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…
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Two days ago, Egyptian TV showed a video of Giulio Regeni, the young Italian PhD student who was tortured and killed a year ago in Cairo. The video was taped a few days before he disappeared on January 25, 2016, only for his body to be found dumped on a highway, with signs of inhuman, brutal torture on it. You can watch the video here. A longer version with Italian subtitles is here. For over a year I have seen Giulio’s still picture, read his published work, and learned about his character and his tragically short live. But this is…
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Posted on Facebook on April 28, 2014 About two years ago, I had a very interesting conversation with my neighbor who lives in the same apartment building in Zamalek, Cairo. I remembered this conversation today in light of the notorious verdict today by a judge in Minya sentencing 720 people to death. My neighbor is a nice, decent man in his late sixties, and we have always had a cordial relationship with each other, despite me once causing serious damage to his apartment when a water pipe burst in my apartment flooding his just below. I was rushing to some demonstration…
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Published in Ahram Online on July 4, 2013 The revolution aimed to change the rules of the game, not just its players. When it was clear that Mohamed Morsi was picking up the mantle of Mubarak, he had to go I did not vote for Mohamed Morsi in the previous presidential elections. I invalidated my ballot in these elections because I realised that Egypt deserves better than either Morsi or Shafiq. Yet when the results were announced, I was glad because I realised that we had managed to carry out the first free and fair elections, and I considered Mohamed…
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An interview with the BBC Radio 4 The World Today program one day after the Port Said Massacre in which 72 people were killed. (Egypt part starts at 07:34 and my contribution starts at 12:39.) This video clearly shows the police forces on the pitch standing idly doing nothing to control the crows.
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