Mohamed Fayek (born 1929) is an Egyptian politician who held various cabinet posts from 1967 to 1971 during the

presidency A presidency is an administration or the executive, the collective administrative and governmental entity that exists around an office of president of a state or nation. Although often the executive branch of government, and often personified b ...

of Gamal Abdel Nasser. He was the minister of national guidance in 1967, the minister of information between 1968 and 1970 and the state minister for foreign affairs between 1970 and 1971. He was also elected as a deputy to the People's Assembly in 1968.

Early life and education

Fayek was born in Cairo in 1929. He received a university degree and was a graduate of the Military Academy.

Career and arrest

Fayek worked as an

intelligence officer An intelligence officer is a person employed by an organization to collect, compile or analyze information (known as intelligence) which is of use to that organization. The word of ''officer'' is a working title, not a rank, used in the same way ...

and was part of the Free Officers Movement which ended the reign of

King Farouk Farouk I (; ar, فاروق الأول ''Fārūq al-Awwal''; 11 February 1920 – 18 March 1965) was the tenth ruler of Egypt from the Muhammad Ali dynasty and the penultimate King of Egypt and the Sudan, succeeding his father, Fuad I, in 1 ...

in 1952. Fayek headed the Bureau of Gamal Abdel Nasser after Nasser became the

President of Egypt The president of Egypt is the executive head of state of Egypt and the de facto appointer of the official head of government under the Egyptian Constitution of 2014. Under the various iterations of the Constitution of Egypt following the E ...

and was his legal adviser for African and Asian affairs. Between 1955 to 1966 Fayek was the head of the African Affairs Bureau attached to the Presidency. He also served as the vice-president of the Egyptian Committee for Afro-Asian Solidarity. In June 1967 Fayek was appointed minister of national guidance and headed the Egyptian delegation to the African Summit in September 1967. He was elected to the People's Assembly in 1968 and served there for two terms representing the Kasr El Nil constituency of Cairo. He became minister of information in 1968 which he held until April 1970. When Fayek was in office the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states (primarily Egypt, Syria, and Jordan) from 5 to 10 Ju ...

between the

United Arab Republic The United Arab Republic (UAR; ar, الجمهورية العربية المتحدة, al-Jumhūrīyah al-'Arabīyah al-Muttaḥidah) was a sovereign state in the Middle East from 1958 until 1971. It was initially a political union between Eg ...

(UAR) composed of Egypt, Jordan and Syria and Israel occurred, and the UAR was defeated which led to the resignation of Gamal Abdel Nasser. Just before his resignation Nasser told Fayek that he would be tried and hanged in the middle of Cairo. During the same period a Bureau of African Affairs was formed to support the African liberation movements against former colonial countries and headed by Fayek.

Mohamed Hassanein Heikal Mohamed Hassanein Heikal ( ar, محمد حسنين هيكل‎; 23 September 1923 – 17 February 2016) was an Egyptian journalist. For 17 years (1957–1974), he was editor-in-chief of the Cairo newspaper ''Al-Ahram'' and was a commentator on ...

replaced Fayek as minister of information. Next Fayek served as the minister of state for foreign affairs between April 1970 and May 1971. On 13 May 1971 Fayek resigned from the post with three other cabinet members. President

Anwar Sadat Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat, (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 ...

, successor of Nasser, was informed about their resignations by

Ashraf Marwan Ashraf Marwan ( ar, أشرف مروان‎, 2 February 1944 – 27 June 2007) was an Egyptian billionaire, who worked as a spy for Israeli Mossad. Egyptian officials claim he was a double agent who also worked for them. From 1969, Marwan ...

, son-in-law of Gamal Abdel Nasser, at his home. These officials are called the May group which was consisted of the Nasser supporters. Fayek had been the head of Bureau of African Affairs during his tenure as the minister of state for foreign affairs. He was removed from office by the President Sadat and was also arrested because of his alleged involvement in the planning of a coup against Sadat. He was jailed for ten years. Following his release from the prison Fayek assumed various positions in the organizations such as

Arab Organization for Human Rights The Arab Organization for Human Rights ( ar, المنظمة العربية لحقوق الإنسان) is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that works on human rights issues in the Arab World. It was founded with a resolution agreed on in Hamm ...

. One of his posts in the organization was the special rapporteur on refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons and migrants in Africa. As of 2011 Fayek was serving as the chairman of the Egyptian Ombudsman Office. He was also the chairman of the board of directors of '' Al Arabi'', a Nasserist newspaper. He is the president of the Egyptian National Council for Human Rights, the chairman of the Nile Valley Family Association and a board member of the Boutros Ghali Foundation.

Personal life and work

Fayek is married and has two children. The Egyptian musician Nadya Shanab is his granddaughter. In 1984 Fayek's

mémoire In French culture, the word ''mémoire'', as in un mémoire ("a memory" – indefinite article), reflects the writer's own experiences and memories. The word has no direct English translation. Up to the 18th century The word appeared in the course ...

entitled ''Abdel Nasser wal Thawra Al-Afriqiyya'' (Arabic: ''Abdel Nasser and the African Revolution'') was published by Dar Alwehda in Beirut, Lebanon.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fayek, Mohamed 1929 births Living people Government ministers of Egypt Information ministers of Egypt Politicians from Cairo Members of the Parliament of Egypt Nasserists Egyptian prisoners and detainees Egyptian Military Academy alumni Free Officers Movement (Egypt)