Kamal Rifaat

Kamal Rifaat (Arabic: كمال الدين رفعت; 1 November 1921 – 13 July 1977) was an Egyptian military officer and one of the members of the Free Officers movement. He held several government posts after the Egyptian revolution in 1952.

Kamal Rifaat
Born
Kamaleddine Mahmoud Rifaat

1 November 1921
Alexandria, Kingdom of Egypt
Died13 July 1977(1977-07-13) (aged 55)
NationalityEgyptian
Alma materMilitary academy
OccupationMilitary officer
Years active1941-1977
HonoursOrder of the Republic

Early life and education

Kamal Rifaat was born in Alexandria on 1 November 1921.[1][2] His father was an engineer.[2] After completing primary and secondary education in Cairo Kamal Rifaat graduated from the military academy.[1]

Career

Kamal Rifaat joined the Egyptian army in 1941 and served there until 1945.[1] He was part of the Iron Guard along with Captain Mustafa Kamal Sidqi and Anwar Sadat which was composed of the supporters of King Farouk.[3] Then he worked in Khartoum, Sudan, in a secret organization to resist the British occupation.[2] Next, he participated in the 1948 Palestine War during which he met Gamal Abdel Nasser.[2]

Rifaat joined the Free Officers movement which carried out the Egyptian revolution in 1952.[4] He was part of the first cell of the movement founded by Nasser.[2] He was among those who had Marxist views in the group[5] and had a Titoist leaning.[6] Rifaat became a member of the 14-member Revolution Command Council following the 1952 revolution.[4] However, he was among the non-voting members of the council.[4] Rifaat was made acting minister of social affairs on 12 October 1961 when Syrian ministers vacated their posts in the cabinet.[7] When a cabinet was formed on 18 October he was permanently appointed to the post[7] and remained in office until September 1962.[8]

On 27 September 1962 a new constitution was accepted and then, a presidential council was formed under the presidency of Nasser.[8] Rifaat was one of the members of this council.[8] In addition, he served in various posts, including the minister of labor (June 1967–November 1970), director of ideological development within the Workers' Bureau of the Arab Socialist Union and the government publishing houses as well as the director of the modernization" program at Al Azhar University.[9] Between 1971 and 1973 Kamal was the ambassador to the United Kingdom.[1]

In 1976 Rifaat co-founded the National Progressive Unionist Party with Khaled Mohieddin, another member of the Revolution Command Council, known as Free Officers Movement.[10]

Death and honors

Kamal Rifaat died on 13 July 1977.[2] He was the recipient of the Order of the Republic and several decorations from Cameroon, Morocco, Yugoslavia and Tunisia.[1]

References
  1. Who's Who in the Arab World 2007-2008. Beirut: Publitec. 2011. p. 670. ISBN 978-3-11-093004-7.
  2. Maher Hassan (13 July 2017). "«زي النهاردة».. وفاة كمال الدين رفعت 13 يوليو 1977". Al-Masry Al-Youm (in Arabic). Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  3. Selin Eldeniz (September 2012). The Relationship between the Egyptian State and the Muslim Brotherhood from 1952 to 1970 (MSc thesis). Middle East Technical University. p. 46. hdl:11511/21903.
  4. Mahmud A. Faksh (June 1976). "Education and Elite Recruitment: An Analysis of Egypt's Post-1952 Political Elite". Comparative Education Review. 20 (2): 141. doi:10.1086/445878. JSTOR 1187158. S2CID 144846641.
  5. Ghada Hashem Talhami (2007). Palestine in the Egyptian Press: From al Ahram to al Ahali. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. p. 126. ISBN 978-0-7391-5863-0.
  6. Aonuar Abdel Malek (1964). "Nasserism and Socialism". Socialist Register. 1: 9.
  7. "Chronology September 16, 1961 - December 15, 1961". The Middle East Journal. 16 (1): 83–84. Winter 1962. JSTOR 4323441.
  8. Patricia Peghini Ryan (1972). The Arab Socialist Union of Egypt (PhD thesis). West Virginia University. pp. 62–63. ISBN 9798659245712. ProQuest 302593067.
  9. Robert Bianchi (Summer 1986). "The Corporatization of the Egyptian Labor Movement". The Middle East Journal. 40 (3): 434. JSTOR 4327366.
  10. Raymond A. Hinnebusch (Fall 1981). "The National Progressive Unionist Party: The Nationalist-Left Opposition in Post Populist Egypt". Arab Studies Quarterly. 3 (4): 327. JSTOR 41857580.
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