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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 […]

MENASource

Feb 21, 2012

News: McCain Says SCAF Working “Diligently” to Resolve NGO Crisis

By Mara Revkin

Sen. John McCain said that U.S. relations with Egypt are changing but stressed that the two countries “must remain friends,” speaking at a business conference in Cairo on February 20.

MENASource

Feb 17, 2012

From Rivalry to Riot: What Went Wrong in Port Said

By Sara Ashour

"My friend died while cheering"read the graffiti on the wall inside a Cairo metro station, a reference to deadly rioting at a soccer stadium in Port Said on February 1 that killed nearly two hundred spectators. Although Egypt’s transition has been troubled by persistent violence, protests, and economic instability, the bloody incident at Port Said […]

MENASource

Feb 17, 2012

Video Interview: Abdel Rahman Youssef

By Mara Revkin

Abdel Rahman Youssef may be one of the most accomplished multi-taskers in Cairo: A poet, author, political activist and television news anchor, he has documented Egypt’s revolution with the precision of a journalist and the instincts of an insider. In his downtown office on January 27, Youssef spoke candidly about his disappointment with the failure […]