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June 22nd, 2006

Alaa Is Free

Elijah Zarwan · 12:27 · Middle East & North Africa

Award-winning Egyptian blogger and activist Alaa Seif al-Islam Abd al-Fattah walked out of Omraniya police station late this afternoon after spending 46 days in detention for attending a May 7 protest. I spoke with him soon after his release and he sounded fine—exhausted after a terrible night in the police station jail, but happy to be free and heading home. Manal and Alaa are Manalaa again.

“Joy is as infectious as sorrow,” the great Egyptian intellectual Taha Hussein wrote in 1929, “and among Egyptians nothing catches so quickly.” A tense hour today bore out the truth of that observation. Rumors suggesting that plainclothes police were beating Alaa and forcing him to remain standing for prolonged periods without sleep spread quickly over SMS touched off a flurry of activity over email and the Egyptian blogosphere. Manal must have spent some frantic minutes fielding calls from concerned friends and reporters. Alaa, she told me, was being held in terrible, crowded conditions with run-of-the-mill hoodlums in Omraniya police station. But his cellmates and the crowded, filthy conditions—not the police—were apparently the proximate cause of his suffering.

Then, minutes later, news came over SMS that Alaa was free.

Hossam al-Hamalawy's post summed up the mood:

he’s out… yes, finally out!!!! hohohohohoh!! MABROUK YA SHABAB! MABROUK YA TENNIN YA BAMBY! [Congratulations, guys! Congratulations, you pink dragon!]

He’s in great spirits. I asked him, “Shall we meet up soon?” He answered quickly, “Of course, next demo!” followed by a long laughter…

And Sandmonkey's agonized post, updated several times over the space of that confused hour, conveyed some of the afternoon's drama.

Perhaps because many of Egypt's Arabic-language bloggers were marching on the police station to demand Alaa's immediate release, the English-language Egyptian blogs carried the news first. The Arabic-language bloggers will join in soon. This time, they'll be joined by a familiar, funny, incisive voice even Torah prison couldn't silence.

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June 17th, 2006

Truth and Consequences

Elijah Zarwan · 00:47 · Middle East & North Africa

The first thing that struck me as I passed by the Press Syndicate earlier this week to eavesdrop on a meeting of Egyptian bloggers was the Central Security trucks parked around the corner. The steel police barriers around the sidewalk and steps of the Syndicate were lightly manned by a few cops, who stood facing the doors of the Syndicate. They were there, it seemed, to keep the journalists and computer geeks from getting out. Or to send a message. I received it.

Middle-aged men with walkie-talkies (again, borrowing Issandr's phrase… he's got a knack), loitered across the street. These days I go to the Press Syndicate only when there's something vaguely subversive going on, so I don't know if the trucks and the men with walkie-talkies are there all the time now. That night, the image of the glowering cops manning the barriers around the Syndicate struck me as a nice illustration of the government's attitude toward freedom of expression… and it was meant to.

When I arrived, a couple hundred people were crammed into the main auditorium, watching the recent Al-Jazeera documentary about Egyptian bloggers. Posters calling for Alaa's release and the release of the other prisoners flanked the doors to the hall. So this was my second impression: Here were hundreds of people in an auditorium in the Press Syndicate, watching an Al-Jazeera documentary about bloggers and cheering and laughing all the way though. When I first interviewed Wael Abbas last year, he complained that the Press Syndicate wasn't giving online journalists the time of day. Now the local opposition press, Al-Jazeera, Deutsche Welle, Time Magazine, The Washington Post, Politiken, Die Welt, and Liberation are doing “the Egyptian blogger story” and the Press Syndicate is hosting a packed event. The opposition weekly is Al-Dostour is syndicating Egyptian blog posts. How times have changed.

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May 12th, 2006

Egypt: Blogging Behind Bars

Elijah Zarwan · 14:50 · Middle East & North Africa

On May 10, Alaa Ahmed Seif al-Islam, the award-winning blogger detained three days earlier for participating in peaceful protests in Cairo, became one of the first people to blog from prison.

“Today it hit me,” Alaa began his post, “I am really in prison. I'm not sure how I feel…The way fellow prisoners look at me tells me I do not feel well but I can't really feel it.”

Thanks in part to an energetic campaign in the Egyptian, Arab, and international blogosphere, his detention has already helped call attention to the Egyptian government's recent crackdown on dissent. Soon after Alaa's detention, a handful of bloggers from around the world began a group blog dedicated to campaigning for his release. Andy Carvin, a Massachussets-based blogger created a video urging bloggers to participate in a “Google-bombing” campaign to associate Alaa's name with “Egypt” in Google's databases. Others began work on a Wikipedia page on Alaa. Shohdy Naguib Sorour—in exile in Russia since 2002, when he became the first Egyptian to face prosecution for his online activities—urged Russian bloggers to get involved. Sandmonkey started a successful online petition (and found he was getting a lot of online visits from the Egyptian government thereafter).

The international press penned stories. International rights groups Reporters Without Borders and Human Rights Watch issued statements. People gathered for protests in front of Egyptian consulates in big American cities. Meanwhile, the comments on Manalaa.net, the blog Alaa and his wife Manal maintain, continue to show an outpouring of support from within Egypt and around the world.

Sandmonkey, referring to a few of the international posts seemed astounded by the response from the “one blogging world:”

Do you understand what this means?

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May 8th, 2006

Kifaya Under Arrest

Elijah Zarwan · 18:19 · Middle East & North Africa

There's a gentle spring breeze blowing in Brooklyn, and the sounds of kids playing basketball are coming in through the window from the schoolyard next door. It's early evening, at the end of a sunny weekend. Across the street, neighbors are singing intentionally off-key to an earnest version of “Wimoweh.” It's clashing with the piano from downstairs. I'm sunburned from a day eating homemade Indian food with an old friend in Prospect Park.

And I'm stunned, sickened, and anxious to get back to Cairo. Another friend of mine, Alaa Ahmed Seif al-Islam, went to jail there yesterday (May 7). He was among 11 young people arrested for turning out to support Kifaya activists arrested in last week's crackdown at the latter's scheduled hearing this morning. The tireless Aida Seif El-Dawla, who was there, says ~~Assistant Interior Minister~~ a senior intelligence officer known by the name Sami Sedhom told the protesters, “You bitc***. You sons of bitc***. This is how it is going to be from now on if you do not behave and know your limits. If you do not behave you'll have the bottom of my old shoes all over you.” (Her full email is posted at Arabist.net)
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