Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Mahmoud Hassan
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Why has Sisi reassigned his most trusted aide?
Egyptians continue to debate the reasons for the reassignment of the now former head of the General Intelligence Service, Major General Abbas Kamel. Kamel was President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s right-hand man, the keeper of his secrets, and his companion in the military coup against the late President Mohamed Morsi...
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Death on the ‘Long Live Egypt’ trains
Three accidents have involved Egypt’s trains in one month, killing and injuring dozens of people, despite the billions of dollars supposedly being spent to improve the railway network that carries one million passengers a day. The second oldest railway network in the world often witnesses deadly accidents due to...
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Happening in Egypt: suspension of ration cards as punishment
You may get deprived of subsidised bread, flour, beans, lentils, cooking oil, sugar and pasta, with no prior notice. It is part of a new form of punishment and abuse against Egyptians, who are suffering from severe deterioration in living and economic conditions under the rule of President Abdel...
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Egypt is paying a heavy price for the Iran-Israel escalation
Egypt appears to be directly affected by the negative repercussions of the escalation between Iran and Israel. The assassination of the Secretary-General of the Lebanese Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, following Israel’s political murder of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, and Iran’s response — it fired around 200 ballistic missiles...
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Who is responsible for the Aswan epidemic?
The people of Egypt are wondering about the causes of the so-called Aswan epidemic in the south of the country. Hundreds have become sick, and people are worried about a possible spread of cholera; there have been claims that Sudanese refugees are spreading it. Despite official denials of the spread...
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US aid gives Egypt a green light for more oppression
The decision of US President Joe Biden’s administration to grant Egypt full military aid without any cuts raises questions about Washington’s commitment to human rights, given how much they are violated in the Arab world’s most populous country. The US State Department has decided to exempt Egypt from foreign...
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Egyptians are rebelling through the electricity power lines
A controversial fatwa — Islamic legal opinion — has been issued in Egypt. It gives a green light to Egyptians to steal electricity, drinking water, gas and other public utilities on the pretext of high prices, inflation and increasing taxes. The fatwa from Al-Azhar University scholar Sheikh Imam Ramadan Imam...
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Who is the winner in the Erdogan-Sisi summit?
People are on the lookout for the outcome of the historic visit of Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, to Ankara where he met with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, last Wednesday. The visit comes after more than 11 years of political estrangement between the two countries. The Erdogan-Sisi summit...
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The Philadelphi Corridor proposal is a trap that can explode at the Egyptian border
The Philadelphi Corridor has become an important part of the ongoing negotiations under Egyptian, Qatari and US mediation to agree a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists that Israel will not withdraw from the border corridor between Gaza and Egypt. Hamas, meanwhile, insists on a complete...
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Egypt’s prisoners face death in excessively hot cells
Ahmad Hasan, 40, never thought that the few words he wrote on Facebook criticising the living conditions in Egypt would lead to his death. His mobile phone was searched, and he was arrested and thrown into a tiny cell in Qasr Al-Nil Police Department in central Cairo, along with...
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Why did Egyptians rejoice over their athletes’ failures at the Paris Olympics?
It may be difficult to understand the joy expressed by Egyptians over the failures of their country’s athletes in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Egyptian teams brought home just three medals (one of each: gold, silver, bronze); a success rate of only two per cent, amid much controversy and...
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Egypt’s ‘national dialogue’ is no dialogue at all as repression continues
They were like scenes from a movie: one man had security forces raid his house at night, mess up the contents, assault him and take him blindfolded to an unknown location; another was stopped in his car by security forces in civilian clothes, who took him away forcibly to...
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How will Egypt be affected by Haniyeh's assassination?
The assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, 61, the head of the political bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement, is a huge loss for several parties, most notably the Palestinian resistance. The loss of the former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority — Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian legislative election, remember...
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Egyptians face illness amid a serious scarcity of medicines
According to pharmacist Mohamed Zaki, “Not a day goes by without a verbal altercation or a physical fight.” He was commenting on the atmosphere in the Egyptian pharmaceutical market, which has been hit by severe shortages that continue to exacerbate the suffering of patients and put pharmacists in an...
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Visitation rights do not exist in Egyptian prisons, where abuses continue
Family visitations to prisoners in Egypt are limited to 20-minutes once a month and can only be from behind double-glazed windows. A trip to visit loved ones can be a journey of pain. The high security prison complex north-east of Cairo is called Badr. It has witnessed many stories of...
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Egypt: Freedom in exchange for silence
They won’t say anything in exchange for their release. That’s the gist of the initiative presented to the Egyptian authorities by the families of thousands of political detainees, in the hope that it leads to their release. In return, they would retire from politics, the media and social media;...
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Egyptian life is increasingly built upon ‘buy now, pay later’
Many Egyptians are now buying basic necessities on credit. They no longer have cash to buy items such as rice, oil, meat or even medicine; instead, they borrow money to do so. Debt logbook is a deferred payment system that is becoming widespread in Egypt, especially in the south, where...
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Egypt is looking for a new salvation front
The eleventh anniversary of the 30 June demonstrations in 2013 which paved the way for Egypt’s military coup a few days later — 3 July — coincides with three things that show how the situation of Egyptians under the rule of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi turned out: Egyptians live...
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The oppression of trees in Egypt
A new form of oppression has emerged in Egypt, and this time it is not about putting people behind bars. This oppression is against nature, and it targets old and rare trees which are getting cut down all over the country under the pretext of expanding roads, building bridges...
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Egyptian bread: fire burning under the ashes
At a first glance, decision-makers in Egypt may think they have succeeded in raising the price of subsidised bread by 300 per cent, effective from the beginning of this month, June. Perhaps the Egyptian ruling regime is under the illusion that the decision, which affects about 70 million Egyptians, will...
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Al-Sisi's political rivals face prison, or worse
The systematic policy used by the Egyptian regime against those who try to deviate from the will of the current president, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, is simple: anyone who steps out of line is punished. It works. Al-Sisi is in his third term of office, extended to 2030. The latest victim...
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Egypt and Israel border tension must be calculated and controlled
Ongoing tension between Egypt and Israel over the Rafah border crossing raises serious fears that the situation will deteriorate, especially after the killing of two Egyptian soldiers, and the Israeli army’s announcement of operational control over the Philadelphi (Salah Al-Din) Corridor along the border. Current developments portend a possible escalation,...
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Will a new Hemedti surface in Egypt?
Influence of Egyptian businessman, Ibrahim Al-Argany, is vastly growing with the support of sovereign agencies. His operations are surrounded by ambiguity about his network of relationships, his sources of funding and the agenda he is implementing regarding sensitive issues related to Egyptian national security. No one really knows the extent...
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Egyptians disappearing ‘behind the sun’
At one o’clock in the morning, last 10 March, a large security force raided the home of Egyptian journalist, Yasser Abu Al-Ala (50 years old), located in the city of Badrshein (south of Cairo), without judicial authorisation, and seized his phone, personal computer and the phones of his family...