Abdel-Ghaffour resigns from constituent assembly

The head of the actors' syndicate Ashraf Abdel-Ghaffour, who is also a renowned television and radio personality, announced on Tuesday his resignation from the newly-formed constituent assembly that is supposed to draft Egypt's new constitution. "I was hoping that the situation would have been better, however, this is a job that will follow my reputation for the rest of my life," he told Ahram Online. "I was not pleased by my appointment on the constituent assembly, not only because it is largely comprised of the parliament's majority party, but also because it lacks figures from the literary and art scene." "I was hoping that art would not be neglected in the drafting of the constitution," he lamented. Within the last 48 hours, several liberals, leftists and Copts elected to the constituent assembly on Saturday have withdrawn in protest at what they see as the unfair distribution of assembly seats to those of Islamist orientations, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists. Artists have organised a number of protests at parliament in recent weeks to pressure the Islamist-dominated body not to curb freedom of expression in the arts.