ABSTRACT
Observers of modern Egypt clearly share some skepticism as to whether Egypt actually did experience a revolution in 1952. Indeed, that Egypt today is still grappling with most of the socioeconomic problems that the Free Officers had pledged to overcome brings to mind the old Russian adage that a pair of pants turned inside out still has the same holes. Between 1960 and 1976, Egypt reduced its illiteracy rate from 71 percent to 57 percent, and female illiteracy from 84 percent to 71 percent. In the early 1970s, the rate of illiteracy was 76 percent in Morocco, 62 percent in Turkey, and 64 percent in Iran. Likewise, Egypt did not do well in promoting female employment outside the rural family. Egypt's public enterprise sector, even after more than a decade of infitah, was one of the largest in the developing world, its magnitude approaching those of some Eastern European economies.
