Marwa Rakha · November, 2008

Latest posts by Marwa Rakha from November, 2008

Are Women making Egypt Poorer?

Women: Should they stay at home and raise kids or should they work and have a contribution? A controversial question that Fantasia's World tried to answer in her post: Are you making your country poorer?

28 November 2008

Egypt: Locking Al Azhar students in the dark ages!

Al Azhar English Training Center is funded through a partnership agreement between Al Azhar University, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Global Opportunities Fund and the British Council. The Center was supposed to provide English Language courses in its first semester to 125 students from various disciplines until Ali Laban, a Muslim Brotherhood deputy, decided otherwise. One enraged instructor speaks up on Facebook.

28 November 2008

Egypt: Police officers banned off university campus

In a historic court ruling, police are now banned from patrolling Cairo University's campus. Instead, the university will have to deploy civilian personal as security guards. Bloggers, who linked police recklessness and use of excessive force to the order, welcomed the ruling with guarded optimism.

27 November 2008

Is Secularism the answer to Egypt's Sectarianism?

Egypt has always been known as an Islamic country where Muslims, Christians, and Jews peacefully co-existed. Today this is no longer the case. Is secularism the solution? Following is an outline of the discussion taking place on Egyptian blogs today.

27 November 2008

Egypt: 89% of Youth Support Internet Censorship Law

Eighty-nine per cent of Egyptian young men and women surveyed recently stated that they are in favour of an Internet censorship law. Bloggers Times shares the most recent statistics on Egyptian internet users in this post, translated by Marwa Rakha from Arabic.

26 November 2008

Egypt: First Human Rights Film Festival

Seven films about human rights are being showcased at the first Cairo Human Rights Film Festival, which continues until Thursday (November 27). Marwa Rakha previews blogger reactions on the event.

24 November 2008

Egypt: Uproar as Lawyer Suggests Raping Israeli Women

Voice of Egypt is ashamed of Egyptian Lawyer Nagla Al Imam, the same lawyer who made Egyptians angry, for encouraging Arab men to sexually harass Israeli women during her interview on Al Arabia TV (Ar). Marwa Rakha translates from Arabic.

23 November 2008

Egypt: Sawiris Takes on Switzerland

Cairo's Scene & Heard celebrated entrepreneur and hotelier Sameh Sawiris's new project in Switzerland saying: “Now that we're branching out into Europe…do you think we stand a chance next to...

20 November 2008

Egypt: No More Natural Gas to Israel

An Egyptian court has banned the export of natural gas to Israel. Marwa Rakha briefs us about the deal, and what an Egyptian blogger is writing about the court order in this post.

20 November 2008

Egypt: American University in Cairo's New Campus Sparks Debate

Designed to accommodate 5,500 full-time students and 1,500 faculty and staff, the American University in Cairo's new $400 million, 260-acre campus is technologically advanced and environmentally friendly. Students say that it was a premature move as they suffer sexual harassment and expensive food, among many other issues. Marwa Rakha reports.

20 November 2008

Egypt: Convicted for being a Blogger

Is blogging a serious crime? And is speaking up for others something which warrants punishment? Egyptian Marwa Rakha translates a post from Arabic which discusses bloggers and blogging in Egypt.

20 November 2008

Egypt on Fire: The Gloves and The Invisible Hand

On Thursday November 6th when Egyptians were celebrating Obama's Victory, Al Ghad Party went up in flames. You can read about the initial blogosphere reactions here and here. Today I am sharing with you Wael Nawara's statements regarding the incident.

19 November 2008

Egypt: No Sexual Harassment Here, says the First Lady

Sexual harassment is a real threat in Egypt. A study shows that two-thirds of men harass women, and bloggers have repeatedly written about it -- but Egypt's first lady Suzanne Mubarak says it is not a phenomenon and just a few isolated incidents. Bloggers speak out again.

19 November 2008

Egypt Ranks High in Corruption

Egypt ranks 115 in Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index, which tracks 180 countries by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys. The rankings are in ascending order, with the more corrupt countries scoring higher ranks.

18 November 2008

Egypt for Sale

Word is out that every Egyptian citizen who is over 21 years old will own a part of Egypt's public sector companies and factories. The announcement has been the core topic of talk shows and has made its way to the blogosphere.

17 November 2008

The Egyptian Hospital in Bagram

Egypt operates a small military hospital in Bagram, Afghanistan. The Press has just got wind of it - and a blogger wonders why such inspirational stories take a while for mainstream media to report on.

16 November 2008

Egypt: No Manhood for the Manhood Drink!

Egypt has launched a fierce campaign against sexual harassment in the aftermath of the recent events written about here on Global Voices. But people working in the media industry do not seem to get the idea as evidenced by a recent ad campaign.

14 November 2008

Egypt: Lawsuit calling for the devalidation of 25,000 Muslim Hadiths

Marwa Rakha translates for us today a post about an unusual lawsuit against Al Azhar University in Egypt calling for devalidation of 25,000 Muslim Hadiths. "Does Al Azhar have the right to “delete” these hadiths? Did they invent them and now they decided to negate them? So what will they do now with those 25,000 Hadiths? Burn them? Burn the books they are in? Do they have that right?"

14 November 2008

Al Ghad Party – Another fire in Egypt

Al Ghad, Ayman Nour's Party headquarters burnt down one day before their general assembly. According to blog reports, thugs burnt down the building and hampered firemen's efforts to put the fire out. In addition to losing their headquarters, the political party also lost 20 of its members - who were rounded up and arrested instead of the thugs.

6 November 2008