The Cairo Criminal Court chose to open the session in which it delivered the verdicts against ousted president Hosni Mubarak, former interior minister Habib El-Adly, and six aides, by delivering a political tract. The twenty-minute statement had no (...)
It is a beautiful Friday morning in Cairo. The absence of heavy car
traffic over the past ten days has given this city the cleanest air I
ever remember breathing. Outside my window it's crisp with bright
blue skies and a smattering of little (...)
When we look into the past legal history of Egypt for heroes we have to be careful, writes Amr Shalakany*
In the history of modern Egypt, the "Liberal Experiment" is a term often used to describe the three odd decades spanning the period 1923 to (...)
Amr Shalakany medidates on the exam dread -- and the law
There they were again, all 6,000 of them, waiting at their desks for exam papers to arrive -- and that was only a small fraction. Scary as the thought may be, there are 32,000 or so of them (...)
Amr Shalakany struggles to keep up with the lingo
Over the years, I have accumulated a list of scary things to be avoided whenever possible. Cairo football fans and severe natural disasters come at the top of that list. Of the two, moreover, I think (...)
On a recent visit to the US, , leader of the INC and member of the Iraqi Interim Governing Council, spoke to Amr Shalakany
Why is it that in today's Arab political scene there are only two available options: either neo-liberals who speak the (...)
Beleaguered and racially profiled since 9/11, Arab-Americans seem to be taking a road well-traversed by other US minority groups. Amr Shalakany*, in New York, discusses the implications
One of the basic critiques of liberalism is how it tends to (...)
It's Easter week. Amr Shalakany, in Jerusalem, recalls another Easter 32 years ago, and tells the story of the Copts' little piece of the holy city
It is an odd name for a Coptic monastery. Deir Al-Sultan translates as "the Sultan's Monastery," a (...)
Nearly two years ago, Amr Shalakany received his PhD from Harvard Law School. He did not, however, return home, where a lecturer's post was waiting for him at Cairo University. Neither did he stay at the London-based corporate law firm that offered (...)