Forbes’ Middle East released its 2019 “Arabs 30 under 30 List” featuring seven Egyptian’s who dominated their field. The young 27-year-old co-founder of Spyce Michael Farid landed a spot on the list with when he and his friends created a robot that disrupted the culinary industry. “We were four really hungry MIT students and water polo teammates tired of spending USD 10 on take-out lunches and dinners,” Micheal Farid, Kale Rogers, Luke Schlueter and Brandy Knight wrote on their website. “Our athletic appetites required better nutrition but our student budgets didn’t allow for that kind of expense. While we ate our bland chopped salads and stir-frys, we dreamed of an alternative: a robot that cooked tasty and nutritious meals, served them, and cleaned up after.” The four are robotics-obsessed engineers and decided to build a solution from their fraternity’s basement. Two years later, their restaurant ‘Spyce’ was open in Boston, USA. Their menu consists of a variety of vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, gluten free and regular bowl options that range from Lebanese to Korean. Over at the East Coast is another Egyptian who topped the list with his educational mobile app. Naguib…
Egypt Parliament Requests Committee To Be Formed to Solve Stray Dogs Issue
The Egyptian parliament’s local administration committee recommended that a government committee be formed to solve the problem of stray dogs in the streets. The committee will be headed by deputy agriculture minister Mona Mehrez, and will include representatives from the ministries of local development, environment, health, agriculture and interior. “It will also include representatives from human rights organisations and animal care societies,” head of the local administration committee Ahmed El-Sigini, “the recommendations of the proposed committee should be issued within 45 days.” El-Sigini also pointed to the rising danger of these stray dogs in Egypt’s streets, as he notes that they are a “danger” to public health and “a threat to the lives of many citizens, particularly children”. “The government does not have any plan on fighting this phenomenon, it was important that we recommend a committee be formed to tackle the crisis,” he added. Member of Parliament Salah Hassaballah also claimed that stray dogs have caused harm to around 2 million citizens in 2018. Alaa Eid, head of the Ministry of Health’s Preventive Medicine Department, said that “as many as 303,000 citizens were bitten by stray and wild dogs…
Emotional Reunion of Yazidis With Families After Escaping ISIS
After five years of captivity at the hands of the terrorist group Islamic Sate, a group of Yazidi women and children reunited with their families in Iraq on Saturday, Associated Press reports. Families were cheering, hugging and kissing their relatives in an emotional scene, and one teenage boy reportedly collapsed in his aunt’s arms and broke down in tears. The group of three Yazidi women and eighteen children were among thousands of civilians who managed to escape in the last few days from the last territory held by the Islamic State group in the village of Baghouz, in eastern Syria. They crossed into Iraq from Syria on Friday, and were picked up by their families on Saturday. More than 3,000 Yazidis are still missing after Islamic State militants attacked their communities in the Sinjar region in northwest Iraq in 2014, and enslaved, raped and killed thousands of them. Yazidi tribal leaders and organisations have recently called on the international community to help investigate the fate of thousands of women and children still missing after being kidnapped by Isis, and to punish ISIS fighters for their crimes. “We call on the coalition forces, namely the…
The Region’s First Hospital Ship Sets Sail in Egypt’s Aswan
The Middle East’s first sailing hospital set sail from Egypt’s Upper Egypt’s governorate Aswan on 3 March where it plans to travel to the cities along the Nile River between Aswan and Cairo in a 90 day trip. The hospital ship, supervised by Rotary Egypt. is equipped with clinics, labs and a pharmacy focusing on the governorates in Upper and Lower Egypt who have limited access to health care services. The first of its kind project gained huge support from both the private and public sector in the country by landing a collaboration with the Ministry of Health, the Tahya Masr Fund, Masr El-Kheir Foundation, El-Tayebi Pharmacies, Banque de Caire, and Pharco Pharmaceutical Company. Many volunteers from across the country decided to take part of this unique project. The project was launched by the Minister of Health Hala Zayed, Rotary Egypt and the president of Rotary Club as it witnessed participation from a great range of pharmacists, medics, specialists, consultants, nurses and technicians from different fields. Hoping to help hundreds of thousands of patients, these medics and based in the metropolitan cities Cairo and Alexandria as well as the Upper Egypt…
Egyptian Photojournalist Shawkan Finally Released
After more than five years in prison, Egyptian photo journalist Mahmoud Abu Zaid has been finally released. Shawkan posted a photo from his own Twitter account on Sunday evening. يا أهلا بالأسفلت … ❤#Shawkan_Is_Free#شوكان_عالاسفلت pic.twitter.com/bZot9HBO7o — Mahmoud Abou Zeid (@ShawkanZeid) March 4, 2019 ”I can’t describe how I feel, I’m free,” he told Reuters Arabic. Shawkan’s release is heavily mandated by strict conditions: he is under police observation and probation for the next five years. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, he is also not allowed to manage his financial properties or assets during those five years. It is expected that Shawkan and his lawyer would appeal the decision in Egypt’s cassation court. “We are relieved to hear that Shawkan is finally free after spending over five years in jail and call on authorities to end their shameful treatment of this photojournalist by removing any conditions to his release,” stated Sherif Mansour, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Middle-East and North Africa Program Coordinator. “The Egyptian government should take steps immediately to improve its image, which has been badly tarnished by this unjust imprisonment–and it can start by releasing…
Mounir Concert Profits to Go to Cairo Railway Station Incident Victims
After the tragic events in Ramses Cairo Railway Station, killing more than 20 people and injuring 40 others, Egyptian Singer Mohamed Mounir is donating a percentage of his recent concert profits to the Ahl Masr Foundation and the Egyptian Blood Bank. His concert was held on March 1, at Family Park in the New Cairo area. Mounir decided to hold the concert to support the incident victims who were injured by the violent event which lately occurred in the Egyptian capital. “We have to fight everything and we have to consider that our real enemy is ignorance, and we must try as much as possible, through every person, to exert greater effort in his place in the difficult circumstances of nations. I send a message to the youth and say to them, fight ignorance, ignorance is the first accused, but Egypt is always and persistently with its youth, leaders and good people,” said Mounir at the beginning of his concert after expressing his condolences. Since the incident, the Ahl Masr Foundation has been attempting to support and provide for the rescued victims. It has been receiving donations in order to…
Egyptian Squash Players Nour El-Sherbini and Ali Farag Win PSA World Championship in Chicago
Egyptian squash players Nour El-Sherbini and Ali Farag are awarded 2018-2019 PSA World Squash Championship titles for women and men on 2 March for the third time in a row. The championship began on 26 February to 2 March in Chicago, USA. The Egyptian duo El-Sherbini and Farag landed the titles after defeating Nour El Tayeb and Tarek Momen respectively. Two-time champion and world number two El-Sherbini faced a tough test to snatch the title as she defeated her compatriot Nour El-Tayeb Alexandria-based 23-year-old El Sherbini, who is a three times World Champion winner and the youngest woman to win the Women’s World Championship, defeated her competitor El Tayeb 3-1 (11-6, 11-5, 10-12 and 15-13) in 57 minutes. “I think I’m out of words!” El-Sherbini said after scoring her winning point. “The last two games were really close and she was coming back. I think she likes it like that – she was a little bit tense in the first two games and then she started to relax. I was trying to focus point after point and I’m really happy of course,” she reflected. “It was really tough tournament for me,…
Grand Imam Al Azhar: Polygamy Oppresses Women and Children
Sheikh Ahmed El Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al Azhar, stated on his weekly TV show that the understanding of polygamy has been distorted and the way it is currently misinterpreted and used is unfair to women and children. “We have to read the verse in full, and the part which says, ‘two, three and four wives’, is only part of the verse, and not the entire verse, as having multiple wives oppresses the women and her children.” “Is the Muslim really free to marry a second and third and fourth? Or is this freedom bound by restrictions and conditions? ” he asked, “the most importance priority is the wellbeing of the woman and addressing her concerns, because she is half of society, and if we do not take their concerns in consideration, then we will be walking with one leg,” El Tayeb added. In Egypt, in accordance to Law 1/2000, popularly known as the Khul’ law, a man is obliged to inform his first wife if he plans to marry a second woman. According to this law, if the first wife objects to her husband remarrying, she has the right to…
“Was That Really You?” How Public Images Distort Women’s Identity
When we talk about the representation of women today, we often refer to issues that women in the past also had to challenge: the workplace, politics, the family and other public places. Yet in our time, the power of the image has also become so strong that it now acts as the main form of communication and representation of women. Images of women today, whether it be on billboards or even on social media, can infiltrate and produce myths, misrepresentations and stereotypes that separates the woman from her own individuality and identity. ‘Was That Really You?’ is an image research project by Egyptian photographer and artist Nadia Mounier, which explores the representation of women in public images and its methods of gender control. After completing her BA in Applied Arts from Helwan University in 2010, Mounier first began as a self taught photographer with a particular interest in street photography, before developing to find ways to bind visual arts and create art projects using photography. “For my generation, the use of the digital camera was growing among ordinary people and photography was no longer just for the professionals, and it started to…