Cairo Review No. 24

Gender Trouble

Global Forum

India’s Dream Jobs

Narendra Modi is prime minister of India because voters believed he could boost growth and deliver jobs. So far, he has succeeded in the first goal but failed dramatically in the second.

Q & A

The Modernity Trap

Indian writer Pankaj Mishra probes imperialism’s legacy, liberalism’s failure, and the spreading global disorder.

Essays

The New Battle Over LGBTQ

Donald Trump has expressed sympathy for gay rights in the past, but his conservative supporters are out to reverse the hard-won gains made by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people. Activists are ready for a fight.

Women of Egypt

The Tahrir uprising in 2011 was quickly followed by a backlash against women’s rights. Under President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi the government is once again championing the role of women, but is gender equality possible without a change in public attitudes?

Story of an Egyptian Man

Especially in the West, Arab men are often stereotyped as violent fanatics or oppressors of women. The truth is that Arab men, too, experience daunting political, economic, and social challenges related to their gender roles.

Acts of Annihilation

Perceptions of the Islamic State’s attack on the Yazidis focus on the enslavement of women and girls, but the barbarous gender-based assaults on women as well as men are an integral part of the group’s campaign of genocide to eradicate a religious minority.

Egypt, Rebranded

The “Egypt The Future” economic development conference reaffirmed the primacy of the strongman in Egyptian politics. That may win the hearts and minds of some global capitalists, but will Tahrir Square revolutionaries buy it?

The Year of Living Dangerously

In the United States and Britain, the Trump and Brexit campaigns in 2016 embraced and encouraged voices of xenophobia, fear of the other, racism, and divisiveness that we thought had been marginalized in the modern era. To understand the democratic crisis, pay attention to the social conditions of democracy.

Picking Up the Middle East Pieces

Donald Trump’s tough talk of defeating Islamic terrorists, ripping up the Iran nuclear deal, and barring Muslims from entering the U.S. suggests a sharp pivot in Middle East policy, but could be surprising continuity with Barack Obama’s approach to the region.

Uncharted Waters

Judging from his campaign rhetoric, Donald Trump aims to radically alter American foreign policy, but broad political and social forces constrain any American president’s foreign policy agenda.

Midan

The Challenge for Liberalism

The year 2016 has demonstrated that the West, the liberal order the Arab World sought to become a part of, was going through an identity crisis of its own.

Book Reviews