Hossam Badrawi is an Egyptian physician and politician. Badrawi owns the Nile Badrawi Hospital in Cairo’s Maadi district. He is also the founder of the Union Party.
Published 120 research papers that had to do with his field: obstetrics and gynecology, and participated in eight text books that are related to his field, as well. His latest book about reforming the Education was published in November 2011.
Political Life
Badrawi came from a family that affiliated with Egypt’s liberal Al-Wafd party. He entered the political life himself in the second half of the 1990s. In 2000, he joined the National Democratic Party with ex-president Hosni Mubarak, who was ruling the party, alongside with his son, Gamal Mubarak. Badrawi won a seat in the assembly that he occupied before for five years, in which he headed the parliamentary committee on fields like the education and the scientific research. Within the party and in the parliament itself, Badrawi established several initiatives on education that strived to improve the educational system in Egypt. Badrawi started an extensive reform program for all the high school and the university levels, in which policy papers on education-related issues were made. In addition, Badrawi became one of the members of the National Council for Human Rights in 2004 and stayed till 2007, where he helped head the council’s committee on issues regarding social rights. He also became a member of the board of trustees in the Bibliotheca Alexandria in Egypt. Badrawi lost his seat in the parliament, when he ran again in 2005, to businessman Hisham Mostafa Khalil. In 2010, Badrawi criticized the opposition for refusing to let Gamal Mubarak run in the presidential elections. Accordingly, one of his famous quotes is, “If President Hosni Mubarak doesn’t stand in 2011 elections, it’s natural that the NDP select Gamal Mubarak as its candidate.”
His time during the 25th of January Revolution
Badrawi was appointed by ex-president Hosni Mubarak, during the Egyptian revolution of 2011 on February 5. He became the new secretary general of Hosni Mubarak's ruling NDP to replace NDP Stalwart Safwat Al-Sherif as party secretary general. On 11 February, less than a week after, he resigned from the position and the party. This was in attempt to still try and save the situation, when the protests intensified everywhere in Egypt. Badrawi announced his support to the revolution, by recommending Hosni Mubarak to step down, delegate his powers to vice presidentOmar Suleiman, and call for early elections, but Mubarak refused to make this move. One of the quotes that he announced regarding the advice he gave to Mubarak then was, “Egypt isn’t in need of tragic developments that don’t allow for economic development. We want work. We want companies to make profits and pay taxes. We want safety and stability.” When Hosni Mubarak refused to resign and came out to his people with a speech on February 10 that said he was not leaving, Badrawi decided to resign the following day, February 11.
After the Revolution
Badrawi focused on domestic politics. He played an important role in the formation of Misr AlNahda Party. He also joined intellectuals and businessmen to start the Ittihad Party. Those two parties are thought to be aiming for economic and political liberalization.
