CATEGORY: Egypt

The battle to keep women in Tahrir Square

The battle to keep women in Tahrir Square

Egyptian Salafi preacher Ahmed Mahmoud Abdulla — known as Abou Islam — recently made remarks justifying sexual violence against female protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, claiming that women who join protests are asking “to get raped”. The preacher, who owns private religious television channel Al-Ummah, has previously stirred controversy when he burnt a Bible outside the US Embassy in Cairo during last year’s protests over anti-Islam film the Innocence of Muslims. In a video posted online last Wednesday, Abdulla said that women who join the protests are “either crusaders who have no shame or widows who have noone to control them”. He also described them as “devils”, and added that “they talk like monsters”. A few days before he made […]

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Egyptian court orders month-long ban on YouTube

Egyptian court orders month-long ban on YouTube

Over the weekend, an Egyptian court approved a month-long ban on YouTube, for refusal to remove controversial anti-Islam film the Innocence of Muslims. In addition to a ban on YouTube, the same court ordered a ban on any other website hosting the...

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Journalist killed in anti-Morsi protest

Journalist killed in anti-Morsi protest

An Egyptian journalist covering Wednesday's clashes outside the presidential palace in Heliopolis between Islamist supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Morsi has been declared clinically dead after sustaining gunshot wounds to the head....

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How Egypt is stifling its film industry

How Egypt is stifling its film industry

It's been nearly two years since the mass uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, but Egypt's film makers are still plagued by censorship they say is stifling their creativity. Religion and sex remain high on the censors' list of "taboo...

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Blasphemy furore masking Morsi’s failure

Blasphemy furore masking Morsi’s failure

Alber Saber, a young Egyptian blogger and computer science graduate has been arrested and detained for allegedly posting a trailer for an anti-Islam film on Facebook. The trailer for the film "Innocence of Muslims" deemed insulting to Islam and the...

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