Tag: Activism

Misr Digital on resistance week

Wael Abbass of MisrDigital has posted a fantastic virtual coverage of solidarity demos in Cairo accross last week. As always, Wael takes good pix and videos of the protests, clashes, portraits of security officials present when abuses happen. The most interesting video this time was one taken of a CSF conscript mumbling “Amen” as pro-resistance demonstrators were praying for Israel’s and America’s defeat.

Wael also said his blog has been recently coming under attacks from Israeli hackers, so he sent them the following post card…

Thousands demonstrate in support of resistance

Thousands of Muslim Brothers activists took part in demos following Fri prayers today in Giza and Shoubra.
Around five thousands supporters of Egypt’s largest Islamist opposition group prayed and demonstrated in front of Istiqama mosque in Giza, according to Photographer Nasser Nouri. The protestors were surrounded by CSF, who banned them from marching to the nearby Israeli embassy, but no arrests were reported.
In el-Khazendar mosque in Shoubra, around a thousand MB supporters, half of them children, demonstrated for an hour after the Friday prayers, according to a photographer present in the scene. The mosque was surrounded by CSF, who made sure the demo did not turn into a march. Ten children were detained by security, according to Ikhwan Web.

(You can find a slideshow of the two demos here.)

Here’s a good dpa roundup by Jano Charbel of the protests in (the above-mentioned) Giza, and another two in Al-Azhar Mosque and Mansoura province. Jano puts the number of Giza demonstrators at less than what Nasser Nouri said, however. Continue reading Thousands demonstrate in support of resistance

1000 demonstrate in support of resistance

Due to some time constraints I won’t be able to post a detailed report on today’s pro-resistance demo, that started at 6pm and ended roughly around 8pm. However, I uploaded some photos of the protest and assaults by police-deployed thugs that I hope you’ll check on my flickr account.
I’m totally disgusted by the chocking police presence, and the increasing dependence of our security forces on plainclothes thugs to “keep law and order” during demos.
At least one journalist and several demonstrators were also assaulted, but I don’t know their names. Those I could recognize included dpa journalist Jano Charbel, Ahmad Droubi, who were hit in the face and the head by baton-wielding thugs, as well as Malek.

UPDATE: I’ve just spoken with Aida Seif al-Dawla, the chairman of the Egyptian Association Against Torture. She said she was brutally assaulted by plainclothes thugs as the demo was coming to an end. She received several punches in the stomach, sides, and chest.

UPDATE: Here are more protest pix from Mohamed el-Taher’s blog.

Kifaya report on corruption

Yes, it came out a while back, but I thought I’d put up a PDF version with all the font problems resolved for people who had trouble reading the MS Word version. I have merely skimmed it so can’t really comment on it, except to say: Kifaya people, presentation counts. A little clearer formatting and a table of contents on a 200+ page report would help encourage more people to read it.

Click on the thumbnail below to download.

Kifaya Corruption Report
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More on anti-torture website

I posted before something on one of my favorite human rights websites that monitors torturers in Egypt.

I received a message from the website editor, with more background information:

This website was founded last January, aiming at covering news about torture crimes committed by Egyptian Ministry of Interior. The working team of torture in Egypt believes that raising people’s awareness of their rights is the first step to create a solid anti-torture movement.
I was the first member who joined the website staff, now we are a growing team editing, searching, publishing news and reports about torture crimes committed in Egypt by the interior ministry, and support those whose rights were violated.

Now, here is our story…
March 2005
Me sitting staring at my PC, a scream came from one of Al-Nadeem reports: “They should die otherwise we will do!” It was a woman telling here experience in a police station, meaning by” they” the police officers.” Nothing could compensate what I suffered,” she explained.

26 June 2005
Alaa is standing in a demonstration lifting a banner says “religion is for God and torture is for all!”
Amr came to the demo, carrying a huge list contained names of men, women, young, old, Muslims, Copts, political activists, criminals, innocents… etc. All were tortured by the interior ministry heroes. Some of them were tortured to death.

August 2005:
Me again in front of my PC trying to build a blog, where I can publish some simple researches about torture I prepared.
I sent an email to Alaa seeking his help. He encouraged and sent me some extra material.

January 2006
Amr, Alaa and me sitting in a café with their laptops preparing new and bigger website named “torture in Egypt.” Each one of us was talking about the role one would play in this website.

Today, al hamdu lelah, we have more sources, many people are helping, we send a periodical newsletter to a huge number of people ,we guide some fans to NGOs where they can volunteer, and the most important, people are now more aware of their right of protection against torture.

Police ban solidarity protest

A blogger with Al-Ghad Party reports that a group of young party activists tried to organize a demo on Sunday in solidarity with the Lebanese resistance, and to mark the 23rd of July “Revolution,” but were banned by the police.

As they were coming out of the party building, the activists were met by General Sami Seidhom, and a phalanx of CSF and State Security agents, according to blogger Mohamed el-Sa3eed. General Seidhom hurled slurrs and threatened the activists with detention if they stepped into the street, el-Sa3eed said. The activists retreated upstairs to the party office, and chanted from the balcony overfacing Tal3at Harb Square. Security forces, according to el-Sa3eed, banned Al-3arabiya crew who arrived at the scene from filming.

Appeal from American University in Beirut

I am passing on this appeal from the AUB for donations to help the refugees from South Lebanon. Not that long ago I was walking through its beautiful campus…

Also take a look at this interview with John Waterbury, AUB’s dean, who says “We may be looking at a situation where we have to write off the last eight or nine years.”


An appeal from the American University of Beirut to its alumni, friends, faculty, staff and students

July 23, 2006

Facing the Challenge The American University of Beirut is once again at the forefront of efforts to care for those who are suffering in Lebanon. Along with other NGOs, the men and women affiliated with AUB and its hospital are providing critical services to those in need. We will do everything we can to take care of those who need our help. We have done it before. Our commitment to do so is just as strong today.

We expect, however, that the demand for AUB’s services will continue to grow as more and more families seek refuge in and around Beirut. Today, more than 500,000 men, women, and children have been displaced as a result of the conflict.

Continue reading Appeal from American University in Beirut

Grievances dot net

Rights activist Gamal 3eid, director of HRinfo, and his colleague Sally Sami have launched a new cyber-initiative, humum.net. Humum is Arabic for Grievances.

Gamal said in a press release that this new site

… aims to facilitate for human rights groups, state institutions, and volunteers to contribute to the alleviation of human rights violations.
The Humum.net initiative came as a result of months of efforts exerted by the HRinfo team and a wide range of volunteers. The aim is to interact with a large number of complaints sent to HRinfo from Egypt and many other Arab countries.
The privacy of the plaintiff is put into consideration as all personal information is barred from publishing. Any response made to a complaint will be forwarded directly to the plaintiff.

Continue reading Grievances dot net