Egyptian dissident and graduate of the Center for Civil and Human Rights’ LL.M. program in human rights Yara Sallam was mentioned in a column today on repression in Egypt in the New York Times. We’ve been tracking her plight here at Arc of the Universe; word has it that she will receive her verdict in a few days. She is in our thoughts and prayers.
The column details vividly the repression of the el-Sisi regime, not to be obscured by his recent address at the United Nations or by slick advertising for the “new Egypt” in Times Square. Resonant with this blog’s stress on religion and politics, one might say that Egypt has gone from the repressive secularism of Mubarak to the Islamist repression of Morsi back to the repressive secularism of el-Sisi, who has jailed some 16,000 members of the Muslim Brotherhood. It’s not just about religion, of course. The hopes for democracy of the Arab Spring have been quenched for the foreseeable future. Sallam is being tried for exactly the sort of protest that gave the world such great hope during the Arab Spring.