When I was a teenager in the 1980s, my mother would always tell me to read Al-Ahram’s Friday feature Bareed Al-Gomaa, or Friday Mail. It was full of life lessons, she would say.
After reading it a couple of times, I decided it was too depressing and refrained from reading it again. But I was the odd one out: most people were mesmerised by the weekly page, which was likely one of the reasons the paper’s Friday edition would sell out.
At the time, real-life stories sent in by readers were compiled in a compelling literary form by late writer Abdel-Wahab Motawei, the godfather of the feature who oversaw it for more than 20 years.
Fatma Mohamed, now a pensioner, would read the Friday Mail to her children regularly to indirectly teach them about life and guide them in case they found themselves in similar circumstances.
Although she does not remember the details, she recounts once reading a tragic tale in the newspaper that ended up in the loss of life. A young couple had quarrelled and both had then left the house, forgetting to check up on their baby. Each thought the other had taken the infant with them, while all the time it had been sleeping. Days afterwards they realised the calamity, only to return and find the baby was dead, killed by neglect and hunger.
While not all the stories in the feature were that heartbreaking, they nonetheless were usually all about problems involving family, battered children, or betrayals by friends. Motawei would write a wise comment, suggesting a solution or offering advice to help people resolve their dilemma.
Some of the stories had happy endings. Reading them showed God’s hand at work, reminding people that there was still hope and good in the world.
Mohamed, remembers a story in which a young woman, 36 years of age, was turned down as a bride by her potential mother-in-law because the latter claimed she was too old to bear children. Heartbroken, the young woman performed the omra (the lesser pilgrimage) and prayed. On her way back, she met a young man who turned out to be a friend of her sister’s husband. They married and had three children.
The Friday Mail feature was a spinoff of Al-Ahram’s Letters to the Editor. The latter has existed under the name of Bareed Al-Ahram, or Letters to Al-Ahram, since 1931 with various modifications to the name and some years of discontinuation along the way.
It includes everything from readers’ comments on current social or economic trends to calls for help by individuals unable to meet life’s demands or to afford medical treatment for themselves or members of their families. It also includes readers’ criticisms of the implementation of certain laws and complaints about inefficient government services.
According to veteran professor of journalism and avid reader of Al-Ahram’s Letters to the Editor Awatef Abdel-Rahman, the section gives a voice to readers. It reflects public opinion, unlike the editorial policy of the newspaper, she said.
She added that the section earned its fame during Motawei’s editorship, which began in 1982. He gave it clout, Abdel-Rahman said, adding that readers sent their complaints in because they knew the authorities would read them and react fast.
A small team of six currently run the Letters to the Editor section of Al-Ahram and the Friday Mail. Three carry out the editing and compiling of the stories, and three of them do the administrative work, including collecting donations and studying needy cases.
They also revert to local councils to help with case studies, since they have trained professionals whose job is to check the economic and social status of individuals.
PLATFORM
When Bareed Al-Ahram was created, it aimed at giving readers a platform to vent their opinions.
That platform continues in the traditional print form, but it has since developed to suit the times, said Mohamed Younis, head of the Letters to the Editor section since March 2022. The letters can also be found on Al-Ahram’s website and Facebook page, where other readers can react and give feedback on the problems being discussed.
The section also receives messages from readers via WhatsApp, e-mail, and Messenger, as well as the traditional slow mail and even fax machine.
Technology has meant fewer hand-written letters, said Inas Al-Guindi, deputy head of the section, who has been part of the editorial team since 2004. Instead of hundreds of weekly letters, the number is now down to tens, she said. Hand-written letters were sometimes problematic, she added, because they were not always legible.
According to Younis, the multiple messaging channels used today can add work for the staff, however. Moreover, they double check that the readers’ contributions are original pieces. The Internet is teeming with websites, and they worry that some content may sometimes be copied.
An important aspect of Bareed Al-Ahram is its charity work. That too was one of the additions made by Motawei, said Younis. When he took over, not only did Al-Ahram begin receiving donations, but doctors and hospitals also started donating their services and time in medical cases.
Al-Ahram carries out a study of potential cases before referring patients or giving them the needed sums. These donations received a boost when Egyptian Nobel Prize-winning writer Naguib Mahfouz donated a third of the value of his prize to Al-Ahram, the newspaper where he first published his novel Awlad Haretna (Children of the Alley).
Today, Younis said, economic conditions have affected the donations, and they published an advertisement recently inviting readers to donate more so that they can continue to help those in need. Unlike regular charitable organisations, said Younis, every pound donated goes straight to needy cases, and none of it goes to salaries or overheads.
“It’s from the readers to the readers,” he said.
The team overseeing the process are all employees of Al-Ahram, which pays their salaries. To collect donations, the newspaper must have approval from the Ministry of Social Solidarity. The sums disbursed to needy cases vary and depend on available resources, Younis noted. Sometimes, it is a modest contribution, especially when resources are limited and individuals are seeking help from other entities as well.
Bareed Al-Ahram also has a corner for medicines. Individuals seeking costly and sometimes hard-to-find pharmaceuticals can write to the editor. Others who have expensive medicines that they no longer need can donate them. A list of these is published regularly too.
According to Younis, not all the letters received are publishable. Some of the problems are about disputes that need legal expertise to solve. “We cannot be party to either of the sides,” he said, adding that in choosing, editing, and replying to problems they try to be objective and handle issues of general interest that do not involve a legal dispute or claims that could cause libel actions against the newspaper.
Motawei’s editorship was transformative for the Friday Mail, Younis said. People would reserve their copy of Friday’s Al-Ahram on Thursday night, he said, adding that “he made people live the stories.” Various groups also exist that republish the stories Motawei edited.
INTERRUPTIONS
After Motawei passed away, the Friday Mail was halted for a couple of years. Then it was compiled by senior writer Khairi Ramdan and later by Ahmed Al-Berri, who headed the section until 2021 when a health issue forced him to take a back seat.
Al-Berri oversaw the section for 15 years. At first, he was apprehensive about the comparison with Motawei, he said, but eventually he found his place and worked on developing the section, introducing a special section on Saturdays as well expanding the area for the daily letters.
Younis compiled the Friday mail after taking over until early this year when it took on a new form. Three expert journalists now alternate in writing it, Gehan Al-Gharabawi, Hanaa Dakrouri, and Mefreh Sarhan.
Dakrouri, head of Al-Ahram’s foreign reports, told Al-Ahram Weekly that she had been thrilled to take on the mission. It was her favourite section of the newspaper growing up, she said, adding that she had liked to read novels, and some of the stories in the mail almost felt like fiction.
The television did not offer much entertainment at the time, and the stories in the newspaper’s mail section on Fridays often were the topic of discussion at family gatherings, she said. One of the stories that stuck with her was of a young man complaining that he was a lonely child and blaming his parents for being selfish for not having had a brother or sister for him. Motawei’s answer asked him whether his parents had tried to have another child and how he could be sure that if he had had a brother or sister he would be less lonely.
Dakrouri said that although there are still loyal readers today, the competition is tough. There are now multiple online venues where people can vent about their problems and seek advice, and these receive a multitude of answers from a wide spectrum of people, while in the Friday Mail, the reply only reflects the point of view of the one person writing it.
One of the stories that stuck with Younis was about a gentleman in his 60s whose wife had complained about losing items at home at a time when no strangers were coming into the house.
“She was looking for attention — that is what she had really lost,” Younis opined. When giving his opinion in his replies, Younis said he often approaches specialists like psychologists or lawyers to help him give a proper reply. One of the cases that need specialised help was of a young man who insisted on coming to his office to recount how his mother treated him differently from his sisters. He claimed she was trying to give his inheritance to his sisters.
Younis attempts to detach himself from the stories. After reading them, he gives himself time to think about them and then consults where needed before replying. He also asks those he reaches out to for consultation if they can help free of charge if needed.
“The problem is that we always hear only one side of the story, which is why when answering I say that the answers are based on that side of the story,” Younis said. While it would be better to hear both sides of the story, this would be difficult because of the need for anonymity, he noted.
In the end, “we are a newspaper and not a team of social workers.”
Nonetheless, over the years, reading the problems has taken its toll on Al-Guindi, the deputy head of the section. Whereas at the outset she would sometimes cry over the stories she reads, today she has become like a physician treating patients without getting personally involved.
Younis wishes more young people would interest themselves in the published stories. “Except for a few, they do not want to read emotionally consuming stories,” he said, adding that these are real stories that people can learn a lot from.
According to Abdel-Rahman, over the years the problems have not changed. Many are about children who have neglected their elderly parents. Some are about fathers who have been away for years to make money and when they return their children treat them badly.
Social media and its effects on family relations have become another recurring problem, she said, affecting relations between married couples or between children and parents. Financial problems are more present than ever, with people complaining about prices and living conditions. The health issues of the elderly and people with special needs are also persistent challenges.
The space given to Bareed Al-Ahram has shrunk over the years in part due to fewer pages overall and in part because some of the problems and replies are published only online.
Younis believes that the future of the section depends on the future of newsprint more generally. Abdel-Rahman wants to see greater space given to the problems of people in remote areas. She said that those in charge should seek the services of university psychology and sociology departments. This would give the responses more depth, she said.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 17 August, 2023 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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