Viewpoints

Our problem with ‘the president’s promise’

President El-Sisi pledged not to amend the constitution to extend his term past 2030. But after a decade of broken promises, only concrete reforms can restore public trust.

Gamal Fahmy_

Our problem with ‘the president’s promise’

Latest stories

An association of the keyboard

Viewpoints_

Egypt’s 1986 railway strike offers digital journalists a vital lesson: organize from below to secure labour rights rather than waiting for legal reform.

Mostafa Bassiouny_

An association of the keyboard

Unlearning fear: My queer life in exile

Viewpoints_

From underground workshops in Cairo to dancing under police protection abroad: An Egyptian activist reflects on the trauma of state persecution and the quiet relief of asylum.

Noha Abeer_

Unlearning fear: My queer life in exile

Force and Fiat| How Egypt wields deportation orders against refugees

Viewpoints_

Behind closed doors, Egypt’s deportation process has morphed from an individual legal exception into a systematic mechanism of forced return, violating its own courts.

Nour Khalil_

Force and Fiat| How Egypt wields deportation orders against refugees

The base next door: Egypt’s eastern border is in the crosshairs

Viewpoints_

Emptying Gaza is no longer just about dismantling Egypt’s first line of defense, it paves the way for a US military base on Cairo’s doorstep.

Mohamed Saad Abdel Hafeez_

The base next door: Egypt’s eastern border is in the crosshairs

Madbouly may go, the questions he leaves behind should not

Viewpoints_

After eight years of Madbouly’s tenure, replacing the cabinet changes nothing if the closed system of policy-making and zero public accountability remains untouched.

Mohamed Saad Abdel Hafeez_

Madbouly may go, the questions he leaves behind should not

Force and Fiat| The refugee crisis of the state’s own making

Viewpoints_

Stripped of legal pathways, Sudanese asylum seekers navigate a system designed to delay registration, convert delays into violations, and justify forced returns.

Nour Khalil_

Force and Fiat| The refugee crisis of the state’s own making

Egypt’s descent into Bikini Bottom

Viewpoints_

A satirical Facebook group about SpongeBob’s hometown drew 1.8 million members in ten days, spooked the interior ministry, and said more about Egyptian despair than any op-ed could

Hoda Fayek_

Egypt’s descent into Bikini Bottom

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

On Nubian memory, constitutional promises, and the right of return

Viewpoints_

From the 1902 dam heightening to forgotten constitutional promises in 2026, a Nubian advocate reflects on displacement, legal betrayal, and the struggle for the right of return.

Fatmeh Emam Sakory_

On Nubian memory, constitutional promises, and the right of return

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?

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_

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_

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_

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_

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_

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_

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_

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_

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_

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_

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_

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_

The creeping shadow of Israeli cartography