Egypt

By Juan Cole | — That the release in Washington of a dense 450 page report on CIA torture conducted a decade ago would provoke massive demonstrations in the Middle East all along struck me as unlikely. It could perhaps provoke small terrorist groups affiliated with al-Qaeda, but those groups are already plotting out attacks […]

Arab Spring

Cole at the Nation: Egyptian Left Plans Mock Trial of Mubarak

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | — My blog entry at The Nation is out: “After Acquittal, Egypt’s New Left Vows Mock Trial of Mubarak” Excerpt: “A youth “New Left” is still a significant current in Egypt, and many young people want more accountability in government. They were the ones who gathered just outside the now-closed Tahrir […]

Egypt

Egypt’s Female Genital Mutilation Shame and the Failure of Prosecution

contributors

Human Rights Watch | — (Beirut) – Egyptian authorities need to take clear action to end the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) following the country’s first trial on the crime ending in acquittals, Human Rights Watch said today. A trial this month in Egypt centered on the death of a 13-year-old girl in 2013. […]

Arab Spring

The Workers Movement and Class Struggle in the Egyptian Revolution

contributors

Middle East Eye “The 2011 Egyptian revolution is usually thought of as an uprising against dictatorship and corruption, with the aim of establishing a European or American style democratic system. But underlying the protests was a powerful labour movement that conflicted with neoliberalism, inequality and privatisation. Four years on, the same contradictions and conditions that […]

Arab Spring

Cairo Erupts as Mubarak, Adly Declared Innocent in Deaths of Protesters

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | — An Egyptian court on Saturday found found deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak and his former interior minister Habib Adly not guilty (or rather just dropped the charges) the killing of nearly 900 young protesters by police in January-February 2011. Downtown Cairo and some provincial towns erupted in protests. Indeed, these were […]

Egypt

The Historical Drivers of Modern Day Developments in Iraq (Cole Interview)

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole, interviewed by Bassam Haddad | — Bassam Haddad, a prominent Syria specialist at George Mason University, interviewed me this fall for the new web radio program Status Hour , on the Middle East. Do check out the range of important interviews already up at the site. My own audio interview is here. […]

Egypt

Egypt’s Battle for Worker’s Rights in Upcoming Legislation

contributors

By Nehal Amer Over the past year Egypt has undergone harsh reforms in a narrowing sociopolitical environment. New legislation is rapidly being produced in the absence of an elected parliament—from the repressive protest law to the draft NGO law, and now to the draft labor law. This past August, the Ministry of Manpower and Migration […]

Egypt

Incredible Expanding Cairo (Video)

contributors

NYU STERN URBANIZATION PROJECT “The expansion of built up urban land in Cairo, 1800 – 2000. Prepared for the NYU Stern Urbanization Project using data compiled by Shlomo Angel, Jason Parent, Daniel Civco, and Alejandro Blei for The Atlas of Urban Expansion, published by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.” (You have to watch it […]

Bahrain

Artificial Billionaires: Regimes’ Crony Capitalism Stifling Middle East

contributors

World Bank Across the Middle East and North Africa, countries are being forced to face up to a harsh reality—that, left as they are now, their economies won’t create anything like enough jobs for the hundreds of thousands of people entering their job markets each year. Popular discontent will continue alongside widespread economic inactivity. What […]