Nothing reflects the essence of Islam better than the pilgrimage to Mecca. It sums up the faith in a nutshell: humility, reflection and most importantly, equality. In the haj, women stand side by side with men; the rich stand alongside the poor; brown people alongside white. All are equal in the journey toward redemption. All pilgrims have to perform the same rituals and endure the same suffering. Arguments, bickering, hatred, resentment, and revenge are aspects Muslims must abandon to avoid spoiling their pilgrimage.
The U.S. State Department announced on Wednesday that it would halt the delivery of large-scale military systems and cash assistance to Egypt’s government. It said “credible progress” must be made towards free and fair elections. US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the United States is “recalibrating” its military aid to Egypt. While State Department did not provide a dollar amount, officials said the freeze amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars. According to officials, the US is halting the delivery of F-16s, Apache helicopters, Harpoon missiles as well as Abrams tank kits.
The current structure of the student government with its three branches; the student union, the student senate and the student court (previously known as student judicial board) is greatly inspired by the Madisonian design of the US government that is named after the famous James Madison who was the architect behind the form of government in the American constitution,
Morale in Egypt's tourism industry is at rock bottom; a summer of bloodshed has frightened away all but the bravest foreign visitors from Cairo and the pyramids, and things are little better in the Red Sea beach resorts.
The decision of Egypt, announced 19 September, to return to Qatar $2 billion that was deposited in the Egyptian Central Bank, coming after the failure of negotiations to turn them into treasury bonds, is another indication of the deterioration of bilateral relations between the two countries after the dismissal 3 July of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood.
I believe a thank you to the presidency is in order, after it issued a clear and definitive statement denying the release of a new constitutional declaration that would change the nature of work of the Committee of 50, as was incorrectly rumoured by prominent members of this committee.
A group of peaceful protesters marched, and were set upon by official state forces – at the end of the violence, 28 people were dead, and more than 200 people were injured. At the time, human rights activists insisted that not only should an investigation take place into the killings: but that it should be an independent one, that the armed forces and security establishment could not influence or control, leading to the prosecution of those responsible.
Weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in the Middle East were the focal point of the speeches delivered by regional leaders at the United Nations’ 68th General Assembly opening session in September. From Rouhani of Iran to Netanyahu of Israel, from Syria to Egypt, the meaning was clear: the Arab Spring is turning into the WMDs' autumn of struggle for survival in the region.
On behalf of the Egyptian Women’s Union, I flew to Sweden to give a speech about Egyptian women’s plight in Egypt after the “spring”. I was a keynote speaker on a panel in the very heart of Swedish parliament. My audience included representatives from every political party in Sweden as well as a number of representatives from women’s movements from Libya and Yemen. But that pleasant experience was later overshadowed by my encounters with a few (very few) Egyptian and Arab women who were seriously questioning me: what else do you women want?
Theorists of the past defend efforts to build a new tyranny in a modern form by misusing established fundamentals under the pretext of “guarding the state” and the need to respect “the prestige of the state.”
A friend asked me angrily why a select few are monopolising the debate about the articles on identity in the constitution. Why the constant warnings that this topic is a red line? - Is it not everyone's' right to participate in a serious discussion on the subject in order to reach a satisfactory national formula?
When history books reflect on modern Egypt, we will read the “official” version of the story but we will never read the stories that matter: her stories. We will not hear the voices of millions of women who stood shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand, on 25 January, 2011. Yet the revolution diary is filled with pages upon pages of the tribulations of Egyptian women.
I do not know why I remembered Shady Abdel Salam’s epic film ‘The Mummy.’ Over two weeks between Washington and New York, I was talking about Egypt. I talked politics, economics and other things as well. All this made me look for the complicated formula that governs the historical evolution of Egypt.
Tenuous alliances and complacency have led to little more than bloodshed and obstruction of what really afflicts Egyp
This is what I have dubbed Egypt years ago, to the chagrin of some of my guy friends and agreement of others. Egypt-mostly- is not a very healthy society with regards to interaction between women and men.
The fifth of September was a scary day for me. It was early morning, and I was rushing down Abbas Al-Aqqad Street when I heard a thunderous explosion. I knew right away that this was a terrorist attack; and my first response was to thank God that I was not in the immediate vicinity of the attack. My next thought was for its victims: how many were injured; how many died?
I live in fear. I slink around the streets at dusk because the fading light allows me to merge into the lengthening shadows. I wear non-descript clothing, hide the majority of my face behind sunglasses and have my hair tied up in a bun so the blonde will not show too much. Wrapping a scarf around my head is no longer an option for obvious reasons. If this was the 70s, this would be the beginning of an East German spy novel, but sadly this is now and it is my life.
In a country that has become infatuated with political talk, the lack of sustainable political actions never ceases to amaze me. Despite their instantaneous impact, several movements that have surfaced on the Egyptian political scene in the past 10 years never took off or accomplished the form of continuity which brings about significant structural change. Here is a look at some of these change agents and how they fared.
More than 200 years ago, Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States, said: “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Others
Engineering students at Cairo University begin sit-in over the death of Mohamed Reda, who they say was killed by police on campus
Cairo University students begin sit-in over student killing
