Egyptian peasants saw vaccination as a conscription mark and resisted violently
Evidence
The resistance of the soldiers to these regular medical check-ups was mirrored in the larger society by the civilians’ resistance to vaccination. What appears to have been a policy which intended their own benefit and well-being, vaccination was seen by peasants and city folk alike as yet another way of marking their children for conscription. The authorities appear to have made no effort to overcome their expected resistance by enlisting the support of the village shaykhs or the shaykhs of the quarters, for example. The villagers did everything possible to resist vaccinating their sons; they fled from the doctors, hid their sons, attacked the barber-vaccinators, bribed the local officials to leave their children unmarked, and forged vaccination certificates. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1158
What appears to have been a policy which intended their own benefit and well-being, vaccination was seen by peasants and city folk alike as yet another way of marking their children for conscription. The authorities appear to have made no effort to overcome their expected resistance by enlisting the support of the village shaykhs or the shaykhs of the quarters, for example. The villagers did everything possible to resist vaccinating their sons; they fled from the doctors, hid their sons, attacked the barber-vaccinators, bribed the local officials to leave their children unmarked, and forged vaccination certificates. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1158
Categorization
- XREF: Strong parallel to how civilians in other police states read state interventions as threats; connects to the reader’s interest in conscription’s social consequences.
- CANDY: Peasants bribing officials and forging vaccination certificates to dodge conscription is a lively, tweetable historical anecdote.
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1158