Egypt
Spectacle and Silence
Passant Soliman was an Egyptian mother, blogger, model and law school graduate who ended her life while hundreds watched on her Facebook livestream. In a country where suicide is almost always shrouded in denial and moral condemnation, her death has sparked a wave of sympathy.
Ripping Up Rent Controls
For nearly a century, Egypt maintained one of the most protective rent regimes in the world, shielding families from housing precarity and price shocks. Now, a law abolishing old contracts and liberalizing the market threatens millions of tenants with eviction, displacement and unaffordable new rents.
The Battle To Define the Arabian Horse
For centuries, tribes recorded matrilineal pedigrees for Arabian horses, forged by migration and anchored in communal memory. But the rise of global stud books redefined authenticity through centralized paperwork, transforming both the horse’s form and its social meaning.
The Magic of Egypt in Interwar Britain
Ancient Egypt was at the heart of the occultism that flourished in Britain early in the 20th century. The stories of two magicians who were shaped by this association — Aleister Crowley and Rollo Ahmed — reveal much about what the period’s magic meant to the men and women who practised it.
Perilously Close to Death, a Mother Continues Her Hunger Strike
Laila Soueif, mother of Egyptian political prisoner Alaa Abd el-Fattah, has been on hunger strike since September 2024 to protest her son's continued unlawful detention. Now critically ill, she persists, joined by Alaa himself.
Egypt’s Sinai Megaproject Is Erasing Bedouin Culture
Egypt’s government is pushing ahead with a massive tourism project in the Sinai Peninsula’s St. Catherine region — a sacred, UNESCO-protected site. Local Bedouin communities and experts warn that the development is destroying heritage, muzzling dissent and displacing the Jebeleya tribe.
The Making and Mourning of Ahmad Adawiya, a Musical Legend
In 1975, when Egyptian radio commentators ranked the best singers of their time, Ahmad Adawiya’s name did not even feature. Yet a new medium, the humble cassette, would allow his popular shaabi songs, often scorned by critics, to reach an audience beyond the gatekeepers and change the country’s musical landscape.