Hossam el-Hamalawy is a Germany-based journalist and socialist from Cairo with a PhD in political science. He was among the organizers of the 2011 uprising and has been involved in the labor movement and the fight against police brutality in Egypt.
After the failed Arab revolutions of the 2010s, Egypt’s elite set out to prevent future resistance. But the violent counterrevolution pushed by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi did more than restore the old regime — it consolidated a new form of state terror.
The recent protests demanding the fall of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi were Egypt’s largest since the 2013 military coup. Years of repression have devastated the organized opposition and its networks — but a fresh revolt by Egyptian youth has shown that the regime is anything but secure.
Sisi is whipping up homophobia and targeting gay people to distract his base from rising unemployment and inflation.