Earlier today, Egypt’s Ministry of Health announced the death of Ganna Mohamed Samir Hafez, a 5-year-old victim of child abuse, sparking massive outrage among social media users in the MENA region, CNN Arabic reports. Ganna had reportedly suffered longtime abuse at the hands of her maternal grandmother, Safaa, who is currently in police custody on charges of torture. The suspect, who had been awarded custody of Ganna and her 6-year-old sister, Amani, following their parents’ divorce, is accused of inflicting burns on both girls using sharp instruments. In an interview with Al Watan, Ganna’s father also alleges that his now deceased daughter was raped, with numerous social media users and citizen reports accusing her maternal uncle of repeatedly sexually abusing her. According to a number of social media users, Ganna suffered genital injuries from the alleged incidents of rape that led to urinary incontinence. Ganna’s father speaking to Al Watan. The victim was initially admitted into the Sherbeen General Hospital, after which a police report was filed, detailing the multiple scars and bruises on Ganna’s body, including burns in the genital area, Al Masry Al Youm reports. Doctors also reported…
118 Terrorists Killed During Anti-Terror Operations in Egypt’s Sinai
Egypt’s Armed Forces announced on Friday that it had killed 118 terrorists ‘over the past period and to date’ during anti-terror operations in Central and North Sinai. According to a statement released by the official spokesperson of the Armed Forces, 10 security personnel, including nine soldiers and an officer, were killed or injured during the operations. In a statement released on social media, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi said that “today” terrorism had taken the lives of “a number of our sons…who sacrificed their lives for their homeland”. “The cancer of terrorism continues to try to steal this country, but we stand firm, fighting it with all our strength and faith,” said a message released by President Sisi on Twitter. “I would like to emphasize that our fight against terrorism has not and will not end without the people’s determination to eradicate all of its kinds – whether it is terrorism of the minds or souls.” President Sisi’s statements imply the deaths of Egyptian security personnel occurred on Friday 27 September, although this could not be immediately confirmed. سلامٌ على كل من روى بدمائه الزكية تراب هذا الوطن العظيم، اليوم…
What Will Palestine Be Like in 2048? Writers Turn to Sci-Fiction For Answers
When imagination meets the painful realities of the past and present, memories no longer trap the minds and hearts of the people, but instead become a ladder that travels straight to the future – exploring new pathways and parallel realities. The possibilities of what is to come, and how to prepare or anticipate it, come to be the real questions. For Palestinians, and Palestinian writers in particular, imagining the future seems impossible when they cannot afford to escape the horrors of the present. Basma Ghalayini, editor of the superb ‘Palestine +100’ short story collection published by Comma Press, notes that science fiction is like a “luxury”, as “the cruel present (and the traumatic past) have too firm a grip on Palestinian writers’ imaginations.” For a long time, references to the topics of resistance, occupation, loss, and longing for a homeland were the most common themes in Palestinian literature, with writers like Ghassan Kanafani and Mahmoud Darwish being the most notable names. Literature was not just an expression of the human soul, but also a force of resistance – a political and cultural weapon that ferments Palestinian identity. However, in the…
Egypt Keeps Finding Natural Gas, But What Does That Actually Mean?
Since 2011, Egypt has found itself one way or another in global headlines. Recently, coverage of Egypt has focused on a series of huge natural gas discoveries. The excitement this has generated is not just limited to the government, however. The usually staid world of oil and gas cannot contain its excitement either. Before asking the important question of what all this actually means for ordinary Egyptians, let us first explore what has been happening in Egypt’s energy sector. The hype is real Oil and gas are important to Arab economies, and Egypt is no exception. There are currently more than 50 international oil companies working in Egypt. Italy’s ENI is the most prominent of these, and they were the ones to discover the much-publicized Zohr gas field in 2015. In its official press release, ENI described it as a “world class supergiant gas discovery,” and for good reason: it has an estimated capacity of at least 30 trillion cubic feet of gas, almost doubling Egypt’s reserves. As of 2017, Egypt had proven reserves of 3.3 billion barrels of oil and 62.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. “Zohr is…
Gaming Market in Egypt: The State of Play
The Ancient Egyptians gave birth to some great innovations, many of which are credited with shaping modern civilizations. In the present day, developments in mathematics, literature and geometry can be traced back to this part of Africa as Egypt provided some of the great minds of the time. But can Egypt be credited with the advent of modern day gambling? It’s often been claimed that Ancient Egyptians gambled by throwing coins during religious rituals and there is some evidence, dating back to 2630 BC, that appears to back this up. While they may have been there at the start, Egypt’s potential place as ground-breakers for modern day gambling is at odds with the current position in the country. The State of Play The current situation as regards to gambling in Egypt is not quite clear cut. What we do know is that at present, it is illegal for Egyptian residents to gamble in person other than at State-approved lotteries and on a very small selection of sporting events. The government recognized that gambling can be an important source of revenue and with that in mind, they have opened things up…
Egypt Releases its First Animated Feature Film at GIFF
After 20 years in the making, Egyptian producer Alabbas Bin Alabbas finally released Egypt’s first animated feature film ‘Al Fares w Al Amira’ or The Knight and the Princess at the 3rd edition of El Gouna International Film Festival (GIFF). The producer put the project on hold regularly over the last 17 years, because he would get recruited to producer TV series. Alabbas would use the profits he would make from his TV series production to invest in his life-long dream; creating Egypt’s first feature film. This animation resembles a familiar Disney story, Aladdin, in its aesthetic. But instead, it tells the story of the seventh century Umayyad general Mohammed Bin Qasim Al Thaqafi who conquered Sindh, located in modern-day Pakistan, after battling Raja Dahir, the last Hindu ruler of the country. The Knight and the Princess tells the story of Muhammad bin Qasim Al Thaqafi, an Arab knight who freed Arab women and children from the captives of the Indian Ocean pirates, at the age of 15 years. Two years later, the knight conquered the entire country of Sindh. During his first voyage, Muhammad bin Qasim Al Thaqafi met an…
Book Review: The Tentmakers of Cairo: Egypt’s Medieval and Modern Appliqué Craft
Cairo is a city in which millennia of Egyptian history are woven into the fabric of modern daily life, and where history and tradition inform and shape the lived experience of every Cairene. It is also a city where an ancient legacy bumps up against new technologies, the winds of social and political change, and the ebb and flow of economic stability – a city in which its citizens must navigate the intersection of tradition with modernity, and the interface between historical memory and present-day concerns. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the workshops of Cairo’s traditional artisans, who carry on the traditional arts and crafts of the generations before them, while adapting to a changing sociocultural and economic landscape. In The Tentmakers of Cairo: Egypt’s Medieval and Modern Appliqué Craft, Seif El Rashidi and Sam Bowker present a wide-ranging study of one of Egypt’s traditional crafts, the Egyptian appliqué work known as khayamiya (from khayma, Arabic for tent) and showcase the stories of the skilled artisans who struggle to preserve this uniquely Egyptian art. There has been very little research attention to khayamiya prior to the publication…
Arrests Reported in Egypt Following Recent Protests
Following the rare protest that was spotted near Egypt’s iconic Tahrir Square on Friday, a number of reports from rights groups and national media have claimed that Egyptian authorities have arrested several individuals. Popular TV host Amr Adeeb presented videos of seven individuals arrested, showing their passports and confessions during an episode of his Talk Show “Al Hekaya”. He also claimed that the Muslim Brotherhood used of a number of them to monitor and support the demonstrations in Egypt. The group included two Turkish nationals, two Jordanians, a Palestinian, and a Dutch national, who claimed in the video that he was arrested after flying his drone from the rooftop of his hotel near Tahrir square. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWqvZieZ4xs In other reports, the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights noted that there are 1,915 detained, including academics, political party leaders and lawyers. https://twitter.com/ecesr/status/1177017029204807681 Among those arrested according to local reports are political scientists Hassan Nafaa and Hazem Hosny and Khaled Dawoud, a journalist and former head of al-Dustour party. They are being investigated and accused for the alleged use of social media to spread false news, undermining national security, joining a banned…
Thomas Cook Collapse Results in Thousands of Holiday Cancellations from UK
The recent news of reputable tourism company Thomas Cook’s liquidation has resulted in the cancelling of 25,000 booked reservations in Egypt. Blue Sky Group, Thomas Cook’s operator, shared a press release with Egyptian Streets where the company revealed that the company was expecting 100,000 tourists to visit the country via Thomas Cook. As such, English government body, the British Civil Aviation Authority (BCAA) is taking charge of the tourists’ return to the UK. Currently, 1,600 tourists are located in Egypt’s seaside, in a resort in Hurghada. As of Tuesday, eight hundred tourists left Hurghada Airport onboard three government-dispatched jets as per Egypt Independent. The news of the company’s sudden collapse brought displeasure to many, namely travelers who had already booked their flights and those already located in the Egypt. Many have taken to social media to voice out their concerns and anger. Oh it’s lovely down in Egypt in the Autumn There’s lots of sand and pyramids to see Thomas Cook has left me stranded here in Cairo The next flight out is 2023. Shit. — Cassian Andor (@13speedOD) September 25, 2019 We are supposed to be flying on Monday…