Egypt

By Sherine Tadros in Middle East on February 10th, 2012

Last year, on February 11, I was standing next to the main stage in Tahrir Square when the evening call to prayer rang out.  

All you could see was a sea of people in lines, using Egyptian flags as prayer mats. When news filtered through to the crowd that Hosni Mubarak, then Egypt's president, had stepped down, people started shouting, saying that nobody could celebrate until prayers had finished.  

On the final prostration, as they stood up, tens of thousands of people looked up to the sky and shouted in unison “Allahu Akbar”: "God is Great".  It was the single most incredible moment of my career, and I still get goosebumps thinking about it.

That moment wasn’t just about a change of regime, it was about the fact that Egyptians had made it happen. They took on their president and they brought him down. Egyptians, who had gained a reputation in the Arab world as political passive, had done the seemingly impossible in just 18 days.

By Sherine Tadros in Middle East on January 12th, 2012
Fatma, a vegetable vendor with six children, says inflation has hit Egypt's poor [Adam Makary]

It is hard to believe it has almost been a year since Egypt’s uprising began. 

In the last 12 months, the concentration has been on the politics; the governments that have come and gone, the actions of the military rulers and violence on the streets.

But some analysts predict it is the economic, and not the political, situation in Egypt that may end up being the biggest problem and destabilizing factor in years to come.

The Egyptian prime minister, Kamal El Ganzouri, seems to speak about little else these days. He’s described the economy as a disaster and said people don’t realize the scale of the problem.

So, what is the problem and how does Egypt fix it? The data speaks for itself, and bear in mind 40 per cent of Egyptians are already living on $2 a day or less. 

'Ash, horreya, adela'

Fatma is a street vegetable seller.

By Evan Hill in Middle East on November 28th, 2011
Judge Mohamed Aboul Ela sealing ballot boxes as polls close [Evan Hill / Al Jazeera]

Alexandria, Egypt’s coastal second city, was swept with rain on Monday, but that didn't dampen turnout on the first day of Egypt’s marathon elections for both houses of parliament.

The city is a contradiction, a Mediterranean enclave of creaking pensions-turned-hotels, with stocks of Stella beer in the back rooms, but whose new political face is likely to be thoroughly Islamist.

The Muslim Brotherhood has traditionally enjoyed strength here, and the most prominent of the post-revolution Salafi groups, the Nour Party, was born in Alexandria.

These forces were on display on Monday, as the brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) flexed its organisational muscles street by street, and Salafis expressed calm confidence in their chances.

By Alan Fisher in Middle East on November 27th, 2011
Thousands continue to gather at Tahrir Square to debate about how to move forward following a week of protests [Reuters]

When the wind whips up the dust around Cairo's Tahrir Square it's still possible to taste the tear gas in the air.

The acrid smell and the bitter taste catches in the nose and the back of the throat making people sneeze and cough.

On the edge of Tahrir, the heartbeat of February's uprising in Egypt, the ropes are back. These are the temporary checkpoints, manned by self-appointed stewards, blocking the way to the latest protest. Everyone coming in is patted down. A young man with the dirty sweatshirt and crooked teeth motions me forward.  He holds his hands up and repeats the same phrase in Arabic. "He says he's sorry" says my friend "but says it's for everyone's safety".

The check is cursory and quick and I'm waved on with a smile.

Tags: Cairo, Egypt
By Malika Bilal in Middle East on November 26th, 2011
Thousands of people filled Abbasiya's centre to show their support for the military [Malika Bilal / Al Jazeera]

The Cairo neighbourhood of Abbassiyah lies just nine kilometres from Tahrir Square, both areas boast a vibrant mix of street vendors, eclectic shops and colonial-era buildings featuring balconies that overlook the organised chaos below.

Tags: Egypt
By Marwan Bishara in Imperium on November 22nd, 2011

 

'The people have spoken loud and clear. It's up to the generals to stand up and salute the steadfast of their people and save the nation unneeded delays and suffering.' [EPA]

Why has there been an escalation in protests in Egypt?

The earthquake that transformed Egypt in the beginning of the year hasn't reached far or deep enough because the military - the backbone of the Mubarak regime - sided with the revolutionaries in the hope of safeguarding its status and privileges.

Tags: Egypt
By Marwan Bishara in Imperium on July 31st, 2011
Once people dare to rise in defiance against dictators, as in Syria, regimes lose much of their capacity to instill fear or comm

Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's senior political analyst, answers questions about the current escalation - and what some see as setbacks - surrounding the uprisings in Libya, Syria, and Yemen. 

How do you explain the fact that since the upheavals erupted several months ago, the Libyan, Yemeni and Syrian regimes have continued their repression unabatedly - while in Egypt and Tunisia the regimes fell quickly?

The transformations in Egypt and Tunisia raised expectations of swift change elsewhere, but when the Arab Spring turned into a hot summer, it led to disappointment and doubt.

By Alan Fisher in Middle East on July 16th, 2011
Photo by AFP

Tahrir Square is the symbolic heart of the Egyptian revolution; the place where people stood united and faced down a ruler, a regime and a way of life to be rejected.

But now more than six months on, the square remains a focus of discontent, the home of protests of those who believe the revolution in Egypt didn't end in January but only began.

In the heat of the early morning, the check points on the roads into the square are already manned. The security is tense but polite and apologise for delaying our entry. More than once I'm told "welcome to Egypt.  The square itself is nothing special; slightly weary, and run down.  I think at first it is an unremarkable place really in a country where history leaps out around every corner before quickly realising that this place too will join the storied and the famous.

Tags: Egypt
By Kristen Saloomey in Middle East on June 2nd, 2011
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki has a master plan to expedite Palestinian statehood [Reuters]

With Mideast peace talks at an impasse, Palestinians have been looking for another route to statehood: the United Nations.

“We are taking our destiny in our hands,” the Palestinian’s top UN diplomat told a small group of reporters in New York on Tuesday.

Ambassador Riyad Mansour predicted millions of Palestinians would take to the streets come September, when the UN General Assembly meets, to support the cause. He drew parallels to the peaceful Arab uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.

“The battle for our independence is not only the battle of the Palestinian leadership. This is the battle of millions of Palestinians,” Mansour said.

“I believe the Palestinian people are capable and I believe also that they want to engage in this last chapter of the struggle of ending occupation.”

He said work is already underway behind the scenes at the United Nations, as he lobbies countries to recognize a Palestinian state.

By Monica Villamizar in Middle East on May 26th, 2011
Photo by Mohamed Shawky

Political "street art" in Egypt has proven to be dangerous, only hours ago Mohammed Fahmy @ganzeer was arrested, apparently in connection with his graffiti work.

There are more and more graffiti emerging around Cairo. Many are stencil-graffiti  (done by a precut model placed against the wall and sprayed). It is fast and it minimizes the risk of being caught by authorities, in Cairo there is currently a 2am military curfew.

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