Revolution and Dignity: Reflections on the Transition in Egypt


Dr. Heba Raouf Ezzat, Dr. Saleh Ahmed, Dr. Zina Nimeh (Chair), Universities of Cairo and Maastricht

Dignity was one of the slogans of the Egyptian revolution of 25 January 2011, yet this notion is a very complex one that overlaps with notions of freedom, social justice and equal citizenship. After two and half years of turbulent events in Egypt and the Arab region, how can one assess the struggle for dignity so far and the challenges that the revolution is facing to bring to people what they aspired and hoped for?

About the speaker
Dr. Heba Raouf Ezzat Heba Raouf Ezzat is an assistant professor of Political Theory at Cairo University and a visiting professor at the American University in Cairo. Her published studies cover a wide range of issues such as notions of citizenship and multiple modernities, women, politics in the Arab world and global civil society and global democracy and Islamic political theory. She was a visiting fellow at the Universities of Georgetown and Oxford 2012, and is a founding member of different associations and trusts focusing on open and civic education. She was appointed to an advisory committee of 10 experts revising the Egyptian constitution after the revolution (a committee from which she resigned along eight other), and is an independent public commentator.

Dr. Saleh Ahmed Saleh Ahmed, is an associate professor of Public Administration at the Department of Public Administration, Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University. He is also the director of the Public Administration Research & Consultation Center in Cairo University. He obtained his masters from Cairo University and PhD from Western Michigan University. He worked as an advisor to several ministries in Egypt such as the Ministry of Local Development. Dr. Ahmed, is a certified trainer and professional consultant in state restructuring institutionally and administratively as well as building the human capacity. He worked with the UNWOMEN-Iraq as a GRB advisor and published several studies on public administration reform, gender and public administration, decentralization and state restructuring.

Venue: UCM Lecture Hall

Date: 12 June 2013

Time: 18:30  CET


UNU-MERIT