Egyptian presidential election: A young revolutionary’s voting dilemma
May 2012 – Should a young revolutionary seize his last chance to vote for a president or is the true struggle for radical change in Egypt on the streets?
From the Chronikles: My plan for a democratic Egypt
May 2012 – With the right president, Egypt could rid itself of nepotism and inequality to become a prosperous and egalitarian society.
Egyptian presidential election: Who should the revolution vote for?
May 2012 – Egyptian revolutionaries dream of electing a president who emerged from Tahrir square, but should they vote for pragmatism or principle?
Confessions of a would-be Egyptian revolutionary
April 2012 – Returning to Egypt for the first time since the revolution, an expat desktop rebel discovers the inspirational, the troubling and the simply bizarre.
Egypt’s Nubians: damned by the dam
April 2012 – Half a century after the inundation, Nubians may finally gain recognition and redress for the loss of their homeland.
Egypt needs fundamental, not fundamentalist rights
April 2012 – Egypt’s new constitution should focus on democracy, equality and human rights, not religious identity or military budgets.
February 2012 – Despite the general Arab decline in the press freedom rankings, the region’s media have, in many ways, actually become freer.
Detained Egyptian musician vows: “I will not be silenced” about police brutality
February 2012 – Mohammed Jamal, the lead singer of the popular Egyptian indie band Salalem, tells The Chronikler his story about a night of hell in police custody.
Egyptian football violence: Between hooliganism and state thuggery
February 2012 – The deadly battle of Port Said may be another attempt to make a return to a police state the most attractive option for Egypt.
Egyptian revolution: the first year in review
January 2012 – To mark the first anniversary of the Egyptian revolution, a number of writers and activists to assess the first 12 months and look to the future.
Defining Egyptian democracy: “Not like America and not like Iran”
December 2011 – Provincial Egyptians believe that moderate Islamists can construct an Egyptian model of democracy that respects their traditions and identity.
Secular Egypt: dream or delusion?
December 2011 – Is Egypt on the road to theocracy or will it manage to build a secular, pluralist democracy?
November 2011 – As millions of Egyptians cast their first democratic vote in decades, recent upheavals confirm that Egypt’s military is the biggest threat to freedom.
Egypt’s middle-class cyberheroes
November 2011 – Social networking and blogging voices the dreams and aspirations of the young and middle-class in Egypt, leaving other groups as marginalised as ever.
Egypt: a country raped by its guardians
November 2011 – Dear generals, you are like a therapist abusing rape victims, so don’t be surprised when Egyptians revolt against your cruelty.
October 2011 – Jailing Egyptians for insulting religion and the military goes against the revolution’s spirit, and violates people’s secular and sacred rights.
Opposing the Egyptian opposition
October 2011 – The ornamental ‘official opposition’ in Egypt is as dangerous as the authoritarian regime itself.
The danger of an elected dictatorship in Egypt
September 2011 – The army is giving Egyptians a stark choice: choose freedom and endure anarchy, or choose stability and put up with us.
September 2011 – Although designed to instil loyalty to the regime, Egyptian schools have been breeding grounds for rebellion and revolt.
Egypt and Israel: cold peace or cold war?
September 2011 – Relations between Israel and post-revolution Egypt are proving tetchy – but ordinary people hold the keys to peace.
September 2011 – Recognising the good qualities of the other side can be a first step to healing Arab-Israeli wounds.
Confessions of a ‘self-hating Arab’
August 2011 – Only self-hating Arabs and Jews can save the Middle East from itself.
August 2011 – Egypt’s independent media have earned their revolutionary stripes, while the state’s mouthpieces have simply switched allegiance to the ‘new emperor’. But which model will endure?
August 2011 – The Arab uprisings are not just about democracy and dignity. But with domestic and global economic crises, how likely are they to deliver on bread and butter issues?
Egypt, Israel and Palestine: towards the promised land of peace?
August 2011 – It is high time for Israelis and Palestinians – with grassroots support from Egyptians – to unlock their latent people’s power and forge a popular peace.
Indiana Hawass and the pharaoh’s curse
August 2011 – Zahi Hawass may liken himself to Indiana Jones, but the minister of antiquities is one artifact of the old regime Egyptians want to live without.
From Arab spring to summer of love in Egypt?
July 2011 – The Egyptian revolution awoke hopes of a new era of gender equality and of greater sexual liberty. But how likely is Egypt to have its own summer of love?
No revolution for Egyptian women
July 2011 – Despite the political earthquake that has rid Egypt of its patriarch-in-chief, attitudes to gender remain largely the same. Now women must stand up for their rights.
Atheists: Egypt’s forgotten minority
July 2011 – Egyptian atheists and religious sceptics are a minority that exists in reality but not in official statistics.
Hostility to the West may shape Egyptian politics
June 2011 – Islamists and Arab Socialists share a history of clashing with foreign influences.
The fall of Egypt’s symbol of progressive Islam
May 2011 – Joining itself with an authoritarian regime caused harm to the millennium-long history of al-Azhar University.
Egypt’s counter-revolutionary bogeyman
May 2011 – Fear of retaliation from the old regime shouldn’t be used to limit Egyptians’ hard-won freedoms and attack peaceful protesters.
March 2011 – Egyptians will no longer tolerate paying for the state-run newspapers that peddled Hosni Mubarak’s propaganda.
Should Egypt’s next president be old guard or vanguard?
March 2011 – Amr Moussa is very popular with Egyptians, but should Egyptians play it safe with the best of the old guard or choose someone from the vanguard.
March 2011 – In addition to withdrawing from the political front line, the army must also leave justice to the legal system.
The Muslim Brotherhood: empowered by its weakness
March 2011 – The revolution in Egypt succeeded because it had no Islamist face, and the Muslim Brotherhood has benefited from maintaining a soft presence.
February 2011 – The time is ripe to crystallise a creative vision for Egyptian democracy, one that can perhaps be used as a model by other Arab countries.
February 2011 - There are Jews who refuse to succumb to fear and would like to extend their warm congratulations to Egyptians on the occasion of their revolution of hope.
February 2011 – The Egyptian revolution could usher in freedom to the Middle East, but Arabs and Israelis must break free of the chains of prejudice, history and fear.
Diary of Dictator M, aged 82¾: fight, not flight
February 2011 – In the second leaked extract from his secret diaries, President M is enraged by what he sees as an unpresidented act of cowardice and treachery.
From political revolution to social evolution
February 2011 – To truly succeed, Egypt’s revolution needs to trigger a profound evolution in every strata of society.
Political idealism triumphs over Egypt’s cruel political reality
February 2011 – The power of an idea proved stronger than tanks, water cannons and bullets.
February 2011 – By toppling their dictator, Egyptians have made history, but now they need to ensure that this revolution does not become a footnote in their history.
Open letter: Mubarak, we loathe you
February 2011 – Mr Mubarak, you have the extraordinary knack for snatching mediocrity from the jaws of greatness. But the Egyptian people will write their own future.
Dispatch from Tahrir: Fighting Egypt’s petty dictators
February 2011 – Outside the utopian bubble of Tahrir, petty dictators are filling the security void.
Why Mubarak shouldn’t stay until September
February 2011 – If Mubarak’s security apparatus tightens its grip on power, Egypt will turn into a North Korean-style dictatorship.
February 2011 – A democratic Egypt will not go to war with Israel, but for the cold peace to thaw, Israel must ends its occupation.
February 2011 – Egyptians’ lavish burial spaces offer comfort to relatives – while 1.5 million less fortunate Cairenes live among the dead.
Diary of Dictator M, aged 82¾: a panicked call for Tunisia
February 2011 – In the first leaked extract from President M’s diaries, he calms an alarmed fellow dictator in Tunisia.
The death throes of Arab dictatorships
February 2011 – Will the unfolding popular revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt lead to the region’s dictators falling one after the other like dominos?
February 2011 – Tunisia’s revolution will spread the scent of its jasmine to oppressed nations all over the region.
America’s missed opportunity in Egypt
1 February 2011 – There’s no reason to believe that the uprising will bring radical Islamists to power – so why isn’t the US supporting it?
Mubarak: the life and times of a dictator
February 2011 – To grasp the enormity of the change undergoing Egyptian society, it is well worth considering that the majority of Egyptians have never known another president than Hosni Mubarak.
February 2011 – The imminent fall of Egypt’s dictator should embolden Egyptians, especially the young, to deal with the mini-Mubaraks holding Egyptian society back.
Baksheesh and social tipping points
January 2011 – Egypt’s ‘baksheesh’ culture helps poor people get by and maintains relative social peace, but it encourages subservience.
Egypt’s regime of self-preservation
January 2011 – Muslim-Coptic tension is just one aspect of a wider turmoil that will worsen until real democracy takes hold.
December 2010 – It’s true that football divides Egyptians today, but it also, paradoxically, unites them on so many other levels.
توجهات جديدة للنزاع العربي الإسرائيلي
ديسمبر 2010 – تتجاوز القضية الأخلاقية لصالح زيادة التفاهم في أهميتها قضية انتهاك حقوق النشر، حسب رأي الصحفي خالد دياب، رداً على قرصنة ترجمة رواية مصرية مشهورة إلى العبرية
December 2010 – Egypt is certainly the gift of the Nile, but the great river could become east Africa’s curse. What are the chances of a future ‘water war’?
December 2010 – Animal rights activists are calling for global vegetarianism, but the Middle East is not ready to sacrifice its meat-eating lifestyle.
Novel approaches to the Arab-Israeli conflict
November 2010 – Despite infringing on the author’s copyright and wishes, the unauthorised Hebrew translation of a bestselling Egyptian novel highlights how the word can help blunt the sword.
The Arab myth of Western women
November 2010 – Unflattering as some Western stereotypes are of Arab men, Western women also get a bad press in conservative Arab circles.
Egypt hires PR firm to revamp its image
November 2010 – A picture is worth a thousand words, but a doctored picture is a scandal that can be worth a thousand articles to cover.
November 2010 – Some in the west are more likely to believe in elves in Middle Earth than in Arab men in the Middle East who are secular and do not oppress women.
Egyptian government fears a Facebook revolution
November 2010 – Talk of banning Facebook is only the surface of a greater crackdown on independent media by an insecure government.
October 2010 - ‘Catholic’ education thrives in Belgium, but the decision between principle and pragmatism is not easy when choosing a school.
Egypt’s heartless economic growth
October 2010 – Economic growth in Egypt has mainly benefited the well-off, with many of the poor falling off the tightrope of the poverty line.
A battle for the soul of every Egyptian
September 2010 – Converts have become pawns in Egypt’s increasingly bitter standoff between Muslims and Christians.
‘Collaborator!’ – a charge that has plagued Egypt
September 2010 – Egyptians are routinely accused of being in league with foreign forces, from the US to Iran, but this propaganda is wearing thin.
قرارات المحاكم الأخيرة في مصر وإسرائيل تُظهِر مدى الشك الذي وصل إليه اليهود والعرب الإسرائيليين
September 2010 – Arabs and Israelis tend to view personal relationships that cross the divide between them with suspicion, perhaps because individual love has the power to undermine collective hate.
A shop window on Egyptian history
September 2010 – The buyers of Harrods are reportedly planning to take over Egypt’s oldest department store, Omar Effendi, whose story mirrors Egypt’s modern history.
Religious freedom at stake in Egypt
August 2010 – If you don’t fast during Ramadan in Egypt, lie about it; hide it. Otherwise, you might land in jail.
Make Ramadan torture-free in Egypt
August 2010 – It’s Ramadan, but the Egyptian police continue to practise brutality and torture. This year, they should set a better example.
I say you want a revolution, Egypt
July 2010 – Activists in Egypt should look to the hippy movement of the 1960s for a successful model in bringing about long-term social change.
July 2010 – Egypt’s pavillion at the Shanghai Expo 2010 misses the mark of modernity and dwells excessively on the country’s ancient past.
July 2010 – Egyptian police and a decades-old emergency law stand in the dock of public opinion following a young man’s alleged murder.
Love and loathing in the Middle East
June 2010 – By calling Egyptians who marry Israelis traitors, Egypt has betrayed a group of vulnerable people who are guilty of little more than loving across enemy lines.
May 2010 – Following the lead of Islamists, Egyptian Christians are trying to ban an award-winning novel because it ‘insults’ Christianity.
May 2010 – Jordanian journalists believe they do not enjoy enough freedom – a malaise shared with the rest of the Middle East. But why?
April 2010 – Sexual harassment in Egypt is leading to calls for gender segregation. But is hiding women really the solution?
April 2010 – The Egyptian government looks to overhaul its bread subsidy system, but experts warn of a possible popular backlash.
April 2010 – In multicultural families, deciding on where to raise your child is no easy matter and has profound implications for the future.
Egypt’s uneasy political truce
April 2010 – Egypt’s secularists and Islamists agree on one thing: Mubarak must go. But when he does, how long will they stand united?
March 2010 – If exaggerated rumours of President Mubarak’s death become fact, where will the end of his one-man show leave Egypt?
Egypt’s online struggle for democracy
March 2010 – In Egypt, political advocacy is being sparked online, on sites like Facebook, but there is significantly less room for movement in Egypt’s real world than in its virtual world.
Splitting Egypt’s political atom
March 2010 – Can Mohamed ElBaradei’s campaign for the Egyptian presidency save a country close to political meltdown?
March 2010 – The Camp David accords between Egypt and Israel remain controversial, but Arabs and Israelis can draw lessons from Anwar el-Sadat’s quest for peace.
February 2010 – For a new generation of young Egyptian artists, music is not just about love.
February 2010 – Christians across the Muslim world use ‘Allah’ to refer to ‘God’, so why has this led to violence and controversy in Malaysia?
Egyptian football’s pious turn
February 2010 – The national team is increasingly flaunting its Muslim religiosity. Where does that leave Christian, let alone secular Egyptians?
My plan for a democratic Egypt
January 2010 – With the right leadership, Egypt could rid itself of nepotism and inequality to become a prosperous and egalitarian society.
January 2010 – Israel is building a new anti-migrant barrier along its Egyptian border – leaving Mubarak’s regime with one problem fewer.
Should America fear a democratic Egypt?
January 2010 – The depiction of Egypt as a country of religious fanatics who await a breeze of freedom to turn Egypt into a radical regime is far from accurate.
January 2010 – A Saudi journalist is demanding that women be given the right to four husbands. Should equality mean monogamy or polygamy for all?
December 2009 – The British are famously reserved, but so are the Belgians. Let’s break the ice and make the public sphere more friendly.
December 2009 – Prominent Muslim Brotherhood member Kamal Helbawy talks about his research and ending the misconceptions that tie terrorism to Islam.
November 2009 – Much as we’d like our children to hold the same things dear as we do, we should have enough faith in them to let them choose their own belief system.
November 2009 – Reckless journalism is held responsible for the violence and tensions following the Algeria-Egypt World Cup playoffs.
Closing the ‘hijab murder’ file
November 2009 – The life sentence imposed on Marwa al-Sherbini’s killer shows that European Islamophobia exists but is not institutionalised.
Algeria and Egypt play political football
November 2009 – Preparations for a World Cup showdown are getting heated, but does the animosity between Algeria and Egypt run deeper?
November 2009 – As the singer prepares to visit Egypt, Christian and Muslim fundamentalists agree: Beyoncé is the root of all evil.
October 2009 – Egyptians are slowly overcoming their fear of authority, but old habits die hard.
التسوية الفلسطينية عبر الصندوق الانتخابي
قد حان الوقت لمحمود عباس أن يذهب بكرامته وفتح المجال للشعب لكي يقررعبر صندوق الاقتراع
Palestinian reconciliation through the ballot box
October 2009 – To break the destructive deadlock between Fatah and Hamas, Mahmoud Abbas should step down as Palestinian president, call immediate elections and organise referenda on the future course of the Palestinian struggle.
October 2009 – New attempts to address the divide between Egypt’s Muslims and Christians must be supported, not undermined, by the state.
October 2009 – For many Egyptians, tip-based and street jobs are their only means of survival.
September 2009 – The ‘Chinese hymen’ may make pre-marital sex safer in a patriarchal society but a woman’s honour should not lie between her legs.
September 2009 – From fashion tips to adult breastfeeding – rulings by some clerics range from the eccentric to the downright bizarre.
Is Mubarak really a force of stability?
September 2009 – Providing more legitimate access to power should be the way to guarantee security and stability in Egypt.
September 2009 – Police in Egypt are using Ramadan to target secularists. The government must do more to protect individual liberty.
September 2009 – Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosny’s bid to be the chief of the UN’s cultural wing has aroused suspicion among liberals and conservatives alike.
Covering heads and veiling poverty
September 2009 – In Egypt, Hijabless women are becoming a shrinking and marginalised minority who have to keep their bare heads down.
انكمش عدد النساء المتبرجات (غير المحجبات) وصاروا أقلية مهمشة في مصر
The Arab Republic of Investment
August 2009 – Egyptians should not be too harsh on poor Gamal Mubarak. He’s bound to become the president of the many entrepreneurs and professionals and not of the few who live on less than $2 per day.
July 2009 – Egyptian outrage at the brutal murder of Marwa Sherbini, the ‘hijab martyr’ is understandable. But If Egyptians want better justice for Muslims in Europe, then they should demand more justice for non-Muslims at home.
Egypt: Power has already been transferred
July 2009 – What the speculation over political succession in Egypt overlooks is that Gamal Mubarak has effectively taken over the reins of power from his father already.
July 2009 – Despite its dislike of the Ahmadinejad government, Egypt fears the spread of the Iranian protest contagion to its own borders, but why are Egyptians not showing any symptoms of the ‘Iranian flu’?
What’s love got to do with it?
June 2009 – For Egyptian marriage offices, the search for profit has replaced the search for a perfect union.
June 2009 – Rather than encouraging people to make moral choices, religious groups in Egypt are imposing their values by law.
The Middle East must look to the future
April 2009 – A secular society confines religion to the spiritual sphere where it belongs, and leaves worldly affairs to human resourcefulness.
April 2009 – An outward appearance of Islamism disguises the increasingly secular reality of some Arab and Muslim societies.
March 2009 – Rumours of deadly SMS messages are symptoms of a worrying trend in Egypt – the unstoppable rise of superstition.
January 2009 – Rafah, a city divided between Gaza and Egypt, and between war and peace, prays for the opening of the border crossing.
December 2008 – In Egypt, getting married has young people all tied up in knots.
September 2008 – Egyptian women have broken their silence on sexual harassment and are demanding the right to go out in public unpestered.
August 2008 – The world isn’t short on wacky theories about Egypt’s greatest monuments. The reality is less fun, but more illuminating.
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