Essam Sharaf (1952-) was Prime Minister of Egypt from 3 March to 7 December 2011, succeeding Ahmed Shafik and preceding Kamal Ganzouri.
Biography[]
Essam Sharaf was born in Giza, Egypt in 1952. After studying in Cairo and America, he became a professor at Purdue in 1984 and at Cairo University in 1984, teaching civil engineering. He joined the National Democratic Party and served as Transportation Minister of Egypt from 2004 to 2005, only to resign due to clashes with Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif; he returned to academia, left the NDP, and became a critic of Hosni Mubarak's regime. He actively supported the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 and was appointed Prime Minister in March 2011, and, during his brief tenure, he gave a monthly state-of-the-union address. He removed unpopular members of his cabinet and developed a "man of the people" personality by eating street food and displaying a humble demeanor, but his anti-assembly and anti-strike laws were controversial, and protesters held sit-ins at Tahrir Square to call for speedier reforms. He was largely unable to respond to a flareup of sectarian violence between Muslims and Christians in Cairo, and he resigned in November 2011, just days before upcoming elections, after police killed 41 protesters and injured 1,000 more while attempting to break up protests demanding governmental aid to victims of the 2011 revolution.