MER Article

The Wretched Revolution

“We live in a country where liberals renege on democracy, Islamists harm Islam and human rights activists champion oppression,” an Islamic television producer cynically remarked three months after Muhammad Mursi was ousted from Egypt’s presidency in July 2013. That summer, the televised images of mu

Yasmin Moll • 17 min read

Current Analysis

Losing Hope in Iran and Egypt

The decision to leave your country, especially when you leave for political or ideological reasons, can be gut-wrenching. My parents made that decision for me when they left Iran in my early adolescence. Unlike some Iranians forced to flee, my parents were not members of a persecuted religious minor

Parastou Hassouri • 3 min read

Current Analysis

An Interview with Mohamed Elshahed

Mohamed Elshahed is a young, dynamic architect and researcher who is documenting changes to urban space in Egypt at his highly popular blog Cairobserver [http://cairobserver.com/]. Elshahed completed a doctorate in Middle East studies at New York University and is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Be

The Editors • 7 min read

MER Article

Taking Back the Village

On January 25, 2011, like most of the rest of the world I watched the uprisings in Egypt on television. I was struck by the consistent vantage point: a reporter speaking from a balcony or rooftop overlooking the masses in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo. There was an occasional interview with a memb

Lila Abu-Lughod • 14 min read

MER Article

Small Farmer Uprisings and Rural Neglect in Egypt and Tunisia

“We should make it up to the peasants,” Muhsin al-Batran, erstwhile head of the economic affairs unit in Egypt’s Ministry of Agriculture, told the official daily al-Ahram two months after the toppling of Husni Mubarak in 2011. “Make it up” -- why? And what is it that needs to be made up?

Habib Ayeb, Ray Bush • 14 min read

Current Analysis

Sisi at the UN

This week ‘Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi paid his inaugural visit to the United States as president of Egypt. The occasion was the annual meetings of the UN General Assembly. We asked some veteran Egypt watchers and MERIP authors for their reactions. Mona El-Ghobashy [http://www.merip.org/author/mona-el-gh

The Editors • 6 min read

Current Analysis

Strangers in the Crowd

“The system of fear is back,” whispers an Egyptian political activist. “It is showing its teeth, saying ‘I’m baaack.’” The protest veteran speaks sotto voce even though he is sitting in his living room. And that, he points out, is the biggest change since the heady days of 2011, after the fall of Hu

Vivienne Matthies-Boon • 6 min read

Current Analysis

The Massacre One Year Later

In Cairo this summer, there is scant appetite for anniversaries. The passage of one year since the critical events of the 2013 coup d’état [http://www.merip.org/mero/mero071013] scarcely attracts the public’s attention. There are few official ceremonies or rallies to mark the huge demonstrations on

Ahmad Shokr • 5 min read

MER Article

The Campaign Against Coal in Egypt

A campaign opposing coal imports would seem unlikely to attract much attention given the political upheavals and deepening social polarization that Egyptians have witnessed over the past three years. Yet since 2012, a loose coalition of environmental and human rights activists, government officials

Dina Zayed, Jeannie Sowers • 17 min read

Current Analysis

New President, Old Pattern of Sexual Violence in Egypt

On June 3, the day that the Elections Commission announced the victory of ‘Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi in Egypt’s presidential race, television announcer Radwa Ruhayyim covered the festivities in Tahrir Square. Surrounded by ululating revelers, she noted that, amidst the celebrations, several women had be

Vickie Langohr • 12 min read

Current Analysis

Egypt's Government by Baltaga

Most reactions to the farcical convictions [http://www.madamasr.com/content/3-jazeera-journalists-given-7-10-year-sentences] of Australian journalist Peter Greste [http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2014/s4032290.htm], Egyptian-Canadian Mohamad Fadel Fahmy and Egyptian Baher Mohamad express shock

Andrea Teti • 4 min read

Current Analysis

Sisiphus

Over three days in late May, ‘Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi, the retired field marshal and former head of military intelligence, was elected president of Egypt with 96 percent of the vote. This tally was far higher than the 51.34 percent recorded in 2012 by the man Sisi helped to depose, Muhammad Mursi, and

Gennaro Gervasio, Vivienne Matthies-Boon, Andrea Teti • 12 min read