My Century Home Page

Broadcast on Wednesday 29th September 1999

HODA ABDEL NASSER

My name is Hoda Abdel Nasser, daughter of Gamel Abdel Nasser, the President of Egypt from 1954 up to 1970, when he passed away. My father achieved a political victory after the Suez crisis. Gamel Abdel Nasser emerged as the leader of the Arab world. And developments in the region afterwards led to tension between the Arab countries and Israel. This tension ended in a military attack by Israel on Egypt, Syria and Jordan. This attack actually paralysed the Egyptian army, because they (ie Israel) bombarded all or most of the Egyptian military airports.

Right after the ceasefire, my father presented his resignation to the Egyptian people. At that time, we were with him at home. And we were in a terrible state, of course. And what I remember on that day is that my father was in his office. And nobody was there to go and see him. Then we knew that there was a speech by my father on the television. We turned on the TV and we watched him. Ten minutes later, we found our house surrounded by masses of people - crying, shouting and refusing his resignation.
Actually, it was something that we never expected. Well, the next day the whole city was paralysed. Everybody slept in the streets, and there were demonstrations. And then we knew, from the BBC, that the same scene was repeated in all the Arab countries: demonstrations in the streets, refusing his resignation.

What I remember was that, from the next day, the 11th of June, he put everything behind him and he started Day One: rebuilding the army. I remember, in a conversation with him, when I found him reading Churchill's memoirs, that he said: "I want to know what kind of life there was in Britain after Dunkirk. What was the tone of the media, for instance? How were the people mobilised then?" And I still have these memoirs, with his handwritten comments on them. Our family followed austerity measures, like any other Egyptian family, in the period of the War of Attrition.

I remember that, in the early '70s, I asked my father for a sound system.. And so he looked at me and said: "No, I'll get it for you after liberation." Now, after all these years, when I look back, I believe that the period of his life after this big defeat of June 1967 was his best period. Because usually heroes are not tested at moments of victory, but the real test comes at moments of defeat. Actually he gave an example of how to start not only from zero but from below zero, economically, politically - because of course this defeat urged the internal opposition in Egypt to act against him. Internationally, the West was against him. But the people always clung to him, to his image, to his principles and to everything that he believed in, in those moments.

E N D