With fresh anti-American sentiment growing in some parts of the Middle East and North Africa, Economist Intelligence Unit expert Robert Powell offers some thoughts on what President Barack Obama could do to counter the trend. Powell spoke with VOA’s Susan Yackee. Yackee: What does President Obama need to do to improve his image in the More »
When declaring a state of emergency in the canal cities in response to clashes in Port Said last week, President Mohamed Morsi finally showed Egyptians his “bad cop” side after months of “good cop” rhetoric filled with invocations of “hugs” and “love.” What quickly became viral from the announcement was the clip of the More »
A decade ago, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) shone a spotlight on the sorry state of education in the Arab world with its inaugural Arab Human Development Report in 2002, and its 2003 follow-on report, “Building a Knowledge Society.” The reports’ statistics still shock: in one year, Spain translates the same number of More »
The recent second anniversary of the Egyptian revolution that toppled strongman Hosni Mubarak was marred by renewed violence between protesters and security forces of the country’s new government under President Mohamed Morsi. Disillusioned with the direction taken by Egypt’s new Islamist leader, activists took to the streets again reportedly only to see a replay More »
The spate of violent incidents in Cairo and the Suez Canal cities of Port Said and Suez in the last week of January has highlighted the increasingly fractured state of Egyptian society and exposed the failings of key institutions, in particular the presidency, the judiciary and the forces of law and order. The president, Mohamed Morsi, More »
One of the primary demands of the 2011 Egyptian revolution was to end the three decades of emergency rule under President Hosni Mubarak. But two years later, President Mohamed Morsi has declared a state of emergency in three canal cities: Port Said, Suez, and Ismailya. The decision came three days after violence erupted on the More »
With the second anniversary of the Egyptian January 25 uprising having sparked renewed violence and the country having been once again pushed to the brink, there is a strong sense now that the hopes of Tahrir Square have been seriously tarnished. There’s some reason for this: There have been too many broken promises. Women, who More »
The Arab Spring introduced us to the strength and determination of the many Arab women who took to the streets and the Internet to call for change in their governments and societies. Gone were the stereotypes of oppression and passivity. In their place were voices and faces of hope, courage and indomitable spirit, calling More »
Two years after their historic uprising, many Egyptians, from intellectuals to the working class, are reflecting on what has been gained since the heady days on Tahrir Square and what still needs to be done. VOA’s Elizabeth Arrott reports from More »
If you live in Egypt, there are many reasons to feel politically, socially and economically pessimistic. Political wrangling and polarization keeps the country on the edge of civil unrest. Unemployment and poverty grow amid a stagnant economy, insufficient investment and a fragile tourism industry in shambles in the post-revolutionary scare. However, as Egyptians celebrate More »
The past week marked the second anniversary of the resignation of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, an event that in many ways turned unrest in Tunisia from a purely national affair to what the media dubbed the Arab Spring. That Arab Spring was seen as a broad rising of the Arab masses against aging More »
The Middle East in 2012 was surprising, exhilarating, depressing, and endlessly fascinating. Will it be the same in 2013? Odds are, yes, but there is really no way of providing an accurate forecast. If we’ve learned anything in the last few years, let’s try not to build scenarios – a favorite Washington, D.C., exercise. More »
On Thursday, January 10, a court in Cairo is to resume its case against foreign-funded non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Egypt. The case can be traced back to events just over a year ago when Egypt witnessed an unprecedented assault on its civil society. In December 2011, Egyptian authorities raided the offices of 11 human rights and More »
As citizens across the Arab world call for better living conditions and greater personal freedoms, many countries have witnessed protests and revolutions. The year 2012 offered a clear example of how political transformations have impacted regional economies. Five Arab countries – Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon – are experiencing transitions. However, their current economic More »
A satirist who has made fun of the country’s leader is investigated by prosecutors because he “undermined the leader’s standing.” An independent newspaper is investigated by prosecutors because it published “false news.” Cuba? Chavez’s Venezuela? Putin’s Russia? No, Mohamed Morsi’s Egypt. Here is the story from Al Jazeera: An Egyptian satirist who has made fun of More »
Activists in Egypt have created a makeshift museum to chronicle the last two years of uprisings and political protest. VOA’s Al Pessin visited a branch of the museum that has been set up across the street from the presidential palace in Cairo, where he spoke to one of the museums founders. The video was More »
In their first attempt toward establishing a democracy, Egyptians apparently misunderstood the real meaning of the concept, and how its mechanism functions. Democracy is not only about placing ballots in transparent boxes to set up a government. Democracy is a philosophy of ruling and governing a country through a given mechanism that entails many More »
The recent confrontation in Egypt between Islamist and secular parties has caused the most dangerous crisis yet in that country’s unhappy political transition. The standoff is the unavoidable consequence of a struggle for power between two political forces that have no incentive to compete in the same political arena on the basis of accepted More »
Nearly two years after the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, here we are once again with protesters back in the Egyptian streets, facing army tanks and tear gas, and this time with human rights defenders openly expressing concerns about the possibility of civil war. There’s only one way out of this: Egypt has to build More »
- The goals of the independent Egyptian military are…? - What is Syria’s chemical weapons inventory? - Israel’s latest warning on Iran - A surprise U.S. official visit to Kuwait - A synagogue lures young adults with Happy More »
