EGYPT - Opposition Today

"5 years since uprising, Egyptian opposition demoralized by crackdown" PBS NewsHour 1/25/2016

IMHO this is just more evidence that the 'Arab Spring' is in deep freeze, considering has happened in Egypt and other Arab nations.

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  It's been a tumultuous five years since Egyptians took to the street in mass protest.  Now Egyptians are marking a somber and tense anniversary of a day that led to the ouster of Hosni Mubarak, the election and then military-led removal of Mohamed Morsi and the subsequent rise of the current president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.  Hari Sreenivasan talks with special correspondent Nick Schifrin.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Five years ago today, Egyptians took to the streets in protest against the government of Hosni Mubarak.  Eighteen days later, Mubarak was gone, a landmark of what became known as the Arab Spring.

But these five years on have been tumultuous and difficult in Egypt, with a presidential election in 2012 that brought Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood to power, and the military-led removal and imprisonment of Morsi in 2013, and the subsequent election of the general who unseated Morsi, the current president, Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.

Egyptians today are marking a somber and tense anniversary.

For more, we turn to Hari Sreenivasan.

HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour):  Joining me now is NewsHour special correspondent Nick Schifrin in Cairo.

Nick, you have reported from the region multiple times over the past few years.  Here are you on this anniversary.  What did you see today?

NICK SCHIFRIN (NewsHour):  Yes, Hari, we saw an absolute crackdown in what usually is one of the world’s busiest cities, an extraordinary amount of police guarding stations, guarding government buildings, but also guarding anywhere where demonstrators might actually come together.

And we saw that especially in Tahrir Square this afternoon.  We were there for a little while, met a few hundred people.  The only people allowed in Tahrir Square today were pro-Sissi demonstrators.  And we spoke to them.  And a few of them told me that they believe only President Sissi could defend this country against terrorism.

And where was the opposition?  Well, take a look at this.  This is 21-year-old Sanaa Seif.  She’s a prominent activist.  And, today, she walked alone, just her.  Her jacket says “The Revolution Continues.”

But, Hari, the revolution didn’t continue today.  The opposition was too scared to come out on the streets.  The Muslim Brotherhood, which has officially been called a terrorist organization, has really been — cracked down.  And so, today, at least on the streets, there was zero opposition to President Sissi.

HARI SREENIVASAN:  Now, you point out that there’s two different factions that oppose Sissi, the young people that were calling for a revolution five years ago and the Muslim Brotherhood.  What’s happened to them over the years?

NICK SCHIFRIN:  Well, Hari, what is amazing about the revolution from five years ago is that those two groups were together.  There was so much hope and such a feeling that a cross-current of Egypt were going to come together and really depose Mubarak.

It was secular activists.  It was more conservative religious Muslim Brotherhood.  It was even members of the government.  And what has happened is that this crackdown that this government has really undergone has taken away not only that hope, but also the feeling that all of those groups are combined.

And just to give you a sense of how big the crackdown is, there are now 40,000 prisoners, political prisoners, in Egyptian jails.  And just in the last 10 days, there were 5,000 raids in Cairo.  These are raids that lead to arrests or perhaps just some pointed questions.  But that is a raid every two minutes in Cairo.  That sends a very direct signal.

And that is why we saw no opposition on the street.  And that is why one opposition activist put it this way.  There might be freedom of speech in Egypt, but there is no freedom after speech.  And many activists right now are saying that this government is the same kind of government they risked their lives to escape five years ago.

GENDER - Oppression, Home and Abroad

"New series explores how to fight gender oppression at home and abroad" PBS NewsHour 2/9/2015

Excerpts

SUMMARY:  Journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn have exposed widespread problems of abuse, sex trafficking and violence against women in Africa and Asia.  Now they also bring their focus home, shining a light on the ways American women are commonly hurt, deprived and exploited.  Jeffrey Brown talks to them about their new book and documentary series on PBS, “A Path Appears.”

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  In a new report out today, the United Nations documents how girls simply trying to go to school face threats and violent attack in 70 countries.

That tracks with the stories on display in a PBS documentary series that ends tonight.  “A Path Appears” expands that scope to explore violence against women more broadly and what can be done about it.

Jeffrey Brown has our conversation.

JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour):  Journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn are well-known for their work on these subjects.  Their prior collaboration, “Half the Sky,” first a book and then a series, took viewers around Africa and Asia.

This time, they have co-authored the book “A Path Appears,” which focuses on problems such as sex trafficking and abuse, including in this country.  It’s also led to a series that’s been shown on PBS’ “Independent Lens.”   The latest episode airs tonight.

Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn join me now from New York.

And, Nick Kristof, let me start with you.

One thing you have done in this series is put a spotlight on abuses here at home.  Was that a particular concern, to bring it home, so to speak?

NICHOLAS KRISTOF, Co-Author, “A Path Appears”:  Yes, it was.

“Half the Sky” focused on women’s rights abroad.  And people kept asking us, well, what about the U.S.?   And that seemed a fair question.  The atrocities in many ways are worse in Afghanistan or Yemen, but we have real problems right here.

And it seemed to us that while the discussion about gender inequity in this country is often about pay equity or about representation of women in Congress or on boards, that really the two massive issues are sex trafficking — 100,000 underaged girls trafficked a year into the sex trade — and likewise domestic violence, three women every day killed by their domestic partners.
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NICHOLAS KRISTOF:  I think that it’s very easy for those who have made it to construct a narrative in which those who are suffering are to blame for their own problems, and, you know, this notion of personal irresponsibility as being the all and end-all of poverty and disadvantage.

And we hope that by putting a human face on some these challenges, by humanizing them, we can help push back at that and underscore that, sure, there is a certain amount of personal irresponsibility there, but there also is an awful lot of kids who desperately need help, who didn’t do anything wrong.

And it’s a certain amount of social irresponsibility on the part of all of us if we don’t use the evidence-based solutions to try to give them a chance to get to the starting line.