The latest victim: Ahmed el Sayed Soroor killed this morning

After waking up I checked the newssites AlJazeera and some Egyptian ones, and was reliefed to find that no massacre had happened at night, and that apparently, for a third day in row everything was quiet and calm. Then I signed in to Twitter, looking at the thread for #Tahrir, and learnt that this morning a young man named Ahmed el Sayed Soroor had been killed in front of the cabinet. Some tweets report his dead as a consequence of the police (or: military police? Amn Markazy in Arabic) breaking up the sit-in in front of the Cabinet. Yet, a video allegedly showing the events leading to Ahmed's death, to me does not seem to show the break up of a sit-in. And also the actual chain of events remained rather unclear - yet, what sticks to the mind is the image of the blood on Ahmed's back, flowing from the wound that would kill him little later. 

Another short video shows ho a group of men carries the wounded away and eventually enters a bus, while those remaining outside shout "there is no God but God". If you want to follow latest events you can follow the threads #Tahrir and #OccupyCabinet.


In light of news like these reaching us nearly every day, for me it seems difficult to remain optimistic. But others, like Firas Al-Atraqchi, are still hopeful and see what is happening as the birth of a new Egypt. In an article for Huffington Post he speculates: "It is now that the seeds of a true revolution are being planted. Ten months ago, shortsightedness and political infighting allowed the pillars of the old regime -- the medieval Ministry of Interior and State media -- to survive.Today, however, protesters in Tahrir and other governorates have realized what it is they failed to do.By taking to the streets they are creating a new convention between the military and the people, and redefining the concepts of citizenship in their country."

Should I stay or should I go? ...Thoughts of Tantawi and Ganzouri

In a press conference yesterday, military's representatives stated that the police had shown "self restraint" in dealing with the protesters who were allegedly intending to attack the Ministry of Interior. The SCAF affirmed that police had used nothing bur teargas on the protesters - an assurance slightly at odds with an  earlier statement by the health ministry confirming that 7 deaths had been due to gunshot wounds.

And while 77-years-old new and former prime minister Ganzouri is still pondering whom to appoint as minister, the people holding a sit-in in front of the cabinet buildings have already appointed their own salvation government, according to Al Ahram Online. According to some participants interviewed by Bikyamasr, protestors had moved to this new location for symbolic reasons: "It sends a better message than Tahrir, meaning we can take the parliament(...)We aren’t going to take Tahrir, we are going to take other streets." I am wondering whether it wasn't rather the understanding that they would be unable to hold the Midan because of a lack of people...
While it seems more like a symbolic move so far, the appointment of a civilian transition government would be in line with the latest demands of the US as well. Other than in the last days, the US government seems to now voice its support for the immediate transfer of power to civilian authorities: "Most importantly, we believe that the full transfer of power to a civilian government must take place in a just and inclusive manner that responds to the legitimate aspirations of the Egyptian people, as soon as possible". Yet, according to the British The Guardian, the US' move rather intends to empower and back Ganzouri than an entirely new revolutionary government made up of various presidential candidates as proposed by groups of protesters.

Some good articles and impressive pictures

Cairo -based reporter Nate Wright describes what the truce looked like in practice, depicting an incident where the situation nearly escalated but could be reigned in in the last minute: Crowdsourcing the truce

Another awesome piece by Nate Wright pointing out that the violence in Sharia Mohammed Mahmoud was sustained by protesters, and accusing the SCAF for failing to defuse the situation early on: Violence in the new revolution

BBC's Wyre Davies summing up the events and describing the tense and ambiguous situation on Wednesday night: Unrest continues near Cairo's Tahrir Square

Al Ahram posted a video that clearly shows it was police who broke the truce on Wednesday.

 
An article on the nature of police-society relations in Egypt, the role the police and individual officers find themselves in post- January 25: Egypt police struggle to regain pride on still-skimpy salaries

A caricature showing a "November martyr" meeting a "January martyr" (that's what the capture says), one of them telling the other (approximately): "Don't worry, they will get our rights for us." 

A photo showing Midan Tahrir this morning during prayer time.

An article about the arrestment of Mona ElTahawy, a well-known Egyptian-American journalist who was arrested, beaten, severly injured and harassed by security forces: Prominent columnist briefly detained

A non-professional article summing up the events and providing some links to footage and reports by human rights organizations accusing the most recent HR violations

And of course I recommend as usual The Arabist. He is up to date, concise, analytically sharp, and just has a very good grasp of the country and its woes. His chart displaying the current positions of various political actors in regards to the protesters' demands is brilliant.

If you have your own recommendations to add, please comment, or send me an email with the respective links.

A busy week: Egypt is protesting military rule, hurling stones and teargas, treating their wounded, morning their martyrs and preparing for elections

It was a busy week in Cairo. While I was busy preparing my exams and catching up with an old friend, the Egyptian police was busy showering their fellow Egyptians in teargas and gunning them down with rubber bullets, shotguns and reportedly some rounds of life amunition. 

After last Friday's protest, which demanded the military to come out with a clear timeable for the handover of power to civilian rulers and which was the first protest in a long time with mass turnout, a small group of protesters stayed in Midan Tahrir over night. The reportedly around 200 protesters that camped out at the Midan were violently removed from Egyptian police forces early Saturday. The unnecessary and unprovoked brutality of the police enraged many others who heard of the events. So soon, the crowd in Tahrir started to swell again, throughout Saturday and Sunday. 

At the same time violent clashes broke out and continued for days in some streets bordering Tahrir, namely Sharia Mohammed Mahmoud (where the ministry of the interior is located), Sharia Sheikh Rehan and Midan Falaki. Police fired insane amounts of two different types of teargas, and apparently also used some kind of nerve gas on protestors in Tahrir on Tuesday night. Police shot with rubber bullets and at parts also life ammunition, reportedly aiming in specific at protesters' eyes an necks. While both teargas and rubber bullets are traditional tools of riot control, they can obviously also be used in order to kill. The amount of teargas fired from short distances, the firing of rubber bullets at sensitive areas from short distance and the documented brutal beating of protesters by police indicates that no effort whatsoever was undertaken to avoid injuries, the opposite seems to be the case.

At the same time, protesters themselves seemed determined to sustain the violence in Sharia Mohammed Mahmoud. Their throwing of rocks and pushing forward towards the distant end of the street was not appreciated by all of the protesters present in Tahrir.  According to an article by Nate Wright, it was this fraction of protestors who prevented fellow protestors from braking the truce that had come into being early Thursday morning. More than one attempt to negotiate a truce had failed before, and an earlier truce agreed upon had been broken by police on Wednesday after few hours.

The fighting and the dramatic pictures produced thereof (on some nights, another injured person was delivered to the field clinics on the Midan every 20 seconds! all this could be watched live on TV) drew more people, on Tuesday it was called for another million men march. And even though the number of 1 Mio might not have been reached, it was clearly the largest demonstrations Egypt had seen in a long time. I have heard many people say that until now the sacrifices of the Egyptian people, the death of so many "martyrs" had been in vain. 

Many (me included) sense that Egyptians are currently trying to bring to an end the revolution they had started in January - and abandoned inbetween in the (naive?) belief that the army would help implement the changes asked for. Now that it has become clear that the army is at most malicious and at least incapable, people are loudly voicing their demands for change again, shouting "The people want to bring down the military regime" or "The people want to bring down Tantawi" (the head of the SCAF, Supreme Council of Armed Forces). 

During the past days, the officials responded with various moves, yet none of them could satisfy the protesters demands. The government under prime minister Essam Sharaf resigned, Tantawi delivered his first speech ever (which was as boring as expected), the SCAF excused for the deaths on its facebook page (sic!) and Kamal Ganzouri was appointed new prime minister and expected to form a cabinet over the weekend. Yet, given that he had already been prime minister for several years under Mubarak it was hardly surprising his appointment was not appraised by the protesters in Midan Tahrir. 

The demands of various protesting factions vary if it comes to the institutional details (composition, competencies, timing of national salvation government and/or presidential council), but have in common that they ask for a handover of power to civilian institutions/individuals. Also, the demand for some form of transitional justice, the cleansing of the interior ministry and the reform of the police is central to the protestors' agenda. 

It is contested, whether elections can (and should) begin on Monday as planned. The Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafis and the US State Department are pushing for elections to take place as scheduled. Also, various reports and opinion pieces state that the protesters and their demands are not backed by a majority of Egyptians, who supposedly simply want the elections to take place so calm can return to the squares and streets of their country. (Obviously I think this goal is illusive. Or to be more precise: the assumption real societal and political peace could be produced by holding elections on Monday is illusive.)

In any case, it is no understatement to say that today is a crucial day for Egypt. The turnout at the protests and the military's and police's reaction will be decisive for the days and weeks to come.

(For articles on all the above mentioned issues, see the separate post "Some good articles and impressive pictures".)

Slavery in the 21st century: domestic workers in Lebanon

So, as if the cruelty of Egypt's daily news wasn't enough, I somehow got hooked up on the topic of abuse in general. In recent days I found myself discussing the issues of female genital mutilation, sexual abuse in prisons, sexual abuse as a weapon of war, domestic violence, organ trade and human trafficking with various friends and acquaintances. I do not want to spare you with all of this, and thus share some aspects of abuse of domestic labourers with you. 

Apparently Lebanon, has acquired some fame in this field. If we believe an article by the British newspaper TheGuardian, published in 2010, Lebanon is not only sticking out from other Arab countries by its liberal attitudes and its likening for plastic surgery, but also by its maltreatment of a large number of domestic workers. The article portrays the fate of Asian and African women who - by the help of false promises - were lured into becoming domestic workers in Lebanon. Other than they had expected many of these women do not earn enough money to provide a better life for their children back home in Madagaskar or Indonesia, but upon their arrival in Lebanon are forced into slave-like working conditions: their passports and visa papers are taken away by either an agency or their new employers, the new "masters" confine the maids to the house, limit their opportunities to social (virtual and real) contact, make them work up to 18 hours per day, deny them privacy and adequate payment. In many cases the domestic workers are even subject to physical and psychological abuse by their employers. Held in such a state of absolute dependency combined with acute suffering, many domestic workers see their only option in killing themselves. Of those, who chose to escape, many risk their live in attempts to climb down from balconies or windows. Together with the suicides, these dangerous flights kill more than one person per week in Lebanon, according to a HRW report issued in 2008. There seem to be few organisations in Lebanon addressing the issue. The UK basedKalayaan being one of them. Given that the shocking HRW report was published as early as 2008 one wonders how little has seemingly changed to the date when BBC picked up on the topic. Under the capture "Madagascar maids: Misery in the Middle East", BBC's Hannah McNeish pictures the story of Mrs Baholiarisoa, who in 2011 finally could return to her home country Madagascar after being enslaved in Lebanon for 15 years.

While the increase of servants and slaves in Lebanon seems to be tied to increasing wealth and aspirations of a more luxurious life, it is poverty and economic distress that drives Asians and Africans to leave their countries in the first place. At the same time, political and economic instability in the Northern African countries, allows for the deterrioriation of the security situation in the Sahel zone, and thus for (expected) easier crossing from Southern parts of Africa...

Sandmonkey's getting serious!

After using the synonym "Sandmonkey" for a good while, the Egyptian blogger and Twitter-er Mahmoud Saleh had already revealed his identitity in the wake of the Egyptian protests in February 2011. Now he's taking it a step further and runs for presidency ... parliament, I mean. I just became aware of his intention to run for office, when I visited his blog in order to see whether he has already commented on the death of Essam Atta. Yet, his blog has disappeared, and instead a website - otherwise still being under construction - anounces "Mahmoud Salem for Parliament 2011". The interesting online newssite Global Post confirms that Mahmoud is currently drafting his campaign to compete for a seat in parliament in the inshallah upcoming elections. He intends to run in the election district Heliopolis, competing with the reknown scholar, talksshowguest and revolution-sympathizer Amr Hamzawy and a former NDP figure Magdy Mahrous.

Cruel abuse of Essam Atta leading to the prisoner's death

Essam Atta, a 24-year old Egyptian is the latest victim of ongoing police violence in Egypt. Essam had been arrested on February 25 during the clashes in the Coptic Quarter of Cairo. He was later sentenced to two years in prison. It was his attempt to smuggle a SIM card for a mobile phone into prison that eventually cost him his life. The guards at Tora prison "punished" him with repeated, severe abuse (for the graphic details please read AlJazeera's article on the matter), and Essam Atta died shortly after being delivered to Qasr al Ayni hospital. It was the El Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, a well-known Egyptian NGO, that broke the news about Atta's abuse and consequent death on Thursday. Pictures of Atta's corpse soon went viral on Twitter and Facebook. Within no time a facebook page named "We are all Essam Atta" was created, reminding of the page "We are all Khaled Said", which had provided one of many organising platforms for the January 25 protests. Khaled Said was beaten to death by police officers in the streets of Alexandria in June 2010. Official reports stated he had died by swallowing a package of drugs - but photos of his heavily distorted face, smuggled out of the morgue by his brother, told a different story and soon went viral on the internet. Earlier this week, the trial of the police officers that had killed Said was concluded, sentencing them to 7 years in jail. This comparatively mild punishment already provoked a outcry - however, the outrage could not prove strong enough to re-ignite the revolutionary fire. Once the news of Atta's death spread, the parallels to Said were instantly seen, and indeed the Friday protests in Tahrir attrackted more followers than in the previous weeks, and make wonder whether Atta's cruel death could provide the rallying cause for the reviving of a revolution that many already believed to be dead...

Al Jazeera has a very good article on the issue, also highlighting the parallels to the case of Khaled Said.

If you want to learn more about Khaled Said, and how his death at the hands of Egyptian police became a rallying cause for protests on January 25, have a look at the Wikipedia article. Also the highly reccomendable blog The Arabist provides plenty of background information, colllected in June 2010.

Also the popular blogger Zeinobia comments on the events in her Egypian Chronicles. As did most other Egyptian news magazines as Bikya Masr, Al Ahram Online, the Egyptian Daily News and Al Masry Al Youm.

Essam Atta - Tod in Polizei"gewahrsam"

Seit einigen Stunden verbreiten sich in Kairo die Neuigkeiten, dass der 24-jährige Ägypter Essam Atta, verhaftet am 25 Januar 2011, verurteilt zu zwei Jahren Gefängnis, gestern nach Misshandlungen gestorben ist. Der junge Ägypter leistete seine Haftstrafe im Tora Gefängnis ab. Um ihn für den Versuch, eine Handy SIM Karte ins Gefängnis zu schmuggeln, zu bestrafen, wurde er laut den Aussagen anderer Insassen, von Gefängniswärtern derart misshandelt, dass er Donnerstag ins Krankenhaus Qasr al Ayni eingeliefert werden musste, wo er wenig später verstarb. Berichte zu seinem Gesundheitszustand und äußeren Verletzungen/Spuren der Misshandlung zum Zeitpunkt der Einlieferung sind widersprüchlich. Ägyptische Medien berichten, dass die Familie zusammen mit ca 800 Protestern vor der Leichenhalle im Viertel Sayyeda Zeinab auf den Abschluss der Obduktion wartet, um dann den Trauerzug zu starten. Dieser soll auf dem Tahrir Platz, dem Herz der Umsturzversuche, enden, wo nach Aussagen ägyptischer Medien dem Wunsch der Familie entsrechend die Trauerfeier abgehalten werden soll.Es gitb bereits die entsprechende Facebook Gruppe "We areall Essam Atta", die an die Facebook Gruppe "We are allKhaled Saeed" erinnert. Auch Kommentatoren stellen die offensichtiche Verbindung her: Der brutale Tod Khaled Saeeds durch Polizeigewalt im Juni 2010 in Alexandria war ein wichtiger "rallying cause" für die Proteste am 25 Januar 2012, die den Beginn der Ereignisse darstellten, welche man heute gemeinhin als "Ägyptische Revolution" bezeichnet.

MIlitary's response to allegations

In a statement broadcasted Monday night, the military has again denied the use of live amunition, the practice of torture, and the allegations of having put Maikel Nabil on trial without any lawyers at his defense. Also the army emphasized that the participation of officers' in Friday's protests (which sparked of the confrontation Saturday morning) was not indicative fo a split in the army. They were also eager to claim that there had been no pressure of Saudi Arabia to influence the treatment of Mubarak.

Above that the army representatives justified the clearing of Midan Tahrir Saturday morning as well as the general practice of trying protestors in front of military courts rather than civilian courts. In their understanding Maikel Nabil was a case for a military court because he had harmed the army: “Freedom of expression is guaranteed as long as it is respectful and doesn’t doubt the armed forces,” says Etman, a member of the MIlitary Council.

AlMasr AlYoum has an extensive article elaborating on the army's speech.

Mubarak gone!

Apparently all the trouble that his audio-recorded speech caused was a bit too much ... Mubarak reportedly hospitalized in Sharm el-Sheikh. Unfortunately the article by AlJazeera leaves open whether MUbarak had already been question by the prosecutor as planned for today after the prosecutor announced Sunday Mubarak would be summoned.

Must-see footage of protesting officers' statement and army attack on Tahrir

AlMasr AlYoum has published very interesting footage of the night that the army stormed Midan Tahrir, also including statements by some of those officers who had joined the protesters on that day. All with English subtitles and definitely worth watching!

As usual it is hard to interpret and draw conclusions from what we see. What sems pretty clear: a massacre or even only an army that is decisive to quell a revolt with force looks different (Lybia, Yemen, Bahrain and Syria can give hints here...). Yet, reports from the night have stated already before that the army was more brutal when chasing protesters through the streets of downtown, which allegedly also was when and where the (numbered now as one to tree) deaths occured.

Mubarak is back! ...

...at least to the news: On Sunday, Mubarak for the first time since his ouster addressed the (his?) nation. In an audio recording broadcasted on AlArabiya Mubarak denied having illegally amassed wealth and moved it outside of Egypt, and threatened to sue those who damaged his reputation.The prosecutor general Abdel Meguid ‎Mahmoud responded within an hour saying Mubarak was summoned as part of investigations into the killing of protesters and embezzlement of public funds. Mubarak's speech and denial would not affect the investigations. Yet, Mubarak's highly emotional speech was definitely tailored to change people's mind on him. Egypt Daily News quotes from the speech "I feel deep sorrow and pain for the allegations against me and my family aiming to defame my integrity my political and military honor that I used for serving Egypt at times of peace and war".

Another attempt by the former president-father-pharao-ruler to work people's emotions

Yet, might there really still be a threat that playing on people's emotions works after all that has happened? I start to understand why a honoured friend of mine keeps disyplaing the huge scars on his legs resulting from him being shot on January 28. To quote himself „this is to show the people what this regime is like! What Mubarak is capable of doing!“ He was eager to counter the narrations and ideas of people who still thought Mubarak was a hounorable men who deserved the treatment of an older gentleman whose only fault it was to miss the right point for voluntary retirement.

The Alliance of Egyptian Revolutionaries reacted furiously to the former president's speech. Considering that not only the prosecutor but also several other political actors such as the April 6 movement responded negatively to Mubarak's speech, AlAhram judges that Mubarak didnt do himself any good as him speaking up only fueled the fire and led to the speeding up of the prosecutior.

Maikel Nabil tried in absence, NDP figures getting civilian trials

Regarding the case of Maikel Nabil, I would like to add that he was tried by a military court (while the Military Council emphasizes the right of former NDP figures to be tried by a civilian court!) in the absence of his or his lawyers. The blog Democracy Review now published a letter supposedly from Maikel Nabil appeared.

Minor clashes in Tahrir were reported, reflecting the rising tension on the Midan in general but also between two groups of protestors in particular. Also on AUC campus protests to oust two regime related figures took place. Students demanded the dismissal of the security chief, Ashraf Kamal, who used to work for State Security and of the head of student development services, Mohammed Dabbour who is an NDP member.Both are accused of previously having monitored and censored student activity on campus.

The day's news from Egypt

Several Egyptian human rights groups have investigated Saturday morning's events and based on a comparison of eyewhitnesses' accounts came to the conclusion that in opposition to its offical denial afterwards the army had used live amunition to shoot at protesters. The Daily New's article also shows the various stages in which the battle between army and protesters unfolded. 

Since that night demonstrators have pretty much withut any interruption occupied Midan Tahrir. While I sympathise with Egyptians claiming Midan Tahrir back and enforcing their right to peaceful protest and freedom of expression, the protestors' behaviour does not strike me as particularly clever: blocking off any traffic crossing Midan Tahrir and throwing stones at passing cars, as reported by the Daily News does not win them new friends. Rather it turns ordinary people against the revolutionaries, and thus eventually maybe even against the revolution itself. 

Today, the military intervened to halt Sectarian clashes which were taking place in a village West of Cairo. Apparently several sectarian clashes had also been reported yesterday. 

In another unsettling development the Egyptian blogger Maikel Nabil was sentenced to three years of prison by a military court. Mikael Nabil was arrested and tried for an article hat he had posted in response to the army torturingand abusing those arrested on the 9^th of March. 

The Egyptian blogger Zeinobia points out how even though Mikael was highly contested due to his stance towards the Egyptian army and Israel, him being arrested and sentenced for insulting the army and saying the un-truth in his article points to a dark future for Egypt's bloggers.

Army blaming clashes on thugs - but isn't every protestor a troublemaker?

There is some discord as to what actually happened on early Saturday morning on Midan Tahrir. As shown in the post from Saturday morning, AlJazeera reported Tahrir was cleared by military police with force, the aim mainly being to get out the some ten soldiers who had joined the protests and where protected by the protestors. Al Jazeera has become some kind of authority if it comes to reporting on the Middle East protests, as it continuously provided the fastest and most comprehensive coverage of the revolts in Egypt, Syria, and some other Arab countries. And in many cases one can say it was the „only one being there“. While other channels shifted their attaention to Japan, Lybia, and wherever else events appeared to be most dramatic, alJazeera maintained at least a minor presence in countries like Egypt to follow-up on the post-revolt devlopments.

Twitter and AlJazeera account unanimously stating: army crackdown

Yet, I might indeed have given to much credit to AlJazeera or at least have not been critical enough in the sense that I tended to adopt the stance: if AlJazeera interprets the events as „army cracking down on protestors“ then this will in the end gonna be the dominant reading. (If you think about it: this might say more about AlJazeera's hegemonic position in interpreting Middle Eastern events than about the interpretation's fit with reality...) And still - it was not only AlJazeera, but also Twitter seemed to draw a clear picture yesterday morning: the army has turned on the reamining protestors, probably because of the soldiers who had joined the demonstrations and remained on Tahrir.

During the day more accounts, by media and individuals (as if reporters where not individuals?) surfaced: Facebook user Omar Kamel who had been at Midan Tahrir all night posted a detailed account of the events. The photographer David Degner published photos of the clashes and the Midan in its aftermath. Also videos were uploaded to prove that the army was continuously firing in the air and at protestors for a prolongued period and that they were using live amunition opposite to their own claims and statements. The first of the videos also shows how army is storming the square and tearing the tents in the middle of the Midan where allegedly the protestors had put the defecting soldiers to protect them.

Still the situation seemed far from clear: rumours spread that it had been thugs on Midan Tahrir attacking the army, who then responded by clearing the square. Others said it was thugs in army uniform that were actually joining the protestors. According to AlMAsr AlYoum, the military council for its part stated that „police and soldiers had 'confronted acts of rioting and implemented a curfew' without causing any loss of life and blamed disturbances on 'elements outside the law in Tahrir'“

The well-respected scholar Dr. Heba Raouf who lives in Downtwon close to Midan Tahrir was cited by facebook user Mohamed Sharaf elDin as saying that „600 people are in the square.. half of them are thugs and the other half are people are troublemakers“ (Thanks to my friend Kazem for translation).

Every protest interrupting order qualifies as thuggery!

Contradictious reports you think? I was quite confused for a short moment and then I realized, that the explanations lies within the concept of „thugs“ respectively „troublemakers“. Of course, for the army and apparently also some other people (mainly those who think demonstrations should stop now) everyone who breaks the curfew (setting in at 2 am ending at 5 am) is placing himself „outside the law“. Thanks to the law on thuggery passed on the 23d of March, any „strikes, protests, demonstrations and sit-ins that interrupt private or state owned businesses or affect the economy in any way“ are now illegal and an act of thuggery. So technically speaking the weekly protests on Fridays are an act of thuggery. And when people then also break the curfew...hell yeah, of course they are THUGS and TROUBLEMAKERS. Egyptians have a very weird relation to laws and authority, even though they brake many laws and rules on a daily basis at some poin they rever authority and the law, respectively orders from above. One Egyptian twitter user even stated that being democratic meant obeying the curfew.

Resisting injust laws and unlawful authority

But maybe it is also me who has a particular relationship to law and authority? Maybe I have full-heartedly adopted the idea which is laid out in the German Grundgesetz (constitution): if your government, respectively regime, respectively its laws and orders are undemocratic and in contradiction to the costitution you are allowed and even obliged to resist. (I have never been much into studying law, so if my knowledgable German friends can correct me here or add to my interpretation an official one, please go ahead!)

Meanwhile, the political and media battle go on: protests on Tahrir have been going on, several political figures have called for restraint, the MB issued a statement emphasizing the link between the people and the army, the Supreme Council of the Armed itself has issued further statements and counting and announcing of the injured proceeds...

Twitter continuously alarming

Right now tweeds (=Twitter messages) are saying: „Something is happening in #Tahrir. People are banging out warnings.“ A good example how difficult it might be for an outsider to understand what's happening. The banging out warning refers to a practice that protestors use since the early days of the revolt when they first clashed with police. All Midan Tahrir is surrounded by metal fences separating the pavements from the roads. In order to warn other protestors of approaching danger people would hit the fences metal poles in order while running along. At the same time one needs to understand, that those who are in Midan Tahrir have been exposed to violence and fear for weeks now, they saw their friends dying, have themselves been arrested and abused by military and police, and have been on alert for weeks. No wonder their interpetations and tweeds sometimes seem to be quitee alarmist, always expecting the worst....yet, on Friday night those expecting the worst, proved to be right once more....

BREAKING: army attacking protesters

I have been silent for the last weeks because I had been busy with my research and a workshop, both of which I'll tell you more about later. I do not have time to give you a proper overview of events in Egypt now, but wanted to draw your attention to last nights developments for the simple reasons that besides Aljazeera and the Washington Post most media oultets are ignoring the events. And if international media coverage and attention does not step up quickly, those who are still protesting for a real democracy and real change in Egypt might have to pay an even much higher price than they have done already...

Yesterday large protests, supported by various Youth Coalitions and the Muslim Brotherhood were staged under the name "Friday of Purging/Clearance", some ten army officers joined the protests. According to twitter (try #Tahrir), AlJazeera and the Washington Post at night around 3 am the army cracked down violently on the protestors in order to detain the defiant officers.

Inbetween state media and army statements (on facebook) claim that it was thugs and former NDP members staying at Tahrir and attacking the army...

For an overview of events in the reason check out the AlJazeera Liveblog - also the blogger Sandmonkey keeps tracking/tweeting on events on Midan Tahrir.

The Military council's paradox actions, a potential Salafi threat and el-Baradei's rehabilitation

When about 77% of Egyptians voted YES in the referendum on constitutional amendments on March 19^th, they might have assumed that with adopting the changes the further proceedings would be clear. Reality coukldnt be further from that. The military is now speaking of postponing elections, announcing a constitutional statement that only „includes“ the amendments accepted in the referendum, and is very active in various ways...For example they appointed a committee which is supposed to solve the dispute between the first commitee which drafted the amendments and the second commitee which was established in order to amend the amendments ....Clearly "governing a country" was not part of the training schedule in their boot camps...

Military's actions intransparent and contradictious

Paradoxically enough the Military council is now at parts implementing demands the opposition had voiced before the referendum, such as drafting a constitutional declaration which is supposed to form the legal foundation for the remainder of the transistional period and potponing the parliamentary and presidential elections to a later date. A Foreign Policy Article by Nathan J. Brown draws attention to this paradox development and the Military Council's way of working and (not)communicating.

Religious authorities calling for dialogue, Salafis fighting democracy in grassroots activities

While Pope Shenouda III, the Coptic Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark (whatever this means) and an also among Muslims well respected figure, embraces dialogue with Al-Azhar, the leading Islamic university, and the Salafis, Salafi grassrout activities give reasons to worry about the country's future. Recently the movement had announced to abandon its previous (supposedly) apolitical stance and get involved with political processes.

On Monday AlMasr AlYoum reports Salafis where seen handing out anti-democracy flyers in Cairo. According to the article, the flyers called for people not only to become Salafis but also to refrain from embracing a political order that violates the law of God. Little surprising they call for the return to Sunna and Quran and warn that a secular state (they probably rather mean a secular state with a particular legal order and notion of citizenship, but nevermind these nitty-gritty details) would not differentiate between people who were created with differences. One cannot help but think of women's rights and gender equality here, who obviously are a thorn in the side of many Salafis.

Who's afraid of Salafis?

Also I cannot help to always be slightly amused by the ramblings of extremists, their argumentation often lacking any appeal or simple connection to the thinking of those who are not yet on board anyways. The meshing of religion and politics, the (ab)use of Islam to push for certain political goals is despised in particular by many believers. As I had mentioned in an earlier blogpost there was even critique from within the Muslim Brothers against the instrumentalisation of Islam. Yet, it is really hard to judge how dangerous and how powerful the religious extremists really are. In the MB for example, there's clearly various wings, ranging from a conservative strand to the more liberal reformers. And clearly the MB does not always speak in unity. 

MB youth calling for internal democratisation of the Muslim Brothers

Just recently the Youth of the MB organized a conference which was officially not approved of by the MB's leadership. AlMAsr AlYoum has a very interesting article on the conference. It describes open debate on whether MB should form a party which also reaches out to non-MB or whether thy should stay out of politics completely and instead focus on dawa. Also demands have been voiced to give more authority to the elected body, the Shura Council rather than the guidance committee, an executive body which has led the MB rather autonomously in the last year. Besides the general demands for democratisation of internal organisation, participants also asked for better representation of women and youth within the MB. On the other hand there was an incidence in South Egypt when Salafis reportedly cut off the ear of a coptic teacher, accusing him of facilitating prostitution and referring to Sharia law to justify their self-imposed punishment.

Calls for renewed protests against corruption and loosing the revolution

But not only the religious forces are stepping up their activity. The youth Coalition is calling for another Million men march on Friday, in order to protest that leading figures of the old regime who allegedly are responsible for much suffering before and during the days of revoultion are still running around Egypt voicing their opinion and pledging their innocence in talkshows and other public fora rather than being put in jail.

Also the postponing of court cases against other former NDP leaders might fuel the youth anger. Last weekend, court cases against big former NDP figures were referred back as judge has family ties to one of the accused. The case against former Minister of Trade and Industry Rashid Mohamed Rashid, and steel magnate Ahmed Ezz was supposed to be opened on Sunday, but due to family affiliations had to be postponed. Also, the 6th April movement calls for new protests against corruption.

Wiki-Leaked cable likely to boost El-Baradei's standing in Egypt

Meanwhile a wiki leaks released cable is likely to boost elBaradei's standing in Egypt. The cable basically states that US officials where unhappy with Baradei in the last year of his term as head of the IAEA. The Daily Telegraph reported on this issue already on the 9^th of February, in essence displaying it as a disagreement of the US and ElBaradei on how to proceed with Syria and Iran, but also depicting ElBaradei as kind of out of touch with reality and self-centred. The Egyptian Daily News and AlMasr AlYoum on the other hand picked it up just now in its online coverage

In the respective articles, Daily News and AlMasr AlYoum read the cable as stating that Baradei was problematic „because he supports the views of developing countries on the Middle East and other issues.“ Considering that to many Egyptians elBaradei is too much Westernized, „not an Egyptian“ and has paved the way for the war on an Arab country, Iraq, with his work for the IAEA, a beneficial reading of the cable might well rehabilitate him in the eyes of some.

The current situation in Egypt: battle against the remnants of the old regime reaching Cairo's universities

Egypt saw small Scale protest on Friday. In Cairo protesters were voicing various concerns ranging from the demands to clean the state media from corruption to protest against the pending law banning demonstrations and drawing attention to specific incidences of violence against copts. Even when the crowds from the two main sites of protest Midan Tahrir and Maspero, the state television building joined forces they were not more than 1400 according to The Daily News Egypt.

The Situation in Egypt: ongoing protest on a small scale

In Alexandria things got rough with secular protesters reportedly clashing with Salafists who have become increasingly outspoken and politically organized. 

Arrests of protestors by military and military police continue but the good news is that (at least English) online news sources keep reporting. Yet there is fears (which I share) that the new law, banning protests that „disrupt“ order will provide the legal grounds for much harsher reactions towards protesters and eventually aims at the subduing of any public demonstrations. 

Arrests continuing, new law banning protests causing irritation

The government however denies that the law was meant to inhibit any form of protest. According to Ahram Online „The new anti-strike law does not prohibit strikes and protests, Minister of Justice Ahmed El-Guindy told a press conference today.“ They cite El-Gunidy as having said „We as a government believe in the right to protest as long as it does not disrupt work, cause chaos and are held through legitimate channels“. I wonder whether any has ever told El-Gunidy and his fellows in the Ministry of Justice that disrupting work lies in the logic of strikes, which should nonetheless be considered as legitimate channels of protests. Just more evidence of how important political education is now – even on the highest levels...

Events at Cairo's universities as mirror of wider societal developments

The strange mixture of hope and disapointment, of ignorance and activism is also marking the elections for the Students Union of Cairo University, as an article by AlMasr AlYoum shows (quite extensive but makes for a good read!)

Student Union elections at Cairo University amidst military crackdown on protests

In general one could well say that the events at one of Egypt's most important universities are a mirror of what's going on in the country as a whole: strikes and protests had been going on for weeks, in an attempt to oust those who have been leading the university for years and are thus affiliated with the old regime. While those who demand the instant dismissal of high ranking university officials aspire a completely new start, others prefer a step-by-step approach, leaving more space for people to adjust to changes and pursue their business respectively studies. As happening in other spots, the army reacted with force, cracking down violently on peaceful protestors Wednesday night and arresting students as well as staff who had joined the protests. This of course was condemned by human rights groups and triggered further protests, increasing the numbers, but still not being outrageous enough to mobilize decisive amounts of people.

Head start of established parties and groups tainting fairness in elections

Elections are held, and they seem to satsify at least more or less the standards of being free – yet there's a large question mark as for fairness. The starting points for different competitors (being it parties or individuals) are simply too different to guarantee a fair race. Some of the competitors enjoy considerable advance over others, depending on their relation to the old regime.

Which way this relation plays out in the individual cases is very complicated. Take the most famous group, the MB as an example: on the one hand the regime constantly oppressed the MB and thus prevented them from registering as official political party and from gaining the adequate representation in parliament – yet on the other hand the oppression through the regime had provided the MB with the possibility to protray itself as the regime's victim, endowing it with considerable martyr-legitimacy which is now quickly vaning.

German University Cairo expelling students for protests

The GUC, German University of Cairo has become another battle ground for the confrontation of revolutionary youth and the remnants of the old regime. The students of GUC's longstanding call for a student union has been rebutted in the past with the argument that dragging the university into a political confrontation, or respectively making the university campus a political battleground must be avoided. January 25 now revived the students's claim for improved study conditions, better representation and more participation in decision making. Yet the university's leadership did not abandon their former stance and even called the military in to end students' protests. As a means of last resort the GUC eventually suspended some 30 students from university, asking their parents to refer them to a different university as the student's behavior had „violated the university’s values and norms“. I do not think any further comment is needed here....

Egyptians facing an overwhelming amount of information, problems, challenges

Al Ahram as well as Daily News Egypt have been reporting on the issue, as did Caravan, the AUC student magazin. The incidence even reached some German media – yet as we know media attention quickly shifts to new and more dramatic (if deadly) events. Also one has to admit that in Egypt too many things are going on, so one hardly knows where to start with reporting and getting activity. Yet, I am somehow optimistic that – considering how much the January 25 revolution set people here in Egypt in motion – there will be people addressing the various issues. So if everyone just gets engaged with what is most important and dear to him or her, we should be fine....inshallah.... Yet: the battles currently being waged in Egypt's universities could be considered one of the central fights for a new Egypt. Protester's at Cairo University are making this explicit: they are also fighting for a different kind of education. 

Complete failure of the educational system

It is clear to a surprising number of Egyptians that their educational system is a huge failor in so far as it does not educate people to become independent and critical thinkers capable of processing information, acquiring and applying knowledge and skills. Instead what is demanded, encouraged and rewarded is the thoughtless and literal reproduction of that which is written in textbooks. In conversations with me various people have used drastic metaphors describing the final exams for example as the act of „puking the information on the paper“. To many Egyptians this kind of (non)education clearly constituted one of the headstones of the old regime's stability. And similarly many recognize the urgent need to change education in order to form responsible citizens. Thus the developments at Egypt's universities and in the cultural and educational field deserve our attention at least as much as economic and military policies do .

Some headlines from Egypt

As the dear reader might have noticed the activity on this blog has been decreasing - the reason is not that Egypt has overnight become an immaculate democracy (not even one of Putin style), unfortunately not. Simply: I have been caught up in my research and some other apolitical things (private life if you want so...), as this might not gonna change soon I at least wanted to point out to you the most important developments:

On Wednesday the government under Prime Minister Sharaf has passed a law prohibiting protest and strikes at large. Some of the Tahrir people might regret now having welcomed Sharaf so warmly when he substituted the hated Shafiq....and of course protests against the no-protest-law have already been called for...

Those students who had been demonstrating by the means of a peaceful sit-in had had the chance to gain an idea of what this new style of government and army might look like: on Wednesday the military cracked down on protestors, which instantly triggered the condemnation of certain human rights groups...Yet there still seems to be some hope: in reaction to this event much larger numbers turned out on Thursday to maintain the protest at university.

Breaking: Ministry of Interior on Fire

From my living room window I can see thick black clouds over downtown ... Twitter says the smoke stems from a fire in the Ministry of Interior building....my flatmate says Twitter reported earlier today that demonstrations in front of the MOI were marked by a very aggressive atmosphere...

The day at the polling stations in Agouza and Dokki - Part II

Before my talkative interlocutor could tell me why exactly his friends advised him not to quit his job at Exxon Mobile, his phone rang and I had the change to sneak over to the two men whom I had been observing taking notes. Unfortunately it proved rather hard for me to figure out what exactly they were doing as my Arabic is not good (at least when it comes to political vocabulary...as you can imagine referendum, election, judicial supervision of polling, constitutional reform committee and the like had not been used frequently in Egypt two years ago when I studied the Colloquial Arabic here) and their English was non-existent. Yet, other than me they were very steadfast. - Maybe that's what you become when you are an Egyptian socialist living in Mubarak's pseudo-neoliberal oligopoly, having engaged yourself as an election observer in a notoriously rigged system and now having been campaign out on Midan Tahrir since January 25^th...

Persistent Marxists and queuing Egyptians

Alhamdulillah they didn't give up on me, made an incredible effort to explain their purpose to me and even invited me to join them watch their work in the polling stations. The more adamant Marxist of the two, Hussein, whose parents had sent him to the religious alAzhar school (rarely heard of a better example for parents' efforts misfiring..), was so kind to convince me that I could without any fear enter the school building to get a close up of the processes there: Upstairs men and women were queuing in two separate lines, which in Britain could not have been more neatly drawn. The line for men was much longer at that point, running around the whole corridor of the first floor, its end reaching into a classroom, where the newcomers gathered before they could start queuing. While the last men might have well waited for a couple of hours, the women were better off with their line being shorter. Many of them had already come from Zamalek, where they had first tried their luck, only to find the one polling station in the upscale neighbourhood of Zamalek incredibly crowded.

The group of Zamalek women had all come to vote NO. They thought it was time for a complete overhaul of the system, with the constitution being part of it. Also, they were convinced there was no reason to hurry. Instead giving the whole process of drafting a constitution, establishing parties and preparing elections more time and allow people to breathe a bit would be more likely to secure the revolution's achievements and fulfil people's hopes. One of the women, herself being 34 years of age and having her cute little daughter with her, told me that her daughter came with her to observe history. Being able to cast a meaningful vote for the first time in her life constituted the first tangible outcome of the Jan 25 Revolution.

Girls are making history

Yet, the ladies were worried: a lot of people, especially those with little education might go for a YES, simply because they are told to do so. Also, there was rising fear of fraud, early on, various tweeds had called on people to doublecheck whether their ballott paper is stamped – only then would it be official and counted. In many polling stations however, a large amount of the ballot papers had not been stamped. The mother of one of the Zamalek ladies had told her daughter on the phone that at her polling station only about one paper out of ten had been stamped...the number of incidences with unstamped voting paper was such that in the afternoon the supreme judiciary committee supervising the referendum announced that papers would be counted irrespective of the existence of a stamp...

While the school had been relatively calm when I arrived, more and more people were flocking in, when I arrived at the second polling station around noon, it was packed already with more voters streaming in. Twitter, emails and news reported of long queues from the morning on. In the already mentioned Zamalek school people eventually gave up, while in many other cases people waited patiently even for several hours. Having seen how many people had shown up in the (not very popular) morning hours, I found it hardly surprising that in the early afternoon the officials announced to postpone the closing of the polling stations from 7 pm to 9 pm. Later in the evening it was even announced they' d remain open until midnight. 

Logistical problems and pink fingers

Left aside the lack of facilities to meet the needs of the high turnout, the whole logistics of the referendum was better than I had expected: Egyptians where allowed to vote in polling stations all over the country, irrespective of their residency. The schools were well staffed with plenty personnel to check Ids, register voters and hand out the voting papers. On the walls posters were explaining the various steps of voting, and as I had written in my earlier post an online search engine helped to find the closest polling station. 

Yet, the technicalities of the eletcion process were far less advanced than in Europe: whoever showed his ID received a voting paper, his or her name was then written by hand into the register, which consisted of several huge books, the secrecy of the vote should be ensured by pieces of garment, sticked to the wall as curtains in each corner of the room. no comparison with lists of voters or anything similar could take place, the only way to ensure that one person would not vote several times was to ditch one of her fingers into pink ink.

The pink finger today became an icon of the new Egypt, and produced very creative tweeds therefore:

LamiaMoussa:This is a day to remember,isn't it? The day Egyptian men weren't only happy but proud 2 have pink on! #PinkFinger #Dostor2011

JazKhalifa: Since the revolution began i check ppls hands on the streets 4 weapons.... Today I'm checking for pink fingers (: #Dostor2011

safister: I feel so left out. I didn't take a picture next to a tank and I didn't take a picture of my pink finger. #ForeverAlone #Egypt #Dostor2011

taimouro Goodnight Pink fingered population! #Democracy #BetterEgypt #Dostor2011 #Ebda2BeNafsak

One of the first things I encountered at polling station number I was a veiled woman, who – with a big smile on her face – held her pink finger up to me so I could see better she had just proudly satisfied her duty as a citizen. One of the last things I saw shortly before I left polling station number two, was a bunch of Christian girls and boys demonstrating and discussing with excitement the newly discovered fact that by use of the omnipresent wipers one could easily wipe off the pink ink. Soon the joke who'd go and vote for a second time would make the round...

Fear of fraud and military abuse of prisoners

Yet, to my two newly found friends who had been trained by a local NGO how to survey elections, this did not seem to come as a surprise: they had seen much worse in former elections and they were convinced that – no matter what the outcome might be - the fact that so many Egyptians (some news speak of 60% now) showed up, demonstrating their interest and awareness and their willingness to shape the country's future, was the guarantee for positive developments and steps in the right direction. The group of young Christians wasn't so sure about this, and after the observer's account of today's irregularities they seemed in doubt whether there had been any point in voting at all today.

For better or worse Hussein then also told them about the suspicious role of the military, who since last week is faced with charges of serious torture and abuse and has kept a large amount of protesters in custody since March 09. To my surprise none of this group of 10 had previously heard about the incidents. (Of course I instantly recommended them my blog to catch up with the recent developments.)

Many other people I spoke to were much more hopeful. From the many conversations I had today let me just refer three to you: At the first polling station someone (who said NO herself) noted that even if the majority voted for YES, the NO camp would take it to the streets again to push through their vision. She's got a point there, and as I was reflecting on it I realized: the reported indications and allegations of fraud or non-satisfactory logistics as well as the MB/NDP attempts to taking illegitimate influence on voter's decisions open up the possibility to devalue any result and attribute it to the failures in and unfairness of procedures.

Everyone talks politics today and many prove: Egyptians are smart

Later at night I spoke to three men working at a mobile phone shop. All of them had pink fingers and when I asked where more than happy to speak with me about the referendum. All of them had voted yes because in their opinion they country was stalled right now. In their opinion, Hizb AlWatani, the NDP, did not play a role anymore, and even if the MB came to dominate the next parliament: a new constitution drafted by a 100 member committee was in any case better than one written by the army. And if the people eventually didn't like the new constitution, they could then simply say no in the referendum on the new constitution as foreseen by amended article 189.

When we were heading away from the school, a veiled senior lady told us to go and vote. When I told her I wasn't allowed to she engaged in a short conversation with me and told me she would vote for sure NO: „Girl, I am 65 years old, we know they are cheating on us, they are betraying us and planning something, hidden under the table.“ If it wasn't for all the other smart, determined and excited Egyptians I met today, this resolute lady would have been enough to make me optimistic.