February 1922 marked the unilateral declaration of independence for Egypt. However, it remained shackled in some ways to the UK, which ultimately led to the military coup and then the Suez crisis. Through leaders such as King Farouk, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Syed Qutb, Anwar Sadat, Hosni Mubarak, Mohamed Morsi and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, this is a tale of the end of empire, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the birth of Islamism and the strangling at birth of the Arab spring. 

Our panellists consider the past 100 years of Egypt: crises, success and what might lie ahead.

About The Speakers

Mona Eltahawy

Mona Eltahawy is an award-winning columnist and an international public speaker on Arab and Muslim issues and global feminism. She is the author of Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution. Her commentaries have appeared in several publications and she is a regular guest analyst on various television and radio shows.

Headshot of author Abdul Rahman Azzam

Abdul Rahman Azzam

With a BA and Dphil in history from Oxford University, Abdul Rahman Azzam is the author of Saladin (2008), The Other Exile (2017) and The Return of Sebastian (2021). Between 2007 and 2017, Abdul Rahman worked as Director of Communications and Advisor to Sheikha Moza, Chairperson of the Qatar Foundation (QF). In 2010 he led the partnership between QF and the British Library, which has to date seen more than two million documents digitised in the Qatar Digital Library. He is currently working on a Digital Humanities network analysis project on power and patronage during the time of Saladin, as well on his new book, The Siege of Lisbon.

Saeed Khan

Saeed Khan is Senior Lecturer of Near East & Asian Studies and Global Studies of Wayne State University in Detroit, as well the Research Fellow of its Center for the Study of Citizenship. His latest publications include Global Studies: A Reader on Issues and Institutions and What’s Going on Here: US Experiences of Islamophobia between Obama and Trump, co-authored with Saied R. Ameli.