The Frontline Club

“Never has the power of the people appeared so humane, so inspiring, so personal, so determined as in Tunisia, so daring as in Syria, so diverse as in Yemen, so humble as in Bahrain, so courageous as in Libya, or so humorous as in Egypt. If, as one keen observer noted, every joke is a tiny revolution, the Arabs, and most notably the Egyptians, are revolutionaries par excellence."

Marwan Bishara, The Invisible Arab: The promise and peril of the Arab revolution.

The uprisings across the Arab world have often been portrayed by the media as spontaneous acts that were sparked by the death of Tunisian street seller Mohamed Bouazizi after he set fire to himself in late 2010.

In his new book Marwan Bishara of Al Jazeera English challenges this perception, exploring the history and deep-rooted feelings behind the apparently spontaneous takeover of Tunisia’s November 7 Square, Egypt’s Tahrir Square, and Bahrain’s Pearl Square.

These events and others in the region, Bishara explains, were the culmination of a long social and political struggle: countless sit-ins, strikes, pickets and demonstrations by people who risked and suffered intimidation, torture and imprisonment.

Marwan Bishara will be joining senior BBC presenter and special correspondent Lyse Doucet to discuss the roots of the uprisings, how they have evolved from country to country, the shifts they have created in the region and asking what lies ahead as people continue to battle for freedom and justice?

Marwan Bishara is Al Jazeera English’s senior political analyst and editor and host of its flagship show Empire was previously a lecturer in International Relations at the American University of Paris, and a fellow at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. His writing has appeared in the Guardian, New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Newsweek, Le Monde, and The Nation amongst other titles.

“Never has the power of the people appeared so humane, so inspiring, so personal, so determined as in Tunisia, so daring as in Syria, so diverse as in Yemen, so humble as in Bahrain, so courageous as in Libya, or so humorous as in Egypt. If, as one keen observer noted, every joke is a tiny revolution, the Arabs, and most notably the Egyptians, are revolutionaries par excellence."

Marwan Bishara, The Invisible Arab: The promise and peril of the Arab revolution.

The uprisings across the Arab world have often been portrayed by the media as spontaneous acts that were sparked by the death of Tunisian street seller Mohamed Bouazizi after he set fire to himself in late 2010.

In his new book Marwan Bishara of Al Jazeera English challenges this perception, exploring the history and deep-rooted feelings behind the apparently spontaneous takeover of Tunisia’s November 7 Square, Egypt’s Tahrir Square, and Bahrain’s Pearl Square.

These events and others in the region, Bishara explains, were the culmination of a long social and political struggle: countless sit-ins, strikes, pickets and demonstrations by people who risked and suffered intimidation, torture and imprisonment.

Marwan Bishara will be joining senior BBC presenter and special correspondent Lyse Doucet to discuss the roots of the uprisings, how they have evolved from country to country, the shifts they have created in the region and asking what lies ahead as people continue to battle for freedom and justice?

Marwan Bishara is Al Jazeera English’s senior political analyst and editor and host of its flagship show Empire was previously a lecturer in International Relations at the American University of Paris, and a fellow at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. His writing has appeared in the Guardian, New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Newsweek, Le Monde, and The Nation amongst other titles.

April 26, 2012

Channel 4 News’ international editor Lindsey Hilsum will be joining us in conversation with BBC Arabic presenter Rasha Qandeel to discuss Libya and her new book charting the country’s history from the beginnings of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime to the dictator’s squalid end.

Sandstorm, Libya in the Time of Revolution is an insightful account of the overthrow of the Arab world’s most bizarre dictator brought down by his own people with the aid of NATO aircraft.

Hilsum will be discussing the history of Gaddafi’s strange regime from its early days when he had looks, charisma and popular appeal – to its paranoid, corrupt final state. She will also be bringing alive the stories of the Libyan people who overcame fear and disillusionment and found the strength to rebel.

April 26, 2012

Channel 4 News’ international editor Lindsey Hilsum will be joining us in conversation with BBC Arabic presenter Rasha Qandeel to discuss Libya and her new book charting the country’s history from the beginnings of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime to the dictator’s squalid end.

Sandstorm, Libya in the Time of Revolution is an insightful account of the overthrow of the Arab world’s most bizarre dictator brought down by his own people with the aid of NATO aircraft.

Hilsum will be discussing the history of Gaddafi’s strange regime from its early days when he had looks, charisma and popular appeal – to its paranoid, corrupt final state. She will also be bringing alive the stories of the Libyan people who overcame fear and disillusionment and found the strength to rebel.

March 31, 2011

The start of 2011 will be remembered as a period in which the barrier of fear fell across the Middle East and North Africa as people took to the streets demanding freedom from the tyrants who had governed for so long.

No one can predict where these momentous events will lead and what the repercussions will be for years to come.

For this special event held at the The Royal Institution of Great Britain the Frontline Club and BBC Arabic Service will be bringing together some of the key players, journalists and experts to discuss what has taken place in Egypt and the surrounding region so far and to try to gauge what the future might hold.

With those that were instrumental in organising the uprising in Egypt we will be discussing the role that new technology has played; is social media simply a new tool or has its role been more fundamental, changing not only the way that people communicate but also the way that they think and act? We will be discussing how and when the movements where formed, what common ideas they share and how they see things moving forward.

The discussion, which will be in two parts, will be chaired by Paddy O’Connell of BBC Radio 4′s Broadcasting House.

Panel:

Part 1:

Alaa Abd El Fattah: By day a Free/Open Source Software developer, by night he dons his mask and cape and patrols the streets of Cairo, jumping from campaign to campaign building websites, providing support and training, looking out for activists in need.

He “likes to pretend” that his work on the Egyptian Blogs Aggregator helped bring in a new era of citizen journalism and usher in a new generation of digital activists.

Sam Farah is the lead presenter of BBC Arabic’s flagship interactive programme Nuqtat Hewar (Talking Point). He has interviewed leading personalities and over the last months has conducted numerous programmes linking bloggers, activists and supporters of regimes from across the region live on television and radio to discuss events as they unfold.

Manal Hassan, is co-founder of the Egyptian GNU/Linux Users Group (EGLUG) in 2004, and has extensive experience in working with NGOs, human rights activists, and children on web technologies and new media. She won the Best of Blogs (BOBs) and Reporters without Borders award together with her husband Alaa Abd El Fattah in 2005.

Louis Lewarne, was born in Edinburgh in 1979 and has been living in Cairo since 2006. He is normally involved in independent film production, but at the start of the Egyptian revolution and the internet blackout he started occupiedcairo.org, a collectively written blog on the events in Egypt.

Part 2:

Khalid Abdalla, British-Egyptian actor and producer, whose films include United 93, The Kite Runner, and Green Zone. Co-founder of Zero Production, a film and documentary production house based in Cairo, he is currently setting up a non-profit media centre called Mossireen (Adamant) to support filmmakers and citizen journalists through the revolution.

Dr Omar Ashour, lecturer in Middle East politics and the director of the MA in Middle East Studies Program at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, author of The De-Radicalization of Jihadists: Transforming Armed Islamist Movements and a pro-democracy activist close to the youth movement in Cairo.

Omar Robert Hamilton, Egyptian/British film-maker and the producer of the Palestine Festival of Literature. He is currently in pre-production on his third short, Though I Know the River is Dry, a crowd-sourced fiction film that will be shot in Palestine this May. He flew to Cairo to take part in, and document, the Revolution. www.orhamilton.com

Salma Said, Born in 1985 in Cairo, to a political family she has been involved in political activism since the age of 15 with the eruption of the second Palestinian intifada and joined Kifaya movement in 2005 when she discovered the so-called Egyptian blogosphere.

The Royal Institution of G

March 31, 2011

The start of 2011 will be remembered as a period in which the barrier of fear fell across the Middle East and North Africa as people took to the streets demanding freedom from the tyrants who had governed for so long.

No one can predict where these momentous events will lead and what the repercussions will be for years to come.

For this special event held at the The Royal Institution of Great Britain the Frontline Club and BBC Arabic Service will be bringing together some of the key players, journalists and experts to discuss what has taken place in Egypt and the surrounding region so far and to try to gauge what the future might hold.

With those that were instrumental in organising the uprising in Egypt we will be discussing the role that new technology has played; is social media simply a new tool or has its role been more fundamental, changing not only the way that people communicate but also the way that they think and act? We will be discussing how and when the movements where formed, what common ideas they share and how they see things moving forward.

The discussion, which will be in two parts, will be chaired by Paddy O’Connell of BBC Radio 4′s Broadcasting House.

Panel:

Part 1:

Alaa Abd El Fattah: By day a Free/Open Source Software developer, by night he dons his mask and cape and patrols the streets of Cairo, jumping from campaign to campaign building websites, providing support and training, looking out for activists in need.

He “likes to pretend” that his work on the Egyptian Blogs Aggregator helped bring in a new era of citizen journalism and usher in a new generation of digital activists.

Sam Farah is the lead presenter of BBC Arabic’s flagship interactive programme Nuqtat Hewar (Talking Point). He has interviewed leading personalities and over the last months has conducted numerous programmes linking bloggers, activists and supporters of regimes from across the region live on television and radio to discuss events as they unfold.

Manal Hassan, is co-founder of the Egyptian GNU/Linux Users Group (EGLUG) in 2004, and has extensive experience in working with NGOs, human rights activists, and children on web technologies and new media. She won the Best of Blogs (BOBs) and Reporters without Borders award together with her husband Alaa Abd El Fattah in 2005.

Louis Lewarne, was born in Edinburgh in 1979 and has been living in Cairo since 2006. He is normally involved in independent film production, but at the start of the Egyptian revolution and the internet blackout he started occupiedcairo.org, a collectively written blog on the events in Egypt.

Part 2:

Khalid Abdalla, British-Egyptian actor and producer, whose films include United 93, The Kite Runner, and Green Zone. Co-founder of Zero Production, a film and documentary production house based in Cairo, he is currently setting up a non-profit media centre called Mossireen (Adamant) to support filmmakers and citizen journalists through the revolution.

Dr Omar Ashour, lecturer in Middle East politics and the director of the MA in Middle East Studies Program at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, author of The De-Radicalization of Jihadists: Transforming Armed Islamist Movements and a pro-democracy activist close to the youth movement in Cairo.

Omar Robert Hamilton, Egyptian/British film-maker and the producer of the Palestine Festival of Literature. He is currently in pre-production on his third short, Though I Know the River is Dry, a crowd-sourced fiction film that will be shot in Palestine this May. He flew to Cairo to take part in, and document, the Revolution. www.orhamilton.com

Salma Said, Born in 1985 in Cairo, to a political family she has been involved in political activism since the age of 15 with the eruption of the second Palestinian intifada and joined Kifaya movement in 2005 when she discovered the so-called Egyptian blogosphere.

The Royal Institution of G

January 17, 2012

Egypt’s ‘day of rage’ on Tuesday 25 January 2011 has been enshrined in Egypt’s history after millions of people took to the streets to oppose the tyranny and oppression of President Hosni Mubarak’s regime.

As we approach the one-year anniversary of that day we will be joined by a panel of Egyptians to discuss their hopes for revolution in Egypt a year later.

Since 11 February, when Hosni Mubarak finally stepped down, Egypt has been governed by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. In this time there have been a growing number of military trials, new anti-protest laws and protesters have been detained. In response, protests have continued in Tahrir Square.

With elections underway, we will be discussing how the future looks for the Egyptian people and the challenges that lie ahead.

Chaired by Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor at the Observer. He has reported extensively from conflict zones including Africa, the Balkans and the Middle East, and has written widely on human rights issues and the impact of conflict on civilians. The winner of the George Orwell Prize for his reports from Iraq he is the author of The Secret Life of War: Journeys Through Modern Conflict.

With:

Hossam Abdalla, a leading Fertility Consultant and a political activist, he was one of the leaders of the student movement in the 70’s in Egypt. He is also father of actor, producer and activist Khalid Abdalla.

Ahdaf Soueif, Egyptian author, political and cultural commentator. Her most recent book is entitled Cairo: My City, Our Revolution;

Tarek Osman, Egyptian writer and author of Egypt on the Brink: From Nasser to Mubarak.

Abdel Latif El Menawy, author and journalist. As head of the news at the Egyptian Radio and Television Union he oversaw all news content, founded Radio Misr, and pioneered documentary broadcasts. Author of Tahrir: The Last 18 Days of Mubarak.

January 17, 2012

Egypt’s ‘day of rage’ on Tuesday 25 January 2011 has been enshrined in Egypt’s history after millions of people took to the streets to oppose the tyranny and oppression of President Hosni Mubarak’s regime.

As we approach the one-year anniversary of that day we will be joined by a panel of Egyptians to discuss their hopes for revolution in Egypt a year later.

Since 11 February, when Hosni Mubarak finally stepped down, Egypt has been governed by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. In this time there have been a growing number of military trials, new anti-protest laws and protesters have been detained. In response, protests have continued in Tahrir Square.

With elections underway, we will be discussing how the future looks for the Egyptian people and the challenges that lie ahead.

Chaired by Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor at the Observer. He has reported extensively from conflict zones including Africa, the Balkans and the Middle East, and has written widely on human rights issues and the impact of conflict on civilians. The winner of the George Orwell Prize for his reports from Iraq he is the author of The Secret Life of War: Journeys Through Modern Conflict.

With:

Hossam Abdalla, a leading Fertility Consultant and a political activist, he was one of the leaders of the student movement in the 70’s in Egypt. He is also father of actor, producer and activist Khalid Abdalla.

Ahdaf Soueif, Egyptian author, political and cultural commentator. Her most recent book is entitled Cairo: My City, Our Revolution;

Tarek Osman, Egyptian writer and author of Egypt on the Brink: From Nasser to Mubarak.

Abdel Latif El Menawy, author and journalist. As head of the news at the Egyptian Radio and Television Union he oversaw all news content, founded Radio Misr, and pioneered documentary broadcasts. Author of Tahrir: The Last 18 Days of Mubarak.

July 17, 2012

As killings continue and Syria’s future remains in the balance, we will be joined by Syrian novelist and journalist Samar Yazbek who will be reflecting on her experience of the uprising and her hopes for her country.

In early 2011 Yazbek witnessed and participated in the first months of the Syrian uprising. Her vocal opposition to the regime published in print and online quickly attracted attention, and she was denounced by her family as vicious rumours spread about her disloyalty to the homeland and the Alawite community from which she comes.

Forced to live on the run, Yazbek was detained numerous times by the authorities but continued to document her personal reflections and the testimonies of figures in the Opposition.

Samar Yazbek is author of A Woman in the Crossfire: Diaries of the Syrian Revolution. She has published several novels and collections of short stories, the most recent of which is In Her Mirrors. An excerpt of her novel Cinnamon was published in the anthology Beirut 39.

July 17, 2012

As killings continue and Syria’s future remains in the balance, we will be joined by Syrian novelist and journalist Samar Yazbek who will be reflecting on her experience of the uprising and her hopes for her country.

In early 2011 Yazbek witnessed and participated in the first months of the Syrian uprising. Her vocal opposition to the regime published in print and online quickly attracted attention, and she was denounced by her family as vicious rumours spread about her disloyalty to the homeland and the Alawite community from which she comes.

Forced to live on the run, Yazbek was detained numerous times by the authorities but continued to document her personal reflections and the testimonies of figures in the Opposition.

Samar Yazbek is author of A Woman in the Crossfire: Diaries of the Syrian Revolution. She has published several novels and collections of short stories, the most recent of which is In Her Mirrors. An excerpt of her novel Cinnamon was published in the anthology Beirut 39.