Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #Jan25

Most recents (24)

The Biden administration is set to deny $130 million of military aid to #Egypt over human rights concerns. The same administration earlier this week approved arms sales to Egypt for a combined value of more than $2.5 billion reuters.com/world/biden-ad…
This is exactly why so many of us have said over and over that U.S, foreign policy is fucked up, regardless of whether a Democrat or a Republican is in the White House, and why so many of us said as abhorrent as Trump was, he was not an aberration.
- Trump called Sisi “my favourite dictator.”
- Biden, 10 yrs ago during #Jan25 Revolution when he was Obama’s VP wouldn’t call Mubarak, our dictator of 30yrs, a dictator.
- 5 US presidents propped up Mubarak

google.com/amp/s/www.poli…
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None of the revolutions that began when a man set himself on fire in Tunisia in December 2010 have been about gender equality. But if a man began the revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa, it will be women who will complete them. feministgiant.com/p/jan25-ten-ye… #Jan25 #Egypt
Our autocrat is a coward who has built more prisons than hospitals or schools since the revolution because he is scared of us and of our insistence that we count.
#Jan25 #Egypt
A revolution is not a season or a colour. It is the feet on the ground of astonishingly courageous people who dared to demand the fall of a regime that had robbed them of so much, including the right to imagine. #Jan25 #Egypt
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“Some others, like the Egyptian writer and feminist Mona Eltahawy, see these changes as a remarkable consequence, even "the greatest success" of the Arab Spring.” #Jan25 en.qantara.de/content/sex-ed…
11 years after #Jan25, women and queer people are rising up against a form of tyranny even more stubborn than dictators in presidential palaces: patriarchy and its stranglehold on their bodies and sexualities. feministgiant.com/p/egypts-sexua…
Barricades of today’s sexual revolution aren't to be found in squares that reverberated w/chants 11yrs ago. They're on social media accounts that can be accessed by millions from privacy of home,that place from which all tyrants spring & that's most in need of a revolution #Jan25
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In #Egypt, the daughters of the working class are put on trial and sentenced to 6 and 10 years in prison for their TikTok accounts, which allegedly "violated family values." middleeasteye.net/news/egypt-tik…
And the sons of the wealthy and powerful are not put on trial for gang rape because "family values" are a cudgel used against women and queer people, especially those who aren't rich #Egypt thenationalnews.com/mena/egypt/egy…
It is a fuck-this-shit moment for Egyptian women. And the rage and reckoning are the fuel of revolution.

Not a cis-gender heterosexual dick-swinging revolution. We already had one of those almost 10 years ago.

A feminist revolution. feministgiant.com/p/why-do-they-…
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My essay on #LoujainAlhathloul: So clamorous was her courage, so loud her refusal to break that it made her more of a liability for the #Saudi regime inside prison than outside, so they sent her home, where her enforced silence would be a reprieve for them
feministgiant.com/p/for-loujain-…
Loujain’s astonishing courage and tenacity have long wrong-footed the Saudi regime. In 2014, when she was 25, she was arrested for the first time while attempting to drive across the border from the United Arab Emirates - where she had a valid driver’s licence - to Saudi Arabia.
In March 2018, the Saudis considered Loujain such a threat that they had her rendered from the UAE, where she was studying. She was stopped by security officers as she drove on a highway near her uni in Abu Dhabi, taken from her vehicle & forcibly returned to her home country.
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My new essay: For Loujain, Who Terrified a Monarchy feministgiant.com/p/for-loujain-… #LoujainAlhathloul
Loujain al-Hathloul is the hero of her own story. So clamorous was her courage, so loud was her refusal to break that it created more of a ruckus for the Saudi regime inside prison than outside, so they sent her home, where her enforced silence would be a reprieve for them.
She is not a “goodwill gesture” or a “concession” to Biden by MBS. Women are not bargaining chips to curry favour with your biggest ally so that it continues to arm you to the teeth and look the other way as you commit war crimes with said weapons. feministgiant.com/p/for-loujain-…
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When I look back at the 10 years since the #Jan25 Revolution, one of the most striking things as I told @F24Debate are the unprecedented numbers of women, girls, and queer people exposing and talking about sexual violence today in #Egypt.
That will be the subject of my next essay for my series on the 10th anniversary of the #Jan25 Revolution. Here’s part one feministgiant.com/p/jan25-ten-ye…
I spoke with @GaiaCaramazza for @TheNewArabVoice on #Jan25 impact on patriarchy and feminism in Egypt today.

Full interview english.alaraby.co.uk/english/indept…

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As we mark the 10th anniversary of the #Jan25 Revolution, the way #Egypt is failing to investigate a gang rape is a reminder that the regime continues to use “immorality” and “debauchery” to target women and LGBTQ people. Read this by @Rasha__Younes
hrw.org/news/2021/02/0…
I wrote this about how patriarchy--in this case the Egyptian regime--reserves its moral crusades for queer people and women, especially the daughters of the working class, but not the sons of the wealthy who rape and sexually assault. feministgiant.com/p/essay-macho-…
For my series on the 10th anniversary of the #Jan25 Revolution, I wrote about the importance of feminism to liberation. And in my next essay, I'll be looking at how the revolution went home. Read and subscribe through links in the essay feministgiant.com/p/jan25-ten-ye…
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A feminist revolution dares to imagine liberation from militarism of the State & from its echo in conservatism of the Street & the Home. A feminist revolution recognizes that the hardest revolution is the one at Home because all dictators go home feministgiant.com/p/jan25-ten-ye… #Jan25
And a feminist revolution disobeys all those who insist “People are not ready,” because as revolutionaries we must recognize that if our communities are ready for us, we are too late. #Jan25
Sign up to FEMINIST GIANT.

It’s free - no paywall, no ads.

If you can pay, it helps keep it free.

feministgiant.com/p/coming-soon
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A revolution is a dare to the future as much as it is a reckoning with the past.

For the 10th anniversary of #Egypt's Revolution, I look at the dares that #Jan25 challenged us with.

feministgiant.com/p/jan25-ten-ye…
“Your imagination brought you to the streets. Your disobedience kept you there...Remember how you felt when you knew that you deserved to be free!” #Jan25
Our broken and impatient hearts are where revolution resides. Our broken and impatient hearts are where Tahrir Square still demands the fall of the regime.

We will never unsee what we saw in Egypt ten years ago. feministgiant.com/p/jan25-ten-ye… #Jan25
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Today’s disappoint with @france24:they invited to speak, first as part of a debate on Egypt then the journalist apologized that she cannot have me if I’m participating via Skype because they have a policy not to have more than two guests via skype. Instead...1/10 #Jan25
Instead they invited me to a one-on-one interview after the debate. I accepted. Only to see the debate they hosted was among an all men panel, a manel. I have no doubt at all that any of my dear colleagues who joined the debate would have accepted this had they known. 2/10
Yet, I find it hard to accept that @france24 has a policy on skype technicality but not on gender balance. To make things worse, the host @markowenf24, casually mentioned during the debate that he is discussing w/3 Egyptian men but they could not find a women who’s available 3/10
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The people demand the fall of the regime!” echoed unceasingly across Tahrir Square. The demand was clear. Only one man fell - Hosni Mubarak, who spent 30yrs stealing from, torturing & holding Egypt captive. Five U.S. presidents --Democrat and GOP-- propped him up.
In fact, during our revolution, Joe Biden - the current U.S. president who was at the time Barack Obama’s vice president - refused to call Mubarak a dictator.
The regime remains. Sitting atop it now is our current dictator, Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi.

Donald Trump, whose presidency ended just a week ago, used to call Sisi “my favourite dictator.”

Remember that, when you ask over and over “What happened? Why are you still not free?”
Read 5 tweets
New essay:

#Jan25: Ten Years After Egypt's Revolution

feministgiant.com/p/jan25-ten-ye…
“A feminist revolution dares to imagine liberation from militarism of the State & from its echo in conservatism of the Street & the Home. A feminist revolution recognizes that the hardest revolution is the one at Home because all dictators go home” feministgiant.com/p/jan25-ten-ye… #Jan25
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For interview on 10th anniversary of #Egypt’s #Jan25 Revolution I quoted Chicanx labor leader Cesar Chavez: “Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read...You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.”
The picture attached to my tweet is an aerial view of Tahrir Square in CAIRO at night full of people during the #Jan25 Revolution. I usually provide alt text but posted the above without it.
I often use César Chavez’s words when I speak about #Jan25 because they help understand:
- impact of the revolution in #Egypt
- impact in neighbouring countries that did not have revolutions/uprisings
- the regime is still in place; #Jan25 demanded fall of regime not just Mubarak
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This month marks the 10th anniversary of the #Jan25 revolution in #Egypt. I will be publishing several new articles soon. For starters: It is a fuck-this-shit moment for Egyptian women.
Exhibit A: three witnesses who came forward to testify in support of the victim of a high-profile gang rape case are in detention as part of the regime’s effort to counter a growing movement against exposing sexual abuse in Egypt reuters.com/article/us-egy…
Exhibit B: An #Egyptian criminal court in December acquitted three Muslim men accused of stripping naked an elderly Coptic Christian woman and parading her through the streets in 2016
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In #Egypt, women are criminalized, slut-shamed & silenced when they demand justice for being sexually assaulted and their social media pics are used against them. Meanwhile, Egyptian police cadets on display for Sisi feministgiant.substack.com/p/essay-macho-…
And #Egyptian male celebrities are celebrated for social media posts like these while women are criminalized and slut shamed for their pictures - fully clothed - on social media On the left is celerity Bassem Youssef from the waist up shi
The preening hypermasculinity comes at a time in #Egypt when unprecedented number of women are exposing sexual assault. Sisi’s regime is trying to terrorize women into silence, whether via the arrests witnesses in support of a gang rape victim or imprisonment of the TikTok women.
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“I’m asking anyone who can to help me. I was subjected to gang sexual harassment. When I tried to file a complaint they threatened to kill me & throw acid at me. They’re using pics from my private IG account vs me & I will be detained. I’m the victim. Why should I be detained?”
This is an #Egyptian woman who sent out a call for help. As revenge & to silence her, the lawyer of the men she says sexually harassed her has accused her of “violating family values.”
The #Egyptian regime has used that charge this year to convict and imprison female TikTok users. The regime has also detained witnesses in a gang rape case This is Egypt a month before the 10th anniversary of #Jan25. Background 👇🏽 feministgiant.com/p/why-do-they-…
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Soon after I moved to #NYC in 2002, I began a relationship with a Black man. We lived together for 3yrs. Very soon after we became a couple, I insisted we boycott Arab (Yemeni, I believe) owned stores in our neighbourhood because of their anti-Black racism.

#BlackLivesMatter
The men behind the counter in those stores didn’t know I speak Arabic. And when Marcus and I would go in together, they would say the most disgusting racist shit about Black men and why I was with a Black man. I confronted them. Shamed them. And boycotted them. #BlackLivesMatter
After one yelling match with them, I reminded them that post-9/11, Arabs or Muslims who knew what being profiled or being subjected to discrimination and violence was like, should be the last people to be racist.

#BlackLivesMatter
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June 1: Trump threatened to deploy the US military vs US civilians to crush the largest uprising in the US in living memory.
June 3: One of the biggest newspapers in the US published a US senator supporting Trump’s call for military violence vs the Black-led revolution
#Fascism
And look - a NYT columnist defending the publication by the NYT of a US senator’s support for the use of military brutality against protesters protesting police brutality. In the name of “democracy!”

Dangerous and shameful. #Fascism
I’m pretty sure when Mubarak deployed the military vs protestors in Tahrir Square during #Jan25 revolution, the NYT reported on it in a critical way. And here is that same NYT publishing a senator’s support for military deployment vs protestors.

#Fascism isn’t just “over there.”
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I’m pretty sure when Mubarak deployed the military against protestors in Tahrir Square during #Jan25 revolution, the NYT reported on it in a critical way. And here is that same NYT publishing a senator supporting Trump’s call to deploy the military. Dangerous and shameful
And look - a NYT columnist defending the publication of an oped by a US senator calling for the use of military brutality against protesters protesting police brutality. Dangerous and shameful. If an Egyptian newspaper published such a call, the NYT wouldn’t call it “democracy.”
At the height of the biggest uprising in the US in years if not in living memory, a US paper published a call by a US politician to use the US military against US civilians.

Remover this.

It is dangerous and shameful to give fascism such a platform.
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He really is the American Sisi. I can see Trump on phone with his “favourite dictator,” Sisi who declared as a “Terrorist Organization” the Muslim Brotherhood & Ultras (footbal supporters groups). #Egypt dissidents are charged w/ “belonging to Terrorist Organization h/t @rerutled
American Sisi: I wrote this after I watched Trump’s inauguration January 2017 from #Egypt.

I’m an #Egyptian. I know an authoritarian when I see one. nytimes.com/interactive/pr…
If you want to know what Trump will do next:

- remember what Mubarak did during #Jan25. Give US administrations - Dems and Republican - propped him up during his 30yrs in power before revolution forced him to step down

- watch Sisi now: Trump calls him “my favourite dictator.”
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November 2011: back home in #NYC with both my arms in casts, waiting for a friend when a man of colour pointed to my casts & asked what happened. I explained #Egyptian riot police had broken my arms.

He turned around, pulled up his shirt and showed me his back. Fuck the police
Every person of colour in #NYC who would ask me what happened to my arms, would respond with a story of how they or a relative had also been brutalized by police. e.g. nurse at clinic before my surgery told me police brutalized her brother & cousin. Fuck the police.
And this, this: a replica of what police did during #Jan25 and in so many other countries where they brutalize. And when I said Fuck the police 👇🏽 so many from around the word said it too
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These few past days have given me such a strong #Jan25 energy. Municipal cops, Egyptian state security -- same gassed up, unbridled state-sanctioned violence.
If there are counter protesting camel attacks this week I'm going to go buy a lotto ticket
Seriously, though. If there are parallels, I fully expect a more organized white supremacist counter protest this week. It may have been small pockets on Friday but I'm afraid some real ugliness is about to go down.
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If a country has:
- highest death toll in the world from a pandemic
- protests in at least 26 cities demanding justice for Black people killed by police
- a president who calls on his armed supporters to confront protesters outside the presidential palace

When’s the revolution?
Revolutions do not happen over night.

In 2010, #Egyptian police beat to death Khaled Said, 28. He was not the 1st Egyptian to be beaten to death. A photo his family shared of his shattered face, teeth missing, lip torn, jaw broken, inspired protests and was a catalyst of #Jan25.
I do not impose any model on Black American friends & comrades. They must determine how to move forward.

As an #Egyptian American, when I hear that a city with a curfew has no police in sight and only protesters out on the streets, I think of Egypt when Mubarak pulled the police
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