3/9/16

International Women Day: Egyptian women under military rule

International Women Day: Egyptian women under military rule in 2016
Prepared by: The Unheard Egypt team

Egyptian women: The female political prisoners and victims of the military:


Egyptian women and girls have been at the forefront of the movement in Egypt
On International Women Day 56 Egyptian women and girl are still in prisons for crimes they haven't committed. The U.S government and the EU governments continue to remain silent about all these violations. In facts, the numbers and realities show that they support and collaborate with this regime in its oppression against women. 

For the most part, there's been very little on the politically motivated violations of human rights against females in Egypt especially after the military coup. Only a few cases received some attention but for the most part there has been a continuous neglect for the reality of this crisis from international organizations and international media. 

From Twitter: Look at the hashtags: #IWD #IWD2016 #Egypt









Heba Qashta, the first female to receive a military sentence in a military trial who's been in prison since 2014 is an example for young Egyptian women who're arrested after the military coup, and yet don't receive as much media attention or humanitarian support, mostly because of their demographics. Being low income, from outside of the center of attention (Cairo), and not looking very western are among the reasons the bias takes place. 
Heba's family and friends have been trying to raise awareness about her case on their own, where they are in the Nile Delta, and it's a very admirable effort. ‪
Heba is born in 1994 and she was involved in her own campus in a governorate outside of Cairo, these are places the western media and international human rights organizations have continuously avoided and ignored. 

For more information about Egyptian women in prison you can check out these pages:

Save Egyptian women and children!!

Egypt Queens: Imprisoned 

Bent El Thawra (The daughter of the revolution) 

The Unheard Egypt


Egyptian women who're facing military trials
*Egyptian women: The family of the political prisoner:

"My soul is imprisoned with you!" is the slogan of the Egyptian woman who's a mother, a wife, a daughter, or a sister of a political prisoner in Egypt. The families of political prisoners are going through sever hardships and are getting their share of unjust inhumane treatment by the security forces, in addition to the emotional, psychological, and financial burdens they have to go through. 


Wives and family members of political prisoners camp over night in order to be able to see their loved ones the next day!
More details on Al Aqrab prison, and the hunger strike that's ongoing there:

An Egyptian woman protests sentencing her journalist fiance for life right before their wedding, in her never worn before wedding dress:




On March 8th, 2016 a group of Egyptian women protested in several parts of the country and made a strong statement against the imprisonment and forced disappearance of their family members and friends, who are also women and girls.
These events don't get any media coverage outside of Egypt because of the demographics of the women who are participating and organizing. Unfortunately, they are not prominent secular activists from Cairo. Many of them traveled for hours to participate, many of them are regular people.
Protesting is a very courageous act in Egypt right now and has a very high price, especially for women and girls.




Please help share this, and be their voice!

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2/14/16

Alternative media resources on Egypt in 2016

Prepared by The Unheard Egypt team
Easy link: http://tinyurl.com/gmc3yq5

 Why is Egypt relevant to you?

Egypt has the largest Arab population in the Arab world, the 2nd largest population in Africa, and the 5th largest Muslim population in the world. 

Egypt is the second largest recipient of foreign aid (mostly military aid) from the United States in the world after Israel. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mexico and other countries receive similar amounts of U.S tax money so that the U.S can further continue to control the fate of these countries and their populations. The United States and other European governments continue to support the Egyptian regime regardless of the internal crisis.

Under the sight and complicity of the international community, human rights violations are committed in Egypt every single day. It helps greatly in so many ways when the outside world learns about these things taking place. 



There were incidents when young Egyptian revolutionaries were executed while the world watched in silence, or without even much media coverage. Hundreds of Egyptians are forcibly disappeared without anybody outside of their little circles knowing. Thousands of Egyptians are serving unjust sentences or remain in prison without any trials for years, without anybody else besides their family members and friends talking about it. That's why it's very important that you learn about this and let others know. 

I collected a few outlets on social media you can follow for updates in English, besides the regular stuff you might come across here and there on the big outlets that I don't have much respect for because of their bias, oversimplification, and selectivity.

1- The Unheard Egypt Media Collective:



Description:
Reporting, amplifying, and voicing the misreported, unrepresented and unheard #Egypt directly from #Egypt to the rest of the world.

Our goals and mission: 
*Amplifying non-mainstream -though important- issues and opinions in post revolution Egypt that are not considered in the current seemingly polarized/heated social and political atmosphere.

*Filling the gap created in the current non-Arabic journalistic/media narrative on post #Jan25 Egypt due to cultural/social/lingual barriers and sometime bias.

Facebook:

Twitter:

Egyptian Coordination for Rights and Freedoms

A local organization established in August 2014. They share rare and hard to find reports on human rights violations in Egypt. Their Facebook is very active and they are also cited in international media and reports released by prestigious human rights organizations. 

This is their English Facebook page:


#Occupywallstreet and Egyptian revolutionaries: United for change!


A page that was created in 2011 when some Occupy Wall Street activists became interested in working with young Egyptian revolutionaries to discuss common issues. The page is now run by Egyptian youth and posts updates from Egypt in English. 


*These are public pages run by individual Egyptian female writers from Sweden, Canada, and the United States who are working so hard to get the word out on their on.






*The following are examples for pages on Egyptian prisoners who're not very known to the outside world.



1- Freedom for Omar Ali, a journalist who's been held unjustly since April 2014




2- Freedom for Abdullah Al Fakharany, doctor, journalist, and human rights advocate arrested since August 2013 for doing his job. 


Other outlets that share updates on the revolutionary movement in Egypt and the situation there frequently:

Global Revolution Collective 

Facebook:

Twitter:

These are some Twitter accounts you can follow that I came to trust over the years: 











We will continue to update this list, please send us your suggestions! 
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11/16/15

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. 

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

Some of her work:





 

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10/16/14

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:


All the data I have shared above is collected by: 
Freedom Seekers Students Observatory (Arabic):

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

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)

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
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. 
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7/28/13

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.”




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7/3/13

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.

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
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