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Episode details

World Service,12 May 2022,9 mins

Egypt's bread riots

Witness History

Available for over a year

As concerns grow around the world about increases in food prices, we go back to Egypt in 1977 when President Anwar Sadat's decision to stop subsidizing the cost of bread led to two days of rioting and at least seventy deaths. President Sadat was forced into a u-turn in just 48 hours and no Egyptian government has dared to touch the subsidy since. Ben Henderson speaks to poet and activist, Xein Abedin Fouad, whose work was blamed by the president for inciting the unrest. PHOTO: President Sadat in 1977 (Getty Images)

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