If I’m not reading a book or watching a documentary tackling the Middle East’s economic problems, I usually don’t think of nepotism – the english word for Wasta – as something worth the trouble of standing against. You may know people or have friends who gotten jobs through a Wasta. I know I do. Getting a job because you know someone has arguably become an acceptable norm in Egypt that HR policies allow more often than not. But that doesn’t mean we should stop thinking about it. Is it really all that bad?
A common argument is that everybody depends on their relatives and connections to go places. Wouldn’t you? Why risk struggling in a job market where employees openly depend on nepotism, when you can just do likewise and have a significantly higher chance at getting the job you want? This argument helps when you’re the one benefiting from it. But is it always a good thing for your own personal gain? There are studies that suggest that people hired through nepotism are stigmatized because of the negative attitudes their peers have towards it. Even though there are no studies specific to Egypt and its culture yet, it is something to worry about.
To excuse your co-worker or your superior who pulled strings to get someone in, you could say, ‘Well, they basically built this place from the ground up. Why shouldn’t they be allowed to hire whomever they like?’ But is that really how we want to view the private firms in our society? This excuse could remind one of the origins of the word ‘nepotism’. It stems from the Italian word nepotismo, which is based on the Latin word nepos, meaning nephew.
The birth of the word is credited to old practices. From the Middle Ages and up to the late 17th century, some Catholic popes and bishops who had no legitimate offspring of their own (because they had taken a vow of chastity) gave their nephews and other relatives the positions that were often granted by fathers to sons to sustain a papal dynasty. Such systems of preserving power within a family make some of the problematic implications of nepotism a little obvious.
One could also argue that nepotism in the workplace is a form of discrimination. You could tone down its harm on others by claiming that getting your relatives or friends hired is merely favoritism. But you could also say that when you favor someone you know – because of their relationship to you – you’re discriminating against other candidates in the work force who applied for the job.
Nepotism in Egypt is seemingly unstoppable. When I reflect on my subjective and narrow view of it, I can only observe great confusion and contradiction. A lot of my colleagues, friends and relatives who perceive it as unfair are not vocal about their opposition to it, especially where they work. When I ask why, they say they want to avoid potential harm to their careers and dodge any unnecessary trouble. I also find a lot of its opponents around me using it to their advantage. If I want to turn to more objective studies exploring it in Egypt and the Middle East, I find a handful of incomprehensive ones that leave many stones unturned.
I now yield you, the reader, the floor. What do you think of nepotism? What is your experience of it like? If you have something interesting to say about it, we’d love it if you could hopefully contribute to a more diverse and transparent conversation about it.
