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Women's Rights in the Egyptian Constitution: (Neo)Liberalism's Family Values
![[An anti-Muslim Brotherhood march in Cairo commemorating the second anniversary of the January 25 Revolution. Photo by Gigi Ibrahim]](/content_images/3/sm_mclarney.jpg "[An anti-Muslim Brotherhood march in Cairo commemorating the second anniversary of the January 25 Revolution. Photo by Gigi Ibrahim]")
“Woman and the constitution: Fear of woman’s marginalization rules over all” blared an April 2012 headline in al-Ahram, joining other protests over the role of women in Egypt’s new constitution. Organizations (“EgyptSoft”) sprang up, with articles and posts about how “the Egyptian woman screams in the face of the constitution of discrimination.” Fear reigned about how the post-revolutionary Islamist government would approach women’s rights, with many women’s organizations striking a defensive posture. The government of Mohamed Morsi pushed through the new constitution, despite protests all around, including a ritualistic hair cutting ceremony in Tahrir ...
Keep Reading »Juridical Humanity: A Colonial History
Samera Esmeir, Juridical Humanity: A Colonial History. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2012. [This review was originally published in the most recent issue of Arab Studies Journal. For more information on the issue, or to subscribe to ASJ, click here.] Today human rights provides a dominant framework for thinking about humanity—one in which humanity often appears as both a universal and an ahistorical category. In this view, the history of humanity is one of the discovery of otherwise hidden or ignored truths about its nature. One can easily understand the apparent political and moral utility in this position, which seeks to put the claims of fundamental equality ...
Keep Reading »Jonathan Rashad on Freelance Photojournalism in Egypt
![[Image of Jonathan Rashad.]](/content_images/3/sm_ScreenShot2013-05-03at9.11.50AM.png "[Image of Jonathan Rashad.]")
[This post is part of an ongoing Profile of a Contemporary Conduit series on Jadaliyya that seeks to highlight distinct voices primarily in and from the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia.] Jadaliyya (J): Are you a freelancer or do you work with an agency? Why did you choose this path? Jonathan Rashad (JR): I have always been a freelancer. I chose this path as it gives me much more time to focus on issues I am interested in covering, not routine news and stories I would be commissioned to cover by news outlets or magazines. I get to guide my own editorial interests. The main benefits are the freedom and time, which allows me to work on longer ...
Keep Reading »Not in the Revolution's Name: Egypt's New Judicial Authority Bill
Amid the recurrent standoffs between the Egyptian opposition on the one hand and President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood group from which he hails on the other, the opposition is often characterized as incompetent, opportunistic and unwilling to accept the outcome of democracy, in reference to the results of the elections that brought Morsi to the presidency and handed the Muslim Brotherhoods' Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) a majority in parliament. But the policies and steps taken by the president and his party, and vigorously supported by the Brotherhood's members in a number of street demonstrations, need to be measured against core democratic ...
Keep Reading »Contested Citizenship in Egypt
Clashes over the Khusus killings in Egypt are the most recent of a long list of tragic sectarian episodes since 2011. Paul Sedra is right that “the impulse to lay the blame for this sectarianism at the feet of the Muslim Brotherhood is strong and…not without justification.” It is small wonder that the Brotherhood’s hyper-politicization of religion and religious difference at this juncture in Egyptian history would enable the radical escalation of conflict between individuals during what might under other circumstances be rudimentary or even banal interactions. In Sedra’s estimation, the tendency to look upon Coptic Christians in Egypt as members of a unitary and ...
Keep Reading »Bassem Sabry on Social Media in Egypt
![[Image of Bassem Sabry.]](/content_images/3/sm_ScreenShot2013-04-19at10.02.45AM.png.jpg "[Image of Bassem Sabry.]")
[This post is part of an ongoing Profile of a Contemporary Conduit series on Jadaliyya that seeks to highlight distinct voices primarily in and from the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia.] Jadaliyya (J): What do you think are the most gratifying aspects of Tweeting and Twitter? Bassem Sabry (BS): At the risk of sounding cliche, the most remarkable thing about Twitter is the ability to just engage directly with the entire world, especially within your field of interest. Within months of seriously taking on Twitter, I found myself in direct communication with internationally recognized politicians, writers, pundits, activists, public figures from around the world ...
Keep Reading »FIDH Condemns Crackdown on Freedom of Expression in Egypt
![[International Federation for Human Rights logo. Image from fidh.org]](/content_images/3/sm_FIDHlogoweb.jpg "[International Federation for Human Rights logo. Image from fidh.org]")
[The following statement was issued by the International Federation for Human Rights on 3 April 2013.] FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights) deplores the increasing crackdown against freedom of expression in Egypt and is alarmed to recall that if under the thirty year rule of former president Hosni Mubarak, four cases were filed for “insulting the President”, during the first six months of President Morsy’s rule alone, at least twenty-four cases and complaints have been filed, three of them filed by the Egyptian Presidency itself, against journalists and political opponents. “Freedom of expression is an essential core value to a true democratic society. ...
Keep Reading »New Texts Out Now: Esam Al-Amin, The Arab Awakening Unveiled
Esam Al-Amin, The Arab Awakening Unveiled: Understanding Transformations and Revolutions in the Middle East. Washington, DC: American Educational Trust, 2013. Jadaliyya (J): What made you write this book, and how would you describe it? Esam Al-Amin (EA): The Arab Awakening Unveiled: Understanding Transformations and Revolutions in the Middle East is a collection of essays about the Arab uprisings and awakening movement, arguably the most important phenomenon that has taken place in the Middle East in the past century. I hope that the book provides thoughtful analysis and a keen understanding of this historical moment, as well as important aspects of US policy ...
Keep Reading »Mahienour al-Masry and Twelve Other Activists Detained in Alexandria
![[Mahienour al-Masry. Photo from almasryalyoum.com]](/content_images/3/sm_mhynwr_lmsry.jpg "[Mahienour al-Masry. Photo from almasryalyoum.com]")
The Free Egyptians Party and the Socialist Popular Alliance Party called Saturday for a demonstration in front of the High Court at 5:00 pm to protest the detention of Mahienour al-Masry and twelve other activists in Alexandria. In a Facebook post, the two parties said that the protest will be in solidarity with the activists. Former MP Bassem Kamel said in a statement, "For whoever doesn't know Mahienour al-Masry, she is one of Alexandria's bravest revolutionaries. She played roles that men didn't do. She used to travel and collect money to pay for detainees' bails. She preferred to sacrifice for getting detainees released. We should stand by her and [the likes ...
Keep Reading »The Impact of World Bank Policy and Programmes on the Built Environment in Egypt
[The following report was issued by the Egyptian Iniative for Personal Rights on 20 March 2013.] Despite billions of Egyptian pounds in infrastructure investment both from national and international sources, Egypt's cities, towns and villages continue to grow and function in much the same way they have over the last three decades, namely through self-reliance. There are varying degrees of deprivation such as shortages in housing, municipal services and transport--the three main ingredients of functioning communities-- while on the other hand, a minority is very well served. It is no surprise then that the main call of the January 25thRevolution was “Bread! ...
Keep Reading »Al-Moqattam Clashes in Photos
![[Egyptian protesters gesture toward riot police during clashes outside the Muslim Brotherhood’s headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. 22 March 2013 (Photo by Jonathan Rashad)]](/content_images/3/sm_Jonathan18.png "[Egyptian protesters gesture toward riot police during clashes outside the Muslim Brotherhood’s headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. 22 March 2013 (Photo by Jonathan Rashad)]")
Members of the Muslim Brotherhood gathered outside their headquarters on Friday March 22 2013 in the Cairo suburb of al-Moqattam in anticipation of opposition marches to the building. Clashes broke out that same day between opposition protesters and both security forces and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood. [Members of the Muslim Brotherhood gather outside their headquarters in Cairo, Egypt as opposition protesters clash with Brotherhood members less than a mile away, near El-Hamd mosque. 22 March 2013 (Photo by Jonathan Rashad)] [Security forces guard the Muslim Brotherhood’s headquarters in Cairo, ...
Keep Reading »The Full Story: Silencing English-Language Media in Egypt
![[Syndicate of Journalists, Cairo, Egypt. Photo from elfagr.org]](/content_images/3/sm_SyndicateofJournalists.jpg "[Syndicate of Journalists, Cairo, Egypt. Photo from elfagr.org]")
“It is always the fixer who dies,” is the title of a seminal article by George Packer that appeared in The New Yorker in 2009 to mourn the death of Sultan Munadi, a local fixer who lost his life in a commando raid in Afghanistan. The raid that ended Munadi’s life took place in order to free foreign journalists who were captured by the Taliban. The foreign correspondent was freed, the fixer died, and the operation was deemed a success. This tragedy and Packer’s dramatic title are fitting curtain raisers to the struggle of local English-language media in Egypt. For decades, local journalists who had the necessary language skills helped foreign correspondents working for ...
Keep Reading »The Brothers, the Revolution, and the Right to Protest
A new political order always arrives with a package of legislation establishing its political and socioeconomic orientations as law. In its broad sense, a revolution effects a “fundamental change” in the political and economic order, with the support of the majority of the people.[1] Egypt experienced this shortly after the 1952 Free Officers’ coup d’état, as it developed into the July Revolution.[2] Egypt’s second experience in this regard came with President Anwar Al-Sadat’s accession to power, and ...
Keep Reading »Egyptian Women: Between Revolution, Counter-Revolution, Orientalism, and "Authenticity"
The Egyptian revolution appears to present a “gender paradox.” On the one hand, women have been marginalized in many formal political institutions since the downfall of Hosni Mubarak. On the other hand, representations and images of women and women’s bodies have been ubiquitous. Representations of women through media and art, as well as the regulation of women’s sexuality through state laws and constitutions are an essential part of defining national identity and national difference, marking ...
Keep Reading »New Texts Out Now: Charles Tripp, The Power and the People: Paths of Resistance in the Middle East
Charles Tripp, The Power and the People: Paths of Resistance in the Middle East. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Jadaliyya (J): What made you write this book? Charles Tripp (CT): The origins of the book lay initially in my feeling that a great deal of space had been devoted to the analysis of elites, the resilience of regimes, and the dominance of the state in the Middle East. This is perfectly understandable and has produced some outstanding studies. However, there did ...
Keep Reading »Liberal Illusions
With the deepening of a political stalemate between the government and the opposition in Egypt and the marked deterioration of economic conditions, critics of the January 25 Revolution continue to highlight what they view as the revolution’s failure to bring about a stable political order that can live up to the many political and economic challenges Egypt confronts today. In his always-illustrious column in Al-Masry Al-Youm, Abdel Moneim Saeed eloquently articulated this consensus over successive ...
Keep Reading »Joint Statement Demanding Public Release of Egyptian Budget
[The following statement was issued by a group of political parties and NGOs, including the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, on 21 April 2013.] Continuing with the blackout approach by the regime, the Minister of Finance presents the 2013-2014 draft budget to the Shura Council without making it available to citizens. Early this April and in complete secrecy, the Minister of Finance presented the 2013-2014 budget proposal to the Shura Council, without making it available publicly for ...
Keep Reading »Imperialist Liberalism and the Egyptian Revolution
In the following lines, I level four criticisms against what I term the imperialist liberal trend of thought and how it deals with the January 25 Revolution. By “imperialist liberalism,” I mean that loose US-European academic tradition, whose defense of liberalism, especially of representative democracy and individual freedom, is inextricably tied to a colonial, Western-centric conceptual toolbox that sometimes reaches the limit of directly and unashamedly defending US global interests. First, placing ...
Keep Reading »New Texts Out Now: David McMurray and Amanda Ufheil-Somers, The Arab Revolts
David McMurray and Amanda Ufheil-Somers, editors, The Arab Revolts: Dispatches on Militant Democracy in the Middle East. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2013. Published in association with Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP). Jadaliyya (J): What made you compile this volume? David McMurray & Amanda Ufheil-Somers (DM & AU): MERIP recently published an edited volume with Verso on just the events in Egypt, examining the initial eighteen days of the uprising as well as ...
Keep Reading »Has Citizenship Got a Future in Egypt?
The sectarian spectacle that dominated so much Egyptian television coverage – at least that of the private networks – on Sunday, was unprecedented in modern Egyptian history. Even at the lowest points of modern Coptic-Muslim relations, the Coptic Cathedral and Patriarchal headquarters have not experienced the sort of siege that was violently imposed by plainclothes assailants and their abettors in the police, as mourners commemorated the lives of four Christians lost to sectarian violence in the ...
Keep Reading »Please Help Keep Egypt Independent
Dear friends, After working hard for four years on developing Egypt Independent as a leading local independent English-language publication, we were notified by Al-Masry Al-Youm's management last month that our newspaper, in both its online and print forms, can no longer continue to exist due to financial difficulties. This decision comes at a time when private media is suffering greatly from the current economic crisis in the country, but also, and more importantly, from political ...
Keep Reading »Spring of Fury in Egypt
In recent days President Mohamed Morsi and his government have drastically eroded what little hope observers had for Egypt's troubled political transition. The president's aggressive tone in public speeches has coincided with the escalation of violent "thuggery" under the aegis of an unreformed Ministry of Interior. Whereas analysts have rightly noted similarities between Morsi and the fallen regime of Hosni Mubarak, his style also recalls the turbulent second term of Anwar al-Sadat ...
Keep Reading »Street Wars on a Hill: An Eyewitness Testimony
[The following is an eyewitness testimony covering some of the events that happened on 22 March 2013 near the Muslim Brotherhood’s headquarters in al-Moqattam area.] Having missed the march to the Muslim Brotherhood (MB)’s headquarters in al-Moqattam, I arrived late to the site of the protests. There had been reports of clashes at al-Nafoora (Fountain) square, one of the most used entrances to the area of al-Moqattam located at the west end of the district and closest to downtown. Reaching the protest ...
Keep Reading »Tahrir and Beyond: Interviews with Journalist, Ahmad Shokr, and Filmmakers Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer
On the latest edition of Voices of the Middle East and North Africa, Cairo-based journalist, Ahmad Shokr comments on the serious unrest in the major Egyptian harbor city of Port Said over the past two weeks. The root cause is said to be from the recent court verdict condemning 21 civilians to death and acquitting 7 police officers involved in a January 2012 soccer riot that killed 74 people last year. Egyptian filmmakers Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer talk about their award winning documentary film ...
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This might even constitute the occasion for the beginning of the first serious attempt since the Balfour Declaration to explain the Palestinian cause fully and properly to the entire world.click | email | tweet
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