2012: The Year of Persistence

Ever since last January when millions took to the streets celebrating one year anniversary past the revolution following deadly clashes in the winter of 2011 and the continuation of iron-fist SCAF rule, and the people have never stopped a day believing in the revolution. We continued despite all the mishaps, weaknesses, and continuous repressions.

In February, after the Portsaid massacre, people turned to the streets to remind every official that the blood of our brothers will not go in vain and retribution must be delivered. We will fight for freedom & retribution until the last drop of blood in the last person of us. Ever since, football has been put on hold until justice is obtained. I lost an AUC friend in Portsaid, Mogrem, I will never forget your beautiful face, or your loud chants, and your revolutionary spirit, may they all rest in peace.

During the presidential elections mess, people chose against the flool, people didn’t fall in the trap of Shafique bringing counter-revolution on in full force so bluntly. Even though we are not in a much better position now, but I still believe that the best thing that has happened in the presidential elections mess was for Shafique to lose and for Ikhwan to finally be in power so people can get disillusioned about Ikhwan ways and their true ugly face show, which many back then, more than now, believed that they are “God’s people, they will be good.” Yeah! Try to tell that now to an average man on the street, you most possibly will get hit in the face with a rock. This would not have happened any other way than Ikhwan coming into power, and they are so bad at it that it is good for us; less and less people will choose Ikhwan as the revolution matures (they already have compared to parliamentary votes) and the Ikhwan have hit record-breaking low in just 6 months! Imagine how 2013 will be like? I am very hopeful.

Ever since Morsy came to power, the 100 days have passed, all promises were not fulfilled, and the people started rising again. Neoliberal economic policies such as the IMF loan and the World Bank are all signs that Morsy is Mubarak just with a beard, and prays a lot. Since the Mohamed Mahmoud clashes II and the streets have not been still. The loss of Jika, a young man who voted for Morsy, killed by Morsy’s men (police) only few months later, and nothing has been delivered in return; no prosecution, no investigation, nothing. Despite all this people are still revolting and persistent on continuing the revolution.

In November and December, we were dealing with a full force dictatorship with Morsy having more powers than Superman himself; judicial, executive, and legislative in addition to the 1000s of Ikhwan militias who are ready with a push of a button to go, kill, rape, torture, detain, besiege, or beat anyone they are ordered to attack like what happened on the deadly night at the presidential palace on 4 December 2012. We were force fed a dictatorial constitutional declaration, an unrepresentative illegal constitutional assembly, and a referendum in two weeks when millions of Egyptians on the streets and square all across Egypt protesting all these violations and on the eve of a deadly massacre on the brink of civil war between pro-Morsy supporters (Ikhwan & Salafies) and literally everybody else (liberals, leftists, independents, flool, secularists, Christians, all minorities, workers, and even children!).

Despite all this, we, the people, are applying all the pressure in our hands to object, protest, and revolt against this dictatorship and continuing the revolution until all of our demands are met; bread freedom, social equality. The persistence of the Egyptian people to gain what they revolted for inspires the living hell out of anyone watching Egypt closely, and is feeding into it more strength and hope like never before. I believe that we can and we will achieve those goals, but the road is very steep and long. It reminds me when I used to run cross country, when you know that the coming hill will last for a while and you can no longer feel your legs, but you know that you have to climb it and pass it to reach the peek and then go into free falling limbs lingering downhill so effortlessly and beautifully knowing that, yes, you made it at last.

Morsy is fat in every way, fat in fortune, fat in lies, fat in body, fat in powers, fat in weaknesses, and he grabs his male parts on TV, on the other hand; the revolution is young and persistent, when the two face each other, you know who will win in the end. As dark as these days may seem with possible “bankruptcy,” dictatorial overrule in all ministries and branches of governments, soaring prices and Egyptian pound taking a nose dive, I am still hopeful because I have no doubt that the people will not stand still, we will not accept, we will fight, we will persist on revolting , and we will win because we have given so much to give up now.

Revolution continues with persistence!
Happy New Year

AUC Internal Student Politics – Camps

I think it is a good time to talk about “Camps” at AUC, and unravel their so-called “mystery.” The details are not important because simply it is a lot of hearsay and nothing to prove (until further notice). I can only speak about my experience at AUC and what i encountered with Camps. Camps are the AUC student government equivalent of parties; AUCians have a government of legislative, judicial, and executive branches. Camps are an “invite-only” groups, where the goals and interests are set by seniority, which may, but mostly do not have a political ideology. The idea of Camps is EXACTLY why I am against them, because a true student movement should never be based upon “Camps” that don’t have a known and identifiable goals, principles, or ideology to people at the university, they are rather based upon friendships, patronism, and lifestyle; shelalia. This is not what progressive student movements are based upon because a progressive student movement unites people based upon CAUSE/DEMANDS, which are known, identifiable, and inclusive rather than exclusive ones. What does that leave students who are “not invited” to be in camps? Almost nothing since the student political life within campus have been monopolized by “Camps.” Sometimes students attend AUC and graduate and never even know or hear that there are Camps, who are monopolizing student politics and governance. I believe this is counter productive to student politics and mobilization in general.

My so-called “attacks” on the Black Camp or ANY Camp, who insist in monopolizing student politics in the university as a Camp not as individuals or students is because THIS is exactly what will prevent and/or weaken any student movement that is based upon principles or cause like that of the organic workers Fall 2010 strike. The idea of Camps makes individual students, who don’t belong to a camp, almost have no chance in engaging in student politics (including movements) unless he or she joins a Camp. Almost all of the individuals, who took part in the 2010 fall strike, who were mostly individuals not in Camps, were either prevented, attacked, and/or excluded from giving input in this year’s “Occupy AUC,” unless he or she belonged to a Camp. This is very dangerous because it enforces the monopoly of student activism to exclusive groups that are not even known to the whole community. The presence and idea of Camps, in my opinion, is the highest undemocratic form of a student movement, which sometimes praises itself on being “revolutionary.” This is both highly problematic and dangerous to what a progressive student movement means and the ideas a revolutionary student movement represent, which this year’s “Occupy AUC” did not, and you can read why in my previous report.

This is why I support AUC Front because AUC Front is uniting people based on sectors (workers, students (from all camps or no camps at all), staff, faculty, alumni)  with common interests based on known and identifiable principles and goals. In this year’s crisis, the Front’s goals were transparency, accountability, and investigating corruption, they were willing to tackle those problems from the roots rather than from the angel of Camps and student politics, which already by default exclude many other people on campus, who care about the cause/demand and willing to mobilize. I don’t want the idea of Camps to monopolize student politics period, and this time the Black Camp was the monopolizer even if they “allowed” other Camps to play a role like the red camp or others. Thus, it becomes a Camp struggle and NOT a student struggle nor a student movement, and who has a strong Camp would basically rule with an unknown, unidentified, and exclusive ideology.

Because AUC is different in its dynamics and free space from other universities in Egypt, AUC is capable of pushing all boundaries in student mobilization, and lead the whole student movement to an entire new level. This won’t happen unless Camps are either dissolved or become more open and inclusive. If anything we learned from the revolution so far is that the dictatorship of the minority is as bad as the dictatorship of a tyrant. The Camps usually revolve around a few group of friends leading that Camp to where ever these individuals see fit. The idea could be used for good, but so far it has divided people, isolated them, and used substitutionism as an elitist method of struggle. A strong student movement at AUC must be open to others, it must be public with its principles and goals known and identified to all, and it must be inclusive to all members of the community who are willing to fight for the cause.

We MUST all put hidden interests and personal glories aside in any real attempt of fixing the core problems at the AUC. These problems are categorized in severe corruption and unjust practices by the administration towards many sectors of the AUC community and affect all of them, not only students. We have to expose those Camps so they are known to the rest of the community and I invite all of the Camps to reveal their identity and make their principles and goals public, if there are any, to unravel this AUC worst-kept “mysteries” once and for all. I say this with every caring concern about what is happening at AUC, not just for the sake of AUC, but for the sake of the student movement as a whole and the revolution.

Power of the people is greater than people in power.
Long live the student movement!

American University in Cairo Crisis 2012 – “Occupy AUC”

[From custodial workers strike in fall 2010, increased wages 100% & established the AUC Independent Syndicate]

In the past few days, AUC has witnessed a crisis that was faced with mixed reactions from the AUC community as well as the student movement as a whole, and this is simply due to the complexity of the nature of AUC student politics and what led to these current events. Since the move to New Cairo Campus from the Tahrir campus, AUC has witnessed several student actions including protests against the lack of and the quality of facility services in 2008, sit-ins and strikes by workers together with students regarding wage and contracts in fall 2010, and most recently in 2011 a student movement sit-in together with different sectors of workers within the university regarding wages, contracts, impeaching some corrupt officials, tuition caps, limit to the increase of tuition fees, and investigating the overall corruption. In all of the last three recent cases of students and/or workers actions, there were always a good number of faculty, staff, students, workers, and alumni actively taking part each time and an overall support and solidarity from the entire AUC community in finding solutions to the matters of concern.

This year’s students action has started in the beginning of the fall 2012 semester on 2 September with a campaign called “mosh dafe3,” which means “we won’t pay” during the drop-and-add week when the administration broke the agreement made in last year’s sit-in, which promised no more tuition increase on returning students. However, according to a student leader in these recent student action of closing all New Cairo campus gates with chains, Mohamed Hassan known as Antak said, “only 4 % didn’t pay, while the rest of the students paid tuition in fear of the university dropping their classes.” The second week of classes some students also mobilized in form of protests and marches within campus wearing vendetta masks calling for the removal of the 7% fee increase, but the administration failed to adhere to the demands of the students.

AUC students march campus against increased fees with Vendetta masks beginning of semester

As a result, a group of students felt that it was appropriate to escalate the pressure on the administration by shutting down the gates to return the 7% increase already paid, locking out students, faculty, staff, and all members of the AUC community from entering the New Cairo campus starting on 16 September 2012 as shown in these videos:

The group, who took control of chaining down the gates locking out all community members were no more than maximum 50 people according to the various eyewitnesses who were present.As a result the university suspended at least 5 students one of which was the Student Union Vice President Nazar El Zanaty, and after the first hearing held on Tues 18 Sep, the 5 students were allowed to enter campus and attend classes while the investigation was ongoing. When many opposed this method not necessarily the valid demands, the group controlling the gates calling themselves “Yes We Can Occupy AUC” started an online petition on 18 September 2012, which reached 2,838 signatories by 26 September 2012, in support to close the gates. On Saturday 22 Sep 2012, in attempt to lift the siege on campus after already suspending 5 students on Thursday 20 Sep 2012, the administration removed at least two of the gates to the AUC campus by the evening, which made students supporting gate closure furious. In return, the students built and put on back the gates to ensure the lock down of the university until all the demands are met.

On Sunday 23 Sep 2012 a group of students protested in front of AUC gates with a banner against closing the gates in addition to some faculty, who denounce the gate closure mechanism as it is: a) an infringement on others’ rights, b) not a collective decision by all or at least most members of the AUC community, and c) was not preceded by other legitimate escalating protesting methods such a strike or a sit-in.. Some of these professors include faculty such as Dr. Hani Sayed, Dr. Hanan Sabea, and Dr. Rabab El Mahdi, who have been actively involved and in support of every student mobilization in the recent years, also who fully support the valid demands put forth by the students. At some point in the day, a clash broke out at gate two between few of those professors previously mentioned and few students, who refused to open the gates, thus a staff member, Tarek Maghrabi, head of the AUC independent syndicate founded in 2011 following the successful workers strike in fall 2010, intervened to open the gates with a key he had, later student Ahmed El Demerdash filed a police report against Tarek Maghrabi accusing him of possessing a knife, which Maghrabi denied. A testimony by the AUC Independent Syndicate was published which states most of the details. Hisham Shafiq, in person, confirmed El Demerdash assault on Maghrabi out side the prosecutor and actually defended El Demerdash’s claims and “rights.”

The administration’s reaction was to suspend classes at first each day the gates were closed by the students since 16 Sep and then later the whole operation was suspended on 23 Sep. Several negotiation meetings between the administration and AUC community representatives have been conducted in order to find a solution to meet the demands. However, the stance of the “Occupy AUC” students that they will not negotiate nor open the gates until their two demands met, which are: 1) 7% fee increase to be returned to the students in form of deposits in each student’s account. 2) Tuition cap models to be effective immediately. President of the university Lisa Anderson has rejected the first demand saying that “it is impossible since budget is already in effect.”

Regarding the tuition caps she said that “3 models will be presented on November 15th to the students from which they may choose.” On the other hand, a preliminary agreement was reached between some students, who don’t represent “Occupy AUC” nor the official Student Union, and the administration with the presence of some alumni and Parent Association representatives in an attempt to defuse the deadlock. This preliminary agreement is represented in a form of list of updated demands the administration have confirmed its commitment, at least verbally, to work on implementing it. The highlight of these demands accepted are: The reopening of financial aid to all student as of now, 3 tuition cap models to be presented to students on November 15th, corruption committee to be formed to investigate the budget including expenses without signing a nondisclosure agreement, deferred payments to be paid in installments with no interest rate, and more student representation in committees that take financial and educational quality decisions.

As of Friday 28 September 2012, the Student Union and the “Occupy AUC” group have rejected or at least not signed this agreement, which leaves the situation at a standstill. However, groups of students started to organize and call for alternatives such as the AUC Front and For The Cause, Not The Method group in addition to efforts made by the-under-establishment AUC Alumni Association all in order to solve the core problem of financial transparency and end the siege by the few on the New Cairo campus. There are also attempts to call for opening of the gates while negotiations are finalized by an online petition against closure of gates signed by total of 880+ members of AUC as well as a conjoined statement to the AUC community adopted by the AUC Front.

“Occupy AUC” is NOTt a strike or a mass movement or a civil disobedience act  by any loose definitions of these terms. A group of 100 students assumed that simply by collecting 2,000+ signatures on an online petition to impose actions on thousands of other students, staff, faculty and workers by locking down campus gates with chains while verbally and physically assaulting other members of the AUC community at times, is a “revolutionary” act when in fact, it is exactly the opposite and unjustifiable under these circumstance. This act is completely unacceptable by the standard of any legitimate act of protest in demanding rights. The students’ demands are and have been acknowledged from all sides to be valid and legitimate, if not revolutionary in the history of AUC student movement; however, the tactic used, in this particular case, can never be justified nor defended. Substitutionism can never replace the power of mass action. Students could have expanded their movement and mobilized others to make the decision to put the campus on standstill by a collective force instead of making it by the few with the help of chains, locks, cars, and intimidation. The exercise of power delivered by the few number of students controlling the gates raises one important question: why would a small group of students insist on closing the AUC gates by force despite that a preliminary agreement has been reached, and endorsed by different community members? Should infringing on other people’s rights ever be considered as a “revolutionary” or even a legitimate act when in the context of substitutionism? The answer lies in Lenin’s Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder.

The American University in Cairo has been going through a crisis that led to severe fractures within our community and has damaged many of the values upon which the AUC student movement was founded upon when workers, staff, alumni, students, and faculty stood in solidarity with one another in any member’s struggle until all rights were achieved. I urge the students at the gates to accept the preliminary agreement, but not to stop in demanding more and persisting that all demands are implemented. This can only be achieved by opening the gates, accepting the preliminary agreement, but, and this is the crucial part for the movement to become legitimate, is to continue in uniting the different sectors of the university on the demands and not the actions, mobilizing others through debates, awareness, and forums, inviting others who are dedicated to the cause and pressurizing the administration with this unbreakable united front of all members of the AUC community through the various collective legitimate means and escalations. The power of the masses is greater than any chains holding our freedom to education.

Playlist of collected VIDEOS from 16 Sep – 23 Sep 2012

AUC Crisis collected testimonies from past week’s events

Arabic version of report available
«احتلال الجامعة الأمريكية»
مطالب مشروعة ولكن…

Elections under play

When I would get ready to attend a protest before the revolution, my father would tell me, “nothing will ever change, Mubarak and his regime will stay the same forever, you are just wasting your energy and risking your life for nothing.” I would respond, “every little demonstration is a stepping stone in a long-term process called a revolution that will end this regime.” I still believe that every mobilization is an essential piece of the puzzle to topple the regime.  The revolution started and without one single group leading it, we managed to kick it off. What will take to achieve the revolution’s goals is another important question that we must start answering. We, revolutionaries, spent a year and half boiling our energy in reaction, in mobilizing to achieve the goals we set out on 25 January 201, yet only few things have been achieved. One sure gain is that Mubarak is out, put on trial, and now in Tora prison facing a life sentence. Even though nothing less than death to the dictator would have satisfied my anger, I can’t say that I am not happy to see him suffer his last days in a prison hospital.  As for the rest of the murderers who are free, their day shall come when they will suffer just like they tortured many Egyptians.

Elections are finally finishing up with major expected disappointments and setbacks on the political road to “democracy.” I never expected any elections under military rule to achieve any results satisfying the revolution. Elections engineered and constructed by SCAF (Supreme Council for Armed Forces) can never produce revolutionary or even reformist accomplishments, only will result outcomes that would suit counter-revolution and its allies. History tells us too soon of elections are always used to bury revolutions. We are not the first by any means. Whether Romania, Chile, Portugal, or Bolivia, we can draw parallel where military junta institutionalized militarization and strengthened counter-revolution. We can go back and assess where “we went wrong” or where we could have done better, but one thing is clear, elections were inevitable since the regime is still in place since 1952.  Sooner or later elections would have happened, conducted by the same old regime, benefiting the organized groups sufficient enough to run and win elections. In the case of Egypt; the Muslim Brotherhood and the National Democratic Party (the regime’s political arm).

The truth is the revolution has no machine, no organized group, no political party sufficient enough to adopt the revolution’s goals and capable of fighting the two most organized and biggest threatening machines to the revolution, the NDP & MB and SCAF. This is partially our fault yet partially out of our control for the many decades we were politically silenced under Mubarak. Many of the revolutionaries got politicized with the revolution or slightly prior to the revolution giving a major lead to the organized groups already existing under the repressive regime.  This explains the great success of Islamists in parliamentary elections and in the first round of presidential elections despite their decreasing popularity on Egyptian streets due to their reactionary and opportunistic agenda that clearly contradicts with revolutionary goals.

What is to be done? We organize. Aside from fighting for civil liberties, constitution that reflects revolution principles, and for ending military authority in daily life, we must build our alternative power, our machine that will and can topple this regime once and for all.  As a revolutionary socialist, I believe that the only group of society that has the power to topple this dictatorship is the workers.  We must organize the working class. For this revolution, it is a matter of success or defeat. When I am talking about the working class, I am not only referring to the traditional blue collar worker at a factory, but I am referencing anyone who sells his or her hours to earn a wage. This includes doctors, teachers, public and private employees, those who have the power to put the country at a halt like the last 3 days of the 18 days in the revolution. The workers were the final bullet in Mubarak’s chest, and are the only ones who can finish off SCAF.

The Festival of Flool #EgyElections

During the Egyptian Circus represented as “The First Democratic Presidential Election in the Arab Word,” which is untrue by the way, the first was in Mauritania in 2008, you will encounter the funniest and most creative ways people have used to expose the flool (figures from the Mubarak regime) candidates in attempt to prevent them from being “elected.” As many people have zero hope in this fake-democracy packaged in a ballot box, Egyptian people have always resorted to humor to make a point in a time of desperate need for counter-media.

The wide range of mediums used to expose the most popular flool Shafik and Mousa beside the “Spare,” also known as Ikhwan’s 2nd choice Morsy, are photos, cartoons, songs, YouTube videos, and my favorite graffiti

Exhibition A: The “Spare” Mohamed Morsy of the Ikhwan, who came as a second choice after business tycoon Al Shater was disqualified.

Morsy is your “Spare” president, the puppet of Ikhwan

  Morsy as a “Spare” LOL

Exhibition B: “The Pullover is Not Over” represented in Ahmed Shafik, the luckiest last prime minister Mubarak appoints before enjoying a 5 stars stay at a 5 stars hospital. He is the funniest and easiest to make fun of and expose. Every time he speaks, I feel like comedy movies could be drafted. His posters almost every where have been either ripped or flool written all over them, but my favorite is the flool song and graffiti.

Graffiti stencil saying “Vote for Shafik for an even bloodier camels battle” referring to Shafik’s presence in Mubarak’s cabinet during the bloody 2 Feb 2011

This is mimicking the famous Om Kalthoum song saying that the East build civilizations where Shafik built the airport himself on his own.

Shafik flool and Zionist

Exhibition C: “Mr. X” represented in the most obvious flool, the candidate of all elite in Egypt including Sawiras and I am sure if USA and Israel had a love child, it would be Moussa with a smaller frog face. He has received the most anti-flool propaganda. It is a tie between Shafik and Mousa, but since Mousa is more likely to succeed so the concentration is more when it comes to the obvious level of floolness.

Mousa flooling around back in the day

Cartoon by Ashraf Omar depicting Mosa looking in the mirror trying to convince himself he is not flool.

“The students of Mubarak can not be president, no flool”

It will be “kossa” a term meaning zucchini, but usually means rigged

This video can not be translated because the humor is just too relevant to Egyptian slang that it wouldn’t make sense in English but trust me, it is the funniest thing !!

Mona: Why Do You Hate Us?

At any given moment in the Egyptian revolution, or the Arab Spring for that matter, the question of women or the role of women arises. I cannot recall the number of emails, and questions I usually get, mostly from foreign journalists, about the “role of women in the Egyptian revolution.” My answer is (if i ever answer at all) usually the same and consist of something like “women have been fighting in the forefront of the struggle paving the way to this revolution. They have been beaten, tortured, stripped naked, imprisoned, sacked from their jobs and much more just as much as men if not more including getting their virginity checked. However, they are not acting as one block of women, but rather as revolutionaries or ordinary people fighting for the revolution’s demands: freedom, dignity, social equality.”

It might take some aliens to not understand this, especially as an Egyptian, even for an Egyptian living abroad who visits Egypt a lot for some people. If any of these journalists who usually ask this question happen to have joined one protest or one strike, he or she would immediately know that women are the backbone of this revolution. In my experience, the most militant, radical, brave people I encountered in this revolution happened to be women. Samira Ibrahim, Aida Seif Al Dawla, Layla Sweif, Rasha Azab, Salma Said, Mona Mina, Mary Daniel, Tahrir girl, to name a few, not to mention all the mothers, sisters, and wives of martyrs and working class women.

This post is not supposed to convince you how courageous women are in the Middle East, or how they are fighting for freedom, minimum wage, social equality, or good education, because that is shown everyday through the heroic stories that the western press fails to cover, but Egyptians encounter them on a daily basis. You can view some stories of brave ordinary women here. This post is rather a response to the disgraceful, one-dimensional, article “Why Do They Hate Us?” by Mona El Tahawy.

Titles like “Why do they hate us?” can only describe Geroge-Bush dichotomies of “them” versus “us” paradigms, where the making of the “other” into a monster can only add to “our” vulnerability and righteousness. I never thought that this dichotomy could be used as an argument for feminism, but the astonishing Mona El Tahawy have found a way. In her article, she based her whole vague-over-generalized-orientalist argument of why women are oppressed in the Middle East to a simple reason of “because they hate us.” To give Mona the benefit of the doubt, as I skimmed through the title before reading the first paragraph about a woman so unmoved by sex with her husband, I imagined an article written on why dictatorships hate women or why exploitative systems hate women and turn them into objects, even if it is not about love or hate in my opinion, but I was imagining this to at least make the article readable for me after the disturbing title, the horribly chosen picture to accompany the topic, and the overt opening. Naive I was to think that Mona El Tahawy could write something I might slightly agree with given her history in writing about “women issues in the Middle East.”

Her sole argument on why women are oppressed in the Middle East, since this is a special place in the world where only backward thinking can be found, is because men and/or Arab society hate women. What is very troubling is her belief that she is the “voice” for so many unheard women, who are oppressed and beaten by their husbands or shunned by the patriarchal Arab societies. She is the beacon of hope for Arab Muslim women living the male-dominated Middle East forced to wear the niqab and do slave work at home. Not only does she believe that she is speaking for these women, but she believes that she is one of the few (if not the only) who is brave, eloquent, and educated enough to vocalize these suppressed voices to the Western media like FP, BBC, CNN, who are of course incapable to reach these suppressed creatures, Middle Eastern women.

I think the only factual thing Mona brings up is that there is discrimination against women more in the Middle East than in other countries, but she blames it on all the wrong reasons. She brings all statistics and backed-up research on how women are subject to unequal laws, genital mutilation, sexual harassment, domestic violence, and rape, etc. I am not minimizing or dismissing these facts at all and I do encourage and believe discussion about these crimes as healthy and the only way to move forward is by acknowledging the problem. Many who have criticized Mona’s article get accused that we are defending the actions of discrimination against women or simply denying it and that couldn’t be farthest from the truth in understanding the fundamental problem with Mona’s argument in the first place.

The fundamental problem of Mona’s essay is the context and framework of how she analyzes why women in the Middle East are oppressed and the only reason she could give is because men and Arab societies (culturally and religiously) hate women. This is offensive to most women I know, who read the article and shared the same view. Women in the Middle East are not oppressed by men out of male dominance, they are oppressed by regimes (who happened to be men in power) and systems of exploitation (which exploit based on class not gender). Having women in power in a flawed system will not “fix” the problem either. We had a women’s quota in Mubarak’s parliament, did that change anything for women in reality? It was all ink on paper. Even after revolution, women are consistently used for political grounds by crony political parties. Explaining why women are oppressed without touching on any of the historical, political, or economical aspects of Arab countries, which are not all the same as she tends to generalize in her article, couldn’t be more delusional than this piece.

The answer is in the picture FP used as a “sexy” caption alongside a sexist article full of disgrace to brave Arab women including one of the bravest in that picture. Did Mona El Tahawy ask herself, “what would this brave young girl who exposed an army think of what I write about her oppression?” I don’t think Mona is even capable of this thinking given her stance. Did this girl feel hated by those men in uniform because she is a woman? or did she feel betrayed by the men who were supposed to protect her as part of their duty? She was standing for social justice, freedom, human rights, she stood against an army for Egypt as a whole, men, women, Christians, Muslims, young, old, Nubians, and immigrants. It is hard to believe that if she had a choice she would only choose women because “they (men) hate us (women).” Mona, on the other hand would disagree. I don’t know how the girl felt, I don’t know how she feels about this article and nobody does except her.

I am not here to tell you how every woman in the Arab world, which is a very big divers place, full of all kinds of women, feel about men and about this article. I can only speak about my feelings and my experience. Mona El Tahawy’s article does not represent me. I am an Egyptian American Muslim woman, who was raised to Egyptian parents, spent all my childhood in Egypt, studied high school and partial college in the US and now living in Egypt since 2008 and I am happily married to an amazing Egyptian man, who loves me and doesn’t hate me because I am a woman.

Our society is far from fair towards many groups not just towards women. My fight and our revolution’s heart lay in this struggle itself, to have every Egyptian living a decent life, living a humane life, and for some to simply live. For decades, Egyptians in all sectors of society have suffered the iron fist and corruption of dictators ruling Egypt and still ruling them. This transcended through generations and found its place in almost every household and institution (with relative degrees). How can all this very complicated complex be summed into a zero-sum equation of men versus women, love versus hate? It is much more complicated than that, but Mona doesn’t bother to mention any of this, but portrays the Middle East as if it is an anomaly, where the only measure of women success or women equality is how many seats she got in parliament or if we will ever see a woman president of Egypt. Does Mona El Tahawy know that nearly 3,000 Egyptian women workers started one of the first Mahalla’s strikes (in the recent decade) in December 2006, when they started chanting, “where are the men, here are the women!” Which paved the way to the revolution that is inspiring and shocking to the world right now? of course that wouldn’t fit into the perception of the average American Foreign Policy reader, who is used to images of American soldiers with guns going to “liberate” Afghani and Iraqi women from Muslim extremists. Simply, Mona’s audience are neither Arab women nor most women who took part in this revolution. To give you an idea, here are some examples of responses to this disgraceful article. Some written by Arab women, who agree Mona only represents herself in that article.

Not Hatred, But Love! Dear Mona

Us and Them: On Helpless Women and Orientalist Imagery

Dear Mona ElTahawy: You Don’t Represent “Us”

I Don’t Really Think They Hate Us!

In response to Mona Eltahawy’s hate argument

On Muslim-Arab issues and the Danger of Aiding the Neo-Liberal Colonialist Agenda

Hatred and misogyny in the Middle East, a response to Mona el Tahawy

Oh, Mona!

Let’s Talk About

Debating the War on Women

Mona el Tahawy and the Transnational Fulul al Nidham

A Critique of Mona Eltahawy’s Perception of Misogyny in the Middle East

Clashes with police continue

 

 

 

 

Tear gas and bullets are still being fiercely used by police against protesters around the ministry of interior for the third day in a row following the deadly football massacre in Port Said that resulted in more than 70 dead. The clashes in Cairo have intensified as police refusing to end the violence and the protesters determined to hold SCAF & police accountable for the deaths and injures of Egyptians. on the front line of battles, revolutionaries are never hesitant or afraid, they resist, they fight back with courage and bravery. Long live our glorious Egyptian revolution

ACAB: Expect Resistance

 

 

After deadly clashes at Port said stadium resulting in 79 deaths of Ahly Ultras members, revolutionaries battle the police once again on Mohamed Mahmoud & Mansour st near Ministry of Interior.

The battle with police entered its second day with no sign of unrest on both sides. Protesters were resisting the police bullets and tear gas. All revolutionaries are holding SCAF & police responsible of these deadly clashes that is resulting in 1000s of injuries and at least 6 dead (Suez & Cairo) so far.

 

 

Many people have the misconception about how “peaceful” is the Egyptian revolution, but i bet you, these people have not been at the front lines of battles. Every time revolutionaries clash with police, the most militant youth are right there resisting and never backing down. Over the past few months, we even got better at it. Tear gas gets thrown, and we throw it right back at the police. This video just gives you a glimpse of what revolution looks like. Revolution = resistance = victory

Revolution Continues – ارفع كل رايات النصر

 

 

On the first anniversary of the revolution, hundreds of thousands of Egyptians take to the streets echoing the same chants and demands from last year as if nothing have changed because nothing have changed. The only difference is that today was a record breaking numbers of protesters on the streets demanding end of military rule. More people took to the streets today all over Egypt than even Feb 11. The message was clear; we demand change, we demand the downfall of regime, we are continuing revolution until victory

 

January Flashback

 

 

These days last year, we were running from city to city protesting sectarian strife post the deadly bombing of Alexandria church 20 minutes into the new year. We chanted death to Habib El Adly, we demanded justice and to hold those in power accountable for not protecting churches, and repressing us for asking for our dignity and equality. While crackdowns on Tunisian revolutionaries were taking place, activists in Egypt were watching closely hoping for victory for what was known then as the #Sidibouzid up-rise. As fellow Arabs calling for freedom, we stood in solidarity with Tunisians in their fight hoping the domino effect would hit us soon and save us from our dictatorship misery. On January 2nd, we called for a stand with candles in Talaat Harb sq in solidarity with Tunisians that soon enough turned into a protest against police and sectarianism. The stand was held by only tens of supporters and was shortly raided by state police, telling us no one can stand here, four of my friends got arrested while Ramy Raoof and I ran down on Talaat Harb st escaping police after my phone was almost broken by a police officer when I was trying to take a video.

 

 

 

We regrouped with more supporters on the way, and we marched down the streets of Talaat Harb chanting “To Mohamed tell Bolus, tomorrow Egypt will be Tunisia,” a chant that combined Muslim and Christian unity in the face of sectarianism for a better free Egypt in support of the Tunisian revolution. We marched down Ramsis st and immediately we were met by hundreds of riot police, and finally cordoned for nearly 8 hours without anyone allowed in or out of the cordon for any reason.

 

 

Along with Mona Seif, Ramy Raoof, Haitham Mohamedain, Aida Seif, and many other brave souls, we stood there chanting, tweeting, never giving up, and telling those officers, “Tomorrow when the revolution comes, it will put you in prison.” The night ended, we went home, and protested again in Shubra in solidarity with our Christian brothers & sisters at El Massara church sit-in, where I also was cordoned for nearly 10 hours by riot police while thousands clashed with police on Shubra st.

 

January 7^th, the Coptic Christian holiday, was spent differently. Muslims and non-Muslims went to form human chains around churches on midnight for Christians to have a safe mass. Later that day, we stood in black with candles on Kasr El Nile bridge mourning the loss of our Christian brothers and sisters from the Alexandria church bombing.

A year later to think that we had multiple churches attacks, whether in Imbaba in April or Aswan in October, post a revolution that happened only weeks after the kind of solidarity & unity shown post Alexandria church bombing is incomprehensible, but explainable. It is explainable by one reason and one reason only because the regime is still alive and kicking. The people STILL demand the removal of regime. Sectarian strife has been one of the many tools used by the regime to divide and rule people, so it is not a surprise that attacks against minorities do still happen, but unfortunately, they happen at a greater loss and more viciously.

 

 

Who can ever forget that the same army who is supposed to protect its civilians could run-over Christians with military tanks? The loss of Mina Daniel and others makes you wonder at what cost will we win this revolution? The answer is clear and seen everyday and in every revolutionary’s eyes in Tahrir willing to die for Egypt to live.

I have no doubt that with this kind of support, courage, and bravery, we will free Egypt from SCAF, which is the same regime that killed and repressed us since 1952. This year, the year of freedom, as I am calling it, will be different and it already has since we started the year celebrating in Tahrir, Muslims & Christians, hand in hand against SCAF. Welcome 2012…