The Other Side of Me

It happened again, and it will keep happening. It happens every day to almost every lady. It keeps getting worse, it keeps spreading. Sexual harassment has changed in the past 20 years from an individual act to a social phenomenon to a social epidemic. There is no one reason why sexual harassment is very widespread in Egypt, but no one can claim it's merely sexual. It's not just sexual because it's practiced by people of all ages from young children to old men, married and unmarried, rich and poor, those who have a normal sexual life and those who don't. It's more of a violent act from those who think themselves strong to those whom they feel are weaker. A few days ago, ex-president Adly Mansour issued a pack of laws that punishes sexual harassers. The laws that were one of the strongest in the country's history punishes those who plead guilty with a fine or imprisonment between 1000 to 50,000 pounds and 6 months to 5 years in prison. Back then I could...

Slogan "Long live Egypt!" Egypt is eternal, it shall live for as long as the world exists, it shall live whether Sisi is president or not. These three words are in the heart of every Egyptian, they've been said in the hardest of times and the happiest of times. The question here is what do these words have to do with Sisi being president, what do they say about him, or about the campaign? The truth is that they say nothing! The campaigners have chosen a phrase that when heard would strengthen the sense of belonging for Egyptians, a way to confuse the sense of belonging to Egypt with one for the man of the military, "the June 30 Revolution leader". I have to say though that the campaigners are not the ones to be blamed; they're working with no presidential program, or even real headlines how can they come up with a slogan for something that is simply nonexistent? Poster This campaign has many posters, this one is the most popular and the one fo...

Slogan "One of Us.... We will Complete Our Dream" It rhymes in Arabic. This slogan acts as a reminder that Sabahy is building on his 2012 campaign. In 2012 Sabahy's slogan was "One of Us!" 2014's slogan is building on it by saying that even if Sabahy didn't win last time, they will continue to try to achieve their dream. As I said back then , "One of Us!" is not the perfect choice,that is if you don't want the man living next door to be your president. Yet it does give a feeling of intimacy that would make you think that if this man is elected he will be able to know about your pains and problems, and this goes well with Sabahy being the leftist he says he is.  The new part is actually good. If this were a normal election in a real democratic atmosphere this slogan would have been slightly dreamy; some might have felt that they don't want a president of who dreams, but rather someone who has realistic plans and works har...

Two Years Have Passed For the tenth time after January 25 Revolution Egyptians are asked to visit the ballot stations. Around this time two years ago Egypt saw its first real presidential election with 13 qualified candidates and five fairly big campaigns. This year the election seems to be quite different with only two candidates that are expected to qualify, a law that seems to be made to end the election as fast as possible without taking anything else into consideration, a government that supports one of the candidates, a very short campaigning period, and a result that is already known. The one question is will we see a real election, or at least one that was as real as last time? The answer is probably not, yet in this series of posts I'm going to analyze these campaigns as small as they might be. But before I do this, here's some background information. The Law A new presidential elections law has been drafted and accepted in the past few days, yet this accept...

July 3, 2013  -Updated The road-map is out A joint statement was made. It started by General Abd El Fattah El Sisi, Minister of Defense who said that they "listened to the message of Egyptians in all cities and villages all over the country". He continued: "after trying many times since November to fix things and found all suggestions were met by refusal from the presidency,  and since the president's speech yesterday was not accepted by the people, the Armed Forces had to take the responsibility after talking with all political, religious and youth figures".  He declared that the Armed Forces will not take part in politics and gave a road-map with the following: Temporary suspension of the current constitution. Appointing the Supreme Constitutional Court Head as an interim president for a transitional period until a new president is elected. He will also be given the right of issuing constitutional declarations.  Forming a cross-party panel to propos...

July 3, 2013 Revolting with a smile Egyptians are the only people who celebrate a revolution before it even succeeds, not a face is not wearing a smile, not a car is not honking its horns, not a pedestrian is not waving a flag. For the fourth day in a row millions Egyptians revolted peacefully with a great sense of jubilation, all chanting that they have already toppled the regime. Cairo alone has nine anti-regime protests packing the streets today. Two more protests have been added to the list; one in front of the Republican Guards building and the other in front of the Republican Guards mansion where Morsi is reportedly staying. Protesters met the army and police personnel, who gave free bottles of water, with cheers and hugs. Helicopters didn't fly over the protesters all morning, but as the night fell they were back.... Army in the Street More army personnel and tanks were deployed in the streets today, their numbers have increased a lot more than what was alrea...

July 2, 2013 Fireworks and a revolution The celebratory protests continue across the country, in Cairo, Giza, Qaloybeya, Alexandria, Suez, Port Said, Mansoura, Dameitta, Minya, Assuit, Tanta, Beni Sueif, Aswan, Luxor, Qena, Red Sea, Munfeya, Ismalia, Mahalla and many other cities. A great percentage of the population was in the streets for the third day today. Greater Cairo alone had seven protests against the Islamist Fascist regime. In Tahrir Square, the vicinity of the Ithadeya Presidential Palace in Heliopolis, the vicinity of Obba Presidential Palace in Kobry El Obba, the vicinity of the Ministry of Defense, Kitkat, the vicinity of the Giza Governorate and Helwan one word roared, "LEAVE". This is of course if we don't count people standing in front of their door step or roaming with their cars with the same aim. In all streets and squares all over the country, the Egyptian Eagle caught the sheep.... A different type of protesting The Islamists f...