Amr El Kahky

Amr El Kahky's picture
Amr El Kahky
Correspondent | Egypt
Biography

Amr El-Kahky, based in Cairo, built his career in international news with Al Jazeera and the BBC's Arabic services.

He covers all aspects of Egyptian life as Al Jazeera English's Egypt correspondent, and has reported from across North Africa, the United States, Afghanistan, and from Iraq during the 2003 invasion and its aftermath.

Latest posts by Amr El Kahky

By Amr El Kahky in Africa on May 11th, 2010
Picture from AFP

Egyptians have always joked about phone tapping that's been legal under the emergency law... a law that's been seen as the governments tool to silence critics.

"They are listening to us now… let them show us what they can do" a man used to tell his friend during a phone call. If the line is disconnected, he'd say: "they must be changing tapes".

These comments unveil the very cynical nature of Egyptians who lived continuously under that ill-reputed Law since 1967 except for 18 months.

That meant that no more than five people could get together. If the number rose to six, police could arrest them without warrants from a judge. They could've been kept in custody without trial for unlimited periods.

By Amr El Kahky in Middle East on March 27th, 2010
Photo from AFP

The atmosphere is that of the sixties.

That's what journalists felt while covering the 22nd Arab League summit in the Libyan city of Sirte, while listening to those songs - songs by Abdel-Halim Hafez, the famous Egyptian singer who used to sing for late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser in the fifties and sixties and who sang long for pan-Arab nationalism.

These songs were played many times in the conference corridors and inside the press centre with video of the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

This apparently suggests he's the new unifier of the Arab World that's been sharply divided on almost every issue in today's world.

This isn't strange for those who travel to Libya a lot. The North African Arab country has been ruled by Gaddafi for more than four decades since he came to power on the first of September 1969 overthrowing King Idris Senoussi.

By Amr El Kahky in Middle East on March 26th, 2010
Photo from AFP
Arab Leaders gather in the Libyan town of Sirte on Saturday for their annual summit.
 
On Thursday, the Arab League's foreign ministers put together a proposal on an action plan on Jerusalem where Israel continues its settlement activities in defiance of the international community.
 
But the Arab public opinion remains unconvinced that this annual gathering will solve any of the problems facing the region.
 
By Amr El Kahky in Middle East on November 4th, 2009
Photo by Getty Images

Check your restaurant bill carefully - it may tell you your waiter is a drug addict. Yes, that’s true, or at least that’s what a former drug addict told me in an interview.

Mostafa was a waiter at one of Alexandria’s famous restaurants. He had his whole future before him.

“I dreamt of the day I would get some money to be able to start a family,” he told me while reclining on his bed at a rehabilitation center for drug addicts, 130km north of Cairo. There, he now helps addicts to recover - a painful journey he himself had to go through to come clean after 10 years of smoking hashish, taking ecstasy pills and injecting himself with heroin.

Tags: Egypt, Mostafa

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Biography

Amr El Kahky's picture
Amr El Kahky
Correspondent
Amr El-Kahky, based in Cairo, covers all aspects of Egyptian life.

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