Rights Readers Authors on Egypt

If you can tear yourself away from the Al Jazzera coverage of Egypt for a few moments, Rights Readers authors have some insights to pass on to you.

Of course, it's too bad Naguib Mahfouz (The Day the Leader Was Killed) is not around to see this day, but Alaa Al Aswany (The Yacoubian Building) was interviewed on NPR Sunday:

HANSEN: Where do you think this is going now?
Dr. AL-ASWANY: I think now everything is clear. We have one major problem: that Mr. Mubarak has not been convinced yet to resign. I spent two days and even more with the protestors. And I even made some speeches to the protestors. And nobody wants to hear anything except that Mubarak must go.

Robin Wright (Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East) declares, "One way or another, the Mubarak dynasty is toast," and expands on the challenges that lie ahead for Politico and contributes to the discussion at NPR's On Point here. Reza Aslan (No god but God) writes about the Muslim Brotherhood's possible role in a future Egyptian democracy in the Washington Post,

Far from trying to transform Egypt into a theocracy, as Arab rulers and western ideologues predicted they would, the Brotherhood fully embraced the principles of democracy by creating political alliances with liberal intellectuals and secular democrats in the Egyptian to lobby for greater political freedoms, including freedom of religion, assembly and speech. Their actions convinced even their staunchest critics that, given the opportunity, they could become a legitimate political force in Egyptian politics, which is why Mubarak turned so violently against them, rounding up their democratically elected members, jailing, torturing and murdering them inside his dank, sadistic prison cells.

In the early 1990s, the Pasadena chapter of Amnesty International worked on behalf of one of those jailed, possibly tortured, Brotherhood sympathizers. It's long past time to see that era come to an end. Don't forget to check in with Amnesty International USA for appropriate  Egypt actions!

Standing with the Iranian people

Robin Wright (Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East) previews the anticipated demonstrations in Iran today at WAMU.  Last month in TIME, Wright compared the current Iranian protests to China's 1989 democracy movement,

Both were youth-driven popular movements demanding change, led by loose coalitions of disparate factions that lacked strong leadership. And in both cases, the protesters' demands grew as the regimes clamped down. 

But there are important differences between the two that may result in different outcomes. In Iran, the catalyst was the charge that the authorities had stolen an election that the opposition believes Mousavi won; the Chinese protestors had no history of voting in competitive elections and were mobilized by the death of Hu Yaobang, a reformist member of the communist leadership. China used maximum force relatively early; it contained the challenge within seven weeks. Iran's regime is losing momentum after seven months; demonstrations late last month spread to at least 10 major cities. China banned the foreign press and tightly controlled state media; Iran has been unable to prevent eyewitness accounts of citizen journalists from reaching the Internet, Facebook and Twitter.

The biggest difference may be that Iran is historically more democratic than China, where public participation in politics has been restricted for centuries. Iranians have had a growing role in politics since the 1905-11 Constitutional Revolution produced Asia's first parliament; they've voted for decades under both a monarchy and a theocracy. Also, China has long been a closed society; Iran's Indo-European population has long had exposure to Western ideas and education.

Rather than Tiananmen, Iran's opposition is hoping to repeat a different event from 1989 — the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Eastern Europe's communist regimes.

Here's hoping for a peaceful day. Take action in support of human rights in Iran here.

Rights Readers Authors on Iran

Checking in with some of our authors on the situation in Iran...

If you haven't heard Robin Wright (Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East) weigh in on matters Iran, you've been on vacation on a desert island. Here are just a few links:

TIME: Lessons For the US As the Iranian Revolution Unravels
LAT: The evolution of Iran's revolution
WAMU 88.5 FM The Diane Rehm Show for Monday June 22, 2009

Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis(yeah, I'd prefer a more pictorial response-- maybe later):

Marjane Satrapi and Mohsen Makhmalbaf call on international community

Azar Nafisi (Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books):

Al Jazeera English: Iranian writer on poll result
Video from CNN:

Stephen Kinzer (Crescent and Star and also All the Shah's Men) has this analysis:

Guardian: Democracy, made in Iran

(If you'd like a little more positive news on the democracy front, check out his comments in this interview on Turkish politics: Armies will no longer participate in politics, says Kinzer)

Be informed! Take action!

Amnesty International actions
AIUSA Iran page
The latest on Iran from AIUSA's blog

Our May Author: Robin Wright

First, Robin Wright, author of our May selection Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East has her own website. She's also the sort of author who does all the TV/radio talkshows to promote her book, such as NPR , The Diane Rehm Show, a FORA.tv broadcast of an LAPL event and Authors@Google, much of which just summarizes the book's contents, so why not just get it all in a nutshell on Comedy Central?

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Robin Wright
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Gay Marriage

Also this Terence McNally interview at least kicks off with an anecdote about her days as a sports reporter for the Michigan Daily (Go Blue!).

You can catch her punditizing on more recent events on this Meet the Press episode: How will Obama cash in political capital? Or as suggested by a Loyal Reader, this Diane Rehm Show panel about Iran/US relations sparked by the Roxana Saberi case.

For May: Dreams and Shadows by Robin Wright

For May we have selected Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East by Robin Wright,

A magnificent reckoning with the extraordinary changes engulfing the Middle East, by one of our greatest reporters on the region. Robin Wright first landed in the Middle East on October 6, 1973, the day the fourth Middle East war erupted. She has covered every country and most major crises in the region since then, through to the rise of al Qaeda and the U.S. invasion of Iraq. For all the drama of the past, however, the region's most decisive traumas are unfolding today as the Middle East struggles to deal with trends that have already reshaped the rest of the world. And for all the darkness, there is also hope. Some of the emerging trends give cause for greater optimism about the future of the Middle East than at any time since the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948. Dreams and Shadowsis an extraordinary tour de horizon of the new Middle East, with on-the-ground reportage of the ideas and movements driving change across the region-and the obstacles they confront. Through the powerful storytelling for which the author is famous, Dreams and Shadowsties together the players and events in Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, Turkey, the Gulf states, and the Palestinian territories into a coherent vision of what lies ahead. A marvelous field report from the center of the storm, the book is animated by the characters whose stories give the region's transformation its human immediacy and urgency. It is also rich with the history that brought us to this point. It is a masterpiece of the reporter's art and a work of profound and enduring insight. At the end, Wright offers perspective on the United States' most ambitious and costly foreign policy initiative since the rebuilding of Europe after World War II. The stakes are far greater than winning the war on terrorism, stabilizing Iraq, or achieving a lasting Arab-Israeli peace. Transforming the greater Middle East is the last great political challenge of the modern era. Yet the early burst of activity in a region long stagnant is already becoming one of the first grand surprises of the twenty-first century.