Posts Tagged ‘Activism’

BOOK – The Student Movement and National Politics in Egypt

The Student Movement and National Politics in Egypt

A book by Ahmed Abdallah Rozza…

SS Brigadier General Ahmad el-Azzazi عميد أمن دولة أحمد العزازي

From SS Officers

One of the photos I found on the Nasr City SS DVDs belonged to Brigadier General Ahmad el-Azzazi.

Azzazi was in charge of the “Trade Unions Bureau” in the dissolved State Security Police, which was involved in monitoring, arrest and torture of activists within labor unions and professional syndicates. Azzazi is a familiar face for many of us. He personally supervised the suppression of pro-democracy and Palestine solidarity demonstrations in downtown Cairo, attended by left wing activists involved in the labor movement and syndicates.

Azzazi, moreover, took part in Black Wednesday, 25 May 2005, when National Democratic Party thugs sexually attacked women reporters and activists in broad day light, under the protection of and in coordination with the police.

Azzazi’s name was also mentioned in a corruption case related to the education ministry. He was among police officers who received financial rewards from then Education Minister Ahmad Zaki Badr, allocated from the education ministry’s budget, after they helped put down protests by the ministry’s civil servants on 16 January 2011, roughly one week before the outbreak of the revolution.

I personally saw Azzazi only once, during a pro-democracy protest in front of the Lawyers Syndicate, in 2005. He was then standing together with SS Colonel Sherif el-Qamati, of the Counter-Communism Bureau.

Interestingly, there are two more members of the Azzazi family who are part of the dissolved SS, according to the SS family tree compiled by Moftasa: Lt. Colonel Khaled el-Azzazi and Colonel Hosni el-Azzazi. But no information is available yet on them.

So, where is Brigadier Ahmad el-Azzazi now? Is he being investigated? Is he in prison? Or is he part of the musical chairs game the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces is playing…

#Jan25 Street Art by @Ganzeer

I’m a growing fan of Ganzeer’s art work. I so wish to see more revolutionary murals in every single city and village.

VIDEO – Alexandria students denounce university president

Students on Saturday slammed the president of Alexandria University about the quality of education during a public lecture by Dr. Farouq el-Baz…

VIDEO – AUC students campaign against SS and NDP

AUC students denounce State Security General Ashraf Kamal and NDP member Mohamed Dabbour who is in charge of monitoring and censoring the student activities.

#Jan25 Egypt’s intifada and social media

Mark Levine interviews me for Al-Jazeera’s English website…

Domino Effect: Tunisia fallout in Egypt

Repression, corruption, unemployment, and an entrenched ruling family pushed the Tunisian population to revolt. Those same conditions exist in many other Arab countries including Egypt where President Hosni Mubarak has been in power for 29 years…

نداء لكل المصريين – تسمح تولعلي؟ – ٢٠١١

When reporting becomes activism

Al-Jazeera English website interviews Philip Rizk, Khaled Hamza and I on media and activism in Egypt…

I’ll never get tired of repeating this: In a dictatorship, independent journalism by default becomes a form of activism, and the spread of information is essentially an act of agitation.

Young Egyptians campaign for change