More and more social media these days are filled with photos, film clips and other memorabilia from the pre-1952 Egyptian monarchy period. To judge by the images and what we read on those sites, life was never better in those days. The country was (...)
Belgrade is gearing up for the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which held its first summit meeting there in 1961. According to Serbian Foreign Minister Nikola Selaković, the Serbian capital will be hosting 35 heads (...)
Belgrade is gearing up for the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which held its first summit meeting there in 1961. According to Serbian Foreign Minister Nikola Selaković, the Serbian capital will be hosting 35 heads (...)
The problem I raised some weeks ago concerning the Arabic Language Academy continues to stir responses. The academy itself continues to battle against the control of adherents to Muslim Brotherhood ideas and attitudes which the Egyptian people had (...)
The survival of three of our most important cultural institutions hangs in the balance. These are the Academy of the Arabic Language, which currently lacks political support; the Story Club, which lacks financial support; and the Afro-Asian Peoples' (...)
Tunisia is the theatre of the Muslim Brotherhood's last stand against us. If they win, they will have succeeded in their plan to achieve power in the periphery, partially compensating for the loss of their position at the centre — in Egypt. If they (...)
I disagree with those who believe the decision by several Arab governments to normalise relations with Israel reflects changes that have occurred in Arab culture in recent years. Some Arab officials have indeed described Israel as a peace-loving (...)
On 26 July 1956, president Gamal Abdel- Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal. In his annual address to the nation from Manshiya Square in Alexandria, he said that the famous canal would now become Egypt's exclusive property. Until that point, Egypt (...)
Everyone these days is talking about 2034: A Novel of the Next World War, the latest work of fiction by the well known writer Elliot Ackerman and retired Admiral James Stavridis. It imagines a military confrontation between the US and China that (...)
During a recent television interview, I was asked whether, in my opinion, the Egyptian writer had a sufficient degree of freedom. I answered that no writer in Egypt or elsewhere was free enough to fully express his or her views. Part of the writer's (...)
I have just returned from the UAE where I had the honour to have been invited to deliver a lecture on the life and works of the great Egyptian writer Naguib Mahfouz at the fifth Nobel Museum Exhibition in Dubai. An annual cultural event organised by (...)
Last week, an Israeli news site reported that the US Embassy in Cairo boycotted the Cairo International Book Fair (CIBF) after learning that anti-Semitic works, such as Hitler's Mein Kampf, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Henry Ford's (...)
Last week, an Israeli news site reported that the US Embassy in Cairo boycotted the Cairo International Book Fair (CIBF) after learning that anti-Semitic works, such as Hitler's Mein Kampf, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and Henry Ford's (...)
A group of interested young people gathered around me after I took part in a panel discussion at the Cairo International Book Fair. One of them brought up the subject Egypt's defeat in the 1967 War, a defeat that has been used to issue a blanket (...)
Nothing speaks more of the biases of the Western press than what occurred during the joint press conference held by Presidents Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi and Emmanuel Macron following the latter's recent visit to Cairo. French journalists homed in on a (...)
A group of interested young people gathered around me after I took part in a panel discussion at the Cairo International Book Fair. One of them brought up the subject Egypt's defeat in the 1967 War, a defeat that has been used to issue a blanket (...)
I felt as though I had entered a personal portrait gallery but, in this case, the portraits were painted by the artist's pallet of senses and emotions as opposed to his pallet of oils. The exhibition features the names of the many individuals who (...)
Whenever I stroll through the streets of Paris, contemplating its elegant architecture and beautiful statues, my mind turns to the architectural and sculptural treasures we have in Cairo.
There is a reason why this city earned the epithet of “the (...)
Rarely is change a way to bolster the status quo rather than to alter it. But this is precisely what happened last week when Saudi King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz decreed a sweeping government reshuffle affecting key ministries, the Political and (...)
It was a pleasure to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during his visit to Cairo last week. It was not such a pleasure to hear his precise and realistic presentation of the current situation of the Palestinian cause. He made no attempt to (...)
Rarely is change a way to bolster the status quo rather than to alter it. But this is precisely what happened last week when Saudi King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz decreed a sweeping government reshuffle affecting key ministries, the Political and (...)
“I am free in Algeria!” sang the world-famous Miriam Makeba, in Arabic, in 1972. Last week, the Algerian minister of culture, the eminent poet and writer Azzedine Mihoubi, launched an award that pays tribute to this internationally celebrated singer (...)
T
o mark the 116th anniversary of the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, the Ministry of Antiquities organised what, to me, was a landmark event that serves to demarcate the dividing line between this venerable establishment's over a century-long (...)
I am writing this from Algeria where it was announced last Thursday evening our human ancestors already lived 2.4 million years ago. This is an important discovery because, so far, the oldest recorded evidence of human existence anywhere in the (...)
To mark the 116th anniversary of the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square, the Ministry of Antiquities organised what, to me, was a landmark event that serves to demarcate the dividing line between this venerable establishment's over a century-long past (...)