Context for Egyptian Uprising

Egypt is in the midst of historic change. Below are some links to resources that may help to provide context to recent events.

By Liz Cooper, Anthropology & Journalism Librarian

Having lived, worked and studied in Cairo for seven years, I have been following the news in Egypt with great interest.  Below are links to a few resources that I, and many of my Egyptian friends in the US, have been reading to keep up with the events. 

Articles

These two articles from the Middle East Report Online provide an excellent overview of recent events that have contributed to the current situation:

•  The Liquidation of Egypt’s Illiberal Experiment, Middle East Report Online, Mona El-Ghobashy, December 29, 2010, http://www.merip.org/mero/mero122910.html
•  The Dynamics of Egypt’s Elections, Middle East Report Online, Mona El-Ghobashy, September, 25, 2010,   http://www.merip.org/mero/mero122910.html

Another article from the Middle East Report provides background on the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt:

• The Brotherhood Goes to Parliament, Middle East Report 240, Samer Shehata and Joshua Stacher, 2006, http://www.merip.org/mer/mer240/shehata_stacher.html.

Books

• What to Read on Egyptian Politics, also by Mona El-Ghobashy, is an annotated  syllabus from Foreign Affairs on Egyptian politics: http://www.foreignaffairs.com/features/readinglists/what-to-read-on-eygptian-politics

Op-ed, current analysis

• The Arabist http://www.arabist.net/ is a blog run by a freelance journalist in Cairo, Issander El Amrani, that has daily posts (depending on his access to the Internet each day) and analysis.
• Jonathan Wright, former Cairo bureau chief for Reuters, and now a highly respected literary translator, also has a blog, http://jnthnwrght.blogspot.com and is reporting from Cairo with news and analysis.
• Mona Eltahawy’s articles and op-ed pieces, http://www.monaeltahawy.com/, provide commentary on the events as they are unfolding. Her website provides links to her pieces in the NYT, Washington Post, etc….
• Council on Foreign Relations, Issue Guide: Arab World Protests, links to background and analysis articles.
• The Middle East Report and Middle East Report Online regularly publish analysis on events in the Middle East.  Check their website for more recent articles, such as this one, Into Egypt's Uncharted Territory, on the events in Egypt.

Following the events as they unfold...

To follow up to the minute news in Egypt I have found that the blogs from Aljazeera English as well as the New York Times' The Lede Blog, have consistently had the best most up to the minute news. These blogs gather news from many sources (other news sources, reporters in the field, bloggers, tweeters, websites like Human Rights Watch, streaming video, etc...) and post regularly:

• Aljazeera English Blogs http://blogs.aljazeera.net/ -- click on the link to the LIVE BLOG for the current date. Aljazeera has the most reporters on the ground in Egypt and has had good coverage of the events
• The New York Times, The Lede Blog, http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com, also has great up to the minute news from Egypt.

The Internet is back up in Egypt and now you can also follow events on the website of the English version of the independent Egyptian newspaper, Al-Masry Al-Youm.