Egypt’s leader silences the West by claiming to fight terrorism while at home his economy collapses, civil society grows atomised and violence is starting to spread
Egypt’s decision to host its first international weapons fair, which opened earlier this month, was a calculated move. The three-day event represented an attempt by the government to project security and stability to the world after years of turmoil.
In his opening address to companies from the US, the UK, France and others, Egyptian defence minister General Mohammed Zaki said as much, calling defence “a pillar of peace”. And it has been suggested that, following the mass show trials and death sentences of September, it’s business as usual in President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s Egypt.
But nothing could be further from the truth. Under Sisi, the country continues its downward spiral into paranoia, untamed repression and violence. Since the coup d’état in 2013, when Sisi led a coalition to depose President Mohamed Morsi, Egypt has become an “open-air prison“, in the words of Amnesty International. The attempted eradication of all forms of dissent has reached levels never before seen in Egypt’s modern era.
There are more than 60,000 political prisoners in Egyptian jails and a blanket ban on demonstrations without prior police approval. Torture, murder and forced disappearance have become everyday tools of the state, and a violent “hidden war” in the Sinai peninsula threatens to bring about a humanitarian crisis on an appalling scale. “Egyptian society,” according to political scientist Dalia Fahmy, “is being crushed”.