Stay Updated


Content

MENASource

Feb 28, 2012

Ending the NGO Crisis: Can a Face-Saving Exit Strategy be Found?

By Denis Sullivan

Egyptian-US relations have been low before, but the current quarrel has taken on the absurdity of a grotesque political soap opera, not only to Americans but to many Egyptians as well.  Although this bilateral blowout is looking increasingly unfathomable, the significance of the current crisis over the trial of American NGO workers cannot be underestimated, […]

MENASource

Feb 27, 2012

Sharia in Egypt? Reality is Somewhere Between Hopes and Fears

By Khaled Saad

Just a few days after assuming executive powers from former president Hosni Mubarak, the newly empowered Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) took a significant but often overlooked step toward building the legal foundation for Egypt’s emerging democracy: forming a committee of legal experts headed by Justice Tarek al-Beshry. Al-Beshry, a former vice chairman […]

MENASource

Feb 27, 2012

NGO Trial Adjourned Until April 26

By Mara Revkin

The trial of 43 Egyptian and international NGO employees began in Cairo on February 26. None of the American citizens among the accused were present at the opening session, reportedly because none of them had received official summons from the court. All present defendants pleaded not guilty to all charges without bail, and were released […]

MENASource

Feb 24, 2012

Time to Shave: When Public Safety Trumps Religious Expression

By Tarek Radwan

Those following Egypt’s transition may have stumbled upon one of the more peculiar debates that have emerged among the foot soldiers of the Ministry of Interior: the beard issue. This past week, tensions between policemen and senior ministry officials flared over whether or not police officers could grow their beards. The ban on beards among […]

MENASource

Feb 24, 2012

Islamist Presidential Candidate Hospitalized After Carjacking

By Mara Revkin

Presidential candidate Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh was attacked by three masked gunmen in a carjacking incident on February 23. Aboul-Fotouh sustained a concussion while his driver was wounded and both men were hospitalized on February 24. The assailants made away with Fotouh’s car after the overnight carjacking on a Cairo highway.

MENASource

Feb 24, 2012

Post-Revolutionary Institutional Reform in Egypt: Lessons From the Ukraine

By Nadine Abdalla

 Most historians agree that the first wave of democratic transitions that swept Eastern Europe in the late 1980s – transforming Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic – was  significantly more successful than the second wave that occurred in countries such as Ukraine, Serbia, and Georgia, proving yet again that the road to reform and democracy […]

Ukraine

MENASource

Feb 23, 2012

Top News: FJP to Present Draft Criteria for Constituent Assembly Within Days

By Mara Revkin

According to an official FJP statement, the party will present a draft law outlining criteria for selecting the 100-member constituent assembly within days. According to Freedom and Justice Chairman Mohammed Morsi, the Brotherhood’s party will propose that the committee include 40 members of parliament, 30 members elected by parliament, and 30 members elected from outside.

MENASource

Feb 22, 2012

Top News: Brotherhood Wants President With “Islamic Background”

By Mara Revkin

Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie said that the Muslim Brotherhood wants Egypt’s next president to have “an Islamic background.” "The candidate that we support will not be a candidate who belongs to a particular Islamist movement, or we would have run ourselves," Badie said, while noting that "the candidate must have an Islamic background.”

MENASource

Feb 22, 2012

General Strike Campaign Falls Flat in Egypt

By Nadine Abdalla

While media coverage of the January 25 anniversary focused on the political and legal demands of protesters – a tranfer of power to civilians and justice for the victims of the revolution – another struggle, that of workers and unions still striving for greater independence and the protection of their rights has been brewing beneath […]

MENASource

Feb 21, 2012

The Right to Know: Essential to Egypt’s Economic and Democratic Progress

By Hoda Youssef

Egyptians are fighting for democracy and for their basic rights, and access to information is one of the core entitlements essential to any democratic system. However, when openness and transparency are mentioned, very few think of the right to access economic information. Along with transparency and independent media, guaranteeing citizens’ access to economic information is […]