I took this photo at a protest in Cairo in 2006. Today, Egypt’s former President Hosni Mubarak and former Interior Minister Habib El-Adly (in this photo) were handed life sentences in connection with protester deaths last year. The court found no evidence to convict Mubarak’s sons, Alaa and Gamal, or any of El-Adly’s former aids. A historic day for Egypt indeed. Alaa and Gamal still face charges on insider trading.
Photo by Vivian Salama (Cairo/May 2006)
I’m heading to Egypt in a week to cover the presidential election. Looking forward to witnessing history again in “Oum el Donia.”
At long last, voting is underway in Egypt!!! Citizens queued from early hours to vote for the first president since overthrowing Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. It’s been a tumultuous road to get to this day, but even from thousands of miles away I can sense the excitement of my Egyptian friends and family, many of whom voted today for the first time in their lives. I happen to be a junkie of political cartoons and have been collecting many along the way to Election Day.
Here are a couple I wanted to share. (I will be writing an editorial on the election in a few days when we have a better indication of how the people voted).
Which one is your favorite?!! (I think the one of Obama is my favorite!)
In March of 2011, an unusually forthright editorial by an anonymous writer made its way into The Peninsula Qatar, an English language daily bankrolled by a member of the emirate’s ruling family. At the time of publication, protesters had already toppled the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt, uprisings were in full swing in Libya and Yemen, and in the Persian Gulf, Bahrainis were gearing up for what would prove to be a bloody battle, only days after the op-ed ran.
“Businesses and institutions are treated as ‘holy cows,’” the author wrote in the editorial, entitled “Why are we so timid?”
“What essentially ails the Qatari media (English and Arabic-language newspapers) is the absence of a comprehensive law that specifies its role in a clear-cut way and seeks to protect it against the people and interests opposed to free expression or those who cannot appreciate criticism,” the op-ed read.
It was at about the same time that this editorial ran that Al-Jazeera Arabic, the renowned television network that essentially put Qatar on the map, started facing a dilemma. The network has found it increasingly difficult to distance itself from the growing political ambitions of its patron, Qatar, particularly as it is kept alive by the one hundred million dollars it receives annually from the Qatari government. Moreover, the wave of information now available to the masses via the Internet and satellite television has exposed the gaps in its reporting of issues that do not fall in line with the government’s agenda, while also highlighting its biases in the various uprisings. (more…)
I’ve had a fascinating week in Algeria, learning about the culture and political climate. Many saw Algeria as an inevitable candidate for an “Arab Spring,” but on the ground, I found the people to be experiencing major war fatigue and would prefer a diplomatic approach to their issues. I will post some photos in the coming days, but here is one of my articles:
Earlier this month, a policeman offering no explanation simply confiscated the cigarettes that Rachak Hamza, 25, had been vending in a desperate effort to make ends meet. Local papers in the easter Algerian port city of Jijel, say Hamza erupted in a “fit of rage,” returning to the scene with a tank of gas which he used to drench his body before lighting a match. But unlike the similar act of outrage by vegetable vendor Mohammed Bouazizi that triggered last year’s revolution in neighboring Tunisia, Hamza’s story was quickly forgotten. Indeed, it was just one of at least 50 acts of self-immolation as protest reported across Algeria since January last year, according to local health authorities. None of them has, thus far, inspired a revolt.
“We want freedom” — in Ain Taya, Algeria/Photo by Vivian Salama
Closer to the capital, the words “we want freedom” are spray-painted in Arabic alongside mobile homes in the suburb of Ain Taya. Down the road, in French, the words “On Vuet Vivre” — we want to live — decorate another building.
Algeria’s ruling party took nearly half the seats in parliamentary elections last week, a stunning deviation from previous votes that saw significant opposition victories, particularly among Islamist parties. The ruling National Liberation Front said Wednesday the vote confirmed the electorate’s desire “to safeguard national stability,” but opposition groups have cried fraud. If the wave of religious conservatism sweeping this North African country is any indication, Islamists are far more influential in Algeria than its election results reflect.
On the street, beleaguered citizens believe change is beyond reach. Unemployment is too high; youth activism is too low; and memories are still seared by the decade-long bloodbath that followed the military’s overturning of the 1991 election that looked set to bring the Islamists to power. Corruption is rampant, draining the country of much of the wealth generated by its oil exports. “The issue here, very simple, is democracy,” says Makri Abderrazak, a former member of parliament and vice president of the Movement for the Society of Peace, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, which swept elections in Tunisia and Egypt. “People want jobs, people want basic rights, people want to benefit from the country’s resources, but this government is not giving them the chance and this fraudulent election means things will only get worse.” (more…)
There was once a time when U.S. officials shunned Arab Islamist parties, frowned on their election victories, and denied them U.S. visas. But times are changing.
Delegates from Egypt’s Freedom and Justice Party, a group affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood, are in Washington for their first official visit since Hosni Mubarak was toppled last year. Only days after announcing their party’s candidate in the first presidential election since the revolution, the visiting delegates have met with members of Congress and White House officials and held public discussions at Georgetown University and Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Outlawed under the Mubarak regime, members of the Muslim Brotherhood and more hard-line Salafist parties have emerged, not surprisingly, as a powerful force in the Egyptian elections, thwarting the secular groups that are believed to have been the drivers of last year’s revolution. As a group that founded itself on the principles of grassroots activism, the Muslim Brotherhood has long resonated with the people of Egypt, where at many as 30 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, according to the United Nations.
The delegates sent to Washington were all articulate English speakers, two of whom hold doctorates from U.S. institutions. They were non-evasive, answering impassioned questions from the Georgetown audience about religious persecution and Sharia law. The message was not specifically linked to Islam. They did not criticize—or even mention—Israel. They stressed that Egypt is open for business and encouraged free trade and foreign direct investment. (more…)
While attending a conference on the Arab Spring at Georgetown University today, one of the speakers recited the following poem, by Aboul-Qacem Echebbi (1909-1934), a Tunisian poet whose writing inspired the protesters in Tunisia in late 2010/early 2011. Inspirational indeed.
The Will to Live (September 1933)
If one day the people want to live, then fate will answer their call.
And their night will then begin to fade, and their chains break and fall.
For he who is not embraced by a passion for life will dissipate into thin air.
Woe to him whom life loves not, against the voice that strikes there.
At least that is what all creation has told me, and what its hidden spirits declare.
Interesting to note how the poem may have inspired the Tunisian National Athem of 1987:
Defenders of defense, o defenders of defense! Hie thee hie thee to the glory of the age!
Our blood has roared in our veins, “let us perish, let us die so that the nation might live!”
If, one day, the people want to live, then fate will answer their call
And their night will then begin to fade and their chains break and fall.
Here in NYC my eyes are on Bahrain this week as it commemorates one year since deadly protests rocked the tiny Gulf Kingdom, sparking a controversial decision by Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council troops to roll on in and save the day. Hundreds of doctors/medics/nurses were arrested that day and given harsh sentences by Bahraini courts for treating political dissidents, the courts ruling that it made them accomplices. Reuters reported today that the Bahraini courts are now looking to drop some of those sentences. All the while, streets are still patrolled by security forces, especially in the predominantly Shia villages, and many Sunnis across the country display photographs of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah in offices, on their desks and at their homes, revering him as a hero for his decision to save them from Shia protesters, who Bahrain’s government claim are supported by Iran. Bahrain is home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet so all eyes in Washington are eagerly hoping for a solution — preferably one that does not involve them. The US provides million in weapons and training to the Saudi Arabian government each year.
I cannot help but share my thoughts on the Stop Kony debates that are circulating the web — including some of the issues raised by my friends around the world. I am certainly no expert on Africa (or anything, for that matter) so I will not argue for or against the factuality of the short documentary. As a journalist, I certainly wish to see all the information floating out there to be factually correct, beginning with anything I write!! Alas, that is a tall order…maybe the STOP KONY folks did get a few details wrong. HOWEVER, at the end of the day, I see nothing wrong with simplifying a complex part of Uganda’s recent history if it raises awareness. The people debating this issue are probably better informed than others and it’s great that they set the record straight. But the bottom line is children are dying and killing others, and this man is responsible for that and needs to be stopped. We can complicate the hell out of the events in Syria… debate the motives of the opposition, sectarian divisions, Bashar al-Assad’s good and bad deeds throughout the years, and what Syria might look like if al-Assad is finally removed. But the longer we debate without action, the more people die. Debate is healthy and wonderful, but i wish it doesn’t come at the expense of too many more lives.
I don’t often write about Africa although it is a region near to my heart. I visited Uganda in 2004 — it is a beautiful country and anyone who visits will not soon forget the ear-to-ear smiles they receive from the people they meet. Invisible Children is a global campaign to arrest Joseph Kony and stop him from kidnapping, arming and killing children to fight his war via a militia he calls the Lord’s Resistance Army. This video is thought provoking (and stirring up a lot of controversy and debate as a result). There are bad people doing bad things around the world. Palestinian children in Gaza are dying every day. Families in Syria cannot leave their homes in Homs and Hama without fear of being killed by government contracted snipers, and hundreds continue to fall victim to attacks by the Sudanese government in the Nuba Mountains every month. Across Africa children are being used as foot soldiers in senseless wars. I wish more people would take initiative like film maker Jason Russell to bring crimes of humanity like those of Joseph Kony to light (Also, check out Ryan Boyette’s brave efforts in Sudan). I hope with all of my heart that they are successful.
Please take 30 minutes to watch this video to learn about this cause.
While this ban on male sales clerks in lingerie shops has been looming for quite some time, it is really a fascinating sign of the increasing empowerment of women in the kingdom, in this case, as they push for more jobs and more rights. (Although perhaps a male sales clerk would have better perspective on what to buy!) Booz and Co. estimates that female unemployment in Saudi Arabia stands at more than 26 percent – four times higher than the rate of male unemployment. Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has tried since the start of the Arab Spring to introduce new reforms, both economic and social, to the kingdom to appease citizens….Last September, he said that women would be granted the right to run for elections and vote for members of the consultative shura council (although they were not allowed to vote in the 2011 election, which came days after this edict). While folks in the West may regard these changes as smallscale, it is a big leap for the kingdom. (After all, the joke goes, who will drive women to the polling stations since women in the kingdom are forbidden to drive?)
Until recently only men were allowed to work in Saudi lingerie shops
A law allowing only women to work in lingerie shops in Saudi Arabia is coming into force.
Campaigners hope this will end decades of awkwardness in the Islamic kingdom where women have always been served by male shop assistants. The heated issue of the total lack of female shop workers in Saudi Arabia has simmered for years. Many Saudi women say they have felt particularly uncomfortable buying their lingerie from men.
Female campaigners recently increased the pressure for change through a Facebook campaign and a boycott of lingerie stores. Now King Abdullah’s royal decree finally comes into effect, banning male staff from selling female underwear.
“It’s about time, it’s been a long struggle and the authorities have finally come to their senses,” says Radio Jeddah journalist Samar Fatany. (click here to read more…)
