Egypt closed 2012 with a new constitution and opened this year with growing discontent with President Mohamed Morsi. Ashraf Khalil reflects on a tumultuous year, and looks ahead to an uncertain future
On Monday General Adel Emara, a member of Egypt’s ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, held a nationally televised press conference to address accusations of army misconduct in the most recent series of clashes between security forces and...
Egypt’s post-revolutionary honeymoon appears to be over. The country’s euphoria and pride at the historic public uprising that ousted President Hosni Mubarak has given way to a summer of rising pessimism. Relations have deteriorated between...
On the eve of Index on Censorship’s Freedom of Expression awards — sponsored by SAGE — Ashraf Khalil reports on digital activism in Egypt in the new issue of the magazine
Digital activism has long been a way of life in Egypt; from monitoring political corruption to protesting against police brutality Egypt has always been one of the fastest and most enthusiastic cultures in the Middle East to embrace technology....
Egyptians are expected to turn out to the polls Saturday in mass numbers to vote on a package of proposed constitutional amendments. It’s a national referendum that seems certain to make history on several levels. For starters, it’s the first...
The historic collapse of the once feared Egyptian police state has spawned a Wikileaks-style flood of secret information into the public sphere. Starting on 5 March, crowds of protesters forced their way into buildings around the country belonging...
The cars started flowing through downtown Cairo’s Tahrir Square again on Sunday. Most of the protesters, who had made the massive public space their revolutionary home since 28 January, departed willingly. They meticulously cleaned it before they...
Anger in Tahir Square as President Mubarak refuses to stand down, Index on Censorship’s Egypt regional editor Ashraf Khalil reports
I watched President Hosni Mubarak’s speech Thursday night from Tahrir Square, where a live broadcast of Al Jazeera was being projected onto a sheet hanging from some lamp-posts. The sound was terrible, so it was hard to hear too much of what he was...
Amid the constant Egyptian government promises these days that it is committed to reform, growth and dialogue with all opposition forces, it’s worth noting that the campaign of harassment, detention and arrest of activists and journalists has never...
If Wednesday was the day that the protesters occupying Cairo’s Tahrir Square were besieged by armed pro-government thugs, then Thursday was the journalists’ turn for a little terrifying mob violence. All through the day, came steadily increasing...