Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Amelia Smith
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Egypt citizen tortured to death after police shocked wife with stun gun
The Geneva-based NGO, Committee for Justice (CFJ), has said that Egyptian citizen, Mahmoud Abdel Jawad, has been tortured to death at Nabaruh police station. Mahmoud was on his way to the hospital in Nabaruh, in Egypt’s Dakahlia governorate, with his wife and daughter when he was arrested. He was beaten…
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Egyptians suffer as heat wave continues across the Middle East and North Africa
Egypt has warned the population not to use lifts for 20 minutes, each hour, whilst it implements power cuts so that it can conserve energy as a gruelling heat wave continues to engulf North Africa and the Middle East. The Electricity Ministry has released a diagram to show the start…
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‘Life for black people in Tunisia 5 months after the president’s racist speech has been incredibly challenging’
When Tarek Tookebry began raising funds to collect essential items for a humanitarian convoy to Tunisia’s second city, Sfax – where black Africans are being increasingly attacked and deported – the initial goal was to raise 10,000 Tunisian dinars ($3,300). As of Wednesday 12 July, Humetna, an NGO based in…
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Egypt-Sudan border crisis: ‘It’s about showing we need more funding to open our borders’
When rival factions began fighting across Sudan in mid-April, thousands of people crossed into Egypt to escape the air strikes and machine gun fire. At the time, the horrors unfolding in Sudan were widespread: reports of rape, a healthcare system close to collapse and soldiers trashing homes hit global headlines.…
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‘The climate is getting tougher; we can expect anything’: Firas Kefi on the media in Tunisia
Last week, dozens of journalists protested in Tunis in solidarity with two Radio Mosaique journalists who were interrogated by the country’s security forces. Haythem El Mekki and Elyess Gharbi were picked up after they criticised police recruitment in the country after a deadly shooting near a synagogue on Djerba island…
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Efforts underway to improve humanitarian crisis at Egypt-Sudan border crossing
Ongoing fighting between rival factions in Sudan has created a humanitarian crisis on the Egypt-Sudan border as thousands try to escape the horrors unfolding on the streets of Khartoum. As people enter Egypt through Argeen, one of two border crossings where people can cross from Sudan, they are in desperate…
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Thousands scramble to leave as fighting engulfs Sudan
Thousands of people are scrambling to escape Sudan as violence continues to engulf the country. More than 420 civilians have been killed and 3,700 injured as Army Chief General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan’s Sudanese Armed Forces and paramilitary Commander Lt. General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo’s Rapid Support Forces fight for control of…
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Marc Owen Jones on disinformation, misogyny and Twitter’s future under Musk
In December 2016 Edgar Maddison Welch walked into a popular pizza restaurant in Washington DC and fired three shots from an AR-15-style rifle. Welch later said that he was trying to save children locked in the basement that were being abused by powerful Democrats, including Hillary Clinton. The shooting, known…
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Tunisia: As racist attacks unfold, the President points to foreign funding
At the beginning of March a picture of anti-racist, Tunisian activist Saadia Mosbah was posted on social media. The comments below accuse her of receiving money from the Germany embassy to implement the “demographic change policy,” and of helping sub-Saharan migrants in Tunisia. Later that day Saadia was arrested and…
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12 years since the start of the Syrian revolution
Today marks 12 years since the start of the Syrian revolution in which Syrians gathered to call for freedom, political reform and respect for human rights. Twelve years on, my family that used to live in Aleppo now lives in six countries, our house was barrel bombed, and I can't…
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Tunisia’s wave of racist attacks: ‘I’m afraid. I can just disappear’
One student in Tunis fears most for his female colleagues; a story is circulating that Tunisian men pretending to be police are approaching sub-Saharan African women, luring them away and then raping them. Another student, Modeste from Benin, says he and his friends recently met in a café, but they…
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Ahmed Taibaoui: ‘I tried to give a voice to those who live on the margins in Algeria’
In a suburb of Algiers, Mr Nobody is caring for an elderly man with dementia. When the man dies, Detective Rafik is appointed to identify Mr Nobody and as he tries to collect answers, begins his own existential quest. This is the Disappearance of Mr Nobody, the English language debut…
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Jindires, NW Syria: ‘We can’t even find tents to shelter us’
Like so many victims of the earthquake that destroyed houses and took tens of thousands of lives, Suleiman Hamdo and his family were asleep when it hit. As the building came crashing down, Suleiman, his mother and one of his brothers escaped. As the walls fell one after the other,…
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In the Middle East and North Africa, corruption and violence fuel each other
In December 2010 Mohamed Bouazizi grew so frustrated with inequality and corruption in the Tunisian government that he set himself on fire in the town of Sidi Bouzid, 100 miles south of the capital Tunis, and sparked a series of revolutions across the Middle East and North Africa which became…
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Egypt: Juhayna’s shares jump but businessmen remain in prison
On Sunday, the shares of Juhayna Food Industries jumped by 9.95 per cent, hours after its founder and former CEO and his son were released from prison after spending two years in pretrial detention. Safwan Thabet, the founder & former CEO of Juhayna Food Industries & his son Seifeldin were…
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Hashtag ‘inside Assad’s prisons’ sheds light on brutal human rights abuses amid Turkiye-Syria reconciliation
Syrian activists have launched an Arabic hashtag, inside Assad’s prisons, to draw attention to human rights abuses carried out by the regime and to halt an overture between Ankara and Damascus. Twitter users have shared videos of overcrowded prison cells, dead bodies lined up and photos of Syrians who were…
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Egypt: Military officer accused of beating nurses in government hospital
An air force officer has been accused of violently attacking nurses at a government hospital in the city of Quesna in Menufia Governorate, Egypt. The military officer attacked six nurses and three female workers in a disturbing incident that was captured on camera and shared widely on Twitter. https://twitter.com/DrHakimOfficial/status/1598467805539704832 The…
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Gaza’s cancer patients: ‘I hope nobody ever has to go to Egypt for treatment’
“August, September, October, November.” Ghafra Faraj is recalling how many times she applied to the Israeli authorities for a permit so she could leave Gaza and travel to East Jerusalem to access radiotherapy after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Radiotherapy is vital for fighting the disease but it’s unavailable…
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‘Equality Now’ calls on MENA governments to urgently review sex discriminatory laws
The women’s rights NGO, Equality Now, has released a policy brief to mark International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on how inadequate justice for women and girls, and a lack of deterrents for perpetrators, has increased violence against women. According to the World Health Organisation, an estimated…
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UK, France argue over who should rescue sinking vessel as 27 drown in English Channel
Call logs released by France have revealed that French and British authorities ignored calls for help several times when a boat carrying asylum seekers ran into difficulty whilst crossing the English Channel late last year. In the early hours of 24 November 2021, at least 27 people drowned as France…
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Egypt: Cop27 becomes ‘Free Alaa Summit’ as pressure builds to release British hunger striker
Pressure is building on the Egyptian government to release British-Egyptian activist, Alaa Abdelfattah as he reaches day four of a thirst strike. At the beginning of this week, Alaa stopped drinking water as the UN’s climate summit kicked off in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh, after a…
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As COP27 approaches, Egypt is concealing rights abuses and environmental issues in Sinai
Imagine being at home with your family and five children. Cooking, watching TV, helping the kids with their homework. Then imagine Egyptian security forces breaking into your house, arresting your husband and then coming back a day later for your 14-year-old son. This is Arish, the capital of North Sinai,…
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Marriage laws in MENA region put women at increased risk of child marriage and domestic violence
A new policy briefing by the NGO, Equality Now, on how marriage laws in the MENA region and around the world discriminate against women and girls reveals how failure to reform means they are at increased risk of human rights violations, such as child marriage and domestic violence. In Egypt,…
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‘The climate crisis is a human rights crisis worldwide’
In November, heads of state, ministers, journalists and activists will gather in Egypt’s Red Sea Resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh for the UN climate change summit, COP27. There has been widespread concern about the role civil society will play. “When it’s hosted in a country like Egypt, where a serious…