North Africa

Addressing Youth Unemployment in Tunisia

By Svetlana Milbert

Three years after Tunisian youth lead an uprising that brought down Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s autocratic regime and triggered political transitions across the Arab world, they remain economically marginalized with limited socioeconomic opportunities. While the uprising afforded new civil liberties for all Tunisians, persistent high youth unemployment threatens to derail progress.

The Road to Presidential Elections

By EgyptSource

With Egypt’s second presidential elections in two years expected to take place within as many months, the electoral law, possible candidates, and the final results, have been mired in controversy. Keeping tabs on the process, EgyptSource will be providing periodic updates on the latest news coming out of the Egyptian elections process. 

This is Egypt: New Voices, Untold Stories [Video]

By Daniel Stoker

Since January 25 2011, the Egyptian political scene has been dominated by a war of narratives each defining Egypt on its own terms and each claiming to represent the people. Chants of “bread, freedom, and social justice,” heard during the early days of revolutionary fervor were later replaced by “the army and the people are […]

Egypt’s Elite and an End to a Call for Democracy

By Amr Hamzawy

My mind is still bewildered as I try to explain why Egypt’s elite have ceased calling for democracy and adherence to its procedures.  I try to understand how they accept (sometimes silently) violations of human rights and freedoms and a renewal of the authoritarian, subjugating nature of the government’s relationship to society and citizens. Here, […]

Taking a Back Seat as a New Generation Emerges

By Sarah El Sirgany

“In prison, a woman guard stripped us naked for the search. She put her hand where she wanted. Those who objected or cried were searched again. She told us, ‘You brought this on yourselves and now I have to search you again’,” Salsabeel El Gharbawy, a 20-year-old Al-Azhar student told me in a hushed voice […]

Navy SEAL Action Behind Words in Support of Libyan Institutions

By Karim Mezran

In the early hours of Monday, March 17 in the Mediterranean, US Navy SEALS seized the tanker that just a few days earlier infamously loaded illicitly-obtained oil from an eastern oil field and escaped from Libyan authorities. Many have decried the move, authorized by President Barack Obama, as a breach of Libyan sovereignty and a […]

This is Egypt: New Voices, Untold Stories

Since the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, a wave of nationalist fervor has swept over Egypt. Calls for Defense Minister Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi to run for president grow while the state has largely silenced dissident political voices throughout the country. The Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East hosted a panel […]

The Arab Countries in Transition: Three Years On [Video]

By EgyptSource

Following the release of the report, The State of the Arab Transitions, Mirette F. Mabrouk, Deputy Director with the Rafik Hariri Middle East Center, speaks about the Arab countries in transition, and the overall sense of hope resilient that the demands of the uprisings that swept the region will be met.