Reflections on Egypt, the Middle East, and history
Ten years ago, the Middle East was in convulsions as protesters attempted revolution in several countries. Looking back, what can we learn from those experiments in human collaboration? Nahla Ayed of CBC interviews Ahdaf Soueif, Hossam Hamalawy and Khaled Fahmy.
Article written by Jack Shenker and published in Vice on 25 January 2021 Ten years after the revolution, Tahrir Square is sanitised, the dictatorship in place harsher than the one it replaced. But while the revolutionary generation came from ruins, it is not ruined. “Is this intensive care?” someone shouts, as the hospital corridor convulses with panic. Medics rush from room to room; crowds of concerned relatives begin to gather; an equipment trolley has spilled to the floor. Amid the commotion, some patients are bent over, seemingly gasping for breath. Others are surrounded by hospital staff, who are desperately attempting…
Cinque anni fa, Giulio Regeni veniva sequestrato, torturato e brutalmente ucciso al Cairo mentre faceva ricerca sul campo per il dottorato che avrebbe conseguito presso l’Università di Cambridge. La morte di Giulio è stata una tragedia. Un colpo terribile per i suoi familiari e i suoi amici. Un evento orribile per i suoi colleghi universitari a Cambridge, al Cairo, e per l’intera comunità accademica globale. Si è trattato anche di un assalto al principio di libertà di ricerca accademica che contraddistingue il lavoro di tutte le università, e che Giulio incarnava. Questa settimana ci fermiamo, nel ricordare le qualità di…
The talk’s main argument is that a true understanding of this war has to be built as much on a detailed analysis of what happened on the battlefield as on a close scrutiny of civilian-military relations.
This lecture tells a story dating from 1858 and preserved in the Egyptian National Archives. The story is of a slave called Sultan, and how he was killed by a bey working in a princely estate. The lecture follows the details of the case to illustrate the intricate mechanism by which Egypt was transformed from a family estate to a modern state.
By refusing to release political prisoners who are illegally detained and refusing to answer calls to ease the over-crowdedness of Egyptian prisons, the Egyptian authorities are not only endangering the lives of thousands of innocent detainees; they are also exacerbating the public hygiene crisis that Egypt is facing with Covid 19.
On the occasion of receiving the Social History Society Book Prize, I had this interview with Prof. Naomi Tadmor, the Chair of the Society
A lecture delivered on 6 May 2020 in the EUME BERLINER SEMINAR The Six-Day War of 1967 is a pivotal event in the modern history of the Middle East, and its ripple effects continue to shape events in the different countries of the region to the present day. Of all the belligerent countries that participated in this war, Egypt was the most deeply affected. The war left 10,000 dead, one tenth of the fighting force, in addition to 15,000 wounded and captured. The entire Sinai Peninsula, 6% of Egypt’s total area, was lost. More than 80% of military materiel was…
Video recording of a lecture delivered in the series titled “Archives of the Disappeared: Discipline and Method Amidst Ruin” hosted by the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Science and the Humanities, CRASSH, the University of Cambridge on 8 May 2020.
Entry in the Oxford Companion to Comparative Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, c2013), Joel Krieger, editor in chief. Born on 4 May 1928 in the Nile delta village of Kafr al-Mouseilha, Hosni Mubarak received his education in small schools in his home village. Upon finishing high school, he joined the Egyptian Military Academy, from which he graduated on 2 February 1949. He then joined the air force and received his commission as a pilot officer on 13 March 1950. Throughout his education, and unlike many of the young cadets of his generation, he did not develop any political interests…
