What do you think?
Rate this book
You Have Not Yet Been Defeated: Selected Writings 2011-2021
Alaa Abd el-Fattah, 39, is arguably the most high profile political prisoner in Egypt, if not the Arab world. A leading figure among the young technologists and bloggers of the 2000s he rose to international prominence during the revolution of 2011. A fiercely independent thinker who fuses politics and technology in powerful prose, an activist whose ideas represent a global generation which has only known struggle against a failing system, a public intellectual with the rare courage to offer personal, painful honesty, Alaa’s written voice came to symbolize much of what was fresh, inspiring and revolutionary about the uprisings that have defined the last decade. Alaa has been in prison for most of the last seven years and many of the pieces collected here were smuggled out of his cell. From theses on technology, to theories of history, to painful reflections on the meaning of prison, his voice in these pages � arranged by family and friends � cuts as sharply relevant, as dangerous, as ever.
448 pages, Paperback
Published October 20, 2021
125 people are currently reading
2,494 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
October 25, 2021
"I write of a generation that fought without despair & without hope, that won only small victories & wasn't shaken by major defeats because they were the natural order of things. A generation whose ambitions were humbler than those who came before, but whose dreams were bigger."
"You Have Not Yet Been Defeated" is the first compiled volume of the essays of Alaa Abd El-Fattah, the Egyptian democracy activist, software engineer, and writer. These essays were written between 2011 and 2021, chronicling the rise of - and eventual setbacks to - the Egyptian Revolution that began with toppling Hosni Mubarak. A significant portion was written from prison, where Alaa was incarcerated between 2014 - 2019, and then again from 2019-onwards, after a brief repriece.
The essays cover a wide range of issues - from the Revolution itself, to platform work and the precarity economy, to nationalism, anarchism, and violence, to Palestine. They stand out in their clarity of thought and principle (in particular, Alaa's writings on the Rabaa massacre of Islamists by Sisi, an incident that was supported - or at least, excused - by an influential cross-section of liberals, as Islamists were on the receiving end), in the astuteness with which Alaa analyses the world that we live in, and in their essential humanity. These essays are also remarkable because you can see the writer evolving as he writes, thinking through his previous convictions, revising or modifying them in light of experience, but never abandoning core principles, even in the teeth of tragedy and defeat.
Parts of the book are difficult to read: I found myself crying openly while "Alaa and Douma", a dialogue between Alaa and Ahmed Douma from prison; the final essay - Palestine On My Mind, written in September 2021 in the wake of the Sheikh Jarrah and Gaza protests - will turn you inside out; and this is just a sample. The entire book deserves to be read closely by anyone interested in democracy, our many contemporary crises, or indeed, an archival record of what happened in Egypt in the 2010s.
"You Have Not Yet Been Defeated" is the first compiled volume of the essays of Alaa Abd El-Fattah, the Egyptian democracy activist, software engineer, and writer. These essays were written between 2011 and 2021, chronicling the rise of - and eventual setbacks to - the Egyptian Revolution that began with toppling Hosni Mubarak. A significant portion was written from prison, where Alaa was incarcerated between 2014 - 2019, and then again from 2019-onwards, after a brief repriece.
The essays cover a wide range of issues - from the Revolution itself, to platform work and the precarity economy, to nationalism, anarchism, and violence, to Palestine. They stand out in their clarity of thought and principle (in particular, Alaa's writings on the Rabaa massacre of Islamists by Sisi, an incident that was supported - or at least, excused - by an influential cross-section of liberals, as Islamists were on the receiving end), in the astuteness with which Alaa analyses the world that we live in, and in their essential humanity. These essays are also remarkable because you can see the writer evolving as he writes, thinking through his previous convictions, revising or modifying them in light of experience, but never abandoning core principles, even in the teeth of tragedy and defeat.
Parts of the book are difficult to read: I found myself crying openly while "Alaa and Douma", a dialogue between Alaa and Ahmed Douma from prison; the final essay - Palestine On My Mind, written in September 2021 in the wake of the Sheikh Jarrah and Gaza protests - will turn you inside out; and this is just a sample. The entire book deserves to be read closely by anyone interested in democracy, our many contemporary crises, or indeed, an archival record of what happened in Egypt in the 2010s.
September 24, 2022
YOU HAVE NOT YET BEEN DEFEATED (2021) is a collection of selected essays and writings from Alaa Abd el-Fattah, one of Egypt’s most prominent political dissidents and human rights defenders. He became prominent for his activism during the Egyptian revolution that toppled the Hosni Mubarak regime in 2011. Since then he has spent most of his life in jail because of his ideas and his words.
This book was put together by dozens of people who courageously and anonymously collected Alaa’s writings, including published articles, public interviews, social media outputs and notes, some of which were smuggled out of prison. I must stress their courage because media and digital censorship in Egypt is abysmal. Also Alaa’s family and friends have taken huge risks by publishing and circulating his writings.
Alaa is a young, thoughtful idealist, a very articulate speaker and writer, an agent of political change who knows he will pay the price every time he speaks or writes, but is willing to pay the price. Alaa writes about revolutions, why most fail, and reflects on how they can, perhaps, be made to succeed. He writes about Egypt and beyond. Among many other subjects, Alaa writes about the climate crisis, social media, corporations, political change and, of course, Palestine.
Alaa describes the country’s security apparatus, designed to crush hope and will. Solitary prison conditions are appalling: isolation, humiliations, arbitrary and constant changing of rules are the standard. He was allowed one visit from one family member for twenty minutes, once a month. Sometimes, even less than that. When his wife delivered their first child he was in prison. Also when his mother was on a hunger strike, and when his father died in hospital.
Not only Alaa is in prison. There are mass incarcerations in Egypt. The State throws the country’s youth behind bars to make sure that any ideas of progressive social change are nipped in the bud. Alaa and those incarcerated are not afforded due process nor any access to fair and transparent legal mechanisms.
Alaa's writings are eloquent, urgent, brave and crystal clear; he is a politically mature writer who writes relentlessly even in the worst conditions. The Fitzcarraldo edition includes a Foreword by Naomi Klein, a comprehensive note from the editors and plenty of notes. All this will be very useful for readers who don't know much about recent Egyptian history. This is a very important book, an uncomfortable book that deserves a huge readership.
This book was put together by dozens of people who courageously and anonymously collected Alaa’s writings, including published articles, public interviews, social media outputs and notes, some of which were smuggled out of prison. I must stress their courage because media and digital censorship in Egypt is abysmal. Also Alaa’s family and friends have taken huge risks by publishing and circulating his writings.
Alaa is a young, thoughtful idealist, a very articulate speaker and writer, an agent of political change who knows he will pay the price every time he speaks or writes, but is willing to pay the price. Alaa writes about revolutions, why most fail, and reflects on how they can, perhaps, be made to succeed. He writes about Egypt and beyond. Among many other subjects, Alaa writes about the climate crisis, social media, corporations, political change and, of course, Palestine.
Alaa describes the country’s security apparatus, designed to crush hope and will. Solitary prison conditions are appalling: isolation, humiliations, arbitrary and constant changing of rules are the standard. He was allowed one visit from one family member for twenty minutes, once a month. Sometimes, even less than that. When his wife delivered their first child he was in prison. Also when his mother was on a hunger strike, and when his father died in hospital.
Not only Alaa is in prison. There are mass incarcerations in Egypt. The State throws the country’s youth behind bars to make sure that any ideas of progressive social change are nipped in the bud. Alaa and those incarcerated are not afforded due process nor any access to fair and transparent legal mechanisms.
Alaa's writings are eloquent, urgent, brave and crystal clear; he is a politically mature writer who writes relentlessly even in the worst conditions. The Fitzcarraldo edition includes a Foreword by Naomi Klein, a comprehensive note from the editors and plenty of notes. All this will be very useful for readers who don't know much about recent Egyptian history. This is a very important book, an uncomfortable book that deserves a huge readership.
November 24, 2021
Living in the affluent West, it's easy to take the most basic of human rights for granted. The right to protest, say, the right to freely express yourself, the right to elect your own leaders. By taking these things as a given, for having the luxury to not even think about them, we often fail to realize when these rights come under threat.
I imagine it'd be different if you'd emigrated from a place like Egypt, where such rights are anything but the norm. For the Egyptian, Belarusian, or Syrian émigré, an assault on these rights in a place like the US or the UK is likely to raise eyebrows that may remain prone over eyes that have seen less and known such violations only from unsteady images on an iPhone.
Most problematic of all, those of us who are aware, who take the time to read the riveting accounts of individuals like Egyptian blogger and activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, are left frozen with fear —Ìýshocked not into action when rights like free and fair elections are called into question, but into something closer to inaction.
It may be a symptom of these dark times, or perhaps just the consumption of too many news stories, but what amazes me isn't that the countries of the Arab Spring have nearly all, one after another, fallen once more into states of inequity equal to if not worse than that experienced in decades prior to the revolution that shook Tahrir Square, but that individuals in these places have continued to stand up to protest what, in hindsight, seems to have been democracy's inevitable descent in these countries. Were these individuals brave, or simply foolish?
In choosing to fight against forces that often had the backing of a majority of the people —Ìýwhich the Egyptian military in the early days under Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi touted as justification for massacres against the country's Islamists and a corrupt Muslim Brotherhood regime under former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi —Ìýweren't men like Alaa really just sealing their fates, giving up time that could have been spent with their families for years behind bars and brutal beatings at the hands of prison guards?
When reading "You Have Not Yet Been Defeated," Alaa's breathtaking account of his struggle against three successive authoritarian regimes in Egypt, it's hard not to feel like the author isn't asking himself these same questions.
Citizens of authoritarian countries don't have the luxury of complacency, of letting their guard down. A world where words are policed and the smallest of actions can lead to an interminable prison sentence invites a fight or flight response.
Do you stay and fight, when doing so is the harder thing, doomed to almost certain failure? Or do you pick up and get out while you can? What would any of us do in the same position?
Those are the thoughts I was left with after finishing this extraordinary collection of essays, most of which Alaa wrote while in prison and smuggled out using ingenious methods worthy of the Marquis de Sade, though the only sadists in this story are Alaa's jailers and the corrupt Egyptian state.
While these essays all have a revolutionary theme, the topics range from Uber and the IT world to prisoners' rights and Palestine. They're all brilliant, of the very highest quality, and I'm most grateful to Fitzcarraldo Editions for publishing this and sharing Alaa's story.
A just world would be one in which men like Alaa are celebrated, not jailed, where Western society didn't hail banal superhero franchises and vapid celebrities but real-life heroes.
A world where children and adults don't speak about the Kardashians, but about activists like Alaa? I've clearly been reading too much fantasy.
I imagine it'd be different if you'd emigrated from a place like Egypt, where such rights are anything but the norm. For the Egyptian, Belarusian, or Syrian émigré, an assault on these rights in a place like the US or the UK is likely to raise eyebrows that may remain prone over eyes that have seen less and known such violations only from unsteady images on an iPhone.
Most problematic of all, those of us who are aware, who take the time to read the riveting accounts of individuals like Egyptian blogger and activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, are left frozen with fear —Ìýshocked not into action when rights like free and fair elections are called into question, but into something closer to inaction.
It may be a symptom of these dark times, or perhaps just the consumption of too many news stories, but what amazes me isn't that the countries of the Arab Spring have nearly all, one after another, fallen once more into states of inequity equal to if not worse than that experienced in decades prior to the revolution that shook Tahrir Square, but that individuals in these places have continued to stand up to protest what, in hindsight, seems to have been democracy's inevitable descent in these countries. Were these individuals brave, or simply foolish?
In choosing to fight against forces that often had the backing of a majority of the people —Ìýwhich the Egyptian military in the early days under Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi touted as justification for massacres against the country's Islamists and a corrupt Muslim Brotherhood regime under former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi —Ìýweren't men like Alaa really just sealing their fates, giving up time that could have been spent with their families for years behind bars and brutal beatings at the hands of prison guards?
When reading "You Have Not Yet Been Defeated," Alaa's breathtaking account of his struggle against three successive authoritarian regimes in Egypt, it's hard not to feel like the author isn't asking himself these same questions.
Citizens of authoritarian countries don't have the luxury of complacency, of letting their guard down. A world where words are policed and the smallest of actions can lead to an interminable prison sentence invites a fight or flight response.
Do you stay and fight, when doing so is the harder thing, doomed to almost certain failure? Or do you pick up and get out while you can? What would any of us do in the same position?
Those are the thoughts I was left with after finishing this extraordinary collection of essays, most of which Alaa wrote while in prison and smuggled out using ingenious methods worthy of the Marquis de Sade, though the only sadists in this story are Alaa's jailers and the corrupt Egyptian state.
While these essays all have a revolutionary theme, the topics range from Uber and the IT world to prisoners' rights and Palestine. They're all brilliant, of the very highest quality, and I'm most grateful to Fitzcarraldo Editions for publishing this and sharing Alaa's story.
A just world would be one in which men like Alaa are celebrated, not jailed, where Western society didn't hail banal superhero franchises and vapid celebrities but real-life heroes.
A world where children and adults don't speak about the Kardashians, but about activists like Alaa? I've clearly been reading too much fantasy.
August 11, 2024
I've been reading this book for two years, and you might wonder why. The truth is, it was a lot to absorb! Especially as you watch everything that is going on internationally and know that in your heart � Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s words reflect millions of unheard stories and a multitude of injustice happening everywhere as I write this.
That someone and their family could be held in this manner is beyond reason. The fact that people and their families can be bombed, and uprooted from their lands by violence and force will always be madness to me. Being stripped of their dignity, and silenced through corrupt and morally bankrupt systems is beyond reason.
It feels significant to me that I finally finished this book today, August 10, 2024, on Prisoner’s Justice Day.
I have some more thoughts about this work.. I think that Abd el-Fattah’s words cut through the silence of isolation, and is a loud echo of the cries of people seeking for freedom and justice.
He is a remarkable writer, fully aware that the power to change the world lies with the youth. No matter the hardship he endures, and the indignities they try to heap onto him; stripping him, beatings, keeping him from his family and children, immoral check-in practices, he still continues to use his voice. His voice is sharp and he clearly dictates the levels of barbarism that is prevalent in Egypt, in Palestine and in a variety of other nations. He illustrates how countries attempt to silence folks by ripping away their ability to communicate and get the news out to their people, by limiting books and more, things that are happening in North America as well. He’s very clear how Egypt’s attempt to silence dissent by cutting off communication, restricting access to information and the internet, are methods that folks everywhere should be paying attention to in this digital age. We see that in Gaza right now. The book ends with his essay on Palestine and how they are always and have always been on his mind.
One thing I will say is that each letter in this book, the texts, the essays the things that his family were able to smuggle out from the jail to provide to the waiting public.. the public demanding to hear from him� each of these essays are a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, and standing tall against the crushing force of oppression. Bob Marley's words come to mind: "Who God bless, no man can curse," and "God shall pass the worst." That spirit is palpable in this book. You feel that here.
You Have Not Yet Been Defeated is not just a book; it’s a reflection, a resistance, a heartbeat - the telltale heart beating that everyone can hear in the dark places. It’s persistent in its execution, it’s unyielding, and it reminds us that the fight for dignity, for human rights, is never truly defeated as long as there are voices willing to speak. It shares that our words can really be our greatest weapon. This book shares a lot in common with “We Have Tired of Violence� detailing war crimes and political corruption against the community in Indonesia as well. It was a really intense and necessary read.
That someone and their family could be held in this manner is beyond reason. The fact that people and their families can be bombed, and uprooted from their lands by violence and force will always be madness to me. Being stripped of their dignity, and silenced through corrupt and morally bankrupt systems is beyond reason.
It feels significant to me that I finally finished this book today, August 10, 2024, on Prisoner’s Justice Day.
I have some more thoughts about this work.. I think that Abd el-Fattah’s words cut through the silence of isolation, and is a loud echo of the cries of people seeking for freedom and justice.
He is a remarkable writer, fully aware that the power to change the world lies with the youth. No matter the hardship he endures, and the indignities they try to heap onto him; stripping him, beatings, keeping him from his family and children, immoral check-in practices, he still continues to use his voice. His voice is sharp and he clearly dictates the levels of barbarism that is prevalent in Egypt, in Palestine and in a variety of other nations. He illustrates how countries attempt to silence folks by ripping away their ability to communicate and get the news out to their people, by limiting books and more, things that are happening in North America as well. He’s very clear how Egypt’s attempt to silence dissent by cutting off communication, restricting access to information and the internet, are methods that folks everywhere should be paying attention to in this digital age. We see that in Gaza right now. The book ends with his essay on Palestine and how they are always and have always been on his mind.
One thing I will say is that each letter in this book, the texts, the essays the things that his family were able to smuggle out from the jail to provide to the waiting public.. the public demanding to hear from him� each of these essays are a testament to the resilience of the human spirit, and standing tall against the crushing force of oppression. Bob Marley's words come to mind: "Who God bless, no man can curse," and "God shall pass the worst." That spirit is palpable in this book. You feel that here.
You Have Not Yet Been Defeated is not just a book; it’s a reflection, a resistance, a heartbeat - the telltale heart beating that everyone can hear in the dark places. It’s persistent in its execution, it’s unyielding, and it reminds us that the fight for dignity, for human rights, is never truly defeated as long as there are voices willing to speak. It shares that our words can really be our greatest weapon. This book shares a lot in common with “We Have Tired of Violence� detailing war crimes and political corruption against the community in Indonesia as well. It was a really intense and necessary read.
November 14, 2021
Essential reading for anyone who considers themselves an Egyptian, an Arab, or even a leftist. Alaa writes poetically but also cleary, cutting through the bullshit that so often accompanies discussions on Egyptian politics. He is equally convincing writing about concrete political solutions as he is writing about technology and capitalism or his own personal psychological struggles in the wake of his defeat and imprisonment.
Perhaps my favourite paragraph comes on the penultimate page:
“There are cities that inspire poets and musicians and so become immortalised in depictions that might not reflect their reality. Free Jerusalem; tranquil Alexandria, Bride of the Sea; Beirut, the Sheltering Tent—the symbols seem more real than the cities. But Gaza and Cairo are both cities that resist romanticisation and so elude song. No one sings to Cairo, but it is the capital of the Arabs. No one sings to Gaza either, but it remains the indisputable capital of Palestine. Both are always present in a crisis.�
Perhaps my favourite paragraph comes on the penultimate page:
“There are cities that inspire poets and musicians and so become immortalised in depictions that might not reflect their reality. Free Jerusalem; tranquil Alexandria, Bride of the Sea; Beirut, the Sheltering Tent—the symbols seem more real than the cities. But Gaza and Cairo are both cities that resist romanticisation and so elude song. No one sings to Cairo, but it is the capital of the Arabs. No one sings to Gaza either, but it remains the indisputable capital of Palestine. Both are always present in a crisis.�
May 18, 2022
“The text you are holding is living history�
“The death of a state is an ugly thing. God only knows if society can survive it�
“I’m not a Palestinian, but I am an Arab, and Palestine’s always on my mind�
You’ll be free Alaa, and so will Palestine.
“The death of a state is an ugly thing. God only knows if society can survive it�
“I’m not a Palestinian, but I am an Arab, and Palestine’s always on my mind�
You’ll be free Alaa, and so will Palestine.
November 28, 2021
“We were, then we were defeated, and meaning was defeated with us. But we have not perished yet, and meaning has not been killed. Perhaps our defeat was inevitable, but the current chaos that is sweeping the world will sooner or later give birth to a new world, a world that - of course - will be ruled and managed by the victors. But nothing will constrain the strong, nor shape the margins of freedom and justice, nor define spaces of beauty and possibilities for a common life except the weak, who clung to their defence of meaning, even after defeat��
“All what’s asked of us is that we fight for what’s right. We don’t have to be winning while we fight for what’s right, we don’t have to be strong while we fight for what’s right, we don’t have to be prepared while we fight for what’s right, or to have a good plan, or be well organized. All that’s asked of us is that we don’t stop fighting for what’s right�
“All what’s asked of us is that we fight for what’s right. We don’t have to be winning while we fight for what’s right, we don’t have to be strong while we fight for what’s right, we don’t have to be prepared while we fight for what’s right, or to have a good plan, or be well organized. All that’s asked of us is that we don’t stop fighting for what’s right�
December 19, 2021
Biting, elegiac and genre-bending; like if Pessoa lucidly poetised an Adam Curtis documentary. A monumental, mind-shattering feat of protest writing.
“Haunt the dreams of your comrades, and the nightmares of your enemies; live in a future that never came - be a spectre, a memory, and a herald.�
“Haunt the dreams of your comrades, and the nightmares of your enemies; live in a future that never came - be a spectre, a memory, and a herald.�
December 22, 2024
this is a very powerful and heartbreaking book, a must read for all egyptians and revolutionaries out there.
i finished this book while alaa’s mother dr laila soueif is on a hunger strike for over 80 days while he remains unjustly detained in egypt after completing his five years sentence.
“We were, then we were defeated, and meaning was defeated with us. But we have not perished yet, and meaning has not been killed. Perhaps our defeat was in-evitable, but the current chaos that is sweeping the world will sooner or later give birth to a new world, a world that will - of course - be ruled and managed by the vic-tors. But nothing will constrain the strong, nor shape the margins of freedom and justice, nor define spaces of beauty and possibilities for a common life except the weak, who clung to their defence of meaning, even after defeat.�
the need to free Alaa has never been more urgent.
i finished this book while alaa’s mother dr laila soueif is on a hunger strike for over 80 days while he remains unjustly detained in egypt after completing his five years sentence.
“We were, then we were defeated, and meaning was defeated with us. But we have not perished yet, and meaning has not been killed. Perhaps our defeat was in-evitable, but the current chaos that is sweeping the world will sooner or later give birth to a new world, a world that will - of course - be ruled and managed by the vic-tors. But nothing will constrain the strong, nor shape the margins of freedom and justice, nor define spaces of beauty and possibilities for a common life except the weak, who clung to their defence of meaning, even after defeat.�
the need to free Alaa has never been more urgent.
February 20, 2023
This is a very powerful book - one that goes far beyond the Egyptian revolution and its aftermath. Abd el-Fattah's writing is at times poetic and at other times deeply introspective. The way he describes the life of a political prisoner in all of its minutiae, including its grueling effects on the body, is unforgettable. Some of the book may be a bit difficult for people who haven't been following what's happening in Egypt for the last decade, but as the book progresses the writings are more accessible and universal. I do wish he had talked about his autistic son a bit more, but other than that this is a very moving and heartfelt set of writings.
February 24, 2025
Alaa’s political understanding and theory is simply incredible. The ways in which he can take situations and dissect them wholly and completely to uncover deeper truths about them, all while imprisoned with limited to no access to the outside world is inspiring. I see this as a double edged sword (definitely not the right idiom but cant think of another way to get the point across) in displaying the resilience of a human pushed to their mental limits yet the tragedy of that even happening in the first place. All the political theory he develops and strives for society to enact is simply for the cause of creating a world where this theory is not needed. Where he can see Khaled and his family freely, speak his mind without fear of imprisonment, and live in justice, peace, and love.
February 1, 2025
A lot of int essays. Very depressing at points esp when you realize it is the story of many other countries.
January 28, 2022
A must read
December 17, 2021
Brilliant
a must read
a must read
June 27, 2022
A book of heavy memories and of hope.
A sincere message from a brave heart.
It took me a long time to finish; the burden of memories allowed me only a few pages at a time. Having finished it today, I feel there’s hope for our country. 60,000 candles of hope. It’s just the state chose to put that hope in prison cells.
#FreeAlaa
A sincere message from a brave heart.
It took me a long time to finish; the burden of memories allowed me only a few pages at a time. Having finished it today, I feel there’s hope for our country. 60,000 candles of hope. It’s just the state chose to put that hope in prison cells.
#FreeAlaa
December 29, 2022
As I write this review Alaa Abd El-Fattah is in an Egyptian prison recovering from the effects of a hunger and water strike that took place during the COP27 summit in yet another attempt to get the world to recognize the illegitimate nature of his most recent imprisonment in 2019. To have such a mind and heart restricted from expressing itself freely is abhorrent, of course he is not alone in this, and we are lucky to have this book from Fitzcarraldo editions that enables us to read his words many of which were smuggled out of prison. Alaa is also not alone in his family in the experience of being unjustly imprisoned, both his father and sister who worked or work in human rights and activism have been in prison at some point in time. The Egyptian government, meanwhile, denies that there are political prisoners in the country.
In the age of Covid where censorship grew to new heights and ‘emergency� powers were used, Alaa shows how government can take these restrictions to new heights, after all his conviction is for ‘spreading fake news.� In the titular essay in this book, a speech he gave at the RightsCon conference in California he talks about how Big Tech needs to stop enabling repressive regimes to stifle its citizens voices and how the internet needs to be a platform for free speech, “Not an eyeball for advertisers or a demographic for pollsters.�
Naturally most of what he writes about revolves around Egypt and its government but a lot of what he writes about is applicable to the world as a whole. In essays like Everybody knows, Lysenko Country, The Weight of the World and You Are Not Yet Defeated, he faces head on the failings he sees in government, politics and economy, where dissenting voices are suppressed through torture and imprisonment or simply censorship.
He writes of the 2011 Arab Spring and the hope that came with that and then the violence and oppression that curbed that protest and others that came after it; the massacres and abuse that have been carried out by both sides of the political spectrum. He also feels very strongly about the Palestinian issue and has visited Gaza writing about the large-scale prison that it has become, and the way Palestinian voices are suppressed. His essays look at the inequalities between the 1% and those in power and everyone else, how the market and big corporations have preeminence in our world, his experience of and the conditions in prison where he isn’t even allowed books to read, his family camping outside for days at a time to see him. He even attempts some dry humor in some of his tweets at the ludicrousness of his situation.
Hope seems an impossible thing when you are separated from your family for simply speaking your mind but despite the despair he feels at his situation and those of others around him, in this book at least, hope still remains,
‘We don’t have to be winning while we fight for what’s right, we don’t have to be strong while we fight for what’s right, we don’t have to be prepared while we fight for what’s right, or to have a good plan, or be well organized. All that’s asked of us is that we don’t stop fighting for what’s right.�
#FreeAlaa
In the age of Covid where censorship grew to new heights and ‘emergency� powers were used, Alaa shows how government can take these restrictions to new heights, after all his conviction is for ‘spreading fake news.� In the titular essay in this book, a speech he gave at the RightsCon conference in California he talks about how Big Tech needs to stop enabling repressive regimes to stifle its citizens voices and how the internet needs to be a platform for free speech, “Not an eyeball for advertisers or a demographic for pollsters.�
Naturally most of what he writes about revolves around Egypt and its government but a lot of what he writes about is applicable to the world as a whole. In essays like Everybody knows, Lysenko Country, The Weight of the World and You Are Not Yet Defeated, he faces head on the failings he sees in government, politics and economy, where dissenting voices are suppressed through torture and imprisonment or simply censorship.
He writes of the 2011 Arab Spring and the hope that came with that and then the violence and oppression that curbed that protest and others that came after it; the massacres and abuse that have been carried out by both sides of the political spectrum. He also feels very strongly about the Palestinian issue and has visited Gaza writing about the large-scale prison that it has become, and the way Palestinian voices are suppressed. His essays look at the inequalities between the 1% and those in power and everyone else, how the market and big corporations have preeminence in our world, his experience of and the conditions in prison where he isn’t even allowed books to read, his family camping outside for days at a time to see him. He even attempts some dry humor in some of his tweets at the ludicrousness of his situation.
Hope seems an impossible thing when you are separated from your family for simply speaking your mind but despite the despair he feels at his situation and those of others around him, in this book at least, hope still remains,
‘We don’t have to be winning while we fight for what’s right, we don’t have to be strong while we fight for what’s right, we don’t have to be prepared while we fight for what’s right, or to have a good plan, or be well organized. All that’s asked of us is that we don’t stop fighting for what’s right.�
#FreeAlaa
March 23, 2024
Imaginary prisons: It is not the book you want to read if you decided to imprison yourself in your safety bubble. The book strips you out of any justifications to live in that dormant state that many of us choose to imprison themselves by it. Ironically, this book, a collection of written pieces by a prisoner, have the power to free many of us, who are outside the physical prisons, from our imaginary prisons.
Alaa: I feel ashamed that I have not really known or understood Alaa before reading the book. E.g., how did not I read about his campaign of Write Your Constitution. I was always preoccupied by the impression that Alaa is just another toxic Twitter influencer like W.A., whom you struggle to engage in serious debates with. I am very sorry for not having enough experience to understand people at that time. But Alaa too has significantly evolved over the last 10 years. I hope I have evolved too.
Uber and market globalization: In three articles written by Alaa in prison, without access to a library or internet, Alaa fluently and in simple terms conveys with accurate description the issue of globalising markets and the impact of opening Cairo market to Silicon Valley market, using Uber in Egypt as an example. I don't find economy an easy subject, even if authors go to great lengths in simplifying the subject as Varoufakis does. But these three articles are highly recommended to understand several aspects of subscribing to free markets.
Mockery != resistance: Alaa in different places eloquent captures the hideous effect of excessively normalising sarcasm and its destructive role on 'the meaning'. Are we destined to live the rest of our lives sharing memes on events and scandals that are supposed to topple governments. (أو كما قال الشاعر، البØر غضبان ما بيضØكش.. أصل الØكاية ما تضØكش)
Prison: This book is a very important piece that encapsulates much of the experience of being imprisoned in Egypt. The horrors inside, the bureaucratic assault on body, the drivers of PTSD that follows release. You can even learn very precious tips as a visitor.
Prescription for Egypt & its deadlocks: Although the book was released in 2021, Alaa in the last parts of the book, in particular Statements to the Prosecutor & The Seven Courses of Change presents an invaluable, still most relevant, proposal as a way out of the current deadlock. A proposal for reconciliation that engages with and include all political parties and factions: secularists, military & establishment, Islamists, and leftists, with guidelines and important questions for serious debates, reconciliation, and the sacrifices needed and so on. These pieces are very recommended read for people who cares about the future of Egypt, trying to summarise these parts is a reductionist act and unfair.
Gaza: Gaza has a special place in Alaa's mind. No matter how you know about it from studying it or following the news, the analogies that are made between Gaza and Egypt is very inspiring. Alaa's writing about his experience of visiting Gaza in 2012 with Khaled and the humble sense of acknowledging our ignorance regarding Gaza, is not something to miss. Also, the last chapter which is on Palestine, is just poetically written, hard to proceed without shedding tears. What Alaa the prisoner is thinking now after receiving the crushing news from Gaza?
Finally, as he put it, 'Palestine is always on my mind'.
Thanks and love to the anonymous editors.
Alaa: I feel ashamed that I have not really known or understood Alaa before reading the book. E.g., how did not I read about his campaign of Write Your Constitution. I was always preoccupied by the impression that Alaa is just another toxic Twitter influencer like W.A., whom you struggle to engage in serious debates with. I am very sorry for not having enough experience to understand people at that time. But Alaa too has significantly evolved over the last 10 years. I hope I have evolved too.
Uber and market globalization: In three articles written by Alaa in prison, without access to a library or internet, Alaa fluently and in simple terms conveys with accurate description the issue of globalising markets and the impact of opening Cairo market to Silicon Valley market, using Uber in Egypt as an example. I don't find economy an easy subject, even if authors go to great lengths in simplifying the subject as Varoufakis does. But these three articles are highly recommended to understand several aspects of subscribing to free markets.
Mockery != resistance: Alaa in different places eloquent captures the hideous effect of excessively normalising sarcasm and its destructive role on 'the meaning'. Are we destined to live the rest of our lives sharing memes on events and scandals that are supposed to topple governments. (أو كما قال الشاعر، البØر غضبان ما بيضØكش.. أصل الØكاية ما تضØكش)
Prison: This book is a very important piece that encapsulates much of the experience of being imprisoned in Egypt. The horrors inside, the bureaucratic assault on body, the drivers of PTSD that follows release. You can even learn very precious tips as a visitor.
Prescription for Egypt & its deadlocks: Although the book was released in 2021, Alaa in the last parts of the book, in particular Statements to the Prosecutor & The Seven Courses of Change presents an invaluable, still most relevant, proposal as a way out of the current deadlock. A proposal for reconciliation that engages with and include all political parties and factions: secularists, military & establishment, Islamists, and leftists, with guidelines and important questions for serious debates, reconciliation, and the sacrifices needed and so on. These pieces are very recommended read for people who cares about the future of Egypt, trying to summarise these parts is a reductionist act and unfair.
Gaza: Gaza has a special place in Alaa's mind. No matter how you know about it from studying it or following the news, the analogies that are made between Gaza and Egypt is very inspiring. Alaa's writing about his experience of visiting Gaza in 2012 with Khaled and the humble sense of acknowledging our ignorance regarding Gaza, is not something to miss. Also, the last chapter which is on Palestine, is just poetically written, hard to proceed without shedding tears. What Alaa the prisoner is thinking now after receiving the crushing news from Gaza?
Finally, as he put it, 'Palestine is always on my mind'.
Thanks and love to the anonymous editors.
July 18, 2024
holy shit ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
while politically charged articles were included in this book, I'm angered most by the pieces where alaa spoke about his experiences in prison and released on 'probation,' all of which gave such a fuckin horrifying image of the internal decay that happened to alaa's spirit and will over time. egyptian prisons do not hold prisoners, they only hold captives.
im moved most by alaa writing about khaled, his son, and of his father's death. alaa writes beautifully about the grief in his heart as prison separates and denies him from that which keeps him going.
alaa's writes about information and his information blackouts in prison and how that affects not only his advocacy but his ability to reintegrate into the workforce should he be freed. this wasn't only testament to the fiction of rehabilitation in prison, eliminating any hope of reintegration, but makes me feel like an idiot with what i do with the free information i have access to. what da hell am i meant to do!!!
this book was wild. highly recommend
while politically charged articles were included in this book, I'm angered most by the pieces where alaa spoke about his experiences in prison and released on 'probation,' all of which gave such a fuckin horrifying image of the internal decay that happened to alaa's spirit and will over time. egyptian prisons do not hold prisoners, they only hold captives.
im moved most by alaa writing about khaled, his son, and of his father's death. alaa writes beautifully about the grief in his heart as prison separates and denies him from that which keeps him going.
alaa's writes about information and his information blackouts in prison and how that affects not only his advocacy but his ability to reintegrate into the workforce should he be freed. this wasn't only testament to the fiction of rehabilitation in prison, eliminating any hope of reintegration, but makes me feel like an idiot with what i do with the free information i have access to. what da hell am i meant to do!!!
this book was wild. highly recommend
September 11, 2022
A compelling, sobering and inspirational compendium of the writings of Alaa Abd El Fattah, Egyptian activist at the forefront of the 2011 revolution and a continuing target of repression by successive governments. The book offers both, a clear eyed assessment of the successes and failures of the uprising, as well as inspiration for those who, like Alaa, continue to resist the spread of tyranny around the world. By turns prophetic, especially on the hazards of big tech, and evocative, especially on the tragic personal consequences to Alaa, his family and to the many who sacrificed lives, livelihoods and freedom in the cause of democracy, the book is a must read for anyone who cares about democracy, civil society and human rights.
April 28, 2025
2.5. bizarre draconian and dystopian are a few words that come to mind when thinking about egypts military rule. there is so much to learn from those as strong willed as alaa, those who put up a fight with their words and spirit alone.
unfortunately what made this unenjoyable and laborious for me to read is abdelfattah’s tedious explanations of egyptian bureaucracy, much of which i wasn’t familiar with nor was i that interested in to be very honest.
unfortunately what made this unenjoyable and laborious for me to read is abdelfattah’s tedious explanations of egyptian bureaucracy, much of which i wasn’t familiar with nor was i that interested in to be very honest.
February 7, 2025
Such an amazing collection of essays - so powerful, so enraging
Read
October 16, 2024damn
January 21, 2024
Incredible. A collection of essays by one of Egypt’s most prominent political activists who remains in prison, and continues to fight for a free and just Egypt. Not only is he an inspiration but he writes like he was born to do it, and reading his collections of articles feels like you’re talking to him about his life story; it’s so effortless. He also connects Egypt’s domestic issues with wider economic and international ones and how we all need to question the world we’re a part of. Would highly recommend.
November 23, 2024
Prominent author Arundhati Roy received the PEN English award of the year 2024 and delivered a marvelous lecture and condemned the Israeli war crimes against the Palestinian. She declared Ala Abd el Fattah, an Egyptian writer and activist, the writer of the courage of the year 2024.
Who is Ala Abdl Fattah?
Alaa Abdl Fattah is the son of Ahmed Seif el-Islam. Islam was a communist, human rights activist captured in 1980's by the government and sent to a dungeon on terrorism charges. His clients belonged to different communities that were less represented in the courts. Islam departed from the world in 2014 and his son was released from custody to be present at the last memorial ceremony.
Alaa Abdl Fattah played a crucial role in the revolution of 2011 and the removal of Hosni Mubarak. He was arrested during the revolution and kept in detention for several weeks. His arrest started in 2011 for several weeks and came out, and then in 2014, he was out on charges of protesting unconstitutionally and not getting permission from the government, and he is still under custody. These arrests and allegations are an inheritance of his whole family. His father's legacy played an enormous role in shaping his views and ideas about politics and society.
The editor of his book (You have Not Yet Been Defeated) portrays Alaa in the following words "He exists as multiple things at once; as an anti-capitalist considering how to bring the bourgeoisie into the balance of powers against a military authority; as a captive of a deaf, dysfunctional state, advising that state on how better to govern; as a prisoner who is always trying to look beyond the warden".
Commitment and dedication is the second name of Alaa Abdl Fattah. When there is brute force, there is Alaa to condemn and resist it. In the preface, Professor Naomi Klein describes Alaa in these words, "As a worker, the internet was Alaa’s day job; as an activist, it was one of his key weapons."
Alaa Abdl Fattah is still under custody and is being downtrodden by the state and oppressive apparatus and his case is thrown under the carpet by the judges. Force and violence are the main tools by which every government and authoritarian state tries to use against vocalists and dissent. The government legitimizes the use of force against marginalized communities and opposition by declaring them "terrorists", "intruders" and "aberrant".
Alaa Abdl Fattah and his colleagues were declared as spoilers and aberrant by the regime so that they must be sent to look up and keep them away from the masses so that they may not spoil the minds of the masses against the unconstitutional regime. The state of Egypt always remained a land where experience and civilization evolved. But these experiences spoiled and destroyed the life of the people and degraded the fertile land of Egypt.
You Have Not Yet Been Defeated is a collection of essays written by Alaa Abdl Fattah from 2011 to 2021. The book is written in prison and some chapters were written outside the jail and one interview of Alaa is also included in it. The book discusses the decayed state of Egypt and shares the sorrows of the revolutionaries and the masses. The experience of the jail changes him, and he becomes a mature, grown and quiet person and his choice of words tells the tale of how the time and difficulties changed him.
The Editor mentions the imprisonment of Alaa in these words "Alaa’s imprisonment is a lived and living metaphor for a country imprisoned." When an intellectual and thinking person becomes quiet and calm, it is a sign of alarm and destruction for the state. Sensible states learn lessons from calmness and alter it into eternal peace and the rest of the states become the headlines in the newspaper and TV. The unsensible state tries every tactic to keep the masses and the ground silent, but in Alaa's words. "Who convinced every government on earth that armed confrontation calms the masses down?". When impregnable calmness and silence occurs, it's a legible sign of a storm that will engulf the oppressor and eradicate the atrocious system.
But the other side of the book also displays a disclaimor that the way you are walking is not a piece of cake. On this journey you will be snuffed out without any indication and every step you take will cut out your roots and bases. As Naomi Klein notes, prison changed the life, behavior and words of Alaa, and he chooses words before speaking. In Alaa's own words, "Everyone in the prison is pale and miserable, even the cats, their movements slow, their eyes spent and broken". We also note in the chapter about Gaza where he rethinks why he had not fled to Gaza where his family would have been enjoying liberty, because at that time Gaza was a peaceful place for them as compared to Egypt.
Alaa also wrote about the brutality and barbarism of Israel in Gaza, and he portrays Palestinian, Gaza, and Palestine in the following lines. "The Palestinian is one who struggles to live a normal life under endlessly extraordinary conditions. The successive victories of the people of Gaza forced the occupation to withdraw. So the occupation decided to leave them prisoners to their own victory, to deprive them of the most important tool of struggle: the ability to live a normal life. For no matter how normal life seems on the surface of Gaza, the reality is the opposite as long as the vast majority of its people are unable to work for a living (estimates of unemployment range between 60 percent and 80 percent). The influx of money and goods from outside is not an alternative."
He further writes about Gaza: "An entire society behind bars, the sea fenced in, hovering robots that can kill you at any moment, airplanes roaring through the sound barrier at all hours, an economy of underground tunnels, and a mighty hidden enemy whose agents are concrete, iron and fire. You never see it, but it is always present."
The harshness and pains that he witnessed in his life feels like he reus to not flee Gaza and be away from these difficulties of life.
He wrote "If I were free in Gaza instead of locked up in Cairo, I would read books, play with children, enjoy the company of women, walk on the beach, work and make a living. I’d teach and I’d learn. I would live and be alive this moment. I would have breathed the dust-cloud of the whole national territory as it moved instead of trying to analyze it from afar. I regret not escaping to Gaza." But Alaa is safe and alive as he is in prison in Egypt and I think now he must be regreting those words he has written in his book.
While Gaza and Palestine are eradicated and lucky and unfortunate mothers (at the same time) are clueless about their laals (Precious Children). And mothers, parents and children of Palestine vanished from the world as fragrance dissipates from the body.
We also discover that Alaa is regretting it for a moment, but after a few minutes, he utters these words with courage. "We race towards the bullets because we love life, and we walk into prison because we love freedom". Hope, courage and love of freedom are the fundamentals of life, and we must not compromise on them.
Muhammad Saleem, Ù…Øمد سلیم
November 23, 2024.
Who is Ala Abdl Fattah?
Alaa Abdl Fattah is the son of Ahmed Seif el-Islam. Islam was a communist, human rights activist captured in 1980's by the government and sent to a dungeon on terrorism charges. His clients belonged to different communities that were less represented in the courts. Islam departed from the world in 2014 and his son was released from custody to be present at the last memorial ceremony.
Alaa Abdl Fattah played a crucial role in the revolution of 2011 and the removal of Hosni Mubarak. He was arrested during the revolution and kept in detention for several weeks. His arrest started in 2011 for several weeks and came out, and then in 2014, he was out on charges of protesting unconstitutionally and not getting permission from the government, and he is still under custody. These arrests and allegations are an inheritance of his whole family. His father's legacy played an enormous role in shaping his views and ideas about politics and society.
The editor of his book (You have Not Yet Been Defeated) portrays Alaa in the following words "He exists as multiple things at once; as an anti-capitalist considering how to bring the bourgeoisie into the balance of powers against a military authority; as a captive of a deaf, dysfunctional state, advising that state on how better to govern; as a prisoner who is always trying to look beyond the warden".
Commitment and dedication is the second name of Alaa Abdl Fattah. When there is brute force, there is Alaa to condemn and resist it. In the preface, Professor Naomi Klein describes Alaa in these words, "As a worker, the internet was Alaa’s day job; as an activist, it was one of his key weapons."
Alaa Abdl Fattah is still under custody and is being downtrodden by the state and oppressive apparatus and his case is thrown under the carpet by the judges. Force and violence are the main tools by which every government and authoritarian state tries to use against vocalists and dissent. The government legitimizes the use of force against marginalized communities and opposition by declaring them "terrorists", "intruders" and "aberrant".
Alaa Abdl Fattah and his colleagues were declared as spoilers and aberrant by the regime so that they must be sent to look up and keep them away from the masses so that they may not spoil the minds of the masses against the unconstitutional regime. The state of Egypt always remained a land where experience and civilization evolved. But these experiences spoiled and destroyed the life of the people and degraded the fertile land of Egypt.
You Have Not Yet Been Defeated is a collection of essays written by Alaa Abdl Fattah from 2011 to 2021. The book is written in prison and some chapters were written outside the jail and one interview of Alaa is also included in it. The book discusses the decayed state of Egypt and shares the sorrows of the revolutionaries and the masses. The experience of the jail changes him, and he becomes a mature, grown and quiet person and his choice of words tells the tale of how the time and difficulties changed him.
The Editor mentions the imprisonment of Alaa in these words "Alaa’s imprisonment is a lived and living metaphor for a country imprisoned." When an intellectual and thinking person becomes quiet and calm, it is a sign of alarm and destruction for the state. Sensible states learn lessons from calmness and alter it into eternal peace and the rest of the states become the headlines in the newspaper and TV. The unsensible state tries every tactic to keep the masses and the ground silent, but in Alaa's words. "Who convinced every government on earth that armed confrontation calms the masses down?". When impregnable calmness and silence occurs, it's a legible sign of a storm that will engulf the oppressor and eradicate the atrocious system.
But the other side of the book also displays a disclaimor that the way you are walking is not a piece of cake. On this journey you will be snuffed out without any indication and every step you take will cut out your roots and bases. As Naomi Klein notes, prison changed the life, behavior and words of Alaa, and he chooses words before speaking. In Alaa's own words, "Everyone in the prison is pale and miserable, even the cats, their movements slow, their eyes spent and broken". We also note in the chapter about Gaza where he rethinks why he had not fled to Gaza where his family would have been enjoying liberty, because at that time Gaza was a peaceful place for them as compared to Egypt.
Alaa also wrote about the brutality and barbarism of Israel in Gaza, and he portrays Palestinian, Gaza, and Palestine in the following lines. "The Palestinian is one who struggles to live a normal life under endlessly extraordinary conditions. The successive victories of the people of Gaza forced the occupation to withdraw. So the occupation decided to leave them prisoners to their own victory, to deprive them of the most important tool of struggle: the ability to live a normal life. For no matter how normal life seems on the surface of Gaza, the reality is the opposite as long as the vast majority of its people are unable to work for a living (estimates of unemployment range between 60 percent and 80 percent). The influx of money and goods from outside is not an alternative."
He further writes about Gaza: "An entire society behind bars, the sea fenced in, hovering robots that can kill you at any moment, airplanes roaring through the sound barrier at all hours, an economy of underground tunnels, and a mighty hidden enemy whose agents are concrete, iron and fire. You never see it, but it is always present."
The harshness and pains that he witnessed in his life feels like he reus to not flee Gaza and be away from these difficulties of life.
He wrote "If I were free in Gaza instead of locked up in Cairo, I would read books, play with children, enjoy the company of women, walk on the beach, work and make a living. I’d teach and I’d learn. I would live and be alive this moment. I would have breathed the dust-cloud of the whole national territory as it moved instead of trying to analyze it from afar. I regret not escaping to Gaza." But Alaa is safe and alive as he is in prison in Egypt and I think now he must be regreting those words he has written in his book.
While Gaza and Palestine are eradicated and lucky and unfortunate mothers (at the same time) are clueless about their laals (Precious Children). And mothers, parents and children of Palestine vanished from the world as fragrance dissipates from the body.
We also discover that Alaa is regretting it for a moment, but after a few minutes, he utters these words with courage. "We race towards the bullets because we love life, and we walk into prison because we love freedom". Hope, courage and love of freedom are the fundamentals of life, and we must not compromise on them.
Muhammad Saleem, Ù…Øمد سلیم
November 23, 2024.
June 18, 2022
“We were, then we were defeated, and meaning was defeated with us. But we have not perished yet, and meaning has not been killed. Perhaps our defeat was inevitable, but the current chaos that is sweeping the world will sooner or later give birth to a new world, a world that will - of course - be ruled and managed by the victors. But nothing will constrain the strong, nor shape the margins of freedom and justice, nor define spaces of beauty and possibilities for a common life except the weak, who clung to their defence of meaning, even after their defeat.�
December 29, 2022
This is a body of work so unlike anything I've ever read. A compilation of retrospection, theorisation, and roadmap construction. It's hard not to see it as all; political, emotional, and ideological. Genuinely shocked at how Alaa was capable of (whilst being in prison for 5 years) collating this book comprising reflections on the Arab Spring, the Technological Revolution, Neoliberalism & Globalisation, International Solidarity, and the Sociology of Institutions. Alongside a thorough and well-structured development of ideologies weaved into a comprehensive history of events, the gut-wrenching details of imprisonment and the personal undertone make this hard not to cry through.
December 25, 2021
The most brilliant book you can read this year. Alaa is a prolific, powerful writer who resists the silencing of the revolution even from imprisonment with his pen. Highly recommended to all looking to be inspired in the fight for human rights & justice.
November 16, 2022
All eyes are on Egypt this week as they host this year's UN Climate Change Conference (COP27). But while the powerful wine and dine in fancy hotels, an old lady stands outside a prison with written permission from the state prosecutor, begging to be allowed to see her son who has been on complete hunger and water strike for several days. Some days she has to use crutches because the cold has seeped through her bones, so long has she waited. But she persists. She has done this before, as have the son's sisters. As they have done to see their late father.
This is the incredible bravery of author Alaa Abd el-Fattah and his family.Ìý
YHNYBDÌýis a collection of Alaa's writings, and it took nearly two weeks of slow reading to finish. But there is no sense of achievement or completion, on the contrary, I feel that it is a mere introduction to this intellectual's work. Alaa was once an IT professional turned political prisoner. Why is he in jail? Because the state that claims to be a democracy fears his writings so, they have kept him in prison, book-less, voice-less, for the better part of ten years. His son is growing up fatherless, with a father growing old behind bars as he is kept in "preventive detention," where Egyptians can be kept in prison without being convicted of any crime, renewable for as long as the authorities deem fit.
Apart from being a crash course in recent Egyptian political history, there is much international readers can learn from this book, written by one who made the democratization of the internet his life's work.Ìý
Alaa writes of the need for intelligent discourse, to resist the infantilization and trivialization of social media algorithms. If words are important, and the miracle of the internet and the possibilities of instant communication so powerful, then why are we wasting time on dumbed down language, choosing emojis to express ourselves? Spending inordinate amounts of time dancing on Tiktok? Why do we fixate on the absurdly meaningless, and shy away from complex issues? "Resist the algorithmic pull of the trivial," Alaa urges, "and assert your right to be a creator not a consumer." Alaa is forever thinking of "the ways technically free people are nonetheless confined and entrapped," our imaginations captured by capitalist advertising. He is a modern-day prophet warning us of technology's Panem et circenses, and we can all learn from this patriot's example.
His words stem from personal experience, of being part of a genuine movement for reform, and a brief moment when it seemed a better tomorrow would come to pass, only to endure the defeat of having an even worse regime replace the old one in his beloved Egypt.
Alaa writes of the necessity of never losing hope,"with faith in a better future despite knowing that tomorrow still holds a lot of pain." And while success isn't guaranteed in our lifetime, "all that's asked of us is that we don't stop fighting for what's right."
This is the incredible bravery of author Alaa Abd el-Fattah and his family.Ìý
YHNYBDÌýis a collection of Alaa's writings, and it took nearly two weeks of slow reading to finish. But there is no sense of achievement or completion, on the contrary, I feel that it is a mere introduction to this intellectual's work. Alaa was once an IT professional turned political prisoner. Why is he in jail? Because the state that claims to be a democracy fears his writings so, they have kept him in prison, book-less, voice-less, for the better part of ten years. His son is growing up fatherless, with a father growing old behind bars as he is kept in "preventive detention," where Egyptians can be kept in prison without being convicted of any crime, renewable for as long as the authorities deem fit.
Apart from being a crash course in recent Egyptian political history, there is much international readers can learn from this book, written by one who made the democratization of the internet his life's work.Ìý
Alaa writes of the need for intelligent discourse, to resist the infantilization and trivialization of social media algorithms. If words are important, and the miracle of the internet and the possibilities of instant communication so powerful, then why are we wasting time on dumbed down language, choosing emojis to express ourselves? Spending inordinate amounts of time dancing on Tiktok? Why do we fixate on the absurdly meaningless, and shy away from complex issues? "Resist the algorithmic pull of the trivial," Alaa urges, "and assert your right to be a creator not a consumer." Alaa is forever thinking of "the ways technically free people are nonetheless confined and entrapped," our imaginations captured by capitalist advertising. He is a modern-day prophet warning us of technology's Panem et circenses, and we can all learn from this patriot's example.
His words stem from personal experience, of being part of a genuine movement for reform, and a brief moment when it seemed a better tomorrow would come to pass, only to endure the defeat of having an even worse regime replace the old one in his beloved Egypt.
Alaa writes of the necessity of never losing hope,"with faith in a better future despite knowing that tomorrow still holds a lot of pain." And while success isn't guaranteed in our lifetime, "all that's asked of us is that we don't stop fighting for what's right."
Read
July 20, 2022A collection of writings by Egyptian activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah. He first became known beyond Egypt for his role in the revolution of 2011, but he was active well before that and he comes from a longstanding leftist family � his father had been a political prisoner in his youth and went on to become a well-known human rights lawyer, and two of his sisters live lives committed to struggle as well. This book brings together a range of kinds of pieces, from essays to social media posts, that were originally published between 2011, in the midst of the revolution, and 2020 or 2021. After the initial moment of euphoria and possibility, much of that time has been a period of defeat. The author has spent much it as a political prisoner of one sort or another, and he continues to be detained today. (I don't know the details, but since I read this book I have seen a few suggestions on social media that his circumstances may be actively deteriorating.)
I think there is lots for Western leftists to learn from this book. For one thing, it offers a more complex look at the Egyptian revolution and its aftermath than we usually encounter. It is not, and does not try to be, an exhaustive examination of that globally important moment of struggle, and the scattered glimpses it contains are presented through the eyes of a single participant and do not pretend otherwise, but nonetheless it is a kind of movement-grounded source that we rarely have access to. It is also an unsettling look at what it is like to organize in more overtly authoritarian conditions than many of us in the West currently face � but conditions that may be looming closer for us than we would like to think, as the overlapping crises of our era intensify. It was also interesting and potentially useful to read about a left that has to navigate a much more multi-polar political environment than what we have been used to in the West in recent decades, but which also, with the rise of grassroots far-right forces, looks more like what we are increasingly having to deal with � though I hasten to add that the details in the two contexts are very different in this respect, and it is more the broad challenges of existing among a more complex spectrum of social forces that feels relevant. As well, there are a number of pieces that are worth reading purely as entries in the genre of writings about prison by people who are imprisoned � some very powerful stuff. And, as the foreword by Naomi Klein stresses, the book as a whole is a moving lesson in navigating defeat in a principled way while refusing to abandon the struggle.
I probably would not have picked this up if I hadn't been given it, but I am so glad that I was � a powerful and fascinating read.
I think there is lots for Western leftists to learn from this book. For one thing, it offers a more complex look at the Egyptian revolution and its aftermath than we usually encounter. It is not, and does not try to be, an exhaustive examination of that globally important moment of struggle, and the scattered glimpses it contains are presented through the eyes of a single participant and do not pretend otherwise, but nonetheless it is a kind of movement-grounded source that we rarely have access to. It is also an unsettling look at what it is like to organize in more overtly authoritarian conditions than many of us in the West currently face � but conditions that may be looming closer for us than we would like to think, as the overlapping crises of our era intensify. It was also interesting and potentially useful to read about a left that has to navigate a much more multi-polar political environment than what we have been used to in the West in recent decades, but which also, with the rise of grassroots far-right forces, looks more like what we are increasingly having to deal with � though I hasten to add that the details in the two contexts are very different in this respect, and it is more the broad challenges of existing among a more complex spectrum of social forces that feels relevant. As well, there are a number of pieces that are worth reading purely as entries in the genre of writings about prison by people who are imprisoned � some very powerful stuff. And, as the foreword by Naomi Klein stresses, the book as a whole is a moving lesson in navigating defeat in a principled way while refusing to abandon the struggle.
I probably would not have picked this up if I hadn't been given it, but I am so glad that I was � a powerful and fascinating read.
July 30, 2022
I don't know much about politics in Egypt and even now, 400 pages later, I still couldn't tell you much, other than things seem corrupt and run by the military.
I found this text extremely difficult to engage with. Originally, in the first part, I chalked it up to translation issues� certain phrases were said again and again. I chalked it up to my own ignorance, as well, because, as I mentioned, I don't know much about Egypt. However, I tried to keep an open mind and read this about oppression in general, which much of it can be read as.
So, ultimately, why two stars then? Because as a book, this is not very readable.
That isn't to say that Alaa's work is not good, or is not revolutionary, but in this collection, edited as it is, this was a slog. 400 pages was not necessary. Why the editor chose to include all of the Uber essays (which essentially say the same thing, over and over and over) and a good amount of his tweets is beyond me. I think so many of these essays were incredibly interesting and powerful, but put back to back to back with others that say essentially the same thing, just a little bit different, they lose their gravitas, and you start to notice inconsistencies that, in normal reading of these across a decade, you might interpret as personal growth, but from page to page, you may find (like me) that it feels disingenuous.
That's not to say that the active political movements of today in the U.S. can't find something useful in these essays, despite them being written for the other side of the world. That's not to say that reading these didn't make me feel awful (the funeral procession massacre mentioned in Vengeance in Victory made me exclaim aloud) and want to do something to help. But as an editor myself, I would have rearranged these, would have left more author's notes, and certainly, above all, would have taken some of this out. And I can blame the editor, not Alaa, as he was in prison when this was published, and so did not see the final manuscript.
Why, Lord, do you take mostly the poor? How does the bullet, the tank, know the difference?
People say, "You can't kill an idea." But they said nothing about the usefulness of immortal ideas unheard in the noise of gunfire.
I found this text extremely difficult to engage with. Originally, in the first part, I chalked it up to translation issues� certain phrases were said again and again. I chalked it up to my own ignorance, as well, because, as I mentioned, I don't know much about Egypt. However, I tried to keep an open mind and read this about oppression in general, which much of it can be read as.
So, ultimately, why two stars then? Because as a book, this is not very readable.
That isn't to say that Alaa's work is not good, or is not revolutionary, but in this collection, edited as it is, this was a slog. 400 pages was not necessary. Why the editor chose to include all of the Uber essays (which essentially say the same thing, over and over and over) and a good amount of his tweets is beyond me. I think so many of these essays were incredibly interesting and powerful, but put back to back to back with others that say essentially the same thing, just a little bit different, they lose their gravitas, and you start to notice inconsistencies that, in normal reading of these across a decade, you might interpret as personal growth, but from page to page, you may find (like me) that it feels disingenuous.
That's not to say that the active political movements of today in the U.S. can't find something useful in these essays, despite them being written for the other side of the world. That's not to say that reading these didn't make me feel awful (the funeral procession massacre mentioned in Vengeance in Victory made me exclaim aloud) and want to do something to help. But as an editor myself, I would have rearranged these, would have left more author's notes, and certainly, above all, would have taken some of this out. And I can blame the editor, not Alaa, as he was in prison when this was published, and so did not see the final manuscript.
Why, Lord, do you take mostly the poor? How does the bullet, the tank, know the difference?
People say, "You can't kill an idea." But they said nothing about the usefulness of immortal ideas unheard in the noise of gunfire.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 55 reviews
Can't find what you're looking for?
Get help and learn more about the design.