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Post-January 25 Iranian-Egyptian Relations: A New Dawn?
![[Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and the Shah of Iran upon his arrival at the Maadi Military Hospital on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt on March 24, 1980. Image by AP Photo.]](/content_images/3/sm_AP800324075.png "[Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and the Shah of Iran upon his arrival at the Maadi Military Hospital on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt on March 24, 1980. Image by AP Photo.]")
Iranian-Egyptian relations have been an often-overlooked aspect of Middle Eastern and international politics over the last thirty years, due in no small part to the almost complete lack of ties between the two states following Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1979. Whilst these two great Middle Eastern powers have been linked over thousands of years of history, the last thirty years have been characterized by a distinct lack of inter-state relations, and considerable enmity and distrust. However, with the fall of the Hosni Mubarak regime following the momentous events of 25 January 2011, will Iranian-Egyptian relations encounter a “new dawn”, characterized by ...
Keep Reading »Arabian Peninsula Media Roundup (May 22)
![[Nabil Rajab in a protest in Bahrain last year. Image by Saeed Saif]](/content_images/3/sm_nabil2.jpg "[Nabil Rajab in a protest in Bahrain last year. Image by Saeed Saif]")
[This is a roundup of news articles and other materials circulating on the Arabian Peninsula and reflects a wide variety of opinions. It does not reflect the views of the Arabian Peninsula Page Editors or of Jadaliyya. You may send your own recommendations for inclusion in each week's roundup to ap@jadaliyya.com by Monday night of every week.] Regional and International Perspectives Saudi Arabia and Iran: Is trouble brewing? Inside Story on Al-Jazeera English examines the implications of a union between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain for Iran. Bitter Frenemies: The Not-Quite-Alliance Between Saudi Arabia and Turkey Meliha Benli Altunisik analyzes the improving ...
Keep Reading »Saudi Feminism: Between Mama Amreeka and Baba Abdullah
![[Image from www.nadinenouawad.com]](/content_images/3/sm_we_can_do_it_arabic.jpg "[Image from www.nadinenouawad.com]")
On 9 May 2012, Manal al-Sharif was awarded the Havel Prize for Creative Dissent at the Oslo Freedom Forum in Norway. This came shortly after al-Sharif was honored as one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the World at a Gala in New York City. Such events have given rise to a pattern: just as numerous pictures and videos of activists attending various conferences and receiving numerous awards surface, waves of criticism pour in. Their motives are viewed with suspicion, worthiness is questioned, and a movement’s progress is reassessed. The most prevalent criticism of Manal al-Sharif was that she was accepting an award for political dissent when she was only, at ...
Keep Reading »Bringing the Revolution to Campus: An Interview with March 9 Activist Laila Soueif
Laila Soueif, assistant professor of mathematics, Cairo University, is one of the founding members of the March 9 Movement for the Independence of Universities. The movement was founded in 2004 and became a part of the growing terrain of dissent that preceded the January 25 revolution (alongside Kifaya and other movements for change in different quarters). March 9 has opposed state security, government, and other ideological interventions into Egyptian university campuses, which stifle academic freedom. The movement has also been involved in strikes and protests by university faculty—both before and after the revolution—for better pay and pensions as well as for ...
Keep Reading »Internet Censorship, Human Rights, and Democracy in Tunisia: Julian Assange Interviews Moncef Marzouki
![[Moncef Marzouki. Image of screenshot from below video]](/content_images/3/sm_Fullscreencapture532012111712AM.bmp.jpg "[Moncef Marzouki. Image of screenshot from below video]")
In the third episode of The World Tomorrow, broadcasted on Russia Today, Julian Assange interviews Tunisian president, Moncef Marzouki. Marzouki speaks about his experience in prison and exile under the deposed Ben Ali regime. Assange asks Marzouki about matters pertaining to his role in post-Ben Ali Tunisia, the steps being taken towards a democratic transition, internet censorship, human rights, and his position on the situation in Syria.
Keep Reading »Patriotic Criticism
This post is in response to some people’s comments regarding my criticism of aspects of the Yemeni transitional government. I was told by someone that my criticism is “accusatory, and will cause the state to fail!” I am humbled by the power this person has given me, as I do not have the means to make the state fail or succeed, I wish I did. Let me start by saying that the transitional government has of course taken many positive steps, including: Giving employment contracts for waste collectors, which will reduce corruption and guarantee the workers their right to salaries. Removing twenty generals and numerous governors from their posts. ...
Keep Reading »اليسار في الزمن الثوري
تحمل الثورات العربية إلى اليسار مزيجاً من التحدي الوجودي والفرصة التاريخية. والفيصل بين الإثنين هو قدرة اليسار على التعلّم من الدروس البليغة التي تحملها العملية الثورية، وبلورة مشروعه ودوره فيها، وتدبّر كيفية الرد على تحدياتها. فلعل في ذلك ما يدفع اليسار إلى مغادرة مندبة النقد الذاتي، كفارة ذنوبه التي لا تنتهي، والاستعاضة عنها بمراجعة للماضي تسهم في فهم أفضل للموقع والدور في الحاضر وتساعد في صياغة إطلالة جديدة على المستقبل. هذا اذا كان بين اليساريين من يريد تجاوز تيارين في أوساطهم: يسار دعم الاستبداد بحجة المسألة الوطنية، ويسار الرهان على التدخل الخارجي سبيلاً إلى تحقيق الديمقراطية. أسهم اليسار، وشبابه خصوصاً، إسهاماً متواضعاً وإن يكن ذا أثر في الانتفاضات. ففي ...
Keep Reading »جنرالات مصر ورأس المال العابر للحدود
[نشرت هذه الدراسة في مجلة “ميدل إيست ريبورت” 262، ربيع 2012، وترجمتها من الإنجليزية سهى فاروق.] قبل ان يطرد حسني مبارك من منصبه، وبعد ذلك ايضاً، ظل حجم حصة الجيش المصري في الاقتصاد موضع جدلٍ كبير. فمن المعروف أن الجيش يشارك في تصنيع كل شئ، ابتداءاً من زيت الزيتون وتلميع الأحذية، وانتهاءاً بمراكز الاقتراع، التي استخدمت في الانتخابات البرلمانية المصرية لعام 2011، ولكن لا أحد يعلم (على وجه اليقين) مدى سيطرة الصناعات العسكرية على اقتصاد البلاد. وقد نقلت تقارير اخبارية أن أحد "الخبراء" يقدرها على مستوى الخريطة بحوالي من خمسة بالمئة الى أربعين بالمئة أو أكثر. فيما أشار وزير التجارة السابق، رشيد محمد رشيد، الموجود حالياً في المنفى، مدفوعاً إلى مغامرةٍ تخمينية من ...
Keep Reading »Arabian Peninsula Media Roundup (April 13)
![[Document Restoration Center. King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives, Riyadh. By Rosie Bsheer]](/content_images/3/sm_IMG_0587.JPG "[Document Restoration Center. King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives, Riyadh. By Rosie Bsheer]")
[This is a roundup of news articles and other materials circulating on the Arabian Peninsula and reflects a wide variety of opinions. It does not reflect the views of the Arabian Peninsula Page Editors or of Jadaliyya. You may send your own recommendations for inclusion in each week's roundup to ap@jadaliyya.com by Monday night of every week.] "Bahrain Grand Prix in doubt amid tension over hunger striker," a report on the likelihood of canceling race due to concerns over the Abdulhadi al-Khawaja's life and increasing violence in Bahrain. "UAE detains 6 activists critical of rulers," an AP news article on the detention of six UAE activists who were ...
Keep Reading »الذاكرة الجماعية العربية بين الانتقام والعدالة والمصالحة
يمر العالم العربي بمرحلة مفصلية في تاريخه هذه الأيام. مرحلة اختلط فيها الصالح بالطالح، واختلطت فيها الانتهازية بالثورة، وكثر فيها تغيير الولاءات وصار نوعاً من التقليد أن نرى الجلادين يصيرون ثواراً وينغسلون من كل أدران الماضي الذي شاركوا في تشكيله بكل مساوئه لمجرد أنهم غيروا الولاء بين ليلة وضحاها وأرسلوا بياناً مسجلاً أو نقل عنهم أنهم تابوا وأصلحوا وانحازوا إلى جانب الشعب. هذه السنة الخطيرة تحمل في طياتها الكثير من المخاطر على مستقبل الثورة في العالم العربي لأن الديكتاتور لا يمكن أن يستحيل ديمقراطياً. الجلاد جلاد، ومن خدم الديكتاتورية سيسعى حتماً إلى تأسيس أخرى، لأن الطبع يغلب التطبع. هذا الكلام ضروري قبل مناقشة قضية الذاكرة العربية المشتركة وطبيعة إدارة المرحلة اللاحقة ...
Keep Reading »Egypt's Working Class and the Question of Organization
“Who is the labor candidate in this presidential election?” This is a question I have been asked frequently in the past few days. My answer is “no one.” Despite the presence of left wing candidates in the race, including labor lawyer Khaled Ali, who by all accounts is the most experienced in labor organizing among his counterparts (even when he repeatedly denies the accusation of being a “socialist,” and advocates a “strong private sector” working hand in hand with a state-run public sector), ...
Keep Reading »Prelude to an Uprising: Syrian Fictional Television and Socio-Political Critique
As antigovernment protests gripped Syria in 2011 and 2012, observers celebrate a new generation of activist artists and their innovative forms of creative dissent. The wall of fear that had long curtailed artistic expression has collapsed, they argue, with youthful satirists moving beyond the despair and complaisance of older cultural producers to flood the internet with caustic caricatures and enliven demonstrations with imaginative tactics. Articulated in the international media and echoed in scholarly ...
Keep Reading »The MOD Sit-in: Sometimes with the Islamists, Never with the State...
During the Monday march in solidarity with the Abbassiya detainees, a young comrade I know from Cairo University, a medical student who was among the field hospital doctors during the MOD sit-in, approached me, and told me the story of a Salafi woman in niqab, who kept on kissing the Revolutionary Socialists red flag during the sit-in, while shouting: “Forgive me I didn’t know about you before!” I replied back with the story of another comrade, who was entering the MOD sit-in and was being searched by a ...
Keep Reading »Syrian Parliamentary Elections: Cynicism Wins The Day
Syria’s parliamentary elections are being met with cynicism on the streets of Damascus despite being billed as the first multi-party elections the country has seen in decades. Damascus – The streets of Damascus are covered with pictures of candidates running in the May 7 parliamentary elections. Alongside the images, there are political slogans that many say are out of date and no longer express a coherent agenda. The area east of Jisr al-Thawra near Martyr’s Square — or Marjeh, as Syrians prefer to ...
Keep Reading »''I'm Getting Arrested,'' Therefore I Exist!
It was in the early morning hours of 13 March 2012 that Egyptians on Twitter were alerted by a message sent from fellow tweep Mostafa Sheshtawy’s phone. He had been picketing at the German University in Cairo’s (GUC) strike. In the SMS, the activist said he was being arrested. Startled by the news, fellow activists passed the message around. It was received and re-tweeted by many fellow tweeps, most of whom do not even know him as Mostafa, identifying his location and expressing concern about his ...
Keep Reading »Arabian Peninsula Media Roundup (May 1)
[This is a roundup of news articles and other materials circulating on the Arabian Peninsula and reflects a wide variety of opinions. It does not reflect the views of the Arabian Peninsula Page Editors or of Jadaliyya. You may send your own recommendations for inclusion in each week's roundup to ap@jadaliyya.com by Monday night of every week.] “FISCALLY SPEAKING: Saudis Wouldn't Gain Much From A Union With Bahrain,” a Kipp report on the disadvantages to Saudi Arabia of union, with other Gulf Arab ...
Keep Reading »Post-Ben Ali Partisan Developments in Tunisia: The Guarantor of Pluralism in a Nascent Democracy
It was early afternoon at the Congress for the Republic (CPR) headquarters in downtown Tunis, known amongst its members as Hezb el Koujina — literally, the Kitchen Party. Mr. Mohammed Abbou, standing in the CPR headquarter's actual koujina (kitchen) was hurriedly eating a sandwich before scuffling off to a meeting with the rest of the party's political bureau. Abbou, currently Tunisia’s Minister of Administrative Reform, was trying his best to swallow bites of his sandwich, while leaving sufficient ...
Keep Reading »The Disintegrating Fabric of Tunisian Politics: The Niqab Ban and Tunisian Flag Desecration at Manouba University
It’s difficult to say how it started. For clarity’s sake, let’s begin on 28 November 2011. Enraged at the university’s enforcement of the niqab ban, a group of Salafists took the Dean of the College of Letters at Manouba University hostage. (Students at Manouba, and at universities around the country, are prohibited by presidential decree from wearing the niqab while in class).[1] Protestors, swelling at times to 200, came to the defense of female studentswishing to wear the niqab ...
Keep Reading »Time for a 'Bourguibist' Comeback? Essebsi Butters up Tunisians in Monastir
The dome shaped room was a sea of red and white. It smelled of amber musk and sea. The attendees were mostly well over the age of forty, and the buzz of excitement was impossible to miss. You would think you were attending a Michael Jackson concert. What’s the occasion, you ask? Well, to celebrate and adulate the ultimate star of the show, Beji Caid Essebsi – or, as the attendees would proudly tell you, to “unite all political forces as Tunisian above all else,” and to “start a new era in Tunisia’s ...
Keep Reading »Morocco: A 'Democratic Moment'?
During the last years of his reign, King Hassan II initiated a modest and controlled reform process intended to ease the transition of power by attempting to hand the reigns over safely to the crown prince at the time, nowadays King Mohamed VI. To buttress his legitimacy and distance himself from the authoritarian style of his late father, King Mohamed VI ushered in an era of diffident political reforms that—under popular pressure from within and the progression of Arab revolts from without—culminated in ...
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View All Entries »- "We Didn't Know It Was Impossible, So We Did It": The Quebec Student Strike Celebrates Its 100th Day
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