Bassem Youssef and the Sultan
[Originally posted on Foreign Policy.] Mocking rulers is a tradition almost as old as rule itself. At times mockery is subtle and allegorical; at others it is blunt, sometimes gauche, but always funny. [...]
April 2013
October 2012
Egypt subsidises the “Dictatorship for Beginners” manual…
Originally published in Foreign Policy: Transitions. RHS: “The Great Bahgatos is on the People’s hearts”LHS: “Bahgatia’s Statue of Liberty” – “safety matches” – “The Law”My father recently bought a new copy of an old book. [...]
June 2012
WWMBD? (What will the Muslim Brotherhood do?)
Crossposted at Foreign Policy Transitions. In short: two elected presidents and one who died then resurrected, a (political) party on the street and possible backroom deals, and we haven't got a clue as to where [...]
May 2012
Smile of the Day
It's been a lousy day all things considered - with the official announcement of the Morsy-Shafeeq run-off, but the comic relief was that a nice hacker broke into the Muslim Brotherhood Twitter accounts, and changed [...]
A bitter presidential vote
Long story short: I voted. And I hated it. Crossposted at Foreign Policy Magazine: Transitions. A BITTER PRESIDENTIAL VOTE Yes, that's totally me. My hand is white now. I ticked the ballot, dropped it [...]
April 2012
More disqualified candidates: elections make even less sense now
Crossposted on Foreign Policy Magazine: Transitions blog. Egypt's presidential elections will take place less than four weeks from now and we still don't know who's running. As I've said before in this column (this sentence [...]
Why this 27-year old will be writing Egypt’s constitution
I have no doubt she’s “very smart” and a “wonderful human being” and now “a lovely mom” as I was told by her classmates (class of 2006) – some of whom I tutored back in [...]
March 2012
Ikhwan: Gut feeling economic policy-making
There you have it. This is how the Muslim Brotherhood (the Ikhwan, in Arabic), through its official twitter account, sums up its policy about one of the most contentious issues in our economic policy making: [...]