‘Why Do They Hate Us?” Egyptian-American writer Mona Eltahawy laments on the cover page of Foreign Policy, in an article illustrated by provocative photos of a naked woman painted to look as if she were wearing a niqab. Who are the ‘They’ and who are the &l… Read full post »

Now that the Republican primaries in the U.S. have been decided in favor of Mitt Romney, and Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande are facing off in France, perhaps the most critical presidential ‘primaries’ of all are being fought out in Egypt. Everything is at stake… Read full post »

The death of Pope Shenouda, spiritual head of Egypt’s Coptic Church for four decades, threw millions of Copts into mourning, and was marked by the Egyptian government as a state funeral, attended by top political authorities and the Muslim religious establishment, as well as foreign di… Read full post »

Today is International Women’s Day, and women in Egypt are uneasy about where they will be same time next year. “Iran,” gloomily prognosticates a friend as she dithers between chocolate soufflé and Om Ali from the dessert buffet at lunch in a private home. “Next year we… Read full post »

Today, February 4th, is the anniversary of the so-called ‘Battle of the Camel’, the decisive turning point of the Revolution of January 25^th, when the peaceful democracy protesters in Tahrir were able to beat back a vicious onslaught by pro-Mubarak thugs who attacked them… Read full post »

Yesterday, as I walked to Tahrir Square along the Kasr el-Nil Bridge, I met friends and acquaintances along the way, the same people who, like me, had been so moved by the revolution a year ago, and who had shunned the ugly confrontations in Tahrir since the divisiveness and the… Read full post »

 So you had a revolution…and now, you have the first democratically-elected parliament in sixty years. Today was the day when the new parliament was seated, and all of Egypt watched the spectacle in the hemi-circle parliament hall as newly-elected candidates stood up to… Read full post »

A Western superpower invades a Middle Eastern country with overwhelming force, under the pretext of defending its interests in the region, but with the ulterior motive of extending its military, strategic and economic power overseas. The commander of the military expedition proclaims to… Read full post »

 In the Middle East, the Western superpower is withdrawing its occupying troops. In Egypt, the sudden overthrow of a military-backed autocracy, followed by ‘a series of ephemeral revolutions’, plunges the country into a state of political uncertainty and general insec… Read full post »

Schadenfreude has had a field day the past couple of weeks. First it was ‘the humblest day of my life’ for Rupert Murdoch, before whose power prime ministers groveled, Scotland Yard bowed and trade unions shattered. But that was closer to comedy than tragedy, with farcica… Read full post »

Anders Breivik’s own father wishes he’d committed suicide after his unconscionable massacre of teenage campers, but I am fervently grateful that he did not. If he had killed himself or if he had died in a firefight with police, if all they found was the dead body of the blond… Read full post »

In February, Vogue magazine published a flattering piece on the lovely, elegant Syrian first lady, Asmaa al-Assad- “A Rose in the Desert”- gushing about the hyperkinetic first lady’s supercharged day, the accessibility with which she and her husband President Bashar supposedly live,… Read full post »

The Mubaraks in Jail: My Memories of Torah Prison

The idea of former president Hosni Mubarak behind bars is not met with unmitigated schadenfreude in Egypt, even among those who demonstrated to end his regime. The first time I stood with the million protesters in Tahrir Square, I… Read full post »

Returning to Egypt from India, on the last leg of the flight, Doha to Cairo, I see a husky man in his thirties get up and go through the plane, asking people to fill out landing cards and show him their passports. My reflex is one of Orwellian alarm. But this… Read full post »

From Tahrir Square : Friday of Anger ?

Last night- after hours of building up hope, after the top military brass had issued communiqué no. 1- came the stunningly disappointing speech by Mubarak, Egypt’s once and future president, according to him; followed by the insulting exh… Read full post »

Yesterday was the biggest day yet for the demonstrations in Tahrir Square, and around Egypt. Hundreds of thousands poured into the center of Cairo, and traffic came to a near-complete standstill between the hours of 1 and 7 pm. This time, the aim was to oust, not just Hosni Mubarak but… Read full post »

I watched from my balcony overlooking the Nile yesterday evening- well after curfew- as Mubarak's NDP thugs streamed down the opposite shore, trucks blaring loud chants, horses and camels in the forefront, and crossed over and made their way to Tahrir Square to wreck havoc and turn a peaceful sit-in… Read full post »

This morning, a news item on BBC radio set me to thinking that it's time to stop demonizing the Islamic headscarf. An Egyptian woman was stabbed to death in a Dresden courtroom by a German against whom she was testifying for insulting her as a "terrorist" earlier, apparently because she was… Read full post »

Before the demonstrations started, I admit I watched the Iranian elections with something like envy: in Egypt since the 1952 coup d'état, there are no presidential elections per se, just a yes/no referendum on a single candidate- the one in power- and the results are a foregone conclusion: 99./… Read full post »