Asmaa Hamdy: Knitting hope in prison

Young Egyptian women in prison:

Asmaa is a 23 year old political prisoner female student from Al Azhar University, faculty of dentistry who's been in prison in Egypt for the past 2 years. She was given 5 years in prison, her fiance is still waiting for her.
This is an example for young Egyptian women who're arrested after the military coup in 2013, and yet don't receive as much media attention or humanitarian support, mostly because of their demographics.
Since the military coup, thousands of political prisoners have gone into Egyptian prisons, and not much has emerged – apart from testimonies of institutionalized torture.

Asmaa Hamdy started making handbags and bracelets for her friends and family, then fellow prisoners asked her to make some for their relatives.

This is the page calling for Asmaa's freedom. 

https://www.facebook.com/FreeAsmaaMasr/

And this is an article in English about Asmaa's case:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/25/

Some of her work:

 

The student movement in Egypt: Statistics and context

The semester of this academic year started 5 days ago in most of the Egyptian universities and the number of the students who were arrested from homes, from the street on their way to school, and from campuses already exceeds 219 students according to local rights group "Freedom Seekers Students Observatory". 

These are some statistics about detained students from their most recent reports:

Sat, October 11th: 71 students.

Sun, October 12th: 53 students.

Mon, October 13th: 18 students.

Tue, October 14th: 62 students.

Wed, October 15th: 16 students.

These are some of their faces:

All of this happened in less than one week and people in the "outside world" are paying a little more attention and wondering where that came from. 

Yet, media and commentators internationally are copying and parroting what the coup run media is reporting not sure out of laziness or naivety or with bad intentions. Everyone is still insistingly talking about "Pro-Morsi"and "Muslim Brotherhood" or "Islamist" students. This unprofessional and overly simplistic pattern is nothing new to the non-Arabic media and non-Arabic narrative anyway but for me it is even more frustrating now than ever to see this consistency in taking away credit from a unique movement that is way older than this one year old MB vs Junta fight post-coup fight. 

The movement I'm referring to here is the revolutionary student movement which developed after #Jan25. The generation of students who started or shifted their activism as a result of what took place in the past few years. 

(This is not to say that the MB or the Islamists are not part of the movement, and also not to say that the Egyptian student movement is only 4 years old).  

While I generally dislike referring to causalities and victims with numbers and statistics unfortunately, numbers are sometimes the only way to put things in perspective for so many people. 

In this case it will be an indication to the fact that things have been messed up for a long time already for students here while nobody was paying attention. It is also important for emphasizing the fact there are different factions within the Egyptian anti military dictatorship movement which started in 2011 and that they are responding in so many different ways to what's been taking place in the past 4 years.

I came across the following info-graph from a local grassroots student run rights group here and thought about making it available in English.

This graph shows the following statistics on the student movement in Egypt since the beginning of the US funded military coup July 3rd 2013. This is my translation to the information presented on it:

"The Egyptian university students between graves and prisons":

209 students were killed in protests.

1970 students arrested and are serving in prisons.

502 students expelled from university education permanently.

3 students were given an execution sentence.

The total amount of fines the detained students are required to pay is 15 million Egyptian pounds.

(Many are still in prison because they can't afford to pay their fines).

The total number of years in the sentences given to detained students is 2237 years.

It is worth mentioning that Al Azhar University comes on top in regards to the number and severity of the violations with a total of 1386 years in the sentences given to Azhari students, 13 million Egyptian pounds fines, and one execution case out of the three total executions given to students.

Top 6 universities in the number of death cases as a result of the coup forces attacking AntiCoup protests and rallies:

1- Al Azhar Islamic University in Cairo: 76 students killed.

2- Cairo University in Giza/Greater Cairo: 30 students killed.

3- Ain Shams University in Cairo: 12 students killed.

4- Helwan University in Greater Cairo: 9 students killed.

5- Zagazig University in Al Sharqiya governorate: 9 students killed.

6- Alexandria University in Alexandria: 8 students killed.  

To offer another perspective here and make things even more complicated for those of you who like to think about things in black and white, for those who keep talking about Muslim Brotherhood and Morsi supporters getting killed in Rabaa to have a moral excuse to justify a massacre, this album is a documentation of students who where killed as a result of the Rabaa massacre:

Pictures: Student victims of Rabaa

All the data I have shared above is collected by: 

Freedom Seekers Students Observatory (Arabic):

https://www.facebook.com/FreedomSeekersM

A more detailed article about the post-coup mobilization in universities (Arabic):

http://www.sasapost.com/student-mobility-in-egyptian-universities-since-the-military-coup/

For updates you can check out the following outlets I have selected just as an example to what's out there. 

Active Facebook pages:

Students Against the Coup (Official Movement Page)

https://www.facebook.com/Official.SAC

Students Against the Coup Mansoura University
https://www.facebook.com/AntiCoupMU/

Students Against the Coup in private universities in Egypt
https://www.facebook.com/SAC.PUNI/

Students Against the Coup Al Azhar University

https://www.facebook.com/sac.azhar

In the (Likes) section of these pages you will find links to the official Facebook pages of many other different universities across Egypt. 

Even if you don't read or understand Arabic there is plenty of media that you can check out (Videos and photos). 

Some people are risking getting killed and detained and others are already serving in prison for committing the crime of documenting. You can look at their faces and humanize their numbers. If you are not in a country of conflict you can think about the students in your country and the stuff they are complaining about, if you are a student you should reflect on the questions students have to deal with here which you don't have to ask yourself, the questions of of risking murder, arrest, and psychological trauma for merely being a student and speaking your mind under a military dictatorship funded and supported by big government, all of this while the whole world doesn't even want to give your existence a mention.

The least you could do to contribute is to recognize their work by simply taking a look at it. It would be very appreciated if you also shared it with others. 

On the Third Current Revolutionaries" in Egypt

An article written for The Unheard Egypt on The Third Current revolutionaries (Not to be confused with the Third Square).

(Ahrar Movement Banner says: Against the military rule, the remnants of the old regime, and the Muslim Brotherhood policies).

A design by ahrar movement against the military, the remnant of the old regime and the MB

Among the many unheard voices in Egypt are the voices of those who are committed to the revolution since day one but for many reasons were silenced and sidelined from the conversation taking place in the wide political spectrum, and were also overlooked by the media. 

This happened mainly due to the ongoing polarization and forced dichotomies in the Egyptian political sphere. The “Third Current” Egyptian revolutionaries have always been there, it is not a new phenomenon in Egypt but this mobilization came back to the surface again from several grassroots initiatives due to the dramatic recent developments in Egypt especially with the military’s moves.

But, who are the “Third Current” revolutionaries? Is there a need for having such a thing? The third current could be represented through any reasonable Egyptian thinking outside of the box, standing against the continuity of a 60+ years old military rule, against the collaboration with the figures of Mubarak regime, and critical of the Muslim Brotherhood but are not necessarily excited about bringing the Islamist vs. Secular dichotomy as an argument. 

This is also everyone who participated in the mobilizations since 2011 but are not affiliated with the different sides of the current highly polarized political conversation (Military vs MB, Secular vs. Islamist, Military and Mubarak’s remnants vs. MB).

There was a need for such grassroots straightforward initiatives to make a distinction especially with the shocking positions of many well known “revolutionaries” and “revolutionary movements” that either started allying with the old regime Egypt revolted against openly, or are taking populist opportunistic positions while sending mixed signals about their actual positions because they want to maintain a specific image internationally and locally.

In addition to that, with the claims that it’s mostly Pro-Morsi Pro-Muslim Brotherhood that are opposing the military rule now in a reactionary manner, another distinction needed to be made between the Pro-Morsi anti-military bulk and those who are critical of the Muslim Brotherhood while opposing to the military at the same time.

Recently and especially after the statements made by the minister of defense Al Sisi, it has came to our attention that the number of such initiatives have increased dramatically all over the country and in different communities, both urban and non-urban and not only restricted to Cairo or the big cities. 

We have been following the emergence of different mobilizations in this direction closely and in this piece we will highlight the most recent updates from “Ahrar Movement”, a grassroots movement that’s been actively mobilizing in different occasions and is taking the lead in many direct action events in addition to working on building a framework that’s revolutionary and inspired from Islam at the same time. The western narrative sympathetic to secular leftists in Egypt ignore the presence of such groups.

The following are translated passages from Ahrar Movement recent statements:

On the Third Current:

From a protest organized by ahrar movement recently and the sign says no to the rule of  the military, the remnant of the old regime and the MB

1- “The media (whether on TV, press, or online) is trying its best to direct people into thinking of this situation as a dual equation, so you’re either with the Muslim Brotherhood and you call for bringing Morsi and the constitution back, or you’re with those who’re clapping for the military and Al Sisi lovers!

Unfortunately, many young people accepted this, and by Allah, if we accepted this duality we will lose whatever remained from the revolution if anything remained! Find your way, young people!”

2-”Many revolutionaries know very well that the revolution is relapsing and that the military is killing whatever remained from freedom in our country but they are afraid of mobilizing against the military fearing that Morsi would be back. They must know that surrendering to the “2 options” solution is not a revolutionary act.

 The revolutionaries must open their third road. Tomorrow, everyone will pay the price of the silence towards the military violations of today. Glory to those who are abiding to their principals.”

3- “The framework we think we will be operating through in order to achieve the goals of the revolution as a third current could be summarized as follows:

A- The first angle is working on “The awareness of the Egyptian people”, this will take place through different tactics and campaigns, in order to make it clear that:

-The revolution hasn't destroyed the country.

-Islam hasn't ruled in Egypt to be blamed, the failure of some of the Islamists doesn't translate to a failure of Islam as a whole and as a governing model, and opposing these people is not equal to opposing Islam itself.

B- The second angle is: Protests and decentralized mobilizing all over the country no matter how small it is.

On Islam and Revolution:

“We think of the true revolutionary as one that must be in peace with their religion, and we think that a Muslim who is truly religious will necessarily become revolutionary. Islam’s outlook and theory on change is at its foundations revolutionary by default. Islam does not accept conciliation with the oppressors, it refuses to work under any umbrella of corruption, and it does not put personal and individual interests ahead of the Islamic approach and its principals.

Those Muslims who operate under the umbrellas of corruption, accept half-way solutions, abandon their foundational principles, adopt other ever-changing principles, raise false slogans that are not in accordance with their beliefs, and then claim to do all of this for Islam are harming nothing but Islam itself. The ends do not justify the means in Islam, both the ends and the means must be pure and in accordance to faith.

On the other hand, those who consider Islam to be an opponent to the revolution, and think they can achieve real change through a revolution whose cultural framework comes from their enemies are deluded.

The purpose of revolutions is bringing down a regime and replacing it by another, and the destination of every regime lies in its cultural framework. Whenever you call for the downfall of a regime while you hold firmly to its cultural framework you are also deluding yourself.”

Photos credit: Ahrar Movement media team

Important: Recommendations on #June30, 2013 in Egypt

Some of this was written In July 2013 before Sisi officially took over and some is right after. This perspective was very hard to find in English:

They're saying all the Anti Morsi folks are "revolutionary heroes" because opposition is always celebrated in the west even if it was opportunistic or reactionary. They're always right even if they're members of the old regime, pro-military, pro-Mubarak etc.

On the other hand, all Pro-Morsi folks are considered evil, ignorant, stupid, extremist and anti-revolution by default even if they're your family members.

This is the trendy logic nowadays everywhere, this is what the media and the activists/opposition sympathetic media is telling me to think constantly, and this is what most of the press has been suggesting but I'm not buying this, and I won't. 

*******************************************

Taken from a video after Sisi took over and overthrew Morsi:

"What do you think is the definition of democracy that we should stick with? If it's not decided by voting and polls and ballot boxes, what do you think is the way we can handle this?

Why wouldn't people who voted for Morsi be called pro-democracy activists just like we were called pro-democracy activists at the beginning of the revolution? ... What do you think is going to be the reaction of all these people who feel that their voices have not been respected? ... What do you think is left for them to resort to? ... What do you think is going to be the future of Egypt under military rule that we never got rid of? .

How about all the other people who live in other parts of the country besides Cairo's downtown... who are not as politically sophisticated as you might think we are, but don't want to see the military in power, and think that we can't be as politically active as you are because we have families and we have kids to feed and we feel that the only way to make things change here in this country would be through voting and electing a president to begin with. How do we explain things to these people?

With all the developments that are going to continue to happen, the instability and the violence, what do you think life will be like for these people? ...

Seeing two years of our lives wasted entirely and realizing that our lives might be at risk and that our future is uncertain"

On the Military Industrial Complex, SCAF, and revolutionary cheering for the junta:

  

The military never left any time actually in the last 60 something years, including last year. They're just coming to the face of the military dictatorship again, as you wished, dear "revolutionaries".

1- What you must know about the Egyptian military industrial
complex.

http://inalllanguages.blogspot.com/2013/01/what-you-must-know-about-egyptian.html

2- When a revolution calls for military rule.

http://inalllanguages.blogspot.com/2013/02/when-revolution-calls-for-military-rule.html

3- "If you're gonna try to compare civilian - even MB - government to brutality of #SCAF's rule, you're either blinded by hate or forgetful." 

"I’ve learned a basic and terrifying truth today: That many would rather see a military junta rule with impunity and autocracy than see a democratic administration govern with fecklessness and error. That many people who call themselves revolutionaries and advocates of democracy simply hate Islamism more than they love freedom. That people are fully prepared to welcome the army back to political life, with a cheer, two fingers up to those killed since 2011, and a good riddance to Egypt’s first experiment with democracy. Fuck that for a revolution."

Patrick Galey, July 1st 2013. The day the revolution died.

http://patrickgaley.com/2013/07/01/the-day-the-revolution-died/

4- Videos and images:

* Documenting SCAF's crimes
http://www.scafcrimes.net/#SCAFCrimes

*SCAF crimes documentary with English subtitles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHHi76YH7s4

*SCAF Crimes in Egypt: A Revolutionary Timeline in Photos

http://muftah.org/scaf-crimes-a-timeline/

 

On the "All secular are anti-Morsi, all religious, conservatives, Islamists are pro-Morsi sheep:  

Smashing the secular vs Islamist dichotomy:

The bearded is not a Morsi supporter and the opponent is not an infidel. #Egypt

The false secular vs Islamist dichotomy forced upon us by many lead people to label any seemingly practicing Muslim (Bearded men, Niqabi women and the like) as a supporter of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood automatically. This oversimplification makes things easier to understand for the Islamophobe westerners and easier to promote for secular Egyptians, but in reality things are not like this.
 
June 30 was also about 9 death cases confirmed, hundreds of injuries, and over than 42 sexual assaults reported in Tahrir only. Uproar in Assiut in upper Egypt where pro- and anti- folks started killing each other and people are still shooting each other outside of the main Muslim Brotherhood HQ in Cairo. 

Yes, all of this ugliness is happening behind the scene while you're enthusiastically sharing the images you find inspiring and awesome on your smart phones and Macs. There are different sides to the story, and different ways to look at it, but keep in mind when you choose to give a blind eye to reality you do this because you're still in a place of privilege.

It's true this is not affecting your life in anything, but remember it does with us.

*********

Sexual harassment in the protests in Egypt. Don't be silent!

1- Mob sexual assault on a female journalist from the Netherlands in Tahrir square On June 28th 2013:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CMBnImNySA

Another video angle to the same incident:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R7Yy_UPbNE

2- June the 30th the men talk about an attack on the women warning others from going into the area in Tahrir.
Female protesters are talking about what happened to them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E3QZmhbuho

3- Sexual assault at the presidential palace June the 30th

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4ihg7iuK1w


 http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/12565/no-apologies

Wave Of Men Targeting, Sexually Assaulting Women At Egypt’s Anti-Government Protests

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/men-targeting-sexually-assaulting-women-egypt-protests.php

The U.S hypocrisy continues in Egypt

Regardless of all the violations of human rights and the intention of the military to stay in power and continue to keep Egypt messed up, the Obama administration approved the military aid to Egypt recently.

Not surprisingly, Camp David treaty is the main reason why there's no reason to question the Military Aid. The only reason they thought about questioning it was the incident of holding a bunch of Americans hostage in Cairo by the military, who then flew back home and left the Egyptians working with them in trouble .

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/16/world/middleeast/us-military-aid-to-egypt-to-resume-officials-say.html?_r=1

"President Obama, Mrs. Clinton and other senior officials explicitly warned Egypt’s military leaders that the aid this year was at risk because of the prosecution of the American-financed organizations, which include Freedom House, the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute. The case, which began in December, continues, though Egyptian authorities, under intense pressure from the administration, lifted a travel ban on the seven American employees of the groups. The individuals were allowed to depart after the groups paid nearly $4 million in bail. "

There's absolutely nothing in their statements or comments about the military running over people by APCs and tanks made in the U.S.

Nothing about military trials for over than 16,000 civilians since Jan 28th 2011 without any legal support.

Nothing about "virginity tests" on female protesters and setting the criminals who did it free.

Nothing about attacking peaceful protests, evacuating protest camps forcibly, shooting kids in their eyes and killing hundreds of protesters by life ammunition and tear gas also made in the U.S.

While it's all available online, many people still wonder and don't know much about the Military Aid to Egypt and the strong/strategic mil-mil relationship between the Egyptian military and the U.S.   

I found this Q/A article that sums it all up (published Jan 2011) and wanted to keep these facts here in my blog as a reference and for the historical record to let Americans know what their government is doing with their education and health care money.

http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/f.a.q.-on-u.s.-aid-to-egypt-where-does-the-money-go-who-decides-how-spent

How much does the U.S. spend on Egypt? 

Egypt gets the most U.S. foreign aid of any country except for Israel. (This doesn't include the money spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.) The amount varies each year and there are many different funding streams, but U.S. foreign assistance to Egypt has averaged just over $2 billion every year since 1979, when Egypt struck a peace treaty with Israel following the Camp David Peace Accords, according to a Congressional Research Service report from 2009.

That average includes both military and economic assistance, though the latter has been in decline since 1998, according to CRS.

What about military aid—how much is it, and what does it buy?  

According to the State Department, U.S. military aid to Egypt totals over $1.3 billion annually in a stream of funding known as Foreign Military Financing.

U.S. officials have long argued that the funding promotes strong ties between the two countries’ militaries, which in turn has all sorts of benefits. For example, U.S. Navy warships get “expedited processing” through the Suez Canal.

Here’s a 2009 U.S. embassy cable recently released by WikiLeaks that makes essentially the same point: 

President Mubarak and military leaders view our military assistance program as the cornerstone of our mil-mil relationship and consider the USD 1.3 billion in annual FMF as "untouchable compensation" for making and maintaining peace with Israel. The tangible benefits to our mil-mil relationship are clear: Egypt remains at peace with Israel, and the U.S. military enjoys priority access to the Suez Canal and Egyptian airspace.

The military funding also enables Egypt to purchase U.S.-manufactured military goods and services, a 2006 report from the Government Accountability Office explained [PDF]. The report criticized both the State Department and the Defense Department for failing to measure how the funding actually contributes to U.S. goals.

Does this aid require Egypt to meet any specific conditions regarding human rights?

No. Defense Secretary Gates stated in 2009 that foreign military financing “should be without conditions.”

Gates prefaced that comment by saying that the Obama administration, like other U.S. administrations, is “always supportive of human rights.”

The administration of former president George W.  Bush had threatened to link military assistance to Egypt’s human rights progress, but it didn’t follow through. When exiled Egyptian dissident, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, called on the U.S. government to attach conditions to aid to Egypt, U.S. officials dismissed the idea as unrealistic.

Who benefits from the military aid?

Obviously the aid benefits Egypt’s military and whatever government it supports, which has so far been Mubarak’s. Foreign military financing is a great deal for Egypt—it gets billions in no-strings-attached funding to modernize its armed forces and replace old Soviet weapons with advanced U.S. weaponry and military equipment.

According to the State Department, that equipment has included fighter jets, tanks, armored personnel carriers, Apache helicopters, anti-aircraft missile batteries and aerial surveillance aircraft.

Egypt can purchase this equipment either through the U.S. military or directly from U.S. defense contractors, and it can do so on credit. In 2006, the GAO noted that Egypt had entered some defense contracts in advance of—and in excess of—its military assistance appropriations. Some of those payments wouldn’t be due in full until 2011, the GAO said.

The other group that benefits from this aid arrangement is U.S. defense contractors. As we reported with Sunlight Foundation, contractors including BAE Systems, General Dynamics, General Electric, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin have all done business with the Egyptian government through relationships facilitated by high-powered DC lobbyists.

What about economic aid?

U.S. economic aid to Egypt has declined over the years, but is generally in the hundreds of millions annually.

Some of this aid also comes back to benefit the U.S. through programs such as the Commodity Import Program. Under that program, the U.S. gives Egypt millions in economic aid to import U.S. goods. The State Department, on its website, describes it as “one of the largest and most popular USAID programs.”

Others were not as successful. A 2006 inspector general’s audit of a 4-year, $57-million project to increase jobs and rural household incomes found that the U.S. investment “has not increased the number of jobs as planned” among participants [PDF]. A 2009 audit of a $151 million project to modernize Egypt’s financial sector found that while the country’s real estate finance market experienced significant growth throughout the project’s duration, USAID’s efforts were “not clearly measurable” [PDF] and the growth could be due to market forces or the Egyptian government's actions.

Critics of the Obama administration’s economic aid to Egypt have noted that in 2007, for instance, such aid only amounted to $6 per capita, compared with the $40.80 per capita spent on Jordan that same year. Ahmad El-Naggar, economic researcher at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, criticized the U.S. in 2009 for focusing on “programs valued for strict ideological reasons,” and not on the country’s growing poverty and unemployment rate—two issues fueling the current protests.

What about funding for democracy promotion and civil society?

Funding for programs that promote democracy and good governance through direct funding to NGOs in Egypt averaged about $24 million from fiscal year 1999 to 2009. But these, too, had “limited impact,” due to “a lack of Egyptian government cooperation,” according to an October 2009 inspector general audit [PDF]:

The Government of Egypt has resisted USAID/Egypt’s democracy and governance program and has suspended the activities of many U.S. NGOs because Egyptian officials thought these organizations were too aggressive.

Recently released cables from WikiLeaks show that officials within the Egyptian government have asked that USAID stop financing organizations that were “not properly registered as NGOs” with the Egyptian government. AFP reports on a 2007 embassy cable that describes President Mubarak as “deeply skeptical of the US role in democracy promotion.”

Per the Egyptian government’s complaints, the U.S. now limits its funding to NGOs registered with the government, therefore excluding most human rights groups, Huffington Post reported. Such funding has also declined sharply under the Obama administration.

_______________________________________________

You are responsible and we can't deal with your government's problems in Egypt anymore because we have exhausted all the available solutions.

 It's your time to do something.