Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Amelia Smith
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Pressure grows on Europe to leverage relationship with Egypt and force change
Over the weekend, former political prisoner Ramy Shaath told the BBC that the West has considerable leverage over Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, a regional ally who has committed serious human rights abuses. Shaath’s comments came ahead of a European Union-African Union summit set to be held at the end...
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Renewed scrutiny on Europe’s border push backs following death of 19 refugees in Turkey
As hundreds took to the streets in Athens and Istanbul over the weekend to protest the Greek’s government’s role in the death of 19 refugees, the controversial pushback policy used across Europe is under renewed scrutiny. Last week the migrants’ bodies were found at the Turkish border town of Ispala...
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‘I am now stateless,’ says Egypt activist Ghada Najibe as she awaits appeal
In December 2020 Ghada Najibe woke up to a phone call – “the Egyptian government has announced they are stripping you of your nationality”, Ghada’s friend told her down the line. That morning Egypt’s Official Gazette had published a government decision, signed by the Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly, which stated that Ghada...
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‘Egypt is the republic of fear:’ New videos show torture of prisoners inside Katameya Prison
In one of the videos an inmate is blindfolded and lies face down on the floor with his hands tied to his legs behind his back, whilst others have wounds on their legs and backs....
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On the anniversary of the January 25 uprising Egyptians continue to ask Sisi to leave
On the eleventh anniversary of the Egyptian uprising Twitter users continue to call on President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to stand down. For years the president has tried to whitewash human rights criticism and called on Egyptians to be patient with him, with the promise that they will see a different...
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Egypt uses probation to extend ‘humiliating’ control over opponents
‘The state has become a whale that swallows everything it finds and is never satisfied’...
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Verdict in landmark trial against state-sanctioned torture in Syria expected tomorrow
The verdict in a landmark trial for crimes against humanity will be heard tomorrow against a Syrian secret intelligence agent in the town of Koblenz in Germany. Anwar Raslan, who defected from Syria’s feared intelligence service and moved to Germany where he applied for asylum in 2018, is the highest...
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Egypt releases 3 prominent political prisoners. What about the 65,000 others?
The new year brought with it the welcome news that three of Egypt’s most prominent political prisoners have now been, or are set to be, released from prison. Former EIPR researcher Patrick Zaki, who was studying for his master’s in Italy, was freed on 8 December after 22 months in...
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New leaks allegedly prove bribery, corruption among Egypt’s presidential advisers
Earlier this week Egyptian police arrested the father of popular YouTuber Abdullah El-Sherif after he broadcast a phone call between two presidential advisers appearing to show one of them accepting bribes in exchange for granting the other exclusive tender on upcoming construction projects. In the leaked recording Major General Farouk...
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Patrick Zaki’s release an effort to whitewash Egypt’s regime, says rights advocate
Egyptian activist and former EIPR researcher Patrick George Zaki has been released from detention after 22 months. According to Mada Masr, his mother Hala Sobhy fainted upon hearing the news that the court had ordered his release. “I’m jumping for joy!” she told AFP. “We’re now on our way to...
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Social media users rally against ‘vaccine apartheid’ and ‘Afrophobia’ as travel bans come into force
Over 30 countries have imposed restrictions on travel from southern African countries as concerns rise over a new strain of coronavirus reported in South Africa last week. The @WHO has identified a new COVID variant which is spreading through Southern Africa. As a precautionary measure until we have more information,...
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Naguib Sawiris trends on social media as critics accuse him of hypocrisy
Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris is trending again on social media after warning that the government’s monopoly over the economy is creating an unfair playing field in Egypt. “Companies that are government-owned or with the military don’t pay taxes or customs,” he told AFP from his luxury hotel in the Red...
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A virtual visit to Tabaneh village in Area C where Palestinians travel 4 hours to get healthcare
Medical care is becoming near impossible to access for Palestinians living in villages around East Jerusalem...
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France continues to ignore human rights abuses and invests in Egypt
This week the French train manufacturer Alstom announced that it had secured a $1 billion deal to upgrade Cairo’s oldest metro line. It follows a contract the same company signed in 2019, to design, implement and operate two monorail lines between the new capital and east Cairo, and another between...
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Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands
In a village in Palestine long ago the women are not allowed to leave or learn to read, and the elders have banned bright clothes because they consider them extravagant. Here, at the foot of the mountains, the villagers live under a curse where women and animals are only able...
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Little Amal takes her first steps in Folkestone as first leg of the UK tour
The 3.5-metre-high puppet Little Amal took her first steps on British soil yesterday when she walked through the Harbour Arm Station in the town of Folkestone on the southeast coast of England...
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The Sea Ahead is a melancholy drag through Beirut’s spiralling crisis
When Jana returns home from studying abroad in Paris, her hometown Beirut is not what she remembers. A disappearing view of the sea at her parents’ house and a downtown that keeps growing into the sky, are just some of the changes that have taken place in her absence. Jana...
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The Beauty of Your Face
Sahar Mustafah’s debut novel is a deep dive into the complexities of being a Muslim immigrant family in America...
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Egyptians are dying to live as suicide rates soar
Two weeks ago, a fourth-year dentist student in Egypt committed suicide after becoming severely depressed because her family were putting pressure on her not to leave the house. Egypt’s Public Prosecution moved quickly to stop the video circulating on social media, promising the sharp hand of the law for anyone...
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Tantawi is no hero: He oversaw some of the most brutal massacres in Egypt’s modern history
The former Defence Minister Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, who died yesterday, is trending on Twitter in Egypt. Whilst the state-run media praise him as a “loyal son”, a “military symbol” and a “hero” of the October War, Egyptians say he has blood on his hands. Tantawi became a known face both...
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The Man Who Sold His Skin: How one Syrian refugee became a piece of art to reach Europe
In parts 'The Man Who Sold His Skin' requires a little imagination, but this romance meets drama meets satire is at the same time an urgent revisiting of the refugee crisis...
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‘My gun is my body’, says Syrian dancer Nidal Abdo
For a Palestinian-Syrian-Ukrainian who grew up in the largest refugee camp in Syria, becoming a dancer doesn’t strike me as the most obvious career choice. Yet of the three main dance companies in Syria, the choreographers that founded them were all Palestinians who were born and raised in Yarmouk...
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In Egypt it is a crime to read books
Because it has no real popular support, for any dictatorship to survive censorship is central to their modus operandi. True to form, since the military take-over of power in 2013, Egypt has waged a war on the popular musalsalet and blocked some 500 news websites. Last year Egypt banned Ya...
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Afghanistan is the latest example the Tories are incompetent
The Conservative Party is embroiled in a new scandal with their handling of the crisis in Afghanistan at the eye of the storm, demonstrating that once again they are a party that put their own interests above that of the people. News has now emerged that the UK Foreign Secretary...