Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has had profound effects on the Middle East. Irang Bak and Anne Alexander look at how rising food costs and shortages are hurting the poor, while the rich profit from oil prices and arms deals. This article is republished from Middle East Solidarity Magazine. This year’s Ramadan, for many in the…
Academics whose research and teaching is being leveraged to maximise transnational student revenues and whitewash human rights abuses are speaking out in protest at UK HE senior management’s collusion with the Egyptian regime. Over 200 academics, including many from the University of London, have launched an open letter condemning the crackdown against the regime’s critics…
Three years ago, on 25 January 2016, Cambridge PhD student Giulio Regeni disappeared in Cairo while conducting fieldwork on the Egyptian independent trade unions. A few days later, his mutilated body was discovered, bearing the hallmarks of the kinds of abuse which is systematically carried by the Egyptian security services. Despite a long-running campaign led…
A campaign by UCU members at the University of Liverpool and University of Cambridge, which was backed by hundreds of academics from across the UK and Egypt Solidarity Initiative, has won a significant victory. According to leaked documents published on the Academic Freedom Watch website, the University of Liverpool was worried about the potential for…
In this analysis article from Middle East Solidarity magazine, issue 9, Anne Alexander investigates how Egypt’s military dictatorship is hoping to entice UK universities to invest in its grandiose building projects. Meanwhile academics are challenging university managers’ bid to cosy up to a regime which systematically represses human rights and academic freedoms, reports Leon Rocha…
Labour lawyer and activist Haitham Mohamedein was seized by Egyptian security forces early on 18 May, according to local media reports and human rights activists. National Security officers and police were reported to have stormed his house, taking him away to an unknown location. Haitham has been the target of repression by the Egyptian state…
Friends and colleagues of murdered Cambridge PhD student Giulio Regeni gathered to protest at the Egyptian embassy with campaigners from Amnesty International and the UCU union on 2 February, marking the second anniversary of the discovery of his body. Giulio’s friend, journalist Laurie Blair spoke at the protest: Laurence Blair – comments outside Egyptian Embassy,…
Join editors and contributors to Middle East Solidarity magazine to help us launch issue number 7 (pdf below) with reports on workers’ struggles in Egypt including the mass strikes by textile workers over the summer and an eyewitness update from Morocco on building solidarity with the popular movement for social justice, the Hirak, which has been shaking…
Academics, students and university campuses have recently become major targets for repression by authoritarian governments in Egypt and Turkey. In Egypt hundreds of students and academics have been arrested as part of an escalating crackdown on dissent since the military coup of 2013. In January 2016, Cambridge PhD student Giulio Regeni went missing. His body…
Special report by Korean groups against repression against LGBT+ in Egypt See a photo gallery of pictures from the protest here LGBT+ communities, progressive parties, labour organisations and student societies in South Korea demonstrated against the Egyptian government’s repression toward LGBT+ outside the Egyptian embassy in South Korea on 17 October. Dozens participated with rainbow…
Egypt Solidarity 