Interviews with Nora Younis

What worries me most is energy because there´s so much happening. And sometimes I feel that we are chasing so many things at the same time. There is a cops issue on sectarianism. There is a police and the return to work versus respect to human rights. And there´s a financial situation in Egypt and the economy. And there is unemployment. And there are the elections. And there is SCAF, the Supreme Council of Armed Forces. It´s just too much. It´s too much. And I hope we have the energy to handle all of this.

I think that if someone tries to monopolize the Egyptian people and if someone tries to become a dictator, or another small dictator or a big dictator, he is going to have a very hard time. I mean, Egypt has never witnessed football fans politicized. Young students politicized, all the government sector employees are not politicized. The farmers, the workers. It´s just going to be difficult. He has to deal with a completely different situation. And I don´t think we have a smart enough person to do this. I think the military´s acting very stupid. And it shows that if they were smarter than this, there were smarter things they could do.

So I don´t think they are smart enough to face the Egyptian people now. And the Islamists are a bigger threat in my opinion. But again, the people are fed up with them. And I think the first government that’s going to come to Egypt, whatever it is, it is going to be unable to achieve a lot because of the situation and because of the state the country has reached. This means if it´s an Islamist government, it will even frustrate the people even more. What worries me is that if it´s a liberal government, it will also frustrate the people even more.

So we have to wait and see. But I don´t think Islam is scary and is untouchable. And I mean, if any political group is rallying behind Islam, people are now prepared to fight for democracy even if it means fighting against this specific group. And, of course, I´m not talking about intelligentsia and the downtown intellectuals.

I mean, the Egyptians at large. Because it´s true that the Salafi Sheikhs [A conservative Islamic school of thought that emphasizes a strict and literal interpretation of the Koran and Muslim teachings.] for example, are very popular. And they have the legacy and so on and so forth. But at the same time people are discussing this. And they see that these Salafis have nothing to offer them in terms of bread and butter, the real life.So, so far I´m optimist. And we´ll see what comes and the next year. It´s going to be a very decisive year, I think.

Nora Younis is a human rights activist, journalist and blogger who is now working as the website managing editor of Al-Masry Al-Youm Daily Independent, one of the best known newspapers in Egypt.

As a human rights activist, Ms. Younis won the Human Rights First (HRF) thirtieth anniversary award in 2008 for her work using new media tools to expose human rights violations and police brutality.

When she started blogging in 2005 she focused on addressing the information vacuum on protest movements in Egypt. Before Twitter came into being, she was continually sending mass text messages to human rights activists, political groups, and journalists, informing them of rallies, arrests, state violence and police brutality.

After Twitter became established among Egyptians, she moved into visual documentation. Most recognized is her video of the textile workers’ strike in Mahalla in September 2007 that soon grew into a nationwide movement known as the April 6th strike. One of her most famous blog posts includes her testimonial about the brutal police raid on a Sudanese refugee protest camp in Cairo in 2005 where at least 27 men, women and children were killed. Her testimonial was translated by fellow bloggers and activists across the world into more than seven languages. It was used in law suits and human rights reports condemning the Egyptian government.

During the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, Ms. Younis played a major role in documenting and reporting events. Using improvised communications methods, she filmed and disseminated to global audiences the demonstrations and crackdowns in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

Before she took up her position as website managing editor of Al-Masry Al-Youm Daily Independent, Ms. Younis covered the Middle East for The Washington Post (2008) and for other international newspapers.

Twitter: @NoraYounis 

With a history dating back to the 10th millennium B.C., Egypt has long played a central role in the Middle East. Egypt is the largest Arab nation and has an influential voice in Arabic and Middle Eastern culture. Egypt has a diverse economy, but has struggled to create sustained economic growth and opportunities for its population of 84 million people.

The country has little experience with representative democracy. From 1956 to 1970, President Gamal Abdel Nasser ruled Egypt with a strong hand, nationalizing the Suez Canal and taking the country into conflict with the new state of Israel. Upon his death, Anwar al-Sadat became president. Together with other Arab nations, Sadat launched the October War against Israel in 1973. In 1979, Sadat signed a groundbreaking peace treaty with Israel.

From Sadat’s assassination in 1981 until the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, Egypt was governed by President Hosni Mubarak. For all of Mubarak’s time in office, and for much of the time since his resignation, Egypt has been under “Emergency Law,” which allows the government to suspend constitutional rights, including limiting political activity and restricting free speech. Emergency Law also allows the government to use summary arrests against political opponents.

For four successive terms, Mubarak was reelected in referenda without an opponent. In 2005, under domestic and international pressure, Mubarak proposed a constitutional amendment to allow Egypt’s first multicandidate presidential elections. Because the amendment would have imposed severe restrictions on the eligibility of opposition candidates, opposition groups boycotted the vote. Mubarak claimed to have won the September 2005 presidential election with an official 88 percent of the vote, amid widespread allegations of fraud and vote rigging. The main opposition leader, Ayman Nour, was subsequently prosecuted by the government for forging signatures on petitions and was sentenced to five years in prison, provoking protests from the United States and other democratic countries.

Following the example of the Tunisian Revolution, large protests swept Egypt in early 2011. The military, led by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), withdrew its support of Mubarak. On February 11, 2011, Vice President Omar Suleiman announced that Mubarak had resigned. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) headed by Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi then assumed power in Egypt. SCAF dissolved the parliament and suspended the constitution.

In November 2011, Egypt held parliamentary elections that were reportedly fair and democratic. In June 2012, Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi was elected President, in part because liberal and secular forces failed to coalesce around a single candidate. Morsi’s popularity declined as he declared his orders immune from challenge, removed judicial review processes, and was accused of taking steps towards the implementation of Islamist policies. Conflict arose between those supporting Islamist policies and those seeking a more liberal and secular government. Protests occurred throughout his presidency until Morsi was ousted by the military in July 2013. Muslim Brotherhood leaders were arrested and their camps and offices raided. Until new elections are held, a SCAF-installed provisional government led by acting President Adly Mansour is in control.

In its most recent report, the independent watchdog group Freedom House classifies Egypt as “partly free.” On its scale where 1 is the most free and 7is the least free, Egypt earned scores of 5 in both the civil liberties and political rights categories.