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Spreading south from Midan Tahrir towards Old Cairo and the Islamic districts are two very different, yet historically interlinked, quarters. Deluxe hotels follow the Corniche towards Roda Island, separating the old diplomatic quarter from the Nile just as Sharia Qasr al-Aini divides the leafy winding streets of Garden City from the grid of blocks where Egypt's ministries and parliament are located. Like a spider in its web, the ex-royal, now presidential Abdin Palace lends its name to the convoluted Abdin quarter that merges into Saiyida Zeinab. Since Garden City and Abdin meet around Midan Tahrir, both can claim to host Egypt's National Assembly ( Maglis al-Shaab). During the late 1980s, Cairenes were agog over abusive exchanges and fisticuffs in parliament, as the hardline Minister Zaki Badr replied to allegations of torture, wrongful arrest and bugging by the Interior Ministry , sited a couple of blocks to the west in Abdin. Badr has long since gone, but the ministry's repressive activities continue: Amnesty International reports cases of torture from Alexandria to Aswan. The road on which both buildings stand is barricaded at either end against suicide car bombers, floodlit at night and perpetually guarded by machine-gunners.
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