Man on the street podcast

Man on the street podcast by Rana Kamaly

Good morning ladies and gentle men. Today in what do you think, our question is: do you think the Egyptian people have lost their trust in the military?

Some people have recently lost their trust in the military like Mona Basel, a journalism student.

Mona Basel: I think the people lost their trust in the army, even though at the beginning we used to chant in Tahrir square that the military and the citizens are one hand, but after wards they shocked us, you know and they went and electrocuted people in Tahrir square and started breaking up any protests that were being made, so I think the people did loose their trust in the military eventually.

Shady Khalid, an engineering student also has lost his trust.

Shady Khalid: I think that I don’t really trust the military, because we don’t have the feeling of the freedom of speech until now because I have many friends who are still in Tahrir square protesting and stuff like that and some of them are arrested because they are just expressing their ideas and stuff and I don’t think the system had changed a lot because the same people are working and just ignoring the people and ignoring our needs and our hopes of this country to be more good enough to live in.

But others like Yousra El Ghor, a mass communication student are still doubtful.

Yousra EL Ghor: I think the military plays like the role of the devil advocate, its because they say they are with the people but they are not really with the people they take orders from Tantawy and stuff like that and who knows if Mubarak is still empowering Egypt or giving orders to carry out. I think the fact that they say that they are here to protect the people and the citizens and stuff, and that the people get to see them on the streets and that they protect us, that’s a good thing for us but at the same time should we truly trust them?

Thank you for paying attention and wait for our new question tomorrow. Good-bye.

Rana Kamaly reporting to the AUC radio. 

Censorship in the AUC theater department

Theater censorship by Rana Kamaly

LEAD-IN: The recent revolution in Egypt on January 25^th had demands that went beyond politics and the ruling regime. Sarah reports.

Among the many demands of the Egyptian revolution was freedom of speech that was creating a problem even in the most liberal institute in Egypt. The suppression of freedom of speech echoed throughout the American University in Cairo that takes pride in calling itself a Liberal Arts Institute.

The university hosts each year a number of plays performed by students and while the play could even be a Shakespearean one, it has to go through a process of censorship.

Professor, Scriptwriter and Director, Mahmoud El Lozy of the Department of Performing and Visual Arts explains;

MAHMOUD EL LOZY: “We make three copies and we put it on disk as well and we send them to the Bureau of Censorship, which is attached to the Supreme Council for Culture. We send that in advance…several months in advance and they have a committee. They choose three readers. Each one writes their own report, makes his or her observations, decides to cut certain things if they feel like it according to guidelines that are not very clear. We don’t know if they’re there to protect morality or to raise the standard of art or to protect the political order. It’s not clear. They use all kinds of different arguments. And then eventually, it goes to the head of their committee and they write a report and they tell us what needs to be cut, that we have to observe moral standards of morality in costuming in gestures etc…and that we have to abide by the text as it is and they’ve stamped every page and they send it to us and they also ask us in this letter to inform them beforehand of the date of the last dress rehearsal so that someone can actually come and see and make sure that what we’re doing is what we’ve submitted and so we tell them when that will happen and then they send someone and that person comes and then watches the play and after that signs the text.”(:81)

Censorship guidelines come from state security, Al Azhar, the church or even the army.

El Lozy was particularly affected by censorship when a play he wrote in the year 2000 was completely banned as it presented Egyptian history in a way the censors did not like.

Theatre Program Director, Jeanne Arnold, elaborates saying that certain taboos such as intimacy between men and women and references to Egyptian politics are unacceptable.

JEANNE ARNOLD: “One particular play we did that was a very American play had references to Pizza Hut, KFC, some other American institutions and corporations and they asked us to cut those references. I still don’t quite understand why but they did. There are restrictions on what kind of clothing women can wear. If anything is too revealing. We just have to feel our way through it. We know that certain things are going to be a problem. Obviously, anything related to Egyptian politics.” (:32)

As for outcomes of the revolution, El Lozy and Arnold say they have seen none.

JEANNE ARNOLD: “Now, I think is a time when AUC and the students in particular need to very much push back against this and create the opportunity for more freedom of expression.” (:17)


Reported by Sarah Diaa for AUC radio.