Three ways rebellious young people are still reshaping the Middle East.
Don’t Count Out the Arab Youth
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tahrir square
Egypt Speaks, Again
The taxi driver was excited. Driving through the busy streets of Cairo a little more than a year ago, he wanted us to see his most prized token from the revolution that brought Egyptians to the streets in 2011.He passed his cell phone to the back seat to share a YouTube video of his children were singing the Egyptian national anthem—backwards. Backwards, he explained, because that was how former President Hosni Mubarak was ruling the nation. “We want Egypt to be for all Egyptians—Christians, Jews, and Muslims,” he declared, smiling broadly.
Egyptian Government Deals With Sexual Attacks on Female Protesters by Blaming the Victims
In the void left by the government’s utter lack of action, non-profit organizations and volunteer groups have instead stepped up to the plate to protect, assist, and defend victims of these attacks.
Egyptian Protesters Eat Their Own
Egyptian protesters are forced to waste precious resources policing each other.
The Roundabout Road Back To Tahrir
Given the thousands of people returning to Cairo’s Tahrir Square and growing discontent over the economy, security, and civil liberties, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi may have inadvertently provided his critics with a temporary unifying device: rallying to defend the rule of law.
Review: Tahrir 2011
In the recent documentary Tahrir 2011: The Good, The Bad & The Politician, three directors present varying perspectives on the Egyptian Uprising and provide a comprehensive overview of what was happening on Tahrir Square, and why. The documentary is divided into three sections: The Good, directed by Tamer Ezzat, The Bad, directed by Ayten Amin, and The Politician, directed by Amr Salama. Executed in a cinematic style, each section includes visuals, live footage of protests, and interviews, as well as considerable wit and sophistication, to tell the story of the Egyptian Spring.
Review: The Journey to Tahrir
The essays in The Journey to Tahrir: Revolution, Protest and Social Change in Egypt, 1999-2011 validate Hannah Arendt’s famous quote that “revolutionaries do not make revolutions. The revolutionaries are those who know when power is lying in the street and then they can pick it up.” Journey to Tahrir, edited by Jeannie Sowers, rejects the mainstream media’s often monolithic and melodramatic portrait of a random pro-democracy uprising in Egypt. Instead the contributors meticulously dissect the numerous components that coalesced in November 2011 in a mass social upheaval that brought down the Mubarak regime.
A Year after Tahrir
The Arab revolts that began in December 2010 have immediate, material causes. But their deeper wellspring has been the determination of Arab peoples to reclaim their historical agency from both the condescension of outsiders and the mind-numbing repression of Arab rulers.
Cold Comfort for Egypt
What shape will the convergence of Egypt’s civilian and military management with the Muslim Brotherhood take?
Egypt: Tear Gas May Be Non-lethal But It’s Lethal to Democracy
The Egyptian military is using tear gas on protestors in Tahrir Square that’s made in the U.S.A.