listen/download interview series from independent journalist Lillian Boctor

Photo: Hossam el-Hamalawy Thousands chant against SCAF and the army on Friday night in Tahrir Square.

Interview series from independent journalist Lillian Boctor examining the situation facing post-Mubarak Egypt produced for broadcast on CKUT community radio in Montreal.

As the first anniversary of the January 25 uprisings approaches, the Voices from Egypt interview series aims to highlight grassroots voices that provide perspective, ideas and context to post-Mubarak Egypt and in the ongoing transition and revolutionary period. Examining the current political winds and push from grassroots movements on the left to implement the revolution’s call for social and economic justice, challenge the repression by the ruling military council and create a new, democratic and equitable Egyptian society.

Tadamon! collective presents the following interviews for download from various independent media websites in an attempt to share information, news and analysis on the contemporary struggles in Egypt today that have dropped from the international media headlines.

In this series you will hear the perspectives and thoughts from leading grassroots activists, bloggers, journalists, lawyers, artists, musicians, academics, doctors and thinkers in contemporary Egypt.

Please post/share these links throughout your networks. Also we encourage campus/community radio stations to download and broadcast this material. This interview series was recorded in both Cairo, Egypt and in Montreal, Quebec by independent journalist Lillian Boctor.

three interviews during the 18 day January 25-February 11, 2011 uprising that ousted former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak …

Listen to all three interviews here, as broadcast on CKUT on January 17, 2012.

1. Interview with Hossam el-Hamalawy

Hossam el-Hamalawy, Egyptian journalist, blogger, activist, labor organizer. Interview with Hossam el-Hamalawy on January 26, 2011 about the Egyptian uprising, the U.S. backed Mubarak military dictatorship, the role of workers, neo-liberal reforms, rising prices and stagnant minimum wages, U.S. made tear gas, security police attacks on the protesters and the people’s movement.

listen to full interview here and report for Free Speech Radio News

2. Interview with Wael Khalil

Wael Khalil, Egyptian activist and blogger. Interview with Wael Khalil recorded on February 2, 2011 about the continued Egyptian uprising, the protesters’ determination, the people’s demands that Mubarak steps down, the military’s response to the protests, Tahrir Square, plans for Departure Friday, and the regime’s attacks on protesters.

listen to full report via Free Speech Radio News

3. Interview with Atef Said

Atef Said, Egyptian human rights lawyer, activist, sociologist, writer. Interview with Atef Said from the streets near the Presidential Palace in Cairo during celebrations after Mubarak stepped down on February 11, 2011.

listen/download to full interview HERE

listen to report via Free Speech Radio News

4. Interview with Wael Khalil in Cairo, Egypt

Wael Khalil, Egyptian activist, blogger, member of the Popular Socialist Alliance Party. In an interview recorded by Lillian Boctor in a Cairo café on June 28, 2011, Wael Khalil gives an overview of what the left in Egypt is proposing as opposed to the neoliberal “business as usual” model put forward by liberal parties and the media, the challenges the left is facing and the left experience post-Mubarak. He reflects on the battle of ideas taking place on various fronts in Egypt and on the Islamist versus Secularist debate.

listen to full interview HERE

5. Interviews with Ola Shahba in Cairo, Egypt

Ola Shahba, Egyptian activist, member of the Socialist Renewal Current, one of the founders of the Popular Socialist Alliance Party, member of Youth for Justice and Freedom movement, and member of the Revolution Continues Alliance.

In an interview recorded by Lillian Boctor on June 26, 2011 in a downtown Cairo café, Ola Shahba gives an overview of the Popular Socialist Alliance Party, talks about the importance of the youth and workers’ movements in the Revolution, reflects on the left’s reactions to the Egyptian elections and the rewriting of the constitution and speaks about the work and organizing being done on the ground, in factories, rural areas and throughout the country, to build a movement based on social justice principles.

listen to full interview via Pambazuka News

In an interview recorded by Lillian Boctor on December 5, 2011, Ola Shahba speaks about the Revolution Continues Alliance’s performance in the first phase of the People Assembly elections, the next steps for the Alliance, the debates happening in Tahrir and her experience in Tahrir Square and Mohamed Mahmoud Street during the military and security police’s violent attacks on protesters in November 2011.

listen to full interview HERE

6. Interview with Yehia el Gammal

Yehia el Gammal, an Egyptian activist, member of the New Republic Project, creating a consensus vision for the transition from military to civilian rule in Egypt. On October 9, 2011, a mass march and protest took place in Cairo, starting from the working-class Shobra neighborhood and gathering in front of the state television building Maspero in downtown, near Tahrir Square.

The demonstration was in response to the burning of a church in Aswan, in the south of Egypt, and protesters were calling for the equal rights of Coptic Christians. Military forces, thugs and central security forces attacked the peaceful protest, killing at least 28 people and wounding over 300. Yehia el Gammal was at the protest and in an interview recorded by Lillian Boctor after the protest in the early morning of October 10, 2011, he gives his eyewitness account of the attacks on protesters. (transcript included)

listen/read full interview via Pambazuka News

7. Interview with Islam Lotfy

Islam Lotfy, Egyptian lawyer, co-chairman of Egyptian Current party, one of the founding members of the Revolution Continues Alliance and one of the candidates for the Egyptian Parliament, representing the Egyptian Current Party and the Revolutionary Youth Coalition.

Islam Lotfy, a leading youth activist in the Egyptian Revolution, was an active member of the Muslim Brotherhood, until the group dismissed him, under the justification that Lotfy and other members were forming new parties and not joining the Muslim Brotherhood’s political party, the Freedom and Justice Party. In an interview recorded by Lillian Boctor on November 14, 2011, he speaks about the Revolution Continues Alliance, the Egyptian Current Party, the secular-religious divide and the upcoming elections.

listen to full interview HERE

8. Interview with Ragia Omran

Ragia Omran, Egyptian lawyer, activist, one of the founders of No Military Tials for Civilians. Since the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces became Egypt’s de facto rulers on January 28, 2011, they have been using military trials against civilians. At least 12,000 civilians have been subjected to military trials, in which trial and conviction happen quickly, often without any access to lawyers, witnesses or evidence.

Military trials are being used by SCAF as a means to stifle dissent and create a climate of fear and disengagement among the Egyptian population. The group No to Military Trials for Civilians was formed to resist and condemn SCAF’s use of military trials and violations against civilians. In an interview recorded on October 30, 2011, lawyer Ragia Omran gives a background on military trials in Egypt.

listen to full interview HERE

9. Interviews with Shahira Abouellail

Shahira Abouellail, Egyptian activist, one of the founders of No Military Trials for Civilians. In an interview recorded by Lillian Boctor on November 4, 2011, Shahira Abouellail speaks about the abuses of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and the ongoing military trials in Egypt.

listen/read full interview at Jadaliyya

In an interview recorded by Lillian Boctor on November 21, 2011, Shahira Abouellail speaks about Egypt’s unfinished Revolution, the continued uprising against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and military rule, the vicious attacks by security forces and the military on protesters and the end of the relationship between the military and the Egyptian people. She gives her eyewitness account of her visit to the Zeinhom morgue on Monday, November 21, 2011 to make sure that the military did not tamper with autopsy reports and to accompany the families who lost their loved ones.

listen/read interview at Jadaliyya

10. Interview with Sherif Joseph Rizk

Sherif Joseph Rizk, Egyptian activist, member of the New Republic Project. The second wave of the Revolution returned to Tahrir Square in November 2011. After the massive demonstration on Friday, November 18, 2011, calling for an end to military rule, about 200 people, mainly family members of martyrs who died in the January 25 uprisings and people who were previously injured, staged a sit-in at Tahrir Square.

Central Security Forces and Egyptian military police violently dismantled the sit-in, and thousands came together to reoccupy Tahrir Square. The police and military forces attacked, killed and injured protesters for over a week with live bullets, tear gas and other ammunition. In an interview recorded by Lillian Boctor early Monday morning, 21 November 2011, Sherif Joseph Rizk and Yehia El Gammal spoke about their experiences in Tahrir Square and on Mohamed Mahmoud Street.

listen to full interview at Montreal Media Co-op

11. Interview with Dr. Sabry Mohamed Khaled

Dr. Sabry Mohamed Khaled, Egyptian activist, blogger, dentist and maxillo-facial surgeon. Since the beginning of the January 25 Revolution, and again during the uprising that began on November 18, 2011, Sabry Khaled worked in the Tahrir field hospitals, taking care of protesters wounded by military and security forces.

In an interview recorded on November 23, 2011 by Lillian Boctor, Sabry Khaled speaks about the harrowing experience being in the field hospitals, the dangerous tear gas imported by the U.S. being used on civilians in Tahrir and throughout Egypt and the ongoing attacks on protesters with live bullets, extremely potent tear and invisible gas, bird-shot, rubber bullets and other ammunition.

listen to full interview HERE

12. Interviews with Adham Hafez

Adham Hafez, Egyptian activist, artist working in the field of contemporary dance and music and the director of HaRaKa dance development and research, part of a volunteer committee working to save the books and manuscripts from the burnt Egyptian Scientific Institute, coordinated Tahrir field hospitals in the November uprising.

On December 16, 2011, Egyptian military forces violently attacked the three-week sit-in at the Cabinet building in Cairo. The protesters were demanding that the military ruling council hand over power to civilians. Set on fire on December 17, 2011, the Egyptian Scientific Institute, home to thousands of rare books and manuscripts, was another casualty of the clashes between the military and protestors in Cairo.

In an interview recorded by Lillian Boctor on December 19, 2011 while he was in front of the National Library and Archives of Egypt. Adham Hafez speaks about the efforts to save the books and manuscripts from the damaged L’Institute d’Egypte, or Egyptian Scientific Institute.

listen to full interview at Pambazuka

In a second interview recorded by Lillian Boctor on December 31, 2011, just an hour before midnight, Adham Hafez speaks from Tahrir Square about the Tahrir concert and vigil New Year’s Eve events to commemorate the martyrs of the January 25 revolution and to continue the struggle for justice and freedom.

listen/download to full interview HERE

13. Interview with Zakaria Ibrahim in Cairo, Egypt

Zakaria Ibrahim, Egyptian folk-music researcher, musician, founder of the El-Mastaba Center for Egyptian Folk Music, activist. Lillian Boctor sat down with Zakaria Ibrahim in Cairo at the El Mastaba Center for Egyptian Folk Music on June 26, 2011, and spoke with him about his long struggle and sacrifice to revive, preserve and promote Egyptian folk and cultural music, the internal displacement of Egyptians in the 1960s and 1970s, the various Egyptian folk traditions, such as Zar and the Simsimiyya and Tanbura instruments, the roots of Sudanese Rango music in Egypt, the international success of the folk music groups he created throughout Egypt.

Also this interview addresses the relationship of art and revolution and his decades-long involvement in social justice movements in Egypt, including the student movement in the 1970s. 2012 marks the 23rd anniversary of the first group Zakaria Ibrahim developed, El Tanbura, which, along with the other folk music groups that Zakaria has worked with, have a significant presence in Tahrir Square during the revolutionary uprisings of the past year.

listen to entire Interview HERE

or in three parts

Zakaria Ibrahim Interview Part 1

Zakaria Ibrahim Interview Part 2

Zakaria Ibrahim Interview Part 3