Today marks a significant event in my life. Today was the first time I felt it is unsafe to go back to Egypt. My self imposed exile moved from an area where I felt Egypt is not a happy place to live in, to Egypt is an unsafe home to visit. The escalation is serious …
Author Archives: BR
Chapter 7.2: On Est Tous Des Sauvages
In the years that followed the end of WWI there was a rise in pan-arabism in the Middle East. The Ottoman Empire was on free fall and many Middle Eastern states including Egypt, Syria and Iraq started calling for an Arab movement that would lead to independence from the rule of Great Britain. The jews …
Chapter 7.1: The Elephant in the Room
It is silly to discuss the Middle East and the Middle Eastern diaspora and not discuss the Israeli/Palestinian crisis. If the aftermath of world war two instilled a sense of calmness and stability in Europe, it led to an upheaval in the Middle East. But the story begins much earlier, precisely in 1897 when Rt. …
Chapter 6: The California Experience
Given my humble background as a kid who grew up in the remote and underdeveloped Dakhla Oasis, studying abroad in the US could only be a fantasy. However, thanks to a very generous USAID program, organized by the US embassy department of state, I was lucky enough to be selected to do a study abroad …
Chapter 5: The Feedback Loop of Anger
I think the last decade (2000-2010) is the key to understanding nowadays Middle East and the events of the second decade of the millennium. In September 2000, Israel prime minister Ariel Sharon made an unnecessary visit to the temple mount. Many Palestinians perceived it as an act of provocation which led to a violent uprising …
Chapter 4: The Tragedy and the Aftermath of the Egyptian Revolution
On the 14th of August 2014, I woke up to a call on my work phone from the head of security of the company I used to work for. The call was short and clear: stay home, do not come to work today. Supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood had been holding a massive sit-in for …
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Chapter 3: Awakening and Doom
In a late study-night in my dorm room in Cairo Khan hotel in downtown Cairo, Ahmed Diab, a fellow biology student, asked me what I thought of Mubarak and his regime. That was in 2008 just after my return from a study abroad program in California. I remember that the general state of mind of …
Chapter 2: The Middle East
Growing up in the Middle East makes one aggressive. From a very young age I was told that life is hard and to get what you want you have to fight for it. The problem is, in Egypt, there are almost no rules. The opportunities for success are very limited and to win one has …
Chapter 1: Migration
I grew up in the desert of Egypt’s west sahara. It is a unique experience growing up in an Oasis. Oases defy nature, they defy all the odds of existence. One would think such defiance comes with great force and protest, but in fact my oasis was just calm. Nothing really happened in El-Dakhla of …
Stories from lands far far away
In diaspora I found home…. I am starting this blog because I have something to say. I would like to share it with you and I would like to interact with you and I hope you find something here that touches you.
On the Search for Home 