Algeria protests : Friday 22 February 2019 was a big day in Algeria

In a big surprise to the world, Algerians organized huge protests across the country since early Friday against the candidacy of President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika for the presidency for the fifth time.

Since early hours of Friday morning even before the prayers, reports came through the social media in Algeria that people began to mobilize in protests against their old president who officially declared their presidency candidacy from a couple of weeks ago.

Here are some videos and photos from those huge rallies and protests.

From the capital Algiers

From Algiers "@Oraniase"

The rallies against in Algiers "@Mai EL-Sadany"

Sudan Protests : It is a long night in Khartoum !!

Originally I was planning to write a post about the huge protests rocked Algerian streets against Abdel Aziz Bouteflika's candidacy but things have developed too quickly in Khartoum unexpectedly.
In a few minutes or hours, Omar El-Bashir will address the Sudan people and the world announcing huge decisions.
According to news reports and Sudanese officials, those decisions will include his decisions to step down as the head of the ruling National Congress Part and that he will not run in the coming presidential elections to be held later this year.
This is huge.
Those decisions if are taken then they will be the first set of concessions after nearly three months of protests across the country.
The protests had one main demand: Omar El-Bahsir and his regime to step down.

Updated : 

In a speech at the Presidential Sudanese palace, Omar El-Bashir announced that he called the Sudanese parliament to adjourn the discussion into the proposed constitutional amendments "till the end of the national dialogue".

A screenshot from the speech

Those constitutional amendments would allow him to stay for another presidential term.
He also declared the emergency state in the country for one year.
He dissolved the national government and the state governments too depending instead on the army aka Military.

Seen in Downtown Cairo : Two architectural styles side by side

Seen in Downtown Cairo: Two architectural styles side by side

Sometimes you can find two beautiful #architectural styles side by side. Here are two beautiful buildings in Downtown Cairo; a neo-classical style building and Cairo’s favorite #Bauhaus style building

February 2019 Supermoon in photos from Egypt

Here are couple of photos of the Supermoon that shined magnificently around the world on Tuesday .
I wanted to take more shots in interesting locations like the pyramids of the citadel or  Cairo tower but unfortunately it is still winter in Egypt and a bit cold at night.

Egypt’s Constitutional amendments 2019 : The Parliament approves preliminarily too quickly

On Thursday, Egypt’s House of Representatives passed in Cairo preliminary the constitutional amendments preliminarily that will allow current President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to run for more presidential terms.

The amendments which were presented to the parliament by one-fifth of its members, were approved by 485 members out of the 596-seat parliament after two days of discussion only "In a total of ten hours only".

During that preliminary discussion, it was agreed to keep the two constitutional articles related to the National Press Council and the National Media Council after it was originally suggested in the amendments their cancellation.

Egyptian parliament 

Only 17 MPs rejected the amendments and their names are : MP Talaat Khalil , MP Nadia Henry , MP Faiza Mahmoud , MP Samir Ghattas , MP Reda El-Beltagy, MP Gamal El-Sherif , MP Haitham El-Hariri , MP Siyad Abd El-Aal , MP Mohamed El-Attmany , MP Mostafa Kamel El-Din, MP Ahmed El-Sharkawy, MP Mohamed Abdel El-Ghanny , MP Salah Abdel Badie , MP Ahmed El-Bredesy and MP Akmal Kourtam.

I believe it is important to mention their names.

It is worth to mention MP Faiza Mahmoud is a member of the Support Egypt Bloc and yet she voted against the amendments.
She is the only MP from that bloc to do so considering the fact that Support Egypt bloc was the one that represented the petition to amend the constitution in the first place.

Interestingly the leader of Conservatives Party MP Akmal Kourtam was among the MPs who said a big NO in the parliament when the rest of the MPs in his party’s parliamentary bloc said “Yes”.
Kourtam, a former NDP figure had his moment during the discussion of the amendments on Thursday that unfortunately is not recorded officially in the Parliament’s logs.
During his word during the assembly, he had had a nearly verbal fight with other MPs because they were angry of what he said before he left the session.
“The constitutional amendments are aggression,” He said adding those amendments were also a crime against the people and the state institution in Egypt.
Akmal Kourtam led a party known to its support to the army and the regime in general in Egypt since its official and legal launch after the January 2011 revolution.
Since announcing his rejection to the amendments from two weeks, the man has been attacked by Pro-regime media madly.

Still, Kourtam was not the star of the opposition in the parliament during that fast discussion, the new star of the opposition was MP Ahmed Tantawy and his short word in front of the assembly.

Happy Valentine’s Day : From ancient Egypt with love

Happy Valentine’s Day
Here is a beautiful small statue feature an ancient Egyptian and his lady at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo.

Egyptian common couple 

I do not remember the names of that beautiful couple but I know that they were regular commoners from ancient Egypt’s old kingdom.

The husband was working as an official as far as I remember. Even though they were not royal, they had a beautiful statue featuring them as a young couple.

The statue was found in the husband’s tomb.
I feel a lot of love in that small statue.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Demolishing the perfumers agency in Islamic Cairo : What History Do We brag about in Egypt !!?

As Egyptians , we like to brag all the time about we are the oldest nation with a recorded civilization in the globe with 3000 B.C history or even 7000 B.C history and yet all that we are currently doing in Egypt now is watching how our history, our heritage is being demolished in front of our eyes for the sake of so-called modernism.

On Monday, I was hit by the news that the ancient “Perfumers agency” which was built originally from 900 years ago by the orders of Middle Cairo district because it allegedly imposes a danger on the public.

The Perfumers agency after it was demolished "Facebook"

Shamefully Egypt’s ministry of antiquities said that it was not a monument and was not registered as one and that Cairo governorate issued a demolishment order due to safety reasons.

The ministry's officials now say that the only thing ancient in the place was the facade !!

 The former head of Islamic antiquities authority says on the other hand that the building should have been renovated adding that the facade and parts of the building were all part of the ancient building of the agency that disappeared by time. 

The entrance of the agency before it was demolished 

Amazingly from four days ago, Egypt’s Administrative prosecution announced that investigated in the matter as citizens presented filed a complaint against that demolishment order and it recommended that it should be registered as a monumental building due to its history.