In January 1998, Salah Tawfiq, Zifta deputy in the People's Assembly, deposed an early-day motion to the then-Information Minister, Safwat al-Sharif. The deputy was angered by the television series Gumhuriyyat Zifta (‘The Republic of Zifta’). Screened during Ramadan 1998, the series narrates a well-known episode of the anti-colonial struggle in 1919, during which the Delta city of Zifta issued a declaration of independence from the occupied monarchic Egypt, established a self-governance system and nominated Yusuf al-Gindi, a lawyer from the village, as its president. The deputy wished to bring to the attention of the Assembly what he deemed to be ‘historical mistakes’ in the series. ‘The character of Hishmat Basha, the Turkish pasha who, according to the series, represses and humiliates the peasants, never existed’, the deputy protested. On the contrary, there were ‘22 pashas at the time in Zifta, and they played an important role in the national movement’.

The figure of the evil pasha, however, did not bother all inhabitants of Zifta. Muhammad al-Gindi, the son of Yusuf al-Gindi, lauded ‘the positive values embedded in the series’ (al-Gindi 1998: 70). Gumhuriyyat Zifta was further welcomed in the media as ‘a truly nationalist work’ (Fadl 1998). Interestingly, many articles interpreted the series as a commentary on the contemporary situation. ‘I do not consider it a historical work’, Bilal Fadl argued. ‘Rather, I see it as a contemporary work that deals with the heroism of the Egyptian citizen who remains capable of endurance in the face of oppression, despotism and occupation’, he added (Fadl 1998). Under the title ‘Gumhuriyyat Zifta Confronts the New World Order’, another columnist found the Britain of the past to be very similar to the ‘new international order’ controlling ‘our present through the one force represented by the US’ (Abu Bakr 1998). The scriptwriter of the series, Yusri al-Gindi, stated that his work was ‘an expression of a real necessity to awaken patriotism’, as well as likening the US to Britain (Gabir 1998: 25).

Fadl further commented on the social problematic of the series, noting that it ‘came as an indirect tribute to the sacrifices of the Egyptian peasants, faced with a law seeking to expel them’ (Fadl 1998).