’
EGYPTIAN WOMAN’S DRESS AT GRADUATION SPARKS CONTROVERSY

Badr University president Ashraf El-Sheehy personally presented biotechnology graduate Jomana Kamal with her certificate on Sunday, 6 September, and formally honoured her. She wore the same dress that had started the argument.

What happened: By Kamal’s account, she went to the university’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine a week earlier to collect her cap and gown, and the dean, Adel Abdel-Khalek, objected to what she was wearing and questioned her about it. She said the dress fell below the knee and that no dress code applied to the ceremony. She has also alleged that the dean photographed her on his phone and that security then intervened.

Where it stands: Her lawyer, Amgad Mourad, described the incident as psychologically distressing and said the family has filed a police report, with witnesses and documents being prepared for prosecutors. The university opened an internal investigation. Both the university and Kamal’s side stressed that honouring her does not prejudge it.

Why it travelled: The argument left the campus within days. Feminist writers treated the honouring as bigger than one student: the journalist Heba Abdel Aziz framed it as a win for a woman’s right to decide for herself, and argued that respect should never become a synonym for obedience. In the comment threads under Kamal’s photographs, other users were busy claiming the dress was ‘inappropriate’….

The question underneath: At what point does concern about how a woman dresses turn into control over her? That is an old question, and a graduation ceremony turned out to be a very effective new setting for it. What got lost along the way, briefly, was that Kamal had finished a biotechnology degree.