Just where do they get the balls: Al Masri Al Youm, the quite reliable independent daily, today had an article claiming that five members of the National Democratic Party were suing three Kifaya leaders — George Ishak (one of Kifaya’ss main organizers, but who is rather elderly to be violent), Muhammad Abdel Qudous (a portly [...]

This is reproduced from an email I just received:
This item is from the London-based Arabic daily newspaper Al-Hayat (May 29, 2005):
CAIRO - Egyptian Parliament member Hamdi Hassan demanded an immediate investigation into a report that the Education Department, in preparing for a visit by US First Lady Laura Bush to a school in Alexandria last [...]

Today, the WaPo has an editorial where Eugene Robinson links Laura Bush’s visit to the region on behalf of women’s rights with the beatings that occurred on the 25th in Cairo during a national referendum.
The heart of the editorial is:
U.S. involvement in the Middle East deepens every day, as the Bush administration struggles to [...]

UPDATED:
This morning I grabbed a copy of al-`Arabi. Without reading an article or a column yet, it is safe to say it is the Egyptian paper most critical of last week’s events.

Below the pictures of three different women being assaulted, the headlines say:
“The Police in the service of ’sexually assaulting’ Egyptian women’”
“We Demand President [...]

In light of an article on the National Council for Human Rights that is coming out next week in MER, I am curious if anyone has seen it referenced in the past week.
More specifically, has anyone heard anything from Egypt’s NCHR regarding last week’s electoral violence?
My guess Abul-Magd and the boys are going to [...]

Today the American Chamber of Commerce hosted NDP policies secretariat chairman Gamal Mubarak, who gave a press conference at the Four Seasons.
Gleaned from foreign press journalists invited to attend, Gamal gave a presentation which mainly dealt with economic - rather than political - issues.
After the presentation, a Q&A section followed. Rather than directly taking [...]

According to Reuters, the Egyptian government is responding to the accounts of violence against demonstrators last Wednesday.
According to the report:
Presidential spokesman Suleiman Awad told Reuters he believed the U.S. comments and media coverage in the United States and elsewhere were “unfair and unjustified”.
“When you have more than 54,000 electoral units nationwide, (and) when you have [...]

In a text from al-Ghad party member, Wael Nawara:
“Mona Makram Ebeid, Secretary-General of El Ghad, had today resigned from the party for what she described as ‘Personal reasons in addition to internal division.’
We realize that these are difficult times for anyone to be in opposition in Egypt. We respect Dr. Mona’s decision and wish her [...]

al-`Arabi newspaper, the voice of the Nasserist opposition party, has been delayed for at least 24 hours. Usually, the highly critical paper is released on Sunday morning but can be picked up at a news-agent on Saturday night.
The paper’s editorial staff is saying that it has been delayed but will be available by this [...]

Kifaya’s Website is not working this morning.
Whether this is a temporary glitch in the system or because the government has taken it down is undetermined at this time.
The Arabist will monitor and update the situation.
UPDATE:
The Website is backup for now.

Stacey’s back. Read the post, and read her new article on Lebanon. It’s good. (And not just because I edited it.) She makes sense of some headache-inducing complexities of Lebanese politics.
And remember to scroll down and look at the second picture!

I’ve just received this SMS:
Protesting against police brutality, Egypt will wear BLACK on the 1st of June. Tell your friends.
More of this type of reaction will come, I’m sure.
Update: As pointed out in the comments, this will centered around a demo at 1pm at the Journalists’ Syndicate in Downtown Cairo.

Below is a profile by WaPo’s Daniel Williams regarding one woman’s experience last Wednesday. The story was published on 27 May. I could not locate it on theWaPo website but found it via MSNBC. Williams’ profile can be found here.
The LA Times‘ Megan Stack also had quotes from this victim in her article on [...]

Last evening, I met up with my shilla (gang). It was partly a get-together to relax in the aftermath of the previous days, but also an apt setting to compare notes.
Two interesting points are worthy of sharing (although there were others).
1:
The Wafd newspaper sent a journalist out to see how many times he could vote [...]

Don’t miss Anthony Shadid’s article on Syria in today’s WaPo, Syria’s Unpredictable Force: The State-Sanctioned Clergy. It fits in nicely with the wider debate in the Arab world about the role of religion and religious groups in politics.

NDP-supporters aim to scuffle with Kifaya demonstrators at the Journalist Syndicate.

Human Rights Watch released a press release regarding the violence in Cairo on the 25th of May.
Some of the key portions of the release are:
A witness to the Sa`d Zaghlul confrontation told Human Rights Watch that there were two separate groups totaling about 50 Kifaya demonstrators on the sidewalk, with a cordon of about a [...]

Tonight, it has been reported by the BBC that yesterday’s referendum passed with 83-percent of the votes being “Yes.”
According to the Egyptian state 16.4 million of the 32 million (54-percent) eligible voters turned out nation-wide.
UPDATE:
Reuters is reporting that the initial electoral returns from the first two provinces showed that referendum was approved by 98-percent.
Hence, [...]

DISCLAIMER: Everyone whose name I use was consulted for permission.
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There has already been much said about yesterday’s referendum to amend constitutional article 76 and the accompanying violence against protesters (including the harassment and beatings of women) in Egypt. I doubt I have much to add or contribute. But I will try to give as [...]

Pictures taken from yesterday’s voting, protesting, and violence can be viewed here.
One thing I failed to clearly capture were the attacks against females (primarily demonstrators and journalists). I have some pictures of one woman in a group of men but it is impossible to see what is going on (although I cannot even imagine).
That [...]