Cairo Cosmopolitan sets the tone and the standard for future work on the relationship between Cairo’s people and its urban space, yet it remains to be seen whether the broadly-conceived 'Cairo School’ will be taken as a bold new direction in urban studies, argues Managing Editor Will Ward.
Read More »Egypt
Speaking the Unspeakable: Personal blogs in Egypt
George Weyman gives an in-depth look at the popular Egyptian blog Two Pairs of Eyes, and argues that its bloggers seek to re-formulate but not reject dominant social values.
Read More »Sexual Healing: How big is Kalaam Kibeer?
Al Mehwar’s Heba Kotb is not just any sexologist; she’s the Arab world’s first celebrity tele-sexologist, and a devout Muslim sexologist to boot. So how does the Doctor of Sex reconcile her performance on satellite TV discussing sexual pleasure with her strictly Islamic principles? Anna Swank investigates.
Read More »Does the veiled look sell? Egyptian advertisers grapple with the hijab
It seems obvious that for an ad to be effective it must represent a prettier, cleaner, better version of reality and yet at the same time feel natural. So why is the hijab such a sensitive topic in Egyptian advertising? Contributing Editor Sharon Otterman investigates, and finds a puzzling mismatch between the hijab in TV ads and the hijab on the street.
Read More »Censorship: What you didn’t see
Do Arab newspapers say one thing in Arabic and another in English? Egyptian journalist Mona Eltahawy thinks so. She was a columnist for the Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily Asharq Alawsat until she was abruptly dropped last year. One reason may have been her complaints about how her articles were being edited for the Arabic edition. Here's your chance to read one of her original op-eds alongside the edited version.
Read More »Blogging for reform: the case of Egypt
The future of political blogging in Egypt greatly depends on its fostering links with mainstream independent media, says Rania Al Malky. But what, if anything, has the blogging-led reform movement achieved to date?
Read More »Publicizing the private: Egyptian women bloggers speak out
The real-world impact of blogs in the Middle East remains to be seen. But women bloggers stress that there is agency and empowerment in just being able to write, reports Sharon Otterman.
Read More »Interview with Moez Masoud, Host of ART’s English-Language Islamic Talk Shows
Moez Masoud is a 27-year-old Egyptian who hosts his own English-language Islamic talk shows, Parables from the Quran and Stairway to Paradise, on the Saudi-owned ART satellite network. With several new TV contracts in the works, including the possibility of a show on an American channel, the handsome young economics graduate …
Read More »The Love Network: New Coptic TV Channel ‘Aghapy’ Hits the Airwaves
An elderly man lays bedridden in his lower middle-class home in Shoubra, a largely Christian neighborhood near the heart of Cairo. Paralyzed for some 14 years following an injury to his spine, the man rarely leaves his home, as doing so has become an unbearable hassle. Until recently, this misfortunate …
Read More »‘Zii`!’ (Broadcast It!): Local Manifestations of the Global in the Egyptian Television Show Al Camera Al Khafeya (Hidden Camera)
“Any work that I do depends on the will of the audience.” (Ibrahim Nasr, Akhbar al-Nuguum, 433, 1/20/2001) Introduction Over the past few years, a growing trend in television is the seeming willingness to push the envelope of so-called “good taste.” While this is not a new phenomenon, we are …
Read More »
Arab Media & Society The Arab Media Hub