Category: Articles
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Hunting for Art on the Ring Road
1 At the age of 16, I moved out of my parents’ house. I moved to 6th October City, all by myself, to be closer to university. I lived in a distant, working-class neighborhood where rent was cheap. There was nothing there but a small grocery shop and a filthy…
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An Egyptian at the American Protest: the nightmare possibility of losing all over again
Translated by Katharine Halls I don’t even like protests. I don’t like chanting, and within ten minutes I’m usually asking myself, what am I doing here. I walk with everybody else, but I observe what’s happening as if from a distance, even when I’m right in the middle of it.…
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Tool: Portable Bidet, $13.99
Published first at: https://believermag.com/tool-portable-bidet-13-99/ My roommate burst out of the bathroom clutching a thin piece of metal several feet long in one hand and a pair of wire cutters in the other. “I managed to get the pipe out,” he said. “It drives me crazy when I’m trying to pee.”…
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لكن منير ليس مسؤولاً عن أحلامك الثورية
تحت عنوان «وقائع الثورة على محمد منير (مقال نقدي)» كتب الزميل محمد المصري مقالاً بدأه من المشهد الذي حدث في حفل منير الأخير نتيجة سوء التنظيم البالغ الذي يعتبر في العموم سمة أساسية تتزايد خبرتنا فيها. ونتيجة لهذا شهد الحفل سمة مصرية أخرى هي التحرشات الجنسية والتخبط والتدافع بين الجمهور،…
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Rotten Evidence: Ahmed Naji’s Incarcerated Fiction
On July 25, 2019, ARC in collaboration with apexart hosted Egyptian novelist Ahmed Naji, who was the 2016 winner of the PEN/Barbey Freedom To Write Award, for a lecture entitled “Rotten Evidence: Reading and Writing in Prison.” Naji was formerly sentenced to two years in prison when a literary magazine published…
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Food: Pleasure Becoming Guilt
Yasmeen cried because she could not breastfeed our daughter, Sina, on her first day in this world. Sina cried as well. As I was held captive with both of them in the hospital room, I had no idea what should be done. I called for the nurses’ help. A nurse…
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A Lesson in the Dangers of Book Burning
1 Our family has a long history of disposing of books in various ways. As a boy in Egypt, I remember the regular routine when, every so often, my father would open the cupboards and drawers and arrange his books, magazines, and notebooks. Most dear to him were the notebooks…
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Letter to Ingvar
Dear Ingvar, This letter is at least three years overdue, but it’s better late than never. On this day, the 7th of March, Three years ago, I was sentenced to two years in prison because of a novel I wrote. I was taken from the court to the police station…
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About Alaa: Prison isolates and so does your silence
Published first time at Mada: https://madamasr.com/en/2017/10/18/opinion/u/about-alaa-prison-isolates-and-so-does-your-silence/ Editor’s note: 25 days to #FreeAlaa is a campaign led by friends, family and supporters of political prisoner and activist Alaa Abd El Fattah, highlighting two outstanding cases against him: One, which was adjourned on October 19 to November 8, concerning the five-year sentence…
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Thank You PEN
I was honored to be a guest speaker at Pen America New Year New BOOKS party, celebrating with them our love for books and writing. And also remembering other writers who are jailed because of their writing. we live in the times where a dark ghost hovering over the world,…