Viewpoints

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

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_ 14-7-2026

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

Latest stories

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_ 22-7-2026

How to bury a communist twice

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_ 16-7-2026

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

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_ 29-6-2026

Omnia Swedan and the sanctity of the forbidden

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_ 17-6-2026

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_ 16-6-2026

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_ 3-6-2026

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_ 30-5-2026

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_ 27-5-2026

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_ 4-5-2026

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_ 8-4-2026

The Gulf wants solidarity, but on whose terms?

Qom, Al-Azhar and a fractured language of unity

Viewpoints_

In the eyes of Qom, Al-Azhar’s latest stance disrupted more than rhetoric; it unsettled a carefully tended language of Islamic rapprochement.

Mohamed Saad Abdel Hafeez_ 7-4-2026

Qom, Al-Azhar and a fractured language of unity

Female MPs and the political pageantry of ridicule

Viewpoints_

Gendered ridicule turns women politicians into bodies, jokes or scandals—anything but political actors with speech, agency and claims to power.

Hoda Fayek_ 2-4-2026

Female MPs and the political pageantry of ridicule

The Nightmare of Harassment in Schools| On those who grew up too soon

Viewpoints_

Children’s testimonies are finally breaking the silence on sexual abuse in Egyptian schools, and forcing hard questions about protection, accountability and reform.

Tamer Abu Arab_ 31-3-2026

The Nightmare of Harassment in Schools| On those who grew up too soon

Iran’s next test: Life after the Supreme Leader

Viewpoints_

Khomeini built a revolution on charisma. Khamenei turned it into a system of control. What comes next for Iran?

Mina Fouad Tawfik_ 25-3-2026

Iran’s next test: Life after the Supreme Leader

Gaza and the US-Israeli international fascism charter

Viewpoints_

Washington’s intervention at The Hague reframes genocide itself, revealing a wider struggle over law, accountability and global order.

Mohamed Bassal_ 18-3-2026

Gaza and the US-Israeli international fascism charter

Egypt’s fuel crisis and the cost of endless "exceptional circumstances"

Viewpoints_

From pandemic excuses to regional wars, the state’s justifications for price hikes are wearing thin. Seven reasons why the latest fuel increase is pushing Egyptians to the brink.

Ammar Ali Hassan_ 16-3-2026

Egypt’s fuel crisis and the cost of endless "exceptional circumstances"

The illusion of security: Why the Gulf cannot lead the Arab world alone

Viewpoints_

Five years after the “Gulf moment” was proclaimed, war with Iran and Israel’s expanding ambitions expose the limits of Gulf leadership and the fragility of US security guarantees

Mohamed Saad Abdel Hafeez_ 16-3-2026

The illusion of security: Why the Gulf cannot lead the Arab world alone

A wall too far: Why a church expansion sparked clashes in Helwan

Viewpoints_

Residents gathered to defend a church expansion they said was needed for a growing community—until bulldozers arrived and a ten-minute confrontation erupted.

Mohamed Napolion_ 15-3-2026

A wall too far: Why a church expansion sparked clashes in Helwan

The five winds beneath Israel’s wings

Viewpoints_

Israel’s current expansion is less a story of strength than of collapse around it—regional failures, American force, Gulf wealth, and the exhaustion of the old “resistance” order.

Mohamed Naeem_ 10-3-2026

The five winds beneath Israel’s wings

After Khamenei, who stands in Israel's crosshairs?

Viewpoints_

Behind the strike on Khamenei lies a doctrine decades in the making—one that seeks to force Iran to its knees and redraw the region’s balance of power.

Mohamed Bassal_ 5-3-2026

After Khamenei, who stands in Israel's crosshairs?

The eternal minority: January, Gen Z, and the myth of generations

Viewpoints_

From millennials to Gen Z, the same alienated minority reappears—romantic, celebrated, incorporated, and ultimately sidelined by the politics it seeks to shape.

Amr Abdelrahman_ 2-3-2026

The eternal minority: January, Gen Z, and the myth of generations

The creeping shadow of Israeli cartography

Viewpoints_

History shows that maps enter the imagination before they are realized on the ground. Without a forceful counter-narrative, the "Promised Land" is becoming a political reality.

Tamer Abu Arab_ 1-3-2026

The creeping shadow of Israeli cartography

Mubarak's great escape

Viewpoints_

The failure of "January justice" was the inevitable outcome of violent swings between constitutional and revolutionary legitimacy, leaving the window for real reckoning to close.

Mohamed Bassal_ 25-2-2026

Mubarak's great escape

January's children: Men and women in purgatory

Viewpoints_

January shattered symbolic structures and altered the consciousness of rulers and ruled. For those who were children then, it remains a central event in a world governed by fear.

Mohamed Naeem_ 24-2-2026

January's children: Men and women in purgatory

Freedom of belief: In word but not in deed

Viewpoints_

State institutions narrow freedom of belief to Muslim-Christian harmony and curbing incitement, denying the right to openly declare, practice, or express one’s faith, or lack of it

Ishak Ibrahim_ 17-2-2026

Freedom of belief: In word but not in deed

Old paint on new walls: The curious case of the cabinet reshuffle

Viewpoints_

From secret selections to rapid parliamentary nods, the new reshuffle reveals a ruling elite prioritizing narrative and image over the grueling work of repairing national substance

Ammar Ali Hassan_ 16-2-2026

Old paint on new walls: The curious case of the cabinet reshuffle

Gen Z & the Revolution| American echoes, Egyptian wails

Viewpoints_

We live in the same shack of repression, sparring like roosters and celebrating hollow victories. Hatred is a luxury we cannot afford when everyone’s life is precarious.

Mohamed Elsayed Eid_ 11-2-2026

Gen Z & the Revolution| American echoes, Egyptian wails

Gen Z & the Revolution| Why I chose the state

Viewpoints_

Why do I support the current regime’s stance toward January? Because I prefer a half-state to no state at all. I prefer a clear, even difficult trajectory.

Ahmed Elshahat_ 11-2-2026

Gen Z & the Revolution| Why I chose the state

Isolating Israel and the “counter-engineering” of the Middle East

Viewpoints_

Egypt–Turkey rapprochement has unsettled Tel Aviv, signaling a shift toward regional “counter-engineering” aimed at containing Israel’s project to dominate a fractured Middle East.

Mohamed Saad Abdel Hafeez_ 10-2-2026

Isolating Israel and the “counter-engineering” of the Middle East

Gen Z & the Revolution| Reckoning with the rot

Viewpoints_

Growing up in the womb of the counterrevolution, I watched the burial of January. But revolutions don't succeed overnight; they pave the way for a longer experiment.

Omar Magdy Soliman_ 10-2-2026

Gen Z & the Revolution| Reckoning with the rot

Gen Z & the Revolution| Lessons from the road to Palestine

Viewpoints_

My first relationship with politics passed through my mother’s body. She is Palestinian, living in exile in Egypt, cut off from her land and her family.

Lama Kareem_ 9-2-2026

Gen Z & the Revolution| Lessons from the road to Palestine

January 25 and the long shadow of unanswered justice

Viewpoints_

The justice track of January quietly mutated into a mechanism for rehabilitating Mubarak-era figures and easing them back into public life.

Mohamed Bassal_ 8-2-2026

January 25 and the long shadow of unanswered justice

The mirage of January 25: When freedom came last

Viewpoints_

January 25 emerges as a political mirage: an uprising constrained by the July 23 system, where freedom’s low priority shaped later defeats, repression, and regression.

Bahey Eldin Hassan_ 3-2-2026

The mirage of January 25: When freedom came last

The 1952 Cairo Fire: What burned, and who lit the match?

Viewpoints_

The Cairo Fire was not a mystery or a conspiracy. It was a popular uprising that burned the old order—and was later buried under layers of denial.

Mohamed Naeem_ 2-2-2026

The 1952 Cairo Fire: What burned, and who lit the match?

Gen Z & the Revolution| Speak, and be seen

On the fifteenth anniversary of the revolution, after listening to one another for a long time and taking turns indulging in nostalgia, we chose to listen to the future.

01/28/2026 - 17:50

Gen Z & the Revolution| Speak, and be seen

Gen Z & the Revolution| A generation taken off the will

Viewpoints_

Can a revolution that isn't passed down still be called a revolution? Seif El-Din Ahmed reproaches the "wounded" generation for locking the door to history on their children.

Seif El-Din Ahmed_ 28-1-2026

Gen Z & the Revolution| A generation taken off the will

Gen Z & the Revolution| Not all battles were public

Viewpoints_

Too young for politics, but too old for innocence: Wafaa Khairy reflects on growing up in Upper Egypt and why the "real" revolution must start in the home, not just the street.

Wafaa Khairy_ 28-1-2026

Gen Z & the Revolution| Not all battles were public

Gen Z & the Revolution| The children of open wounds

Viewpoints_

A personal reflection on growing up in the aftermath of Egypt’s revolution. Inherited defeat, enforced silence, and a wound passed down to a generation too young to choose it.

Sara Alsahary_ 27-1-2026

Gen Z & the Revolution| The children of open wounds

January 2011: Glory that cannot be repeated or replicated

Viewpoints_

From Orabi to Jan. 25, Egypt’s revolutions rise generation by generation. A reflection on broken dreams, rebuilt imagination and what the next uprising will inherit.

Ismail Alexandrani_ 27-1-2026

January 2011: Glory that cannot be repeated or replicated

Gen Z & the Revolution| Egypt's last supper

Viewpoints_

Was the revolution assassinated or did it succumb to its own internal friction? A dive into the generation gap, historical falsification, and the struggle for a new narrative.

Noha Abeer_ 27-1-2026

Gen Z & the Revolution| Egypt's last supper