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A Sudanese writer at the gates of Egypt

Viewpoints_

At a desert crossing between Sudan and Egypt, a writer watches scorpions move freely across a border he cannot—and reflects on exile, poetry, and invented nations.

Mohamed Murkah_

A Sudanese writer at the gates of Egypt

Why Iran remains the prime suspect in the Damietta attack

Viewpoints_

Given Iran’s strategy in its brutal war with the US and Israel, Tehran’s involvement—likely indirect—in the Damietta drone strike remains the most plausible scenario.

Khaled Dawoud_

Why Iran remains the prime suspect in the Damietta attack

Ceuta’s ‘invasion’: The war’s North African front

Viewpoints_

Fifty thousand people swam into Spain in a day, then vanished just as fast. Behind the spectacle lies an old Moroccan pattern and a far bigger political war.

Basel Ramsis_

Ceuta’s ‘invasion’: The war’s North African front

How to bury a communist twice

Viewpoints_

El-Hilali built a class-based liberties movement rooted in labor struggles, fiercely opposing the foreign funding that flooded civil society and human rights NGOs in the 1990s.

Basel Ramsis_

How to bury a communist twice

No cross on the pitch: Where are Egypt’s Christian footballers?

Viewpoints_

Former Egypt international Ahmed Hossam "Mido" decried anti-Christian discrimination in Egyptian football, asking: "How can only five Coptic players have reached the top level?"

Ishak Ibrahim_

No cross on the pitch: Where are Egypt’s Christian footballers?

What remains after the state’s capture of the Future of Egypt?

Viewpoints_

Egypt’s ministries already do most of what the Future of Egypt Authority claims to do. A new bill hands it more power anyway, with little to show for past results.

Mustapha Kamel Al-Sayyid_

What remains after the state’s capture of the Future of Egypt?

El-Sisi’s Octagon: The republic goes back up the mountain

Viewpoints_

Moving the seat of power into a walled desert enclave turns modern citizens back into mere subjects, reviving an absolute sovereign model driven by the haunting anxiety of 2011.

Nasser Amin_

El-Sisi’s Octagon: The republic goes back up the mountain

Egypt’s judges, out of the wilderness again

Viewpoints_

Since 1939, Egypt’s Judges Club has cycled through victory, purge, and exile. As independents retake its board in 2026, the third wilderness may be ending.

Nasser Amin_

Egypt’s judges, out of the wilderness again

Omnia Swedan and the sanctity of the forbidden

Viewpoints_

If Nessma Al-Khatib and Omnia Swedan were not women, and if their comments had come from men, would the reaction have been different in either case? There is no answer.

Basel Ramsis_

Omnia Swedan and the sanctity of the forbidden

In Iran, what comes after victory?

Viewpoints_

By invoking the ancient reliefs of Naqsh-e Rostam, Tehran is signaling a major ideological shift that places domestic economic recovery ahead of exporting the Islamic revolution.

Amr Adly_

In Iran, what comes after victory?

The curse of the Arab Spring haunting us in Egypt and Tunisia

Viewpoints_

Beyond the shared nostalgia for pre-revolutionary stability, Egypt and Tunisia find themselves mirroring each other in an unprecedented, systematic closure of the public sphere.

Basel Ramsis_

The curse of the Arab Spring haunting us in Egypt and Tunisia

Encoding injustice: Egypt’s structural engineering of labor precarity

Viewpoints_

Through arbitrary physical screenings, sudden drug-test sackings, and strict female travel curbs, the Egyptian state is actively engineering systemic workplace discrimination.

Ishak Ibrahim_

Encoding injustice: Egypt’s structural engineering of labor precarity

When will the President call Israel by its name?

Viewpoints_

The quiet deployment of Egyptian fighter jets to the UAE exposes a dangerous realignment with Abu Dhabi’s aggressive, pro-Israel architecture for the region.

Basel Ramsis_

When will the President call Israel by its name?

Jackals and Jackasses: A Gulf Story

Viewpoints_

It is not condescension; it is contempt. A searing critique of how Gulf “cultural specificity” is routinely weaponized to normalize racism, tribalism, and the kafala system.

Ahmed Naji_

Jackals and Jackasses: A Gulf Story

The politics of speaking about politics

Viewpoints_

When the butcher, the fisherman, and the footballer all insist politics isn't their business, who does that serve?

Basel Ramsis_

The politics of speaking about politics

Editorial| Ten years of survival

Viewpoints_

As the world marks Press Freedom Day, Al Manassa celebrates ten years of survival and independent journalism, and calls for the release of our colleague, cartoonist Ashraf Omar

Al Manassa_

Editorial| Ten years of survival

The Gulf wants solidarity, but on whose terms?

Viewpoints_

Gulf anger at Egypt says less about official coordination than about a deeper unease with Egyptian public sympathy for any force checking Israel.

Khaled Dawoud_

The Gulf wants solidarity, but on whose terms?