Campus politics: Has the chaos moved in?
BY MAI SHAMS EL-DIN Cairo The practical advice from the vice president of student affairs at Ain Shams University wasn’t exactly what young Omnia Hassan expected when she complained that she was attacked on campus by a group of “thugs”. “He suggested I carry a knife to protect myself because, according to him, even the president of the university can’t protect himself,” said Hassan, a junior at the Faculty of Arts. Ain Shams University students have been complaining from what they call “thugs” on campus. Theories abound about who they are, but it is widely believed that they are predominantly…
Compromise and the revolution
BY NOUR BAKR At its height, the defining mantra of Egypt’s tumultuous uprising was the famous cry “the people want the fall of the regime.” That the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), along with many remnants of the Mubarak era remain key players in the country’s politics is widely held as proof that the revolution ultimately failed. Whilst partially true, the electoral successes of the Muslim Brotherhood do not, as many have argued, completely betray the ultimate aim of the uprising. Rather the successive victories of Mohamed Morsi and the FJP signify the triumph of a compromise on…
Delayed verdicts up tension
BY SARAH EL SIRGANY Cairo: Tuesday was slated to be a field day in court — a series of cases scheduled for July 17 were set to determine the course of Egypt’s complex political scene. But by the day’s end, no final rulings were made, leaving the scene as frayed and uncertain as it has been for weeks, marked by wrangling between the judiciary, the presidency and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). The Administrative Court considered several key cases: appeals to freeze President Mohamed Morsi’s decision to reinstate parliament; another one demanding the dissolution of the Shoura…
Egypt’s fragmented politics
BY NATE WRIGHT As a news journalist in Cairo, I have written my fair share of leads over the last year which feature an Egypt “plunging” in and out of crisis or its leaders “squaring up” for another decisive “showdown.” It has been a year of dramatic headlines and extraordinary confusion, as time and again the country’s major players have tried to launch themselves into power, only to find that the platform they were aiming at has shifted beneath them. This was my first post-revolution transition to witness up close — if I can still be permitted to suggest that,…
Morsi haunted by MB despite resignation
BY HEBA HESHAM Cairo: Despite his resignation from the Muslim Brotherhood and its political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), President Mohamed Morsi remains haunted by the group. Skeptics claim his authorities as president will be restricted by his “subordination” to them. When he was named Egypt’s new president, Morsi’s electoral campaign announced that he resigned from his position in the Guidance Bureau of the Muslim Brotherhood and as chief of the FJP, a promise he had made as a gesture of goodwill. While Morsi was not obliged to do that, the gesture was necessary to restore trust in…
Editorial: Battle for the constitution
BY RANIA AL MALKY Cairo: Today is a very happy day in the history of Egypt. Those who elected Morsi are happy because he won, and those who elected Shafik are happy because he won; and those who boycotted are happy because Tantawi tricked them both. Those who hate Mubarak are happy because he’s dead and those who love him are happy because he’s still alive. God bless Egyptian hashish. So went the joke, which in a few words summed up the level of chaos, polarization and disinformation suffocating Egyptians today, less than 24 hours before the Presidential Election Committee…
MB flaunts confrontation chip
BY SARAH EL SIRGANY Cairo: Less than a day before a new president is named, the politically conservative Muslim Brotherhood finds itself at the forefront of a major battle. Having lost parliament and possibly the presidential seat, the group has been forced to defend its gains using tactics that go beyond its usual deal-making and incremental reform approach. In a turbulent week fraught with rumored doomsday scenarios the Brotherhood saw the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) dissolve a parliament led by its political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party. Its near win…
Menufiya: Back to 2005
BY SARAH EL SIRGANY Menufiya: Little has changed at the birthplace of ousted president Hosni Mubarak and some of his top aides since the 2005 and 2010 legislative elections. Now as then, the network of the National Democratic Party (NDP) is in control, the opposition Muslim Brotherhood is a minority, and the vote is going to the candidate backed by the state. The regime-sanctioned violence of the 2005 PA elections aside, covering the election in Menufiya was almost like time travel. In the first round, ex-air force commander Ahmed Shafik swept the polls at the Delta province, winning over 50…
