Egyptians who took to the streets in mass protests in January 2011 demanding the downfall of Mubarak's authoritarian regime were rebelling --- amongst other things --- against restrictions on their civil liberties and infringement on their rights....
Egyptian Salafi preacher Ahmed Mahmoud Abdulla — known as Abou Islam — recently made remarks justifying sexual violence against female protesters in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, claiming that women who join protests are asking “to get raped”. The preacher, who owns private religious television channel Al-Ummah, has previously stirred controversy when he burnt a Bible outside the US Embassy in Cairo during last year’s protests over anti-Islam film the Innocence of Muslims. In a video posted online last Wednesday, Abdulla said that women who join the protests are “either crusaders who have no shame or widows who have noone to control them”. He also described them as “devils”, and added that “they talk like monsters”. A few days before he made […]
Over the weekend, an Egyptian court approved a month-long ban on YouTube, for refusal to remove controversial anti-Islam film the Innocence of Muslims. In addition to a ban on YouTube, the same court ordered a ban on any other website hosting the...
Thousands of protesters took to the streets in three Suez Canal cities on Monday night, defying a night-time curfew and a month-long state of emergency declared by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi a day earlier. "Down with Mohamed Morsi! No to the...
A 27 year-old Egyptian blogger has been released on bail pending an appeal of his 12 December conviction for blasphemy and contempt of religion. He was sentenced to three years in jail. A Coptic Christian turned atheist, Alber Saber was arrested at...
An Egyptian journalist covering Wednesday's clashes outside the presidential palace in Heliopolis between Islamist supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Morsi has been declared clinically dead after sustaining gunshot wounds to the head....
The ideological battle for Egypt's soul has intensified in recent weeks. Rising tensions threaten to polarise a country wracked by deep divisions over the role Islam will play in the “new” Egypt. Many of the revolutionary activists who participated...
Maher El Gohary is a broken and defeated man who has grown tired of life on the run. After a four-year battle to have the Egyptian state recognise his Christian faith, he is seriously contemplating reverting to Islam. "I am seen as an outcast and...
It's been nearly two years since the mass uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, but Egypt's film makers are still plagued by censorship they say is stifling their creativity. Religion and sex remain high on the censors' list of "taboo...
The women of Egypt played a huge role in the uprising that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak. They were on the frontlines, standing shoulder to shoulder with men in Cairo's Tahrir Square, demanding "Bread, Freedom and Social Justice." Their...