Amelia Smith – Middle East Monitor

/

/

Amelia Smith seen at Middle East Monitor's 'Jerusalem: Legalising the Occupation' conference in London, UK on 3 March, 2018 [Jehan Alfarra/Middle East Monitor]

Amelia Smith

Amelia Smith is a writer and journalist based in London who has reported from across the Middle East and North Africa. In 2016 Amelia was a finalist at the Write Stuff writing competition at the London Book Fair. Her first book, "The Arab Spring Five Years On", was published in 2016 and brings together a collection of authors who analyse the protests and their aftermath half a decade after they flared in the region.

April 2, 2021 | Amelia Smith
'Women of my generation viewed freedom fighters as similar to Guevara, Castro and Mandela'
When Sahar Khalifeh was young, her family didn't support her dream of becoming a writer. They regarded art as a sin that would ultimately destroy the family's reputation. "The...
Published in: Interviews, Middle East, Palestine
March 26, 2021 | Amelia Smith
When I spoke out about my brothers' arrest the torture stopped, says Egypt opposition member abroad
On 22 August 2020 Mona Alshazly received a devastating phone call from her mother. "They've taken everything," she told Mona, screaming and crying. "Our documentation and all of our...
Published in: Africa, Egypt, Interviews
March 5, 2021 | Amelia Smith
'Writing saved me from my demons,' says Palestinian author Huzama Habayeb
Amidst the harsh, rugged environment of Baqa'a refugee camp in Jordan a Palestinian apprentice seamstress runs her hands across rolls of velvet. Hands that speak of a decaying spirit...
Published in: Interviews, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Middle East, Palestine
February 23, 2021 | Amelia Smith | Laila Ahmet
I want to go back to my cell, says released child detainee in Egypt
On 20 February 2021 Manar Abouelnaga and her son appeared in front of Egypt's state security prosecution two years after their forcible disappearance. Al-Baraa was just three-years-old. The house...
Published in: Africa, Egypt, Interviews
February 10, 2021 | Amelia Smith
Ghada Oueiss: 'Saudi has based its rule on the suppression of women'
On a warm evening in April 2020, an image of Al Jazeera anchor Ghada Oueiss nude in a hot tub lit up the internet. It was captured in the...
Published in: Africa, Asia & Americas, Bahrain, Egypt, Europe & Russia, Interviews, Middle East, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UAE, US
January 25, 2021 | Amelia Smith
Egypt's Arctic Spring
Demonstrators who joined the millions of people in downtown Cairo a decade ago, 25 January 2011, navigated the shifting sands of the regime's shock, conciliatory tone and anger and...
Published in: Africa, Article, Egypt, Opinion
January 15, 2021 | Laila Ahmet | Amelia Smith
Caught between covid and settlers: How a West Bank school is struggling to survive
Across Palestine, schools are closed to try and stem the spread of the virus, but Al-Maleh Elementary has struggled to offer remote learning, because of the lack of internet and electricity in the village.
Published in: Coronavirus, Interviews, Israel, Middle East, Palestine, Videos & Photo Stories
November 11, 2020 | Amelia Smith
Against the Loveless World
The Nahr we meet some way into Susan Abdulhawa's "Against the Loveless World" is a different one we imagine to the figure who sits in an Israeli jail cuffing her own...
Published in: Israel, Middle East, Palestine, Review - Books, Reviews
October 9, 2020 | Laila Ahmet | Amelia Smith
PTSD. Anxiety. Nightmares: Life after prison for Egypt's child detainees
On 27 September, Egypt's public prosecution ordered that 79 children detained since the start of the demonstrations be released. All the children were aged between 10 and 15 and...
Published in: Africa, Egypt, Interviews, Middle East
September 29, 2020 | Amelia Smith
'I was thinking about Khashoggi,' says ex-Egypt political prisoner as consul lures him inside consulate
On Friday 25 September Amr Abn Hashad went to the Egyptian consulate in Istanbul for his tawkeel, or power of attorney. They gave him a receipt and asked him to...
Published in: Africa, Egypt, Europe & Russia, Interviews, Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Turkey
September 28, 2020 | Amelia Smith
In northwest Syria camps brace for covid catastrophe. In Aleppo, locals bribe hospitals for beds
On 10 September 2020 Dr Adnan Al-Jasem became the first doctor in northern Syria to die from coronavirus. Al-Jasem had fled the bombings in Deir Ezzor in the east...
Published in: Article, Middle East, Opinion, Syria
September 11, 2020 | Amelia Smith
They risked their lives to show the horrors of war. Where are Syria's journalists now?
Just before Marie Colvin died, she was looking for her shoes. Rockets had already hit the top floors of the makeshift press centre where she was holed up, in...
Published in: Article, Middle East, Opinion, Syria
August 26, 2020
Twitter ignites as Egypt 'terror' court hands 15-year term to human rights defender
A so-called terrorism court in Egypt has sentenced the President of the Cairo Institute of Human Rights Studies, Bahey El-Din Hassan, to 15 years in prison in absentia. The...
Published in: Africa, Egypt, News, Twitter Trends
August 14, 2020 | Amelia Smith
Egypt's medical aid diplomacy extends to Lebanon
On 4 August 2020, 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded in Beirut Port, sending a mushroom cloud above the city, and lighting a touch paper at one end of...
Published in: Africa, Article, Asia & Americas, Egypt, Europe & Russia, France, Iran, Italy, Lebanon, Middle East, Opinion, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UK, US
August 7, 2020 | Amelia Smith
The regime is determined to rewrite history. Egyptians are giving their lives to prevent it
On 23 June Sanaa Seif, along with her sister Mona, arrived at the Egyptian attorney general's office to file a complaint. The night before, a group of government thugs,...
Published in: Africa, Article, Egypt, Opinion
July 14, 2020 | Amelia Smith
'We will be victims of an honour killing,' say Saudi sisters at risk of deportation from Turkey
On February 8 2017, Areej and Ashwaq Hamoud packed their belongings and left the house where they grew up in Saudi Arabia to board a plane to what they...
Published in: Asia & Americas, Canada, China, Europe & Russia, Interviews, Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Turkey
May 27, 2020 | Amelia Smith
In Egypt a murdered woman means nothing but a policeman means everything
In 2008 Mohsen Al-Sukkari held up a card which identified him as block management and stepped inside the apartment of Lebanese pop sensation Suzanne Tamim. The next morning, she...
Published in: Africa, Article, Egypt, Opinion
April 24, 2020 | Amelia Smith
As a month of mercy begins across the world, no respite for Egyptians
Egypt is facing a catastrophe of epic proportions in the form of coronavirus. Hospitals are closing across the country, doctors are being hooked up to mechanical ventilators, and patients are...
Published in: Africa, Article, Coronavirus, Egypt, Opinion
April 17, 2020 | Amelia Smith
COVID-19 is exacerbating neo-colonialism, including in Egypt
As the number of medical staff testing positive for COVID-19 continues to climb, hospitals have closed their doors across the country
Published in: Africa, Article, Asia & Americas, Coronavirus, Egypt, Europe & Russia, Opinion, UK, US, Videos & Photo Stories
April 8, 2020 | Amelia Smith | Laila Ahmet
Um Ibrahim: 'My son should be playing with his friends, not in an Egyptian prison'
When Ibrahim was arrested it was a summer's day in Arish, the capital of North Sinai, and he was wearing a light t-shirt and a pair of jeans. Two...
Published in: Africa, Coronavirus, Egypt, Interviews
March 8, 2020 | Amelia Smith | Osama Gaweesh
In Egypt, only Asian tourists get tested for coronavirus
When Bill Jones* and his partner arrived at Luxor Airport to prepare to fly back to Cairo at the end of February, it was the end of a two-week...
Published in: Africa, Article, Asia & Americas, China, Coronavirus, Egypt, Europe & Russia, Opinion, UK
February 25, 2020 | Amelia Smith
Mubarak dies at 91 but his legacy lives on: Corruption, impunity, brutality
When former President Hosni Mubarak was acquitted of corruption in January 2015, analysts had already predicted it as a foregone conclusion. For many it was evidence that the deep...
Published in: Africa, Article, Egypt, Opinion
February 9, 2020 | Amelia Smith
Operation Sinai: Egypt's ethnic cleansing of the Bedouin
Everything you need to know about Egypt’s ethnic cleansing of the Bedouin
Published in: Africa, Egypt, Flashpoint, Videos & Photo Stories
February 9, 2020 | Amelia Smith
The US bought Sisi for $9bn, but the Egyptian people cannot be swayed
When Trump announced Jerusalem was Israel's undivided capital under his so-called "deal of the century", the Egyptian public questioned whether Al-Sisi had a hand in preparing the plan. His...
Published in: Africa, Article, Asia & Americas, Egypt, Israel, Middle East, Opinion, Palestine, US, Videos & Photo Stories
January 31, 2020 | Amelia Smith
The host of Sisi's 'peace award' has withdrawn. With the right pressure others may follow
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi received the German Order of St. George in recognition of his peace-making efforts in North Africa
Published in: Africa, Article, Egypt, Europe & Russia, Germany, International Organisations, Opinion, UN, Videos & Photo Stories
January 25, 2020 | Amelia Smith | Laila Ahmet
Egypt's sex attacks on women are revenge for the 2011 revolution
The first time Sara Mohani was arrested security forces lined her up against a wall and described her body in intimate detail. "If we find any photo of the...
Published in: Africa, Egypt, Interviews
January 14, 2020 | Amelia Smith
Egypt's military exercise is a warning to protesters ahead of the January 25 Revolution anniversary
Last week Egypt launched “Qader 2020”, a military display of ground, naval and air units choreographed to demonstrate the strength of the country’s armed forces
Published in: Africa, Article, Egypt, Europe & Russia, Opinion, Turkey, Videos & Photo Stories
December 20, 2019 | Amelia Smith
Céline Lebrun-Shaath: 'Ramy's arrest is an attack on solidarity with Palestine'
When former Egyptian MP Ziad Al-Alimi was arrested by security forces, Ramy Shaath told his wife that of the coalition of activists that organised the 2011 protests against Hosni...
Published in: Africa, BDS, Egypt, Europe & Russia, France, International Organisations, Interviews, Israel, Middle East, Palestine
December 5, 2019 | Amelia Smith
No need to look to the Middle East, we have a dictator in the making here in the UK
In the midst of the 2011 uprising then newly appointed Vice President Omar Suleiman said that Egyptians were not ready for democracy. Such comments were to be expected from...
Published in: Africa, Article, Egypt, Europe & Russia, Middle East, Opinion, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UK
November 26, 2019 | Amelia Smith
Mohamed Ali: 'No shop can compete with the army because they don't pay tax'
The Egyptian army did not have to pay tax or customs on products entering the country which made it impossible for other businesses to compete
Published in: Africa, Egypt, Interviews, Videos & Photo Stories
November 22, 2019 | Amelia Smith
Egypt whistleblower: Torture chambers were small projects I didn't work on
Egyptian whistleblower Mohamed Ali told MEMO that he built the part of the intelligence headquarters where the cyber army was housed
Published in: Africa, Egypt, Interviews, Videos & Photo Stories
November 21, 2019 | Amelia Smith
Mohamed Ali: 'Constructing prisons is a very lucrative business'
MEMO exclusive interview with Mohamed Ali
Published in: Africa, Egypt, Interviews, Videos & Photo Stories

12 3…12 Next »