E-grāmata: Democracy is the Answer: Egypt's Years of Revolution

As the Egyptian revolution unfolded throughout 2011 and the ensuing years, no one was better positioned to comment on itand try to push it in productive directionsthan best-selling novelist and political commentator Alaa Al-Aswany. For years a leading critic of the Mubarak regime, Al-Aswany used his weekly newspaper column for Al-Masry Al-Youm to propound the revolution’s ideals and to confront the increasingly troubled politics of its aftermath.

This book presents, for the first time in English, all of Al-Aswany’s columns from the period, a comprehensive account of the turmoil of the post-revolutionary years, and a portrait of a country and a people in flux. Each column is presented along with a context-setting introduction, as well as notes and a glossary, all designed to give non-Egyptian readers the background they need to understand the events and figures that Al-Aswany chronicles. The result is a definitive portrait of Egypt todayhow it got here, and where it might be headed.

For years before the Egyptian revolution in January 2011 Alaa Al Aswany, author of the bestselling novelThe Yacoubian Building, had been a critic of the Mubarak regime. When the revolution broke out he was among those in Tahrir Square calling for democratic reform and demanding that Hosni Mubarak stand down. Since then he has continued, through his popular weekly column for the newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm, to propound the ideals of the January 2011 revolution, embodied by the young protestors that risked everything to occupy Tahrir by his side. In his many columns over the ensuing three years collected and translated here for the first time Al Aswany confronted the crucial issues of the day head-on as an increasingly stratified and divided country sought to agree a constitution and elect a democratic government. His journalism gave him an opportunity to call out the instances of corruption, brutality, police negligence, and judicial and religious interference that were commonplace and plagued the everyday lives of the Egyptian people. These 150 columns provide a comprehensive chronicle of the post-revolutionary years of turmoil and are a portrait of a country and people in flux. Divided into three parts the chaotic aftermath of the revolution; Mohamed Morsi's election, tenure as President and overthrow; and the election of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi each column is introduced with a brief description providing the background of the events described in the article, footnotes and a glossary: the information necessary to allow non-Egyptian readers to place the columns in context. The result is a definitive reader of Egypt's years of upheaval by one of the Middle East's foremost political voices.