Norooz, Sanctions, Love, and Human Rights
March 27, 2012The Cranes Return, Nowrooz Comes to an End, Racism Challenged
April 4, 2012WHAT COMES AFTER THE GIANT IS SLAIN AND THE MONSTER HAS LEFT? WHAT COMES NEXT?
You can download Arseh Sevom’s Civil Society Zine as a pdf by clicking here for Issue 1: The Networking Issue and here for Issue 2: What Comes Next?
Excerpt from Issue 2’s letter from the editor:
The term “Arab Spring” has always felt ominous to me rather than optimistic. After all, we all know what happened after the short-lived Prague Spring of 1968, which was brutally squashed. As I write this in November, 2011, we read that more than 32 people have been killed in clashes in Cairo’s Tahir Square. Thousands have been arrested. Amnesty is reporting that people in Egypt who dare to express themselves are being arrested and tried in military courts.
“By using military courts to try thousands of civilians, cracking down on peaceful protest and expanding the remit of Mubarak’s Emergency Law, the SCAF has continued the tradition of repressive rule which the January 25 demonstrators fought so hard to get rid of,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Acting Director.
“Those who have challenged or criticized the military council – like demonstrators. journalists, bloggers, striking workers – have been ruthlessly suppressed, in an attempt at silencing their voices.”
Mubarak may be gone. One Goliath out of the way. The repression that so motivated the people who took to the streets is not. Bloggers like Maikel Nabil stew in prison, go on hunger strikes, and risk their freedom.
Hamza Hendawi of the Associated Press reports:
“We should not have left the streets. We handed power to the military on a silver platter,’’ said Ahmed Imam, a 33-year-old activist. “The revolutionaries went home too soon. We collected the spoils and left before the battle was over.’’
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