Podcasts about tahrir institute

In roughly ten days, opposition forces in Syria were able to accomplish more than they did in a decade and topple the tyrannical Assad regime. But as the dust settles, Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham – the U.S. designated terrorist organization that led the march to Damascus – will have to prove that it has moved on from its anti-Western Jihadist ideology and is committed to rebuilding a Syrian state that meets the needs of its people. Why did Assad's regime collapse so quickly? And what does the future of Syrian governance look like? Hassan Hassan is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of New Lines Magazine, an initiative of the New Lines Institute, and the founder of the institute's Human Security Unit. Previously, he was a Senior Fellow at the Program on Extremism at George Washington University and the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. He is the co-author of the New York Times bestseller ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror (2016, Reagan Arts). Read the transcript here. Subscribe to our Substack here.

As the Assad government falls, Israel seizes more territory in Syria's Golan Heights. That move tears up a 50-year-old agreement. But Israeli far-right ministers says their country's borders should extend further to Damascus. So what are Israel's plans in Syria? In this episode: Robert Geist Pinfold, Lecturer, International Peace and Security, Durham University. Akiva Eldar, Political Analyst and Veteran Journalist. Salma Daoudi, Non-resident fellow, Tahrir Institute, Middle East Policy. Host: Dareen Abughaida Connect with us:@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook At Al Jazeera Podcasts, we want to hear from you, our listeners. So, please head to https://www.aljazeera.com/survey and tell us your thoughts about this show and other Al Jazeera podcasts. It only takes a few minutes!

Returning home to ruins. A ceasefire is in place in Lebanon, ending more than a year of conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. Will the US brokered agreement hold? In this episode: Jamal Ghosn, Member, Editorial Board, Al Akhbar Newspaper. Randa Slim, Director, Conflict Resolution Program, Middle East Institute. Drew Mikhael, Non-resident Fellow, Tahrir Institute of Middle East Policy.  Host: Tom McRae Connect with us:@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook At Al Jazeera Podcasts, we want to hear from you, our listeners. So, please head to https://www.aljazeera.com/survey and tell us your thoughts about this show and other Al Jazeera podcasts. It only takes a few minutes!

Recording of our November 14, 2024 webinar. This conversation was hosted by Hadar Susskind. Along with special guest Allison McManus, we discussed what a second Trump administration may hold for Israel-Palestine peacebuilding work. We covered Trump's recent appointee nominations, the effects of potential policies on our agenda, as well as how the US-Israel relationship could shift with Trump back in the White House. Allison McManus is a managing director for the National Security and International Policy department at American Progress. Prior to joining American Progress, she was the managing director at the Freedom Initiative, where she advocated for political prisoners in the Middle East and North Africa. She also served as the research director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy from 2014 to 2019.

Reem Abbas and Yousef Munayyer discuss the civil war in Sudan, which started a year ago in April 2023 and has regional actors supporting different sides of the conflict. Abbas is the Mohamed Aboelgheit Fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.

A new year and a new season of The New Arab Voice podcast. This week, we continue with the story that has dominated the Middle since October: the war in Gaza. While we were away the violence did not cease nor slow down. The death toll has now passed 23,000, the vast majority women and children. Additionally, over 60,000 have been injured. There have been developments related to the war in Gaza that have occurred beyond Gaza's borders. The first is the killing of Hamas deputy Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut on 2 January, and the second is South Africa's genocide filing at the International Court of Justice. This week we look at the killing of Arouri and examine what it means for the prospect of the war in Gaza escalating into a wider regional conflict. Will Hezbollah join the fight and open a second front in northern Israel? Will Iran launch a direct strike against Israel? And how will Iran use its network of militias in the region?Secondly, we look at the recent filing by South Africa at the International Court of Justice, where Israel was accused of committing genocide. Will the filing be able to stop the violence in Gaza? Will it create a path for accountability? Will the filing work as a part of a pressure campaign?To guide us through the prospects of an escalating conflict we're joined by Dr. Hamidreza Azizi (@HamidRezaAz), a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International Security Affairs (@SWPBerlin). And to help us understand what has unfolded at the International Court of Justice, we speak with Mai El-Sadany (@maitelsadany), the Executive Director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (@TimepDC).Sign up to our newsletter here. This podcast is written and produced by Hugo Goodridge (@hugogoodridge). Theme music by Omar al-Fil. To get in touch with the producers, follow then tweet us at @TheNewArabVoice. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Time and time again, we've witnessed the familiar cycle: Israel launches a brutal bombing campaign on Gaza, putting Palestine into the global spotlight. Palestinian voices are often sidelined in mainstream discourse. So, Palestinians turn to the only available tool they have: social media. It becomes their primary means to share their stories and amplify their voices. However, this very tool is frequently subjected to censorship. Since October 7, we've seen this censorship take on new heights. For example, WhatsApp's AI image generator created emojis of gun-wielding children when prompted with ‘Palestinian,' and Instagram's AI-translation model replaced “Palestinianالحمد الله” with “Palestinian Terrorist”. Palestinian accounts are being shadowbanned and posts are throttled. But the problem, of course, is deeper than that. Palestinian voices, especially those of journalists and human rights defenders, face significant and disproportionate censorship and limited reachability in times of crisis. Host Diana Buttu speaks with Mona Shtaya to help make sense of it all. Mona is the Campaigns and Partnerships Manager and Corporate Engagement Lead at Digital Actions. She also holds the position of a non-resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP), where her focus lies on surveillance and digital rights in the MENA region. She also serves as a non-resident scholar for the Middle East Institute (MEI) in the Cyber Security and Emerging Technology Program and the Palestine-Israel program. Prior to her current role, she worked as the Advocacy and Communications Manager at 7amleh - The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media.

Whether the motive is politics or profit, Cairo is in the midst of a construction boom that threatens what was already a commodity in short supply in Egypt — public and green spaces. Megaprojects such as a new capital city set to open this year have also severely strained the country's budget and created the possibility Egypt will default on its foreign debt. When Omar Etman went to stay with his grandmother in Cairo in 2021, he was surprised by the changes he found — some small, some massive.  In this episode:  Omar Etman (@thedigradio), producer of The Dig Presents: A Garden in Cairo Timothy Kaldas (@tekaldas), Deputy Director, Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy Episode credits: This episode was produced by David Enders, Negin Owliaei and Malika Bilal. Alexandra Locke and Negin Owliaei fact-checked this episode. Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our lead of audience development and engagement is Aya Elmileik. Munera Al Dosari and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers. Alexandra Locke is The Take's executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera's head of audio. Connect with us: @AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

The fighting between the Sudanese armed forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has taken a grave toll on civilians throughout the country. Hundreds of thousands have fled Sudan and those staying behind in urban areas are facing severe shortages of basic necessities. On 22 May, the conflict parties negotiated yet another ceasefire in their talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. But since every previous ceasefire has been broken, hope is faint that this one will hold.This week on The Horn, Alan interviews Reem Abbas, a non-resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy and a Sudanese activist and researcher, to discuss her first-hand encounter with the fighting in Khartoum and her arduous journey out of Sudan to Egypt. They discuss what life is now like in Khartoum, the systematic destruction of the city, the exodus of the Sudanese elite and the long-term implications for the country. They also talk about how the two parties are faring militarily, why the fighting might not end soon and how civilian actors should organise themselves. For more in-depth analysis on the situation in Sudan, check out our Sudan country page. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hamid Khalafallah is a non-resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy focusing on inclusive governance and mobilization in Sudan. He is also a program officer for the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), supporting Sudan's democratic transition. In this interview, Hamid Khalafallah shares his take on Sudan's militarized conflict.

In a stunning 11th-hour settlement, just as opening arguments were set to start, Fox chose to cut a huge check, rather than face a jury, for knowingly lying about the Dominion Voting machine company and the 2020 US presidential election. Dominion's CEO says it's a big step forward for democracy. But Fox does not have to admit on its air that it defamed Dominion Voting Systems. Floyd Abrams is the doyen of First Amendment law in the US and speaks to Christiane about the impact this will have on America's democracy.  Also on today's show: Hamid Khalafallah, Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy; screenwriter Anna Winger; journalist Mike Giglio To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

It's been three years since the Sudanese Revolution, a massive grassroots campaign that ousted the country's longtime dictator Omar Al-Bashir. Now, Sudan is back under military control … but calls for change from the country's pro-democracy movement are only getting louder.   On this week's episode, Ray brings us to the frontlines of Sudan's daily street protests, guided by activist and researcher Muzan Alneel. Then, guest host Hana Baba speaks with Declan Walsh, Chief Africa Correspondent for the New York Times, about Russia's shadow investments in Sudan and how Putin's aggressive policy in Africa may have predicted his invasion of Ukraine. Hana sits down with Kholood Khair, a Khartoum-based political strategist, and Bakri Ali, a diaspora organizer, to discuss the failings of US policy in Sudan and the revolution's importance to democracy movements everywhere.   Guests:     Muzan Alneel, pro-democracy activist and nonresident fellow at The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy Declan Walsh, Chief Africa correspondent at The New York Times Bakri Ali, Sudanese diaspora activist and aerospace engineer Kholood Khair, political strategist and founder of Confluence Advisory  Hosts:   Ray Suarez Hana Baba, guest host of On Shifting Ground, host of KALW's Crosscurrents   If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.

This week, on The New Arab Voice we're exploring what's happening at Egypt's COP27 and what this means for climate justice in the Middle East and North Africa. With the world's attention on Sharm el-Sheikh, the episode unpicks the main points of discussion among delegates and activists; namely, climate financing and civic participation. It looks at the solutions presented to help developing nations tackle climate change and whether these solutions can be effective given systematic restrictions on civic spaces. We speak to a whole range of climate campaigners, including Dan Hodd, a violin-playing activist who decided to travel to COP27 without flying (aroundwithoutwings); Zeina Hajj, Head of Global Campaigning at 350.org (@zeinaalhajj), and Ahmed El Droubi, the Regional Campaigns Manager for Greenpeace MENA (@Greenpeace). We also reached out to researchers and activists who decided to boycott the conference. Achref Chibani, a non-resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy and a regular contributor to the Arab Centre Washington DC (@ChibaniAchref), told us why COP27 can't be legitimately viewed as an “African COP”. Finally, Richard Pearshouse from Human Rights Watch (@RPearshouse) is on the podcast discussing whether this event - given the widespread attention given to Egypt's poor human rights record - could be a turning point when it comes to understanding the importance of civic society in a just green transition. This podcast is written and produced by Rosie McCabe with help from Lyse Mauvais and Hugo Goodridge. Theme music by Omar al-Fil. Other music by Blue Dot Sessions. To get in touch with the producers, follow then tweet us at @TheNewArabVoice or email hugo.goodridge@alaraby.co.uk.

Join Haymarket Books and Internationalism From Below for a discussion of the relation between US imperialism and its regional alliances in the Middle East. ***Please note: This discussion was recorded on May 24, 2022 and while the situation on the ground has changed, we hope the background provided here remains informative.*** The US empire relies on regional alliances with countries whose interests don't always align 100% with US interests. This panel will focus on the regional alliance among Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Israel and their role as partners of US imperialism. Speakers: Aslı Bâli is Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law, Founding Faculty Director of the Promise Institute for Human Rights, and former Director of the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies. Her research focuses on public international law—including human rights and humanitarian law—and comparative constitutional law, with a focus on the Middle East. She co-chairs the Advisory Council for the Middle East and North Africa Division of Human Rights Watch and chairs the Middle East Studies Association Task Force on Civil and Human Rights and the MESA Global Academy. Jamie Allinson is a senior lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, where he teaches courses in the politics of the Middle East. He is a member of the Salvage editorial collective and the author of The Age of Counter-Revolution: States and Revolutions in the Middle East (Cambridge University Press, 2022). His previous book, The Struggle for the State in Jordan: The Social Origins of Alliances in the Middle East (2016), was co-winner of the Jadaliyya Political Economy Book Prize. Allison McManus is the research director of the Freedom Initiative, where she leads a team of researchers in documenting prison-related abuses and advocating for detainees in the Middle East and North Africa. She is also a member of the steering committee of the U.S. Committee to End Political Repression in Egypt. Previously she was research director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. Moderator: Joel Beinin is a member of the steering committee of the U.S. Committee to End Political Repression in Egypt. He is Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History and Professor of Middle East History, Emeritus at Stanford University. His many books include Workers and Peasants in the Modern Middle East (2001) and Workers and Thieves: Labor Movements and Popular Uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt (2015). --------------------------------------------------------- This event is sponsored by the US Committee to End Political Repression in Egypt, Internationalism from Below, Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP), Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), The Freedom Initiative, DSA International Committee, and Haymarket Books. While all of our events are freely available, we ask that those who are able make a solidarity donation in support of our important organizing, programming and publishing work. Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/sf30lzByj9c Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks

Join Sudanese revolutionaries from on the ground to discuss the flourishing of revolutionary bodies and resurgence of the uprising in Sudan. To hear the original Arabic audio from the speakers, see https://youtu.be/xHCa5rjyLbU. The 2019 revolution in Sudan, which overthrew longtime President Omar al-Bashir, was the earliest of a second-wave of uprisings that has swept from Algeria to Iraq, reigniting the hope of the 2011 revolutions in the region. The uprising, known in Sudan as the December Revolution, culminated in August 2019 in a civilian-military partnership, for what was to be a “transition” to full civilian rule. But in October 2021, a military coup drove out the civilian coalition partners. The resistance that the coup has sparked since has breathed new life into the revolutionary movement in the country, and accelerated the evolution of organizing in a way that bears lessons for movements for social justice everywhere. In response to the coup, widespread mobilizations, led by Sudan's neighborhood-level resistance committees, have produced ongoing strikes, civil disobedience and protests demanding an end to the military coup and the formation of a fully civilian, revolutionary government to decide the country's leadership and its future, and to reclaim control of its looted resources for the benefit of communities. Revolutionary bodies, in particular the network of neighborhood resistance committees which now spread across the country, have pushed the struggle forward beyond previous compromises. They have also offered an alternative model of resistance and governance that presents a clear break from the elite politics of the past. Though the revolution in Sudan has so far been formidable in the face of repression, it faces immense challenges, given the ways in which regional and international counter-revolutionary forces have coalesced to back the military. This leaves us with a crucial question: how can this struggle, whose outcome will have consequences beyond Sudan's borders, go on to achieve its slogan, “freedom, peace and justice”? To explore that question, the panel will highlight voices and analysis of Sudanese activists who are deeply involved in the revolution, and who will provide their take on the stakes involved and the aims, strategies and tactics of the movement. Panelists: Muzan Alneel is a cofounder of the Innovation, Science and Technology Think Tank for People-Centered Development (ITSinaD) — Sudan and a nonresident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP), focusing on a people-centric approach to economy, industry, and environment in Sudan. Recent writings include The People of Sudan Don't Want to Share Power With Their Military Oppressors (Jacobin) and Why the Burhan-Hamdok deal will not stabilise Sudan (Al Jazeera). Monifa Bandele (moderator) sits on the policy table leadership team for the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL), as well as the steering committee for the New York-based Communities United for Police Reform, representing the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement in both coalitions. Abdulsalam Mindas is an Agronomist with a Bachelor in Agricultural Studies from Sudan University of Science and Technology. He is the official spokesperson for the coordination of Ombada Resistance committees and one of the two official spokespersons for the resistance committees of greater Omdurman. This event is sponsored by Africa Is A Country, Haymarket Books, Internationalism From Below, Jadaliyya, Review of African Political Economy, Spring magazine, and the following departments at Bryn Mawr College: Africana Studies, Latin American, Iberian and Latina/o Studies (LAILS), Middle Eastern Studies, Political Science. Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/8SLRcnbDQrc Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks

This event was co-organised by the LSE Middle East Centre and the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa at the LSE. On 25 October 2021, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan declared a state of emergency in Sudan, dissolving the government and detaining civilian leadership. Burhan is leader of the joint ruling council. The council's official goal is to hand over leadership to civilians ahead of elections in 2023 Since the beginning of the coup, the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors, an independent union of medics, have estimated that more than 200 people have been wounded in anti-coup protests and at least 23 been killed (as of 15 November 2021). Civilians have been taking to the streets daily, promising to keep up the pressure on the transitional military-civilian authority. Speakers will discuss the historical and political context of the latest coup, the effects of the military crackdown on the ground and the international response. Muzan Alneel is a Nonresident Fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP) focusing on people-centric approach to economy, industry, and environment in Sudan. She is a writer and public speaker with an interdisciplinary professional and academic background (engineering, socioeconomics, public policy). Muzan is the co-founder of The Innovation, Science and Technology Think-tank for People Centered Development (ISTiNAD) – Sudan. Nafisa Eltahir is a correspondent covering political and economic news in Sudan as well as Egypt for Reuters News. Before her current posting she reported on the Gulf out of Dubai, and was a fellow at The Intercept. Magdi el-Gizouli is a scholar of the Sudans and a fellow of the Rift Valley Institute. He writes mostly on Sudans' affairs, often on his blog StillSUDAN. Laura Mann is a sociologist and research affiliate of the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa, whose research focuses on the political economy of development, knowledge and technology. Her regional focus is East Africa, particularly Sudan, Kenya and Rwanda, where she has conducted collaborative research on ICTs and digitisation within global agriculture. Before joining the LSE as an assistant professor, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford and at the African Studies Centre in Leiden, and received her PhD from the University of Edinburgh. She is on the Editorial Working Group of the Review of African Political Economy.

Join us for this forum on the military coup in Sudan and the mass resistance against it. In 2019, Sudan's mass democratic uprising toppled the country's despised dictator, Omar al-Bashir, and secured a power sharing agreement between civilian leaders and the military with the promise of elections for a new government. In October 2021 the military reneged on that pledge and carried out a coup, arresting activists across the country. The people have now returned to the streets in mass numbers to defend their revolution. Speakers: Raga Makawi is a Sudanese democracy activist living in London. She is principal editor on the Debating Ideas platform at African Arguments, as well as leading publications and website administrator at the Rift Valley Institute (RVI). She is co-author of Sudan's Unfinished Democracy: The Promise and Betrayal of a People's Revolution (forthcoming in March from Hurst Publishers) and Honorary Research Associate at the Institute for Humanities in Africa (HUMA). Previously, she was a commissioning editor with Zed Books. Muzan Alneel is an activist and writer in Sudan. She is co-founder and Managing Director of the Innovation, Science and Technology Think Tank for People-Centered Development (ISTiNAD) in Khartoum and is a non-resident Fellow of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP), focusing on a people-centric approach to economy, industry and the environment in Sudan. She also consults on industrial policy at the Industrial Research and Consultancy Center (IRCC) in Sudan. Jean-Baptiste Gallopin is a researcher working on the Horn of Africa. The former Sudan researcher at Amnesty International, he has written on the role of the UAE and Saudi Arabia in Sudan's counter-revolution and the political economy of the Sudanese transition. His writing has appeared in Le Monde Diplomatique, the London Review of Books, Democracy & Security, and the Project on Middle East Political Science. He holds a PhD in sociology from Yale. This event is co-sponsored by Internationalism from Below, the Tempest Collective, Africa is a Country, DSA AfroSocialists & Socialists of Color Caucus, Dissenters, New Politics, Review of African Political Economy (ROAPE), Spring Magazine, and Haymarket Books. Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/OihwYEacdpA Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks

On this episode of SEPADPod Simon speaks with Ruba Ali Al Hassani, post doctoral research fellow at Lancaster University. Ruba is the author of a number of articles, chapters and opinion pieces including the wonderful 'Storytelling: Restorative Approaches to Post-2003 Iraq Peacebuilding' in the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding. Ruba was also a fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy where she authored a number of pieces including the battle for state sovereignty. timep.org/commentary/analysis/…r-state-sovereignty/. She tweets @RubaAlHassani. On this episode, Simon and Ruba speak about engaging in political questions from different disciplinary backgrounds, the importance of story telling, protests and much more. Here's a reference to the chapter discussed in the podcast. Ruba Ali Al-Hassani (forthcoming 2021) "Iraq's October Revolution: Between Structures of Patriarchy and Emotion",  Palgrave Handbook on Communication and Gender in MENA. Please do like, share and subscribe in all the usual ways. We even have a jingle now (thanks Eddie) so we're contractually obliged to ask you to do this.

A whistleblower, a system crash and the United States Congress on its case; Facebook goes under the microscope, yet again. Contributors: Pranesh Prakash - Co-founder, Centre for Internet and Society; affiliated fellow, Information Society Project, Yale Law School Siva Vaidhyanathan - Professor, University of Virginia; author, Antisocial Media Marianne Franklin - Professor of global media and politics, Goldsmiths, University of London Mahsa Alimardani - Researcher, Oxford Internet Institute On our radar: The Pandora Papers - the largest investigation in journalism history - are reverberating through the financial world of the rich and powerful. Producer Flo Phillips tells Richard Gizbert about the biggest ever leaks of offshore data and who they have exposed. The case of Egypt's jailed TikTok stars The Egyptian government has been progressively tightening its grip on cyberspace and female social media influencers are the new targets. Contributors: Yasmin Omar - Egypt legal associate, The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy; human rights lawyer Joey Shea - Non-resident scholar, Middle East Institute Dalia Fahmy - Associate professor, Long Island University, Brooklyn

Join a panel of experts for a discussion of el-Sisi's role in repressing human rights in Egypt and Palestine. Trump's reference to Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as his “favorite dictator” revealed the former US president's penchant for lawlessness and authoritarian rule. But the Biden administration continues to provide carte blanche for Sisi's widespread repression and human rights abuses, based on the premise that Egypt plays an important role in enforcing US policies for the region, in particular as a mediator between Palestinians and Israel. This Realpolitik logic of unconditional support for tyrants is shortsighted. The Sisi regime is currently imprisoning an estimated 60,000 political prisoners while it also plays a central role in maintaining the longstanding blockade of Gaza and jails Palestine solidarity activists in Egypt. This forum will address the state of human rights in Egypt, Sisi's role in besieging Palestinians (in collusion with Israel and the Palestinian Authority), how US policy fuels repression in Egypt and Egypt's nefarious role in Israel-Palestine, and what progressives can do to improve human rights conditions for Egyptians and Palestinians. Speakers: Raed Jarrar is Advocacy Director for Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN). Since immigrating to the U.S. in 2005, he has worked as a lobbyist on political issues pertaining to the U.S. engagement in the Arab world. Widely recognized as an expert on political, social, and economic developments in the MENA region, he has testified in numerous Congressional hearings and briefings. He is a frequent guest on national and international media outlets in Arabic and English, including CNN, MSNBC, NPR, the BBC, Al Jazeera, and Sky News Arabia. Yasmin Omar, a human rights lawyer, is Egypt Legal Associate at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP). She has been a practicing human rights lawyer for the last nine years. She has worked with several NGOs in Egypt and is a member of the Front of Defense for Egyptian Protesters. She holds an L.L.M. from Syracuse University with a focus on counter-terrorism, national security, and refugee and asylum law. Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch, investigates human rights abuses in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. Prior to his current role, he was a Bertha Fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights, where he focused on US counterterrorism policies, including legal representation of Guantanamo detainees. As the 2013-14 Arthur R. and Barbara D. Finberg Fellow at Human Rights Watch, he investigated human rights violations in Egypt, including the Rab'a massacre, one of the largest killings of protesters in a single day. Ted Swedenburg (moderator) is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Arkansas. He is the author of Memories of Revolt: The 1936-39 Rebellion and the Palestinian National Past and co-editor of Palestine, Israel and the Politics of Popular Culture and Displacement, Diaspora and Geographies of Identity. ---------------------------------------------------- This event is co-sponsored by the Middle East Research & Information Project (MERIP), US Committee to End Political Repression in Egypt, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), Internationalism from Below, and Haymarket Books. While all of our events are freely available, we ask that those who are able make a solidarity donation in support of our important publishing and programming work. Learn more about our sponsors: MERIP: https://merip.org/ DAWN: https://usegyptsolidarity.org/ Internationalism From Below: https://www.facebook.com/intlfrombelow/ Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/2Gbf3Tfkwc0 Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks

What did protestors in Syria want? How does it feel to voice your opinion and show solidarity with your fellow citizens for the first time in a totalitarian state? How did protests in one part of the country differ from another? How quickly did the Assad regime resort to brutalizing and massacring protestors? (answer: very quickly) Suhail al-Ghazi is Non-Resident Fellow at the Tahrir Institute and a Syrian dissident from Damascus now based in Istanbul. He was arrested twice for political activism before he joined the 6.6 million people forced to flee the country. You can follow him on Twitter at @putintintin.

Join us for a panel discussion on the brutal repression of political dissenters in Egypt since 2016 and how to build solidarity. Since 2016, the tyrannical regime of Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has built 30 new prisons to house the estimated 70,000+ political prisoners incarcerated since Sisi seized power in 2013. Egyptian civil society activists and journalists have been especially targeted. But the Sisi regime also routinely imprisons anyone whose speech, writing, or actions express the slightest criticism or deviation from its official line: be they doctors speaking out about deficiencies in Covid-19 treatment, lawyers denouncing corruption, Facebook posters or Tik-Tok influencers. Prisoners of conscience are disappeared, held in solitary confinement without trial, and denied access to food, health care, and family visits. Torture is widespread. Despite this, Western countries continue to maintain warm relations with Egypt. French president Emmanuel Macron recently presented Sisi with his country's highest public award, the Légion d'honneur. Trump famously referred to Sisi as his “favorite dictator,” but there is no sign that US-Egyptian relations will be any different under President Biden: just days after Egyptian security forces detained family members of human rights activist and dual US-Egyptian national Mohamed Soltan, the State Department announced it is considering a sale of missiles to Egypt worth $197 million. Please join us for an urgent discussion about this situation and how to build solidarity with Egyptian activists facing this horrific repression. Speakers: Mohamed Soltan, human rights activist and former political prisoner in Egypt. Mohamed was imprisoned in the crackdown on pro-democracy activists following the July 3, 2013 coup d'état. He engaged in a 489-day hunger strike to protest his unjust imprisonment and was released in May 2015. He is a co-founder of the Freedom Initiative, a human rights organization dedicated to the release of political prisoners in the Middle East. @soltan Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of the organization Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN). Previously, she served as executive director of the Middle East and North Africa Division of Human Rights Watch (2004 – 2020), overseeing the work of the division in 19 countries. She has led dozens of advocacy and investigative missions throughout the region, focusing on issues of armed conflict, accountability, legal reform, migrant workers, and human rights. @sarahleah1 Hussein Baoumi, researcher on Egypt and Libya for Amnesty International. Prior to joining Amnesty International, he was a fellow with the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy in Washington, Programs Director at the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms in Cairo, and an international fellow with Dejusticia, a Bogotá-based organization dedicated to social justice and human rights in Colombia and the Global South. @husseinmagdy16 ---------------------------------------------------- This event is sponsored by Internationalism From Below, the Arab Studies Institute, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP), and Haymarket Books. While all of our events are freely available, we ask that those who are able make a solidarity donation in support of our important publishing and organizing work. Watch the live event recording: https://youtu.be/EY-CP1_BURs Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks

“Writer, criminal, and ex-journalist” Ahmed Naji released two books in 2020: the speculative fiction novel (والنمور لحجرتي) AndtheTigers to My Room (2020) and the nonfiction work (حرز مكمكم) Rotten Evidence: Reading and Writing in Prison (2020). Show Notes:  Find more about Ahmed's books, short stories, and essays in Arabic and in English translation at ahmednaji.net/ An excerpt of Rotten Evidence appeared in The Believer in Katharine Halls' excellent translation. Another excerpt appeared in The Michigan Quarterly Review. He spoke about the book in July 2019 at an event in New York City. Read a brief history of the court case against Ahmed at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP). Ahmed's “Re-Writing the Future: The Tanta Museum of White History” appears in Arts of the Working Class. It too was translated by Katharine Halls.

When uprisings took place throughout the Middle East and North Africa in 2011, it seemed like Egypt would be the big success story. But in the last few months, civil rights activists say it has become a nightmare. In October, the government more than doubled its pace of executions, putting nearly 60 people to death. In November, Egyptian state security arrested three prominent human rights leaders with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, or EIPR. Executive director Gasser Abdel-Razek and colleagues Kareem Ennarah and Mohamed Basheer were held on terrorism charges after they met with Western diplomats.Related: Photo essay: Arab uprisings began with quest for freedom“The EIPR is kind of Egypt’s ACLU or the NAACP,” said Ramy Yaacoub, founder and executive director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy in Washington, DC. “It's that revolutionary and it's that important.”Yaacoub said the arrests hit a raw nerve. It seems like the country is at its lowest point, he said, 10 years after such a hopeful moment during the so-called Arab Spring. A protest movement led by young Egyptians did the unthinkable in February 2011 — deposing military dictator Hosni Mubarak.Related: Egypt social media censorship targets women on TikTok“And I can tell you ... initially there was so much freedom of speech and freedom of expression, assembly, I didn't believe it,” Yaacoub said.  But by April 2011, he remembers thinking that the different revolutionary factions were struggling to work together. “We were successful in creating a political vacuum,” Yaacoub said. “The only people that were around to offer ... a viable option or an alternative were the Muslim Brotherhood and their affiliates. They were prepared and ready.”The Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi was elected president. That was something the Egyptian military would not let stand. Yaacoub said by June 2013, he realized the military was going to win the power struggle.  Related: Egypt's Mubarak, ousted by popular revolt in 2011, dies aged 91“I remember writing on Twitter multiple times then, like, ‘Folks, this is no longer our fight. This is completely out of our hands. Other people are going to take over now, unfortunately,’” he said.Morsi was driven out of power by massive protests. Former military chief Abdul Fattah al-Sisi took over and was elected president in 2014. Then, in a series of new laws and executive orders, Sisi solidified his rule. He restricted due process and the freedom of expression. The military used force to end anti-government demonstrations. Human rights groups say political opponents were detained, tortured and killed. Related: Egyptian artist duo commemorates Tahrir Square revolutionSisi’s government imposed new restrictions on nongovernmental organizations and international charities. Many NGOs were forced to close. “It's been a really steadily escalating campaign of targeting and repression, using lots of different tools, using lots of different laws."Stephen McInerney, executive director, Project on Middle East Democracy“It's been a really steadily escalating campaign of targeting and repression, using lots of different tools, using lots of different laws,” said Stephen McInerney, executive director of the Project on Middle East Democracy, a group that had helped train some activists and protest leaders during the uprising. “And of course there are, you know, very difficult circumstances on the ground for anyone who wants to engage politically.”At this point, he said most democracy activists have fled Egypt. Those remaining have gone underground. McInerney’s organization uses encrypted communications to talk to them. Meanwhile, McInerney said, Western countries have done little to support pro-democracy efforts inside Egypt. “We've been disappointed to see other democratic countries overlook democratic values in order to profit by selling weapons,” he said.Like the US and most recently, France. During a visit with Sisi earlier this month, President Emmanuel Macron said France would continue to sell weapons to Egypt, despite its human rights record. The Trump administration has made the same decision, allowing military assistance to flow. And Donald Trump even called Sisi his “favorite dictator.”At that meeting in France, Sisi dismissed criticisms about human rights. "You cannot present the state of Egypt, with all that it has done for its people and for stability in the region, with it being a dictatorship,” he said. That message of stability still appeals to many Egyptians, and to leaders in the West, said Steven Cook, senior fellow for Middle East and Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.“European leaders have looked the other way when it comes to human rights violations throughout the region, but particularly in Egypt, because they are concerned about instability in North Africa affecting politics in Europe."Steven Cook, senior fellow, Middle East and Africa Studies, Council on Foreign Relations“European leaders have looked the other way when it comes to human rights violations throughout the region, but particularly in Egypt, because they are concerned about instability in North Africa affecting politics in Europe,” he said. Sisi has also defended his actions by saying they’re necessary to fight terrorism. “One of the things that the Egyptian foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, has said over and over again is that ‘it's unfair to criticize Egypt because this is human rights as formulated by Egypt's Western critics,’” Cook said. “‘It's really just a form of colonialism.’”But Cook said the recent arrests of prominent human rights activists in Egypt set off an unprecedented international outcry. The UN, the European Union, and members of the EU parliament called for their release. Also, US President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, and celebrities such as Scarlett Johansen.“I think the Egyptians understood after the outcry that they perhaps had gone too far,” Cook said. “But it’s very hard to tell what's going on.”  Earlier this month, the three staffers with the EIPR were abruptly released. But they still face charges. And thousands of other less-famous prisoners remain behind bars. Still, their release gives Ramy Yaacoub of the Tahrir Institute some hope. “Social political change takes time — a long time. And as humans, we want prosperity right now. One hundred years from now it will be a footnote. ... But for us humans living through it, it's a long time.”Ramy Yaacoub, Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, Washington, DC“Social political change takes time — a long time. And as humans, we want prosperity right now. One hundred years from now it will be a footnote,” he said. “But for us humans living through it, it's a long time.”

Looking at Haneen Hossam's TikTok account, one might wonder why her content landed the Egyptian social media user in jail. In one post, she explains for her followers the Greek mythological story of Venus and Adonis, which is also a Shakespeare poem.Mawada al-Adham does similarly anodyne things that are familiar to anyone who observes such social influencers, like giving away iPhones and driving a fancy car.They are just two of the nine women arrested in Egypt this past year for what they posted on TikTok. Mostly, their videos are full of dancing to Arabic songs, usually a genre of electro-pop, Egyptian sha'abi folk music called mahraganat, or festival tunes. The clips feature a typically TikTok style — with feet planted, hands gesticulating and eyebrows emoting.Meanwhile, the Trump administration has put TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, in its sights with another escalation against Beijing. The US Commerce Department announced Friday that TikTok, and another Chinese-owned app, WeChat, would be blocked from US app stores.In Egypt, the arrests are about dictating morality rather than any kind of geopolitical struggle or international tech rivalry. But what exactly the government finds legally objectionable about these women's online content is ambiguous. “They themselves would have never imagined that they would go to jail and be sentenced for what they were doing, because what they're doing is basically what everyone else does on social media.”Salma El Hosseiny, International Service for Human Rights“They themselves would have never imagined that they would go to jail and be sentenced for what they were doing because what they're doing is basically what everyone else does on social media,” said Salma El Hosseiny of the International Service for Human Rights, a nongovernmental organization based in Geneva. “Singing and dancing as if you would at an Egyptian wedding, for example.”Hosseiny said that these women were likely targeted because they're from middle- or working-class backgrounds and dance to a style of music shunned by the bourgeoisie for scandalous lyrics that touch on taboo topics. “You have social media influencers who come from elite backgrounds, or upper-middle class, or rich classes in Egypt, who would post the same type of content. These women are working-class women,” she added. “They have stepped out of what is permitted for them.”Criminalizing the internetThey were charged under a cybercrime law passed in 2018, as well as existing laws in the Egyptian Penal Code that have been employed against women in the past.Yasmin Omar, a researcher at The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy in Washington, said the cybercrime law is vague when it comes to defining what's legal and what isn't.“It was written using very broad terms that could be very widely interpreted and criminalizing a lot of acts that are originally considered as personal freedom,” she said. “Looking at it, you would see that anything you might post on social media, anything that you may use [on] the internet could be criminalized under this very wide umbrella.”Egypt's cybercrime law is part of a larger effort by the government to increase surveillance of online activities. As TikTok became much more popular during the pandemic, prosecutors started looking there too, Omar said.“When I write anything on my social media accounts, I know that it could be seen by an official whose job it is to watch the internet and media platforms,” said Omar, who added that that surveillance often leads to widespread repression.“The state is simply arresting whoever says anything that criticizes its policy, its laws, its practices ... even if it's just joking. It's not even allowed.”Related: One woman's story highlights national wave of repression and sexual violenceThe arrests of TikTokers shows that this law isn't just about monitoring and controlling political dissent, but is used to police conservative social norms.Menna Abdel Aziz, 17, made a live video on Facebook. Her face was bruised and she told viewers that she had been raped and was asking for help.The police asked her to come in, and when she did, Omar said, they looked at her TikTok account and decided she was inciting debauchery and harming family values in Egypt — essentially blaming the victim for what had occurred.This past summer, there were a number of particularly shocking allegations involving rape and sexual assault in Egypt. First, dozens of women accused a young man at the American University in Cairo (AUC) of sexual violence ranging from blackmail to rape. And in another case, a group of well-connected men were accused of gang-raping a young woman in Cairo's Fairmont Hotel in 2014 and circulating a video of the act.The cases garnered a lot of attention within Egypt. Many Egyptian women were shocked by the horrible details of the cases but not surprised about the allegations or that the details had been kept under wraps for so long. “In Egypt, sexual violence and violence against women is systematic,” Hosseiny said. “It's part of the daily life of women to be sexually harassed.”‘To go after women'A UN Women report in 2014 said that 99.3% of Egyptian women reported being victims of sexual harassment. Yet, women are often culturally discouraged from reporting sexual harassment in the traditional society. “They are investing state resources to go after women who are singing and dancing on social media, and trying to control their bodies, and thinking that this is what's going to make society better and a safer place,” Hosseiny said, “by locking up women, rather than by changing and investing in making Egypt a safe place for women and girls.”When prosecutors started investigating the accused in that high-profile Fairmont case, it looked like real progress and a victory for online campaigning by women. The state-run National Council for Women even encouraged the victim and witnesses to come forward, promising the women protection. But that pledge by the state did not materialize. “Somehow, the prosecution decided to charge the witnesses,” said Omar, the researcher. “Witnesses who made themselves available, made their information about their lives, about what they know about the case — all this information was used against them.”“Witnesses who made themselves available, made their information about their lives, about what they know about the case — all this information was used against them.”Yasmin Omar, Tahrir Institute for Middle East PolicyOnce again, Egyptian authorities looked at the women's social media accounts, and then investigated the women for promoting homosexuality, drug use, debauchery and publication of false news. One of the witnesses arrested is an American citizen. When pro-state media outlets weighed in on the TikTok cases, they also had a message about blame, Hosseiny said. The coverage used sensational headlines and showed photos of the women framed in a sexual way. This contrasted with the depictions in rape cases in which the accused men's photos were blurred and only their initials printed. Social media has played an important role in Egyptian politics during the last decade. In 2011, crowds toppled the regime of military dictator Hosni Mubarak. That uprising was in part organized online with Twitter and Facebook. In 2018, the former army general, and current president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, said he would maintain stability in Egypt. “Beware! What happened seven years ago is never going to happen again in Egypt,” he swore to a large auditorium full of officials.Related: Five years of Sisi's crackdown has left 'no form of opposition' in EgyptSamer Shehata, a professor at the University of Oklahoma, said Egypt's military-backed regime is wary of the implications of anything posted online, even if it's just dancing.“I think there has been a heightened paranoia as a result of hysteria ... about the possible political consequences of social media,” he said. “I think that they certainly have those kinds of concerns in the back of their minds as well.”Of the nine women charged with TikTok crimes, four have been convicted and three have appeals set for October.Menna Abdel Aziz, the young woman who called for help online, was just released from detainment Wednesday and is being dismissed with no charges.

Looking at Haneen Hossam’s TikTok account, one might wonder why her content landed the Egyptian social media user in jail. In one post, she explains for her followers the Greek mythological story of Venus and Adonis, which is also a Shakespeare poem.Mawada al-Adham does similarly anodyne things that are familiar to anyone who observes such social influencers, like giving away iPhones and driving a fancy car.They are just two of the nine women arrested in Egypt this past year for what they posted on TikTok. Mostly, their videos are full of dancing to Arabic songs, usually a genre of electro-pop, Egyptian sha’abi folk music called mahraganat, or festival tunes. The clips feature a typically TikTok style — with feet planted, hands gesticulating and eyebrows emoting.Meanwhile, the Trump administration has put TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, in its sights with another escalation against Beijing. The US Commerce Department announced Friday that TikTok, and another Chinese-owned app, WeChat, would be blocked from US app stores.In Egypt, the arrests are about dictating morality rather than any kind of geopolitical struggle or international tech rivalry. But what exactly the government finds legally objectionable about these women’s online content is ambiguous. “They themselves would have never imagined that they would go to jail and be sentenced for what they were doing, because what they're doing is basically what everyone else does on social media.”Salma El Hosseiny, International Service for Human Rights“They themselves would have never imagined that they would go to jail and be sentenced for what they were doing because what they're doing is basically what everyone else does on social media,” said Salma El Hosseiny of the International Service for Human Rights, a nongovernmental organization based in Geneva. “Singing and dancing as if you would at an Egyptian wedding, for example.”Hosseiny said that these women were likely targeted because they’re from middle- or working-class backgrounds and dance to a style of music shunned by the bourgeoisie for scandalous lyrics that touch on taboo topics. “You have social media influencers who come from elite backgrounds, or upper-middle class, or rich classes in Egypt, who would post the same type of content. These women are working-class women,” she added. “They have stepped out of what is permitted for them.”Criminalizing the internetThey were charged under a cybercrime law passed in 2018, as well as existing laws in the Egyptian Penal Code that have been employed against women in the past.Yasmin Omar, a researcher at The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy in Washington, said the cybercrime law is vague when it comes to defining what’s legal and what isn’t.“It was written using very broad terms that could be very widely interpreted and criminalizing a lot of acts that are originally considered as personal freedom,” she said. “Looking at it, you would see that anything you might post on social media, anything that you may use [on] the internet could be criminalized under this very wide umbrella.”Egypt’s cybercrime law is part of a larger effort by the government to increase surveillance of online activities. As TikTok became much more popular during the pandemic, prosecutors started looking there too, Omar said.“When I write anything on my social media accounts, I know that it could be seen by an official whose job it is to watch the internet and media platforms,” said Omar, who added that that surveillance often leads to widespread repression.“The state is simply arresting whoever says anything that criticizes its policy, its laws, its practices ... even if it's just joking. It's not even allowed.”Related: One woman's story highlights national wave of repression and sexual violenceThe arrests of TikTokers shows that this law isn’t just about monitoring and controlling political dissent, but is used to police conservative social norms.Menna Abdel Aziz, 17, made a live video on Facebook. Her face was bruised and she told viewers that she had been raped and was asking for help.The police asked her to come in, and when she did, Omar said, they looked at her TikTok account and decided she was inciting debauchery and harming family values in Egypt — essentially blaming the victim for what had occurred.This past summer, there were a number of particularly shocking allegations involving rape and sexual assault in Egypt. First, dozens of women accused a young man at the American University in Cairo (AUC) of sexual violence ranging from blackmail to rape. And in another case, a group of well-connected men were accused of gang-raping a young woman in Cairo’s Fairmont Hotel in 2014 and circulating a video of the act.The cases garnered a lot of attention within Egypt. Many Egyptian women were shocked by the horrible details of the cases but not surprised about the allegations or that the details had been kept under wraps for so long. “In Egypt, sexual violence and violence against women is systematic,” Hosseiny said. “It's part of the daily life of women to be sexually harassed.”‘To go after women’A UN Women report in 2014 said that 99.3% of Egyptian women reported being victims of sexual harassment. Yet, women are often culturally discouraged from reporting sexual harassment in the traditional society. “They are investing state resources to go after women who are singing and dancing on social media, and trying to control their bodies, and thinking that this is what's going to make society better and a safer place,” Hosseiny said, “by locking up women, rather than by changing and investing in making Egypt a safe place for women and girls.”When prosecutors started investigating the accused in that high-profile Fairmont case, it looked like real progress and a victory for online campaigning by women. The state-run National Council for Women even encouraged the victim and witnesses to come forward, promising the women protection. But that pledge by the state did not materialize. “Somehow, the prosecution decided to charge the witnesses,” said Omar, the researcher. “Witnesses who made themselves available, made their information about their lives, about what they know about the case — all this information was used against them.”“Witnesses who made themselves available, made their information about their lives, about what they know about the case — all this information was used against them.”Yasmin Omar, Tahrir Institute for Middle East PolicyOnce again, Egyptian authorities looked at the women’s social media accounts, and then investigated the women for promoting homosexuality, drug use, debauchery and publication of false news. One of the witnesses arrested is an American citizen. When pro-state media outlets weighed in on the TikTok cases, they also had a message about blame, Hosseiny said. The coverage used sensational headlines and showed photos of the women framed in a sexual way. This contrasted with the depictions in rape cases in which the accused men’s photos were blurred and only their initials printed. Social media has played an important role in Egyptian politics during the last decade. In 2011, crowds toppled the regime of military dictator Hosni Mubarak. That uprising was in part organized online with Twitter and Facebook. In 2018, the former army general, and current president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, said he would maintain stability in Egypt. “Beware! What happened seven years ago is never going to happen again in Egypt,” he swore to a large auditorium full of officials.Related: Five years of Sisi's crackdown has left 'no form of opposition' in EgyptSamer Shehata, a professor at the University of Oklahoma, said Egypt’s military-backed regime is wary of the implications of anything posted online, even if it's just dancing.“I think there has been a heightened paranoia as a result of hysteria ... about the possible political consequences of social media,” he said. “I think that they certainly have those kinds of concerns in the back of their minds as well.”Of the nine women charged with TikTok crimes, four have been convicted and three have appeals set for October.Menna Abdel Aziz, the young woman who called for help online, was just released from detainment Wednesday and is being dismissed with no charges.

Het geroffel op de oorlogstrom klinkt de afgelopen dagen steeds luider in de Turkse media. Ook president Erdogan zelf haalt uit naar wat hij het "koloniale" Frankrijk noemt, nu de spanningen met buurland Griekenland oplopen. Zijn Franse evenknie Macron besloot eerder militaire steun aan Athene op te schroeven.Het conflict over de potentiele olie- en gasvelden in de oostelijke delen van de Middellandse Zee dreigt het kookpunt te bereiken als je op de harde woorden van de betrokken partijen afgaat. In ons Geobureau te gast Midden-Oostendeskundige Koert Debeuf van het Tahrir Institute of Middle East Policy.

Egypte zal niet werkeloos toekijken als haar veiligheid in gevaar komt, zei president Sisi vandaag. Hij doelt op Libië, het buurland waar al jaren een burgeroorlog woedt. Een maand geleden gebruikte de Egyptische leider ook al zulke spierballentaal. Blijft het bij blaffen of gaat hij nu ook echt bijten? Koert de Beuf van het Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy licht de hoogoplopende spanningen toe.

Al sinds woensdag zijn we in de ban van het offensief wat Turkije is begonnen in Syrië. De aanval is gericht op Koerdische strijders in het Noord-Syrische gebied waar Turkije een 'veilige zone' wil creëren als buffer tegen 'terrorisme'. Maar er is veel angst dat door de onderlinge strijd kampen met opgesloten IS-strijders onbeveiligd raken en dat de strijders zich gaan verplaatsen door Europa. We praten hierover met Koert Debeuf, Europees directeur van het Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.

This episode consists of two parts: in the first part, I provide some additional notes about the History of Kurdish radios, which I talked about in the first episode, and in the second part, I talk to Kamal Chomani about the current political situation and the state of critique in Iraq and Kurdistan. Kamal Chomani is a Kurdish political analyst writing on the political affairs of Kurdistan and Iraq and a non-resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for the Middle East Policy. He co-founded the Kurdish Policy Foundation (KPF) in 2015. Chomani studied MA in English Literature and Post-colonial Studies at Bangalore University in India. His writing has appeared on the Foreign Policy, Al-Monitor, Jadaliyyah, The Kurdistan Tribune, Weekly Awene, Daily Hawlati, Lvin and so on.

Hij ontving de Europese leiders glunderend op de top van de EU met de Arabische Liga in Sharm el-Sheikh van afgelopen weekend. Dat de Egyptische president Sisi vlak daarvoor negen mensen had laten ophangen, daarover bleef het opvallend stil. Ook de plannen van het Egyptische parlement om Sisi maar liefst tot 2034 aan de macht te laten blijven, werden door de EU-gasten nauwelijks bekritiseerd. Waar komt het oorverdovende Europese zwijgen vandaan, als het om het optreden van autocraten als Sisi gaat? Daarover te gast Koert Debeuf van het Tahrir Institute of Middle East Policy.

With the last slivers of Syrian territory being wrested from the grasp of the Islamic State, where does the war against this tenacious terrorist organization go next? To understand where we came and where we are heading, we assembled a fantastic cast of experts that co-hosts Usha Sahay and Ryan Evans did their best to wrangle: Rasha al-Aqeedi of FRPI, Ryan Fishel of the U.S. Air Force, Hassan Hassan of the Tahrir Institute, Haroro Ingram of Program on Extremism at GWU, Brett Reichert of the U.S. Army, and Aaron Stein of FPRI.   Our guests in this episode range from people who fought the self-proclaimed Caliphate on the ground and in the air to scholars, think tankers, and analysts.   Produced by Tre Hester

Through our partnership, Syria’s Women: Policies & Perspectives, the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP) and News Deeply challenged the stereotypes and generalizations about the impact of war on Syrian women and their role in the country’s future. Over the course of five months, we curated in-depth analysis, on-the-ground reporting and policy briefs, providing new perspectives on the role of Syrian women in education, peacebuilding, media, preserving cultural heritage, politics and the economy. We also covered underreported issues related to violence against women and barriers to women’s advancement to foster a nuanced and comprehensive understanding among the public and policymakers working to change these realities. You can catch up on the series here: www.newsdeeply.com/syria/series/syrias-women-policies-and-perspectives-syria www.timep.org/syrias-women/ On this episode of Deeply Talks in Partnership with TIMEP, Syria Deeply’s managing editor, Alessandria Masi, speaks with Hassan Hassan, senior fellow at TIMEP, Yisser Bittar, director of Development at Karam Foundation, Marvin Gate, founder of Humans of Syria, and Anna Lekas Miller, journalist and contributor to our series, about the changing role of women in the humanitarian, media and public sector and the future challenges women face in having a voice in traditionally male-dominated fields. For more information on the war in Syria, visit www.newsdeeply.com/syria and subscribe to our weekly emails.

Through our partnership, Syria’s Women: Policies & Perspectives, the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP) and News Deeply challenged the stereotypes and generalizations about the impact of war on Syrian women and their role in the country’s future. Over the course of five months, we curated in-depth analysis, on-the-ground reporting and policy briefs, providing new perspectives on the role of Syrian women in education, peacebuilding, media, preserving cultural heritage, politics and the economy. We also covered underreported issues related to violence against women and barriers to women’s advancement to foster a nuanced and comprehensive understanding among the public and policymakers working to change these realities. You can catch up on the series here: www.newsdeeply.com/syria/series/syrias-women-policies-and-perspectives-syria www.timep.org/syrias-women/ On this episode of Deeply Talks in Partnership with TIMEP, Syria Deeply’s managing editor, Alessandria Masi, speaks with Hassan Hassan, senior fellow at TIMEP, Yisser Bittar, director of Development at Karam Foundation, Marvin Gate, founder of Humans of Syria, and Anna Lekas Miller, journalist and contributor to our series, about the changing role of women in the humanitarian, media and public sector and the future challenges women face in having a voice in traditionally male-dominated fields. For more information on the war in Syria, visit www.newsdeeply.com/syria and subscribe to our weekly emails.

Syrian troops and allied fighters are inching closer to ISIS’ last Syrian stronghold, in preparation for what might become one of the most definitive battles of the Syrian war. As part of our new Deeply Talks series, Syria Deeply explores the various parties involved, the potential power shifts and what this highly anticipated battle could mean for the six-year-long conflict. This is the playback of a a 30-minute conversation led by Alessandria Masi, Syria Deeply’s managing editor, and Hashem Osseiran, deputy managing editor, with Hassan Hassan, senior fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. For more information on the war in Syria, visit www.newsdeeply.com/syria and subscribe to our weekly emails.

Syrian troops and allied fighters are inching closer to ISIS’ last Syrian stronghold, in preparation for what might become one of the most definitive battles of the Syrian war. As part of our new Deeply Talks series, Syria Deeply explores the various parties involved, the potential power shifts and what this highly anticipated battle could mean for the six-year-long conflict. This is the playback of a a 30-minute conversation led by Alessandria Masi, Syria Deeply’s managing editor, and Hashem Osseiran, deputy managing editor, with Hassan Hassan, senior fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. For more information on the war in Syria, visit www.newsdeeply.com/syria and subscribe to our weekly emails.

De Duitse bondskanselier Angela Merkel reist later deze week af naar Egypte en Tunesië. Het past in het grotere plaatje van de Europese migratieplannen: de EU wil overeenkomsten sluiten met landen in Afrika om migratie in een vroeg stadium buiten de deur te houden. Voor Merkel is dat dit in verkiezingsjaar extra belangrijk. Maar hoeveel zin heeft het sluiten van zo'n akkoord? En tegen welke prijs worden zulke deals met een land als Egypte gesloten?Een gesprek met migratieonderzoeker Hein de Haas, als hoogleraar verbonden aan de UvA en door Koert Debeuf, directeur Europa van het Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.

What will happen if the Islamic State loses its state?The so-called Islamic State is rapidly losing territory, money and fighters in both Iraq and Syria. Iraqi government troops, supported by US and British special forces, have launched an offensive to take back the city of Mosul and an assault on the group's de facto capital city - Raqqa in Syria - is expected by the end of the year. Can the group continue to attract jihadi fighters from around the world and inspire attacks in its name, or will it be permanently weakened by the loss of its 'caliphate'? If so, could other terrorist organisations benefit from the vacuum it leaves behind? David Aaronovitch speaks to a range of experts and asks - can Islamic State be defeated and if so, what happens next?Guests include: Columb Strack, Senior Analyst, Middle East & North Africa at IHS Consulting Charlie Winter, Senior Research Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR)Hassan Hassan, Senior Fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy and co-author of ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror Dr Elisabeth Kendall, Senior Research Fellow in Arabic at the University of Oxford Clint Watts, Robert A. Fox Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute's Program on the Middle East and former FBI Special AgentProducer: China Collins Research: Serena Tarling.

Presenter Safa al Ahmad is joined by a panel of experts to reflect on the issues raised in her documentary series 'Islam People and Power'.Guests in the studio are:Dr Maha Azzam, former Associate Fellow of Chatham House, now Head of the Egyptian Revolutionary Council Dr Hazem Kandil, Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge and author of Inside The Brotherhood Hassan Hassan, Fellow of The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy and author of ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror(Image: Safa al Ahmad in the studio. Credit: BBC)

Presenter Safa al Ahmad is joined by a panel of experts to reflect on the issues raised in her documentary series 'Islam People and Power'. Her guests in the studio are: Dr Maha Azzam, former Associate Fellow of Chatham House, now Head of the Egyptian Revolutionary Council. Dr Hazem Kandil, Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge and author of Inside The Brotherhood. Hassan Hassan, Fellow of The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy and author of ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror. Editor: Innes Bowen (Image: Safa al Ahmad in the studio. Credit: BBC)

Five years after the Arab Spring, the Middle East is faced with a civil war in Syria, the rise of the self-proclaimed Islamic State, violent insurgencies and a refugee crisis. Egypt, hailed in the West as an ally in the fight against terrorism, is far from where many hoped it would be when Egyptians took to the streets on January 25, 2011. Since the Arab Spring, international policymakers have prioritized security and stability over personal freedom and democracy which has led to a regression in rights and freedoms, growing public disengagement and increased radicalization in the region. Join us for a discussion with Dr. Nancy Okail, Executive Director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, who will offer insights into Egypt’s tenuous approach to stability, the renewed crackdown on rights and freedoms and the role US and EU policymakers can play in restoring democracy and the rule of law in Egypt. Speaker Nancy Okail is the Executive Director of The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy David D. Arnold, President of The Asia Foundation, moderates the discussion. For more information about this event please visit: http://www.worldaffairs.org/event-calendar/event/1596

You won't find a better Egypt analyst in the business than Tim Kaldas. He's a fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East policy in Cairo, a visiting professor at Nile University in Cairo, and a professional wedding photographer that you should hire for all of your matrimonial needs. Tim's research focuses on transitional politics in Egypt, regime survival strategies, U.S.-Egypt relations, and much more. His commentary and analysis has been featured on CNN, the BBC, Al Jazeera, and many other media outlets. Tim and I talked about what caused the Egyptian uprisings in 2011, what's happened since then, what potentially lies ahead, the many ways in which regional security is a total mess, and how a late-90's rock and roll song sheds light on the problems in present-day Egypt.