Sample Professional Report
-
Upload
gasser-gouda -
Category
Documents
-
view
217 -
download
0
Transcript of Sample Professional Report
8/7/2019 Sample Professional Report
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sample-professional-report 1/20
Eng 102 ReportFall 2010
The Lack of AffordableHousing for Newly-Wed
Middle-Class Egyptians
Prepared for:-Dr. Aya El-Bably
Prepared by:-
Omar El-Shamy
Completed on :-01/01/2010
Table of ContentsPage 1 of 20
8/7/2019 Sample Professional Report
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sample-professional-report 2/20
Eng 102 ReportFall 2010
Executive Summary -------------------- 1
Part 1 –- Introduction-------------------------2-3
- Questionnaire Results -------------3-6
Part 2 –
Causes
- The Cost of Marriage----------------7
- Housing Policy-----------------------8-9
Effects
- Urfi Marriage-----------------------9-10
- Wait hood----------------------------10-11
Conclusion----------------------------------11-12
- References ---------------------------13
Appendix
- Table of Data Analysis ------------14
- Questionnaire-------------------------15-16
- Outline ---------------------------------17
Executive Summary
Page 2 of 20
8/7/2019 Sample Professional Report
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sample-professional-report 3/20
Eng 102 ReportFall 2010
Why is there a lack of affordable housing for middle class Egyptiannewly weds, and what are the effects this has on Egyptian society?In this report I go over housing policy in Egypt over the last fewdecades and the reforms it has taken. The cost of marriage in Egyptshall also be explored and compared to other countries in the
middle east.
In addition to this I will discuss the concepts of prolongedadolescence and wait-hood and discuss Urfi Marriage which manysee as a by-product of the inability to get married due to theextortionate costs. I will also suggest solutions to the problem in theconclusion, these include policy reform as well as adapting to a newway of thinking for the modern world.
Part I
IntroductionPage 3 of 20
8/7/2019 Sample Professional Report
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sample-professional-report 4/20
Eng 102 ReportFall 2010
Traditionally in the Arab world parents are financially responsible for
their children until their children are able to get married, in the past
this was usually by the age of 19. As a result of this an Arab youth is
never fully considered an adult until he is married since he still lives
with his parents and
for all intents and purposes is still heavily dependant on them. If the
youth is not able to wed he is faced with a certain level of social
isolation and disrespect. (Rashad, 2005)
In the past this was not a problem as most youths were able to find
a spouse and afford to get married at a young age abiding by his or
her cultural standards, however with the constantly rising costs of
living and the drops in employment rates, it has become
increasingly more difficult to meet these expectations. One of the
major costs of a marriage is that of housing, especially in the case of
the middle class of Egypt. This in my opinion is the main obstacle in
the way of marriage of young Egyptians.
As I mentioned earlier the nature of the culture calls for the parents
to support their children till they are wed, and so they remain living
at home with their immediate family and almost completely
financially dependant on their parents. This allows for men well into
their 20’s and in many cases their 30’s and above to remain in a
state of prolonged adolescence, meaning they don’t have the
Page 4 of 20
8/7/2019 Sample Professional Report
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sample-professional-report 5/20
Eng 102 ReportFall 2010
chance to mature as human beings and are not able to contribute in
a positive way to their society.
Unable to grow up they remain in a state of arrested development
and face the full brunt of the social stigma that comes with it, being
seen as failures by their elders. Culturally it is frowned upon to rent
an apartment, and parents are highly selective about whom they
will allow their children to marry even in the middle class. In fact it
could be argued that this is the case especially in the upper to
middle class, as parents are reluctant to marry off their children to
people that they don’t see as equals, or superior, both economically
and in terms of the perceived prestige of society.
This can have potentially disastrous affects on the society, as
young people do not take jobs perceived as more lowly culturally
since they feel that when they come to wed this would work against
them. Instead they opt to remain unemployed and wait for the
opportunity for a more prestigious position to arise. This is
counterproductive as they are not saving any money during this
period which could later help them out when trying to find housing.
Since marriage is such a huge investment for a family they are
always reluctant not to marry their daughters to someone without a
prestigious job and ownership of their own property, renting is seen
as flimsy, they want to guarantee the financial security and comfort
of their children.
Page 5 of 20
8/7/2019 Sample Professional Report
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sample-professional-report 6/20
Eng 102 ReportFall 2010
Questionnaire Results
The questionnaire was an interesting way to take a peak at theopinions of the youth in order to compare them to the findings of myresearch. I tried to keep the sample representative and balanced forexample I made sure that of the 20 given the questionnaire 10 weremale and 10 were female. Unfortunately because of the small size of the sample group, it is clear that the results are not entirelyrepresentative, for example, from the sample group of 20 middleclass Egyptian youths all of them were single, yet they all claimed toknow at least a couple of their friends who were engaged.
Q1)Most middle class Egyptians get married when they area)18-21b)22-25c)26-29d)30+
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Male
Fema
Male 1 6 3 0
Female 1 5 4 0
18-21 22-25 26-29 30+
Page 6 of 20
8/7/2019 Sample Professional Report
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sample-professional-report 7/20
Eng 102 ReportFall 2010
This tells me that the majority of the sample group asked believethat Egyptians marry
before the age of 30, both the males and the females had verysimilar opinions with
the majority believing that they will marry between 22-25 with 26-
29 coming a closesecond. There were no votes for 30+. These are actually close to
the real figures.
Q2)Most middle class Egyptians wed after graduating university
strongly agree
agree
neutral
disagree
strongly disagree
Fem
Male
It was almost unanimously agreed that they do wed very soon aftergraduating university, again both men and women shared thisopinion. Only 2 people disagreed with no one strongly disagreeing.
Page 7 of 20
8/7/2019 Sample Professional Report
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sample-professional-report 8/20
Eng 102 ReportFall 2010
Q3)Most of the financial strain of housing is placed on the…
0 2 4 6
The Groom
The Groom's Family
The Bride
The Bride's Family
Shared
Fema
Male
Here we see that the majority feel that the cost is shared, with no
votes going towards the brides family. This rings true as the cost isgenerally shared but most of it is paid by the groom and his family.
Page 8 of 20
8/7/2019 Sample Professional Report
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sample-professional-report 9/20
Eng 102 ReportFall 2010
Q5) Young couples are willing to sacrifice luxuries in order to affordhousing….
0 2 4 6 8
Strongly
Agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
Strongly
Disagree
Femal
Male
While about the same number of men and women believe are
neutral about this, it is clear that significant number believe this tobe true, it is also interesting to being up that more men than womenseem to think so, this might show that men are more willing tosacrifice luxuries than men
Page 9 of 20
8/7/2019 Sample Professional Report
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sample-professional-report 10/20
Eng 102 ReportFall 2010
Part II
Causes:-
The Cost of Marriage in Egypt
1) Housing
2) Furniture and household appliances
3) Shabka – golden jewelry given to the bride
4) Mahr – Dower
5) Celebrations
6) Trouseau – Gihaz or Kiswa (including clothing, kitchen-ware
etc..)
14 percent of the cost of marriage goes towards the Trouseau, 6
percent towards the celebration, 5 percent to the Mahr, 9 percent to
the jewelry, with lions share of the cost being the housing at 32
percent and the furniture at 34 percent. (Singerman, 1997)
These statistics are very telling in that they reveal that housing
takes up a whole third of the cost of a marriage, one could even
argue two thirds if you were to include the cost of the furniture. This
is a substantially high statistic showing that the main hurdle for a
young couple to cross in Egypt is that of financing their housing.
Page 10 of 20
8/7/2019 Sample Professional Report
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sample-professional-report 11/20
Eng 102 ReportFall 2010
Housing Policy In Egypt
In the 1960’s new housing reforms were enforced, these were
designed to protect tenants of
1)Agricultural land
2)Commercial property
3)Rental Housing
These reforms gave the tenants indefinite contracts to the
properties they are renting at fixed nominal price. Over time these
prices became miniscule compared to the current market. This gave
people the ability to essentially own apartments and now are paying
next to nothing in rent. As a result the supply for rental housing
dissipated swiftly causing a huge shortage. (Assaad, 2008)
In order to rent new apartments tenants were now expected to pay
huge sums of advance rent upfront, essentially buying the property
with very vague terms in the contract regarding the rights of the
tenant and the landlord.
These new rent control laws devastated the market for those
looking to purchase property as well. As a result of these new laws
landlords were reluctant to rent out their properties in addition to
this they also did not want to sell their properties. Shrewdly holding
Page 11 of 20
8/7/2019 Sample Professional Report
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sample-professional-report 12/20
Eng 102 ReportFall 2010
on to their units while waiting from prices to go up, and/or keeping
the property for when their children wished to get married.
Shockingly 9.9% of all dwellings, that’s 904,000 units, were vacant
according to the 1996 Egyptian census. (Assaad, 2008)
After 1981 there was yet another reform in rental law in Egypt. It
began with allowing for landlords to increase rent one time, and
shifted the laws regarding agricultural land to be a bit more liberal.
Finally in 1996 with the Law No. 4 being enforced landlords of rental
housing were allowed to give definite durations to their contracts,
they were even given the right to renegotiate rental prices at the
ends of these contracts. Unfortunately this law only applied to
contracts made after the law was established.
Effects:-
1. Urfi Marriage
Urfi marriage are marriages which are not registered with the
government, these marriages are kept secret from the community
and the family by the couples involved. These marriages are
becoming more and more popular among young people as it
reduces the cost of marriage since the couple do not live together.
They instead meet on a regular basis in hotel rooms, or furnished
flats.
Page 12 of 20
8/7/2019 Sample Professional Report
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sample-professional-report 13/20
Eng 102 ReportFall 2010
Since these unions occur in secret the family plays no financial role
in the marriage however they also play no role in the selection of
the spouse which can strongly appeal to many couples. In addition
to this as the couple do not cohabitate they also do not suffer the
huge financial burden of housing, not to mention the other costs of
marriage in Egypt discussed in this paper.
How common are Urfi Marriages?
It is a popular belief among Egyptians that there is a huge
occurrence of urfi marriage in Egypt, now more than ever because
of the perception that it is now more difficult than ever to afford a
real or official marriage. However considering the secrecy involved
in such a union it is difficult for sociologists, anthropologists and
government officials to gather data regarding this phenomena.
Statistics regarding the real number of urfi marriages in Egypt are
questionable at best and estimates run from 20,000 to 30,000 a
year. The Minister of Social Affairs claimed that the frequency of urfi
marriage among university students was a staggering 17 percent.
(Singerman ,1997)
Sahar El-Tawila and Zeinab Khadr conducted the most
comprehensive study on urfi marriage in Egypt to date, their results
estimate that of the total youth population (ages 18-30) that only 4
percent have attempted this form of union the incidence however
Page 13 of 20
8/7/2019 Sample Professional Report
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sample-professional-report 14/20
Eng 102 ReportFall 2010
increases to 6 percent among university students.
(Singerman,1997)
The study that El-Tawila and Khadr shows that the vast majority of
those who pursue a urfi marriage would much rather have a
conventional marriage but are faced with the huge financial
constraints of young people in Egypt or are marrying in secret since
their spouse would not have the approval of the family .
2. Wait-hood
As a result of the hopelessness felt by most young Egyptian males,
the go through a period referred to as wait-hood, (Rashad, 2005)
this is a period where a youth is not yet considered a man since he
is not only financially dependant on his parents, but also living with
them. Since he cannot get married instead of taking on any of the
plethora of jobs available to him he waits for the opportunity of a
prestigious job that the parents of a potential spouse would consider
appropriate for their child.
So unemployed and thus not saving any money, the youth ends up
being a leech on his family’s resources while not maturing in the
least bit.
Page 14 of 20
8/7/2019 Sample Professional Report
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sample-professional-report 15/20
Eng 102 ReportFall 2010
Conclusion
Its is clear that this is a serious problem, it is also clear that it
cannot be ignored. All the possible solutions involve sacrifices, since
there cannot a an all encompassing answer to this complex
problem. Both the government and society must make
compromises.
According to Navtej Dhillon, Director of the Middle East Youth
Initiative the median age of marriage has declined to 26 years in
comparison to that of the early 30’s, this is because of housing
policy reform in Egypt. I believe that more can be done however,
and we should follow the lead of countries such as Korea who in
their 2008 economic management plan, have provided around
120,000 low-cost housing units per year as of 2009, just for newly
wed couples (Hyo-sik, 2008)
The private sector can also show some incentive and forward
thinking to help solve this problem. Instead of companies investing
into elite posh housing, which ultimately do not end up being
bought, it would be wiser for them to invest into building smaller
low-cost housing units, which would attract a lot of interest from the
public.
Page 15 of 20
8/7/2019 Sample Professional Report
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sample-professional-report 16/20
Eng 102 ReportFall 2010
A lot of companies are building satellite cities around Cairo, so
their employees can live closer to the work place, while the
companies themselves enjoy the tax breaks they get from setting
up shop inside of Cairo. Although many younger Egyptians may find
it highly undesirable to live outside of inner city Cairo they must be
willing to make sacrifices to solve their dilemma.
As a final note I think it would be very useful for the younger
people to move out of their parents homes once they graduate, this
forces them to work and to take responsibility. Although many find it
acceptable to live with their parents/in laws in the early stages of
marriage I believe this does not help the problem of prolonged
adolescence that many Egyptian youths now face.
References
Assaad, R.A, & Ramadan, M.A. (2008). Did housing policy reformscurb the delay in marriage among young men in egypt?. Middle East Youth Initiative, 1. Retrieved fromhttp://www.shababinclusion.org/content/document/detail/1226/
Dhillon, N.D. (2009, December 15). Light at the end of the tunnel inegypt's marriage crisis?. The Egyptian Gazette, Retrieved fromhttp://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2008/1123_marriage_crisis_dhillon.aspx
Hyo-sik, L.H. (2008, October 3). 120,000 homes to be offered tonewly-weds. The Korea Times, Retrieved fromhttp://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2009/07/123_20438.html
Rashad, H.R, Osman, M.O, & Roudi-Fahimi, F.R. (2005). Marriage inthe arab world. Population Reference Bureau, Retrieved fromhttp://www.prb.org
Singerman, D.S. (1997). The Economic imperatives of marriage.
Middle East Youth Initiative, 6. Retrieved fromhttp://www.shababinclusion.org/content/document/detail/559/
Page 16 of 20
8/7/2019 Sample Professional Report
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sample-professional-report 17/20
Eng 102 ReportFall 2010
Appendix
Table of Data Analysis
A g e G e n d e r M a r i t a l Q 1 Q 2 Q 3 Q 4 Q 5 Q 6 Q 7 Q 8 Q 9Q 9
1 1 8 M S c 2 e 5 2 d 4 4 - 2 - 1 - 3 1
2 1 8 M S a 1 c 1 0 3 b 5 4 - 1 - 2 - 3 1
3 1 8 F S a 2 b 6 3 d 3 1 - 2 - 4 - 3 4
4 2 1 M S b 3 c 6 2 b 3 3 - 2 - 1 - 4 6
5 1 9 M S c 4 b 7 3 c 4 2 - 1 - 3 - 4 3
6 2 0 M S b 3 e 5 3 b 2 2 - 3 - 4 - 1 4
7 2 0 M S b 2 b 1 2 a 2 3 - 1 - 4 - 2 5
8 1 9 M S b 2 a 9 2 a 2 1 - 3 - 4 - 2 5
9 1 9 F S b 2 a 9 2 a 2 1 - 2 - 4 - 3 5
1 0 1 9 F S c 2 e 9 3 a 3 2 - 3 - 1 - 4 2
1 1 1 9 F S c 1 e 2 3 a 3 2 - 3 - 1 - 4 2
1 2 2 0 F S c 3 b 1 3 a 3 3 - 2 - 4 - 1 5
1 3 1 9 M S c 2 e 1 2 a 3 4 - 2 - 1 - 3 8
1 4 2 1 F S b 1 e 1 0 3 b 2 2 - 4 - 3 - 1 1 0
1 5 2 3 M S b 2 b 8 2 d 2 3 - 2 - 4 - 1 1 0
1 6 1 9 F S c 4 a 1 0 4 b 5 4 - 2 - 3 - 1 8
1 7 2 0 F S b 2 b 8 1 c 3 3 - 1 - 2 - 4 8
1 8 1 8 M S b 3 e 4 3 a 3 4 - 2 - 3 - 1 1 0
1 9 1 8 F S b 2 e 1 0 3 a 3 4 - 2 - 1 - 3 1 0
2 0 1 9 M S b 2 e 8 2 b 3 2 - 4 - 1 - 3 1 0
t o t a l 1 8 ( 5 ) M ( 1 0 ) F ( 1 0 )S ( 2 0 ) b ( 1 1 ) 2 ( 1 1 ) e ( 9 ) 1 0 ( 4 ) 3 ( 1 0 ) a ( 9 ) 3 ( 1 0 ) 1 0 ( 5 )1 0 ( 5 )
2 0 ( 4 ) c ( 7 ) 3 ( 4 ) b ( 6 ) 9 ( 3 ) 2 ( 8 ) b ( 6 ) 2 ( 6 ) 5 ( 4 )5 ( 4 )
1 9 ( 8 ) a ( 2 ) 1 ( 3 ) a ( 3 ) 8 ( 3 ) 4 ( 1 ) d ( 3 ) 5 ( 2 ) 8 ( 3 )8 ( 3 )
2 1 ( 2 ) 4 ( 2 ) c ( 2 ) 1 ( 3 ) 1 ( 1 ) c ( 2 ) 4 ( 2 ) 1 ( 2 )1 ( 2 )
2 3 ( 1 ) 6 ( 2 ) 2 ( 2 )2 ( 2 )
5 ( 2 ) 4 ( 2 )4 ( 2 )
4 ( 1 )
Page 17 of 20
8/7/2019 Sample Professional Report
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sample-professional-report 18/20
Eng 102 ReportFall 2010
Questionnaire
Dear ParticipantMy name is Omar El-Shamy, I'm doing research on affordable
housing for middle class newly-wed Egyptians, for my English 102class. I would greatly appreciate afew minutes of your time to fill outthis questionare.Thank you
Name:-Age:-Gender:-Marital Status:-
1)most middle class Egyptians get married when they are
a) 18-21b) 22-25c) 26-29d) 30+2)most middle class Egyptians wed after graduating university
strongly agreeagree
neutraldisagreeStrongly disagree
3)most of the financial strain of housing is placed on the...a)the groomb)the grooms familyc)the brided)the brides familye)shared
Page 18 of 20
8/7/2019 Sample Professional Report
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sample-professional-report 19/20
Eng 102 ReportFall 2010
4)on a scale of 1-10 one being most desirable and 10 being theleast, living outside of inner city Cairo is..1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
5)Young couples are willing to sacrifice luxuries in order to afford
housing
strongly agreeagreeneutraldisagreeStrongly disagree
6)how many of your colleagues in university are engaged?a)1-2b)3-4c)5-6d)more than 6
7)loans are a practical way to afford housing
strongly agreeagreeneutraldisagree
Strongly disagree
8)below is a list of possible solutions to housing for newly weds,please put them in order, 1) being the most acceptable 4) being theleast
(….)taking out a loan(….)renting a place(….)living far outside of inner city Cairo(….)postponing the wedding in order to save up some money
9)It is fairly common for young newly-wed Egyptians to live withtheir parents until they can afford a place of their own, on a scale of 1-10, 1=acceptable 10=unacceptable this is….
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
10)The financial crisis has affected Egyptians chances of gettingmarried young
Strongly agree
AgreeNeutral
Page 19 of 20
8/7/2019 Sample Professional Report
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sample-professional-report 20/20
Eng 102 ReportFall 2010
DisagreeStrongly Disagree
11)What sorts of problems do you think Egypt will face, if youngcouples can no longer afford to get married?
12)what do you think would help solve the housing problem foryoung newly wed Egyptians?
Outline
Topic :- Lack of affordable housing for young newly-wed middle-class couples.
-Inner city apartments have hugely inflated prices, even the smallerones, which would soon become impractical when the couple havechildren.
-Not all families can provide for an apartment for their childrenwhen they get married
-Most Loan deals have astronomical interest rates, and would leadthe young couple to digging a huge debt for themselves before
they’ve begun their lives
-Renting is not accepted by Egyptian middle class culture as thehusband is expected to provide an apartment
-Young newly-weds look to housing outside of the inner city lookingto places such as 6th of October for cheaper housing
-Egypt’s system is heavily centralized with most Governmentinstitutions being in Cairo, especially downtown.
-Most people are employed inside of Cairo, so if they were to move
outside the daily commute would be necessary
-In most cases the newly weds families’ would be living in the innercity, so it would be more difficult being a part of their lives shouldthey have to move.
Page 20 of 20