Egypt While a bad year for civil society, all vow to find ways to continue | MadaMasr
▻http://www.madamasr.com/en/2016/12/26/feature/politics/while-a-bad-year-for-civil-society-all-vow-to-find-ways-to-continue
Between bills, court cases and security measures, civil society groups have been bearing the brunt of state repression. Yet, for many of them, the question is not whether to continue but how
2016 was the first time that Karim-Yassin Goessinger felt paranoid and threatened.
Goessinger set up the Cairo Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences in 2013 with a small personal investment. Three years on, CILAS has grown to become a key learning space that provides a yearlong theoretical, discussion-based and practical educational program in the humanities, arts and culture and natural sciences.
In the past year, CILAS offered courses on elitism, oppression and resistance. But despite the growth, 2016 has seen several hiccups, including authorities refusing to allow a development grant through and limiting the institute’s ability to continue to use the space from which they have operated since being established. The programming was disrupted; some team members left.
Ominously, the year opened with the murder of Italian researcher Giulio Regeni, a commonly seen figure at CILAS. Regeni was found dead on a highway outside of Cairo in February, his body bearing signs of torture. In the course of the investigation, which is still ongoing, it emerged that the PhD student had been under surveillance by Egyptian security services.