Egypt

Joyce Chediac Download PDF flyer  El Saadawi in Tahrir Square. Photo: Facebook page of El Saadawi. Egyptian feminist Nawal El Saadawi died March 21 at age 89. Neither imprisonment nor job loss, nor banning her writings, not even death threats could stop her fight for the rights of Egyptian women. She exposed both the religious and sectarian foundation of patriarchy. Her courage and uncompromising defense of women and the poor inspired women worldwide. She wrote more than 50 books. Her seminal book, The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World, published in 1977, is a historical condemnation of patriarchal social, cultural and religious practices and beliefs that perpetuate the oppression of women in the Arab world. The book also recognizes Egyptian women’s fight agains...

LINH DINH  It’s nearly impossible for me to write here. The streets beckon, and I’m a street rat, for sure. Right this moment, I could be in that bitsy Bab Al Louq café, having my first cup while watching people and traffic swarm by, or I could be on the subway, heading to Al Azbakiyyah, with its thousands of street stands flogging everything. Many have a tiny, tinny speaker looping the same pitch. Layered, they become a minimalist symphony of mutually cancelled come-ons. Yesterday morning, I poked around Bab El-Wazir, with its centuries-old mosques all magnificent yet decaying. Passing that of Ibn Tulun, completed in 879 thus the oldest in Africa, I marveled at its Tower of Babel-like minaret, but I’m not really drawn to great sights. Small surprises hold me, and there...

by: Khalil al-Anani Egypt has been fighting terrorism and an insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula for the past decade and a half with no sign of a decisive victory. Although the Egyptian military has conducted several military operations against radicals and extremists, it has not been able to eliminate or defeat them. Egypt’s counterterrorism strategy, particularly in Sinai, is flawed and counterproductive. Instead of eliminating and rooting out terrorism, it has created fertile ground for radical and militant groups to thrive, recruit new members, and intensify their attacks against the Egyptian military and security forces as well as civilians. This has led to the loss of thousands of lives and created instability in Sinai. Sinai’s dilemma The Sinai Peninsula spans approximate...