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Mid-century Egypt seems to shift its shape in light of ordinary peoples’ memories. In An Incurable Past , Mériam Belli examines collective memory, oral histories, and everyday communications to reveal not just the history of mid-twentieth-century Egypt but also the ways in which ordinary people experience and remember the past. Using official archives, government publications, press reportage, fiction, textbooks, cinema, art, and public rituals, Belli constructs a ground-breaking theoretical framework of historical utterances which provokes questions about the relationship between remembrance and reality. Belli argues that such personal testimonies and public representations allow us a deeper understanding of Egypt’s many sociocultural layers in the 1950s and 1960s. She spotlights three topics of vernacular expression in modern Egypt: education, the anti-colonial Limby Festival, and the 1968 apparition of the Virgin Mary at a Coptic Orthodox Church in Cairo. Linked by the mid-century shift from communal life to an industrial and individuated society, these expressions also disclose the contradictory influence of ideologically homogenizing state policies. Examining history not as it was but as it is remembered, this book contextualizes the classist and deeply disappointing post-Nasserist period that has inspired today’s Egyptian revolutionaries.

The article examines the American political efforts to bring about an agreement between Israel and Egypt between 1967 and 1969 and analyses the reasons for their failure. But it does not focus exclusively on the Americans; it also outlines the alternatives for Egyptian action during the period in question and looks at the political and military steps taken by Egypt's president, Gamal Abdel Nasser, vis-à-vis Israel and the United States. The main conclusion is that despite Egypt's dependence on the Soviet Union for economic aid and the rebuilding of the decimated Egyptian army, Nasser knew that the only route to a political process to regain Sinai ran through the United States. His diplomatic efforts were all derived from this insight. At the same time, the Egyptian president's attempts to exploit American pressure to his benefit, as he had done in 1957, was undercut by his overestimation of his bargaining chips, a mistake that was one factor in the collapse of the efforts to reach a diplomatic agreement in the region.

Nasser's Gambledraws on declassified documents from six countries and original material in Arabic, German, Hebrew, and Russian to present a new understanding of Egypt's disastrous five-year intervention in Yemen, which Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser later referred to as \"my Vietnam.\" Jesse Ferris argues that Nasser's attempt to export the Egyptian revolution to Yemen played a decisive role in destabilizing Egypt's relations with the Cold War powers, tarnishing its image in the Arab world, ruining its economy, and driving its rulers to instigate the fatal series of missteps that led to war with Israel in 1967. Viewing the Six Day War as an unintended consequence of the Saudi-Egyptian struggle over Yemen, Ferris demonstrates that the most important Cold War conflict in the Middle East was not the clash between Israel and its neighbors. It was the inter-Arab struggle between monarchies and republics over power and legitimacy. Egypt's defeat in the \"Arab Cold War\" set the stage for the rise of Saudi Arabia and political Islam. Bold and provocative,Nasser's Gamblebrings to life a critical phase in the modern history of the Middle East. Its compelling analysis of Egypt's fall from power in the 1960s offers new insights into the decline of Arab nationalism, exposing the deep historical roots of the Arab Spring of 2011.

The history of modern architecture has particularly emphasized the roles of male architects with little mention of women architects. Since women's contributions have often been overlooked, feminist scholars worldwide have aimed to showcase women's history in the architectural profession over the past several years. However, there is still a lack of scholarship on the historical experiences and contributions of women architects in the Middle East, particularly Egypt. This research aims to address this gap in historiography by focusing on the first women architects in Egypt during the Nasser era. As such, the study utilizes archival sources and examines various architecture and engineering magazines and state reports published during the mid-20th century. Our analysis reveals how early architectural pioneers such as Anjil Tawfik, Amina Maher, Zakeya Shafi, and Sawsan el-Qusbi faced considerable barriers related to societal norms and educational limitations. We argue that the idealized image of womanhood was a strategy employed by men to maintain the discipline as androcentric. In contrast, Nasser's regime, which was concerned with Egypt's modernization and development, enacted progressive policies to promote gender equality. The policies facilitated the entry of women into different fields including engineering and architecture. We examine the complex interplay between state feminism and persistent societal norms, noting how Abdel Nasser redefined the ideal image of women to one that balanced professional work with familial responsibilities. We explore the career trajectories of early pioneering women architects, arguing that al-taklif, the employment order mandated by Abdel Nasser in 1955, was not merely a work policy but also shaped the ideal image of professional life for women architects. We discuss women architects' strategies to carve out a space for themselves in architectural practice. Finally, we address the lack of recognition for women architects' work with a focus on Zakeya Shafi and Amina Maher, two pioneering Egyptian women architects.

This article offers a comparative analysis of authoritarian governance in Egypt and Türkiye through the lens of two pivotal state–Islamist alliances: the early partnership and eventual rupture between Gamal Abdel Nasser and the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), and the strategic collaboration followed by confrontation between Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Gülen Movement (GM). Despite operating in different historical and institutional settings—a postcolonial military regime in Egypt and an electoral, hybrid regime in Türkiye—both leaders allied with influential religious actors during moments of transition to gain popular support and dismantle entrenched power structures. These alliances were instrumental and temporary: once religious movements developed autonomous influence, they were recast as threats and suppressed through legal, institutional, and religious mechanisms. This study traces how religious institutions like Egypt’s al-Azhar and Türkiye’s Diyanet were co-opted to delegitimize these former allies and justify state repression. While the MB pursued overt political goals and the GM functioned through civic and technocratic channels, both were ultimately excluded from the political order once they had been considered as threats to the central authority of the regime. This comparison underscores the strategic use of religion in authoritarian statecraft and the enduring tension between religious autonomy and centralized political control in Muslim-majority polities.

This article assesses Gamal Abdel Nasser’s efforts to transform Egypt’s postcolonial economy via his industrialisation policies, drawing lessons for today from both his successes and shortcomings. By analysing outcomes through indicators of industrial production, employment patterns, productivity, and main beneficiaries in the post-independence period, the article critiques Nasser’s incremental approach, the undermining of workers’ movements, and the limiting nature of ‘state feminism’, which contributed to the failure to achieve full economic and political independence, leading to its eventual collapse in the face of imperialist resurgence. Nasser’s industrialisation project, however, does demonstrate the superiority of active policy intervention, particularly of planning and import-substitutionindustrialisation, and suggests the need to pursue central planning, economic inclusion, self-sufficiency, and social production aimed at meeting the material needs of the population in the contemporary period. Cet article évalue les efforts de Gamal Abdel Nasser pour transformer l'économie postcoloniale de l'Egypte avec ses politiques d'industrialisation, en tirant de ses réussites et de ses échecs des leçons utiles à la société contemporaine. En analysant les résultats par le biais d'indicateurs de la production industrielle, de schémas d'emploi, de productivité et des principaux bénéficiaires de la période post-indépendance, l'article critique l'approche graduelle de Nasser, l'affaiblissement des mouvements ouvriers et la nature limitative du « féminisme d'État », qui ont contribué à l'échec de l'indépendance économique et politique totale, conduisant à son effondrement final face à la résurgence impérialiste. Le projet d 'industrialisation de Nasser, cependant, démontre la supériorité de l'intervention politique active, en particulier de la planification et de l'industrialisation par la substitution des importations, et suggère la nécessité de poursuivre la planification centrale, l'inclusion économique, l'autosuffisance et la production sociale dont l’objectif est la satisfaction des besoins matériels de la population dans la période moderne.

The nineteenth and the twentieth centuries were pivotal in Muslim Egypt's history as they shaped and influenced not only Egyptian society, but also the Muslim community at large. If the West went through various modernizing movements and experienced a fast advancement, then the East in general and Egypt in particular were marked by the colonial rule, the Orientalist discourse and an identity crisis that threatened their religion. In this context, Islamic Modernism came as a response to the threat posed by the modern, civilized West and it focused towards proving that Islam and modernity could be reconciled. In this sense, my paper aims to show that the contributions of Muhammad 'Abduh and Gamal Abdel Nasser are notable - the formers tried to reshape Egyptian identity in modern terms, while the latter focused on Egypt's national identity and the modernization process in the Postcolonial era.

Askeri bir darbeyle iktidara gelen Cemal Abdülnasır, hükümeti devraldıktan sonra sosyalizmle karışık Arap milliyetçiliǧi ideolojisini benimsedi. Nasır'ın Arap milliyetçiliǧini ulusal sınırların ötesine etkili bir şekilde yayabilmesi için güçlü siyasi propaganda araçlarına sahip olması gerekiyordu. Bu anlamda Nasır döneminde, radyo yayınları ve müzik besteleri çok etkili propaganda araçları olarak ortaya çıktı ve Nasır mali ve maddi kaynaklara önemli yatırımlar yapılmasını teşvik etti. Özellikle de Ümmü Gülsüm'ün ses yeteneǧi, Nasır'ın Arap milliyetçiliǧini yayma çabalarını desteklemede öne çıktı ve Ümmü Gülsüm'ün sesi, bu alanda etkin ve ses yetenekleri kullanılan diǧer sanatçıların etkisini geride bıraktı. Bu makale, 1950'ler ve 1960'lar boyunca Nasır'ın Arap milliyetçiliǧini Ortadoǧu'da yayma noktasında Ümmü Gülsüm'ün sesini ve Arapların Sesi Radyosu'nu yumuşak güç unsuru olarak kullandıǧını iddia etmektedir. Bu kapsamda çalışma, Ümmü Gülsüm'ün Nasırcı Arap milliyetçiliǧinin yayılmasına yaptıǧı katkının çeşitli boyutlarını beş temel hususa odaklanarak incelemektedir. İlk olarak, yumuşak gücün siyasi idealleri yaymak ve ortak bir kimlik duygusu geliştirmek için bir araç olarak kullanımını araştırmaktadır. İkinci olarak, Nasır tipi milliyetçiliǧin ve radyo yayınlarının bu süreçteki rolünü irdelemektedir. Üçüncüsü, radyonun Nasır'ı desteklemek için nasıl bir siyasi propaganda aracı olduǧunu araştırmaktadır. Dördüncü olarak, Ümmü Gülsüm'ün Nasırcı Arap milliyetçiliǧini teşvik etmedeki araçsal rolünü analiz etmektedir. Son olarak, Ümmü Gülsüm'ün ses yeteneǧinin Arap dünyasında Nasırcı milliyetçiliǧin yayılması üzerindeki etkisini deǧerlendirmektedir.

During the West African Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) epidemic from 2014 to 2016, a variety of technologies travelled considering the context of the emergency: a highly contagious fast-killing disease outbreak with no known remedy and a rapidly increasing number of cases. The Ebola-Tx clinical trial tested the efficacy of Convalescent Plasma (CP) as a treatment for EVD in Guinea. This paper is based on ethnographic research in the Ebola-Tx trial and focuses on the introduction of a mobile plasma collection centre, referred to as the 'Plasma Mobile', equipped with plasmapheresis and pathogen inactivation technologies, as well as how the transfer itself of this technology entailed complex effects on CP donors as trial participants (i.e. providers of the therapeutic product), directly involved staff and more broadly on the trial implementation as a whole. The transfer led to the emergence of a dimension of hope as CP donors hoped that the plasma would cure and, as providers of the therapeutic, hoped it would decrease their stigmatization and the economic impact of the disease. We conclude that, in light of the intricate effects that the transfer of such health technology can entail-in the localization to the specific context, as well as in the consequences they can have on actors involved in the implementation of such technologies-global health technologies should be put at the services of next epidemic and pandemic (preparedness) on condition that they are accompanied by an understanding of the technologies' own cultural meanings and social understandings.