Viewpoints

Three years on October 7: A whirlpool, not a flood

A critical stance on October 7 is not neutrality, disavowal or denial. It is a question about the decision itself, the context in which it was taken, and what followed.

Amr Adly_

Three years on October 7: A whirlpool, not a flood

Latest stories

Unlearning fear: My queer life in exile

Viewpoints_

From underground workshops in Cairo to dancing under police protection abroad: An Egyptian activist reflects on the trauma of state persecution and the quiet relief of asylum.

Noha Abeer_

Unlearning fear: My queer life in exile

Force and Fiat| How Egypt wields deportation orders against refugees

Viewpoints_

Behind closed doors, Egypt’s deportation process has morphed from an individual legal exception into a systematic mechanism of forced return, violating its own courts.

Nour Khalil_

Force and Fiat| How Egypt wields deportation orders against refugees

The base next door: Egypt’s eastern border is in the crosshairs

Viewpoints_

Emptying Gaza is no longer just about dismantling Egypt’s first line of defense, it paves the way for a US military base on Cairo’s doorstep.

Mohamed Saad Abdel Hafeez_

The base next door: Egypt’s eastern border is in the crosshairs

Madbouly may go, the questions he leaves behind should not

Viewpoints_

After eight years of Madbouly’s tenure, replacing the cabinet changes nothing if the closed system of policy-making and zero public accountability remains untouched.

Mohamed Saad Abdel Hafeez_

Madbouly may go, the questions he leaves behind should not

Force and Fiat| The refugee crisis of the state’s own making

Viewpoints_

Stripped of legal pathways, Sudanese asylum seekers navigate a system designed to delay registration, convert delays into violations, and justify forced returns.

Nour Khalil_

Force and Fiat| The refugee crisis of the state’s own making

Egypt’s descent into Bikini Bottom

Viewpoints_

A satirical Facebook group about SpongeBob’s hometown drew 1.8 million members in ten days, spooked the interior ministry, and said more about Egyptian despair than any op-ed could

Hoda Fayek_

Egypt’s descent into Bikini Bottom

A Sudanese writer at the gates of Egypt

Viewpoints_

At a desert crossing between Sudan and Egypt, a writer watches scorpions move freely across a border he cannot—and reflects on exile, poetry, and invented nations.

Mohamed Murkah_

A Sudanese writer at the gates of Egypt

On Nubian memory, constitutional promises, and the right of return

Viewpoints_

From the 1902 dam heightening to forgotten constitutional promises in 2026, a Nubian advocate reflects on displacement, legal betrayal, and the struggle for the right of return.

Fatmeh Emam Sakory_

On Nubian memory, constitutional promises, and the right of return

Why Iran remains the prime suspect in the Damietta attack

Viewpoints_

Given Iran’s strategy in its brutal war with the US and Israel, Tehran’s involvement—likely indirect—in the Damietta drone strike remains the most plausible scenario.

Khaled Dawoud_

Why Iran remains the prime suspect in the Damietta attack

Ceuta’s ‘invasion’: The war’s North African front

Viewpoints_

Fifty thousand people swam into Spain in a day, then vanished just as fast. Behind the spectacle lies an old Moroccan pattern and a far bigger political war.

Basel Ramsis_

Ceuta’s ‘invasion’: The war’s North African front

How to bury a communist twice

Viewpoints_

El-Hilali built a class-based liberties movement rooted in labor struggles, fiercely opposing the foreign funding that flooded civil society and human rights NGOs in the 1990s.

Basel Ramsis_

How to bury a communist twice

No cross on the pitch: Where are Egypt’s Christian footballers?

Viewpoints_

Former Egypt international Ahmed Hossam "Mido" decried anti-Christian discrimination in Egyptian football, asking: "How can only five Coptic players have reached the top level?"

Ishak Ibrahim_

No cross on the pitch: Where are Egypt’s Christian footballers?

What remains after the state’s capture of the Future of Egypt?

Viewpoints_

Egypt’s ministries already do most of what the Future of Egypt Authority claims to do. A new bill hands it more power anyway, with little to show for past results.

Mustapha Kamel Al-Sayyid_

What remains after the state’s capture of the Future of Egypt?

El-Sisi’s Octagon: The republic goes back up the mountain

Viewpoints_

Moving the seat of power into a walled desert enclave turns modern citizens back into mere subjects, reviving an absolute sovereign model driven by the haunting anxiety of 2011.

Nasser Amin_

El-Sisi’s Octagon: The republic goes back up the mountain

Egypt’s judges, out of the wilderness again

Viewpoints_

Since 1939, Egypt’s Judges Club has cycled through victory, purge, and exile. As independents retake its board in 2026, the third wilderness may be ending.

Nasser Amin_

Egypt’s judges, out of the wilderness again

Omnia Swedan and the sanctity of the forbidden

Viewpoints_

If Nessma Al-Khatib and Omnia Swedan were not women, and if their comments had come from men, would the reaction have been different in either case? There is no answer.

Basel Ramsis_

Omnia Swedan and the sanctity of the forbidden

In Iran, what comes after victory?

Viewpoints_

By invoking the ancient reliefs of Naqsh-e Rostam, Tehran is signaling a major ideological shift that places domestic economic recovery ahead of exporting the Islamic revolution.

Amr Adly_

In Iran, what comes after victory?

The curse of the Arab Spring haunting us in Egypt and Tunisia

Viewpoints_

Beyond the shared nostalgia for pre-revolutionary stability, Egypt and Tunisia find themselves mirroring each other in an unprecedented, systematic closure of the public sphere.

Basel Ramsis_

The curse of the Arab Spring haunting us in Egypt and Tunisia

Encoding injustice: Egypt’s structural engineering of labor precarity

Viewpoints_

Through arbitrary physical screenings, sudden drug-test sackings, and strict female travel curbs, the Egyptian state is actively engineering systemic workplace discrimination.

Ishak Ibrahim_

Encoding injustice: Egypt’s structural engineering of labor precarity

When will the President call Israel by its name?

Viewpoints_

The quiet deployment of Egyptian fighter jets to the UAE exposes a dangerous realignment with Abu Dhabi’s aggressive, pro-Israel architecture for the region.

Basel Ramsis_

When will the President call Israel by its name?

Jackals and Jackasses: A Gulf Story

Viewpoints_

It is not condescension; it is contempt. A searing critique of how Gulf “cultural specificity” is routinely weaponized to normalize racism, tribalism, and the kafala system.

Ahmed Naji_

Jackals and Jackasses: A Gulf Story